FAQs

No! Wintersession is entirely free to attend for Princeton University undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and staff.

Wintersession is for the Princeton University community. Current undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and staff may all attend workshops and evening events. Some sessions may specify that they are intended for a certain university group, but most are open to students, faculty, and staff alike.

New in 2025, graduate students and post-docs are welcome to bring their partners to workshops and evening events that begin at 5pm or later. The Princeton U community member can register for themselves and their partner by selecting “2 tickets” for the 5pm or later offering via the MyPrincetonU registration site.

In addition, as in past years, there are some evening events that are open to all Princeton U staff and students’ family members, including children; check our “Register” page in mid-December to see which of this year’s events are open to university members’ families.

Undergraduate student housing opens for the semester on the Friday before Wintersession begins (Friday January 10th for Wintersession 2025). Undergraduates may return anytime from then on, and do not need any special permission to return during the Wintersession timeframe. Please note that Wintersession programming will not begin until Monday January 13th, 2025.

Graduate student housing remains open throughout break so graduate students who are departing campus may return at any point.

All undergraduates and graduate students can have access to free meals in the dining halls during Wintersession if they sign up for one or more Wintersession offering once registration opens in December. The free Wintersession meals will start with dinner the Sunday evening before the first day and end with brunch on the last Sunday.

Postdocs, faculty, and staff who lead sessions can receive 4 free meals in the dining halls.

For detail about which dining halls are open when, please see the Campus Dining Wintersession site.

If you have an idea of a workshop or evening program you would like to lead during Wintersession, you may submit your proposal through the Wintersession Proposal Hub. Submissions are due early-mid October each year.

The Wintersession Advisory Committee makes decisions about what sessions are accepted for Wintersession each year. The committee is comprised of faculty, administrators, graduate students and undergraduate students and chaired by the Executive Director of Campus Engagement. The committee has created a consistent rubric for accepting workshop, trips, and events, and makes the decisions about which ones fulfill the mission of Wintersession and will be accepted.

Click here to see the full list of current and past Wintersession Advisory Committee (WAC) members.

You can apply for funding for OCE to pay for your workshop materials and expenses. We particularly prioritize funding student-led sessions and in 2021, 2022, and 2023 we approved funding for the majority of undergraduate- and graduate-led sessions who requested it. Once you approved for funding, you will receive more information about how the reimbursement process will work.

Once registration opens in December, facilitators can see in real time how many people are signing up to attend their sessions. If the enrollment numbers aren’t what you the facilitator envisioned, you can choose to cancel. If your session received approval for funding but has low enrollment numbers, the Wintersession team will reach out to discuss and the session may need to be cancelled. However, as context, there have only ever been a handful in sessions that have had to be cancelled because of low sign-up numbers.

Registration for participating in Wintersession will be open for all in December and remain open throughout Wintersession. Sign-up will operate on a first come, first served basis. Sessions do have waitlists, and there is often movement in registration so be sure to join waiting lists of any sessions you are excited about and you may indeed get in at a later time.

Alumni can partner with an on-campus office, student or academic department to lead a workshop, event or trip. We encourage alumni to reach out directly to people or offices where there might be synergy to put on a session together. Then the on-campus staff, faculty or student partnering with the alum must then submit the proposal through the Wintersession proposal portal.