Princeton’s First Message to Its New Students: Think Deeply
- Gözde Çelik
- May 28
- 2 min read
Princeton’s pre-read selection for the Class of 2030 is Maryanne Wolf’s Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World.
The “pre-read” is actually a long-standing Princeton tradition. Before arriving on campus, incoming students are asked to read a common book and later engage in academic discussions around it. In a way, students become part of a shared intellectual conversation before they even set foot at the university.
This year’s selection touches directly on one of the biggest issues of our time. In many high schools today, students are increasingly able to achieve high scores without truly reading books — relying instead on summaries, YouTube videos, or AI-generated explanations. The deeper value of reading itself is gradually becoming less important.
Yet Wolf argues for something very different: the importance of staying with an idea long enough to think about it carefully, to reflect, to make connections, and to tolerate intellectual complexity rather than consuming information as quickly as possible.
In the book, Wolf particularly emphasizes the concept of “deep reading.” She explains how digital environments train our brains to read faster, but often more superficially — potentially affecting empathy, critical thinking, attention span, and analytical ability. As our minds become increasingly accustomed to the endless flow of information on screens, our relationship with long and complex texts slowly changes.
Perhaps Princeton’s choice sends a powerful message about what universities still value in the age of artificial intelligence:not simply students who can consume information quickly, but students who are capable of deep and sustained thinking.
Note: As far as I know, the book has not yet been translated into Turkish. However, those interested in reading it in English can order it online, as I recently did myself.
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