How accessible are undergraduate research opportunities at Princeton for students outside STEM?

Yes, undergraduate research at Princeton is very accessible outside STEM, especially in the humanities and social sciences. It just looks different from the lab model people usually talk about.

In fields like history, politics, sociology, anthropology, economics, English, philosophy, and area studies, research often means working closely with a professor, doing archival work, analyzing texts, collecting interview or survey data, assisting with policy-related projects, or pursuing independent research through junior papers and the senior thesis.

Princeton is especially strong here because independent research is built into the undergraduate experience. Most departments require substantial independent work, so humanities and social science students are not treated as an afterthought. The university also has funding for summer research, travel, and internships that support non-STEM projects, including international or archival work.

You do not usually need to wait until senior year. Many students start by taking a seminar, getting to know a professor, and then asking about research assistance opportunities. In social sciences, there are often faculty projects where undergrads help with literature reviews, coding qualitative or quantitative data, or fieldwork support. In the humanities, students may work on digital humanities projects, library or archive-based research, translation work, or faculty book/manuscript research.

Compared with STEM, the structure is sometimes less centralized, so opportunities may be found more through departments, individual faculty, centers, and institutes rather than one obvious lab pipeline. But that does not mean they are rare.