Each year the School admits 90 students who are selected on the basis of their academic record, strength of preparation, the perspectives and experiences they would bring to the School, and their commitment to the study of public and international affairs. Among the 90 students admitted each year, most will be regular concentrators. A smaller number will be admitted as Certificate students. Certificate students concentrate in the sciences or engineering while enrolled in the Woodrow Wilson School. They have fewer course requirements than the concentrators. Certificate students have come from many other departments including Physics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, Molecular Biology, Geology, Mathematics or Computer Science.

While there are no specific requirements for admission, it is highly recommended that candidates have taken courses in such disciplines as public affairs, economics, politics, history, sociology, and psychology as well as at least one WWS course. These courses should both reflect the student's interests and demonstrate that they can do well academically in the social sciences. Such courses also enable prospective School students to learn whether they want to pursue further the kind of courses upon which their study in the Wilson School will inevitably depend.

The most distinctive aspect of the undergraduate experience in the School is the policy task force. The School offers about 10 task forces each term; the juniors enroll in one task force in the fall term and another one in the spring term. In each of these exercises, a limited number of juniors (about eight) work together with a faculty director and one or more senior "commissioners" toward proposing solutions to current problems in public and international affairs. Each junior conducts a piece of research on a topic carefully chosen to shed light upon the larger problem that is central to the group. Topics for independent work are therefore derived from the overall needs of the task force. The tools students employ in their task forces will likewise be a function of the topics to which the group's work is addressed. Woodrow Wilson School students are thus encouraged to use any intellectual discipline or skill that may help solve a problem.

In the policy task forces, faculty directors and guest lecturers provide background information, bibliographic references, and ideas on possible interviewees, but the students are expected to take responsibility for both the organization and the outcome of the exercise. Each junior's paper is read in draft by the faculty director and by other students, presented and discussed collectively, and then re-written so as to form one product of the group's effort. The principle product is a final report with policy recommendations which is drafted after debates within the entire group.

The second major component of the Woodrow Wilson School academic program is the course work. Upon admission, each student prepares a program of study for the junior and senior years in consultation with the program director. Departmental courses should form a coherent program of study, normally combining both techniques of analysis from the social science disciplines and courses that give the student substantive depth in a particular policy area. Areas of specialization typically combine a policy issue (urban education, international trade, security, or environmental policy) and a particular geographic region or nation (Africa, Latin America, Europe, India, or the United States).

For WWS concentrators, the policy task force fulfills the junior independent work requirement of the University. The senior thesis constitutes the independent work of the senior year. The senior thesis is a scholarly paper related to the subject in public or international affairs that is of greatest interest to the student. It is based on extended research and is the major project of the senior year.

The School has several endowments to support summer thesis research for students at the end of the junior year. These funds are designated for any students throughout the University with research topics in public or international affairs.

The School attracts students with a wide variety of interests and students spend their lives after graduation in an equally diverse range of careers. Graduates have worked in teaching, journalism, law, medicine, business, politics, non-governmental organizations, and many other fields.