<p>Title's explanatory- if any of you all have questions about Princeton, I'll try to answer them to my best ability!</p>
<p>have you seen wicked? bc i really want to but theres also phantom and les mis and lion king. so idk what to pick! </p>
<p>what do you love best about princeton. and what do you know about teh crew team? I'm interested in joining them. Which community service groups are international, do you know? </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>last year, if you're not international, did your decision come by mail or email? what area do you live, and what day did you receive it? were the acceptance letters big?</p>
<p>how are the freshman classes? are you taught by a lot of TAs and graduate students or do you get full profs? are lectures overwhelmingly large? what's the approximate teacher:student ratio in introductory courses? thanks for taking the time to answer these questions. :)</p>
<p>since elphaba88 hasn't covered them yet...
whimsical hippo: i assume you're talking about the trips that the residential colleges go to...you're perfectly free to see these musicals on your own time, of course, but the residential colleges plan trips about twice a month to new york at VASTLY discounted prices. if you really want to go to all of them, then go to all of them! they're usually $25 a trip, which is really affordable, considering that if you went on your own, just the ticket to NY would cost you that much.
umm...my favorite part of princeton would have to be the people. it's incredible being surrounded by people who are ALL so intelligent, but at the same time "normal"--almost no different from your friends at home.</p>
<p>i applied rd, and got my decision by mail (ca bay area) april 2nd on sunday, when my neighbor knocked and revealed that my decision had been sent to the wrong address. yes, they're big--manila envelope size.</p>
<p>the freshman classes are fine. the only class above 30 i'm in is intro physics, where the lecture is about 200 or so (they don't get too much bigger than this--in fact, our largest lecture hall, mccosh 50, holds only about...500?). that's really not an issue, however, since lecture meets only once a week. my physics precept, which is much more important, meets three times a week and has only about 20 students in it. the only ta i have is for lab, which is something i'm not going to complain about--the rest of my classes are all taught by full professors. (the sizes of the rest of my classes are: 6, 30, 14)
i can't really give the ratio for intro courses--it really depends on what courses you take. i can say, however, that excluding lecture courses, you shouldn't have any courses of more than 30 or 40 people freshman year.</p>
<p>To Hippo:</p>
<p>I'm applying to Princeton ED, but I do know a bit about Princeton's rowing scene. Rowing at Princeton is extremely intense: that's why they have one of the best collegiate rowing teams in the world. You can expect to be practicing about three hours a day and competitive heavy-weights will be pulling about a 6:30 2k. When I walked into the training room a few years back, I sat down at an erg with a recorded 2k of 6:05! Facilities for rowing at the school are absolutely phenomenal for they have one of the most decadent college boathouses in the states. The house features a game room and locker rooms with digital keypad locks on every locker. Every room has a light airy atmosphere as most of the interior is made from wood. Overall, its not just a place for the storage of boats, but a great place to hang out (if you don't get tired of spending so much time at the place).</p>
<p>Here are some great pictures from the crew team's website:</p>
<p>The tank: <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/%7Ecrew/pics/SheaTank-10-00.jpeg%5B/url%5D">http://www.princeton.edu/~crew/pics/SheaTank-10-00.jpeg</a></p>
<p>Training room: <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/%7Ecrew/pics/SheaTrain2-10-00.jpeg%5B/url%5D">http://www.princeton.edu/~crew/pics/SheaTrain2-10-00.jpeg</a></p>
<p>The tower: <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/%7Ecrew/pics/SheaExtTower-10-00.jpeg%5B/url%5D">http://www.princeton.edu/~crew/pics/SheaExtTower-10-00.jpeg</a></p>
<p>Entryway (the game room is through the doors on the right): <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/%7Ecrew/pics/SheaTowerEntryway-10-00.jpeg%5B/url%5D">http://www.princeton.edu/~crew/pics/SheaTowerEntryway-10-00.jpeg</a></p>
<p>I should note a few of those pictures are a bit washed out (they look like they are scanned prints from an old 35mm camera) so they don't do the place perfect justice.</p>
<p>langly, how come u have been using the boathouse but u r not actually at Pton? Are u a recruit applying this year?</p>
<p>thanks langley! i know the crew team is absolutely phenomenal, but i didn't know their training facilities were so beautiful. do you know the diff btwn lightweight and heavyweight? (i'm so clueless about it, but i would love to try smething new :)). GL on your decision!! i applied ed too;</p>
<p>quirkily- wooooow i did NOT know about the residential college trips to nyc to see musicals!! now im so excited (and anxious to see if i got in)! haha i was actually just asking elphaba her personal opinion on which musical to see. but thanks anyways! :)</p>
<p>"have you seen wicked? bc i really want to but theres also phantom and les mis and lion king. so idk what to pick!"
I have seen wicked, and I've also seen phantom and the lion king. Definnitely will be going to the les mis revival when my college (Forbes) does a trip to it. I don't think you have to pick! The tickets are incredibly, amazingly cheap, and they're <em>orchestra</em> seats.</p>
<p>"how are the freshman classes? are you taught by a lot of TAs and graduate students or do you get full profs? are lectures overwhelmingly large? what's the approximate teacher:student ratio in introductory courses?"
The way I've mostly seen it so far is that unless you're an engineer, not many classes are really freshman classes. Even 101 level courses almost always have upper-classmen in them. My PSY 101 lecture has a little over a 100 in it, but for each lecture tha has over say, 40 people in it, there's a once a week lab/precept/seminar with only about 10 people in it. You don't really need to worry about getting lost in a class. Like quirkily, the only non-proffessor I have is a grad student who teaches my lab session.</p>
<p>"and what do you know about teh crew team?"
not in crew myself, but my roommate and 3 other girls I know including 2 recruits were. All but once recruit has quit crew, so I guess the stereotype is true. I guess you just prepare yourself for a huge amount of time and work involved.</p>
<p>"what do you love best about princeton"
Well, I just sent an email to an applicant from my home county that sums a lot of stuff up. It's pretty long, but if you don't mind reading it I'll post it.</p>
<p>I applied to Princeton RD; Stanford was actually my EA first choice, but it didn't work out and I'm glad it didn't, because this is a better place for me. I sent in supplemental music CDs for voice and violin, which probably tipped the scale in my acceptance as the orchestra and choir conductors wrote notes to the admissions office saying they'd like to have me. If you have time (I don't know if you applied ED or not) I would recommend you doing this because it can only help! Jim said you sing in jazz choir- there are some really impressive ensembles and a cappella groups here. I might audition for one next year if I have more time. There is never enough time here. I knew it was going to be hard when I came, but I didn't have any idea how hard. Classes and work here are the most stressful, time consuming and challenging thing I have ever done. Grade deflation doesn't help either. Having only 35% of a class get A's when most are probably qualified seems to make it so that unless a class is your particular forte, it's pretty impossible to get an A. Fortunately more and more people and graduate programs are recognizing that about Princeton though. I was at Harvard (which is known for widespread grade inflation) for a weekend conference a couple of weeks ago, and my dorm host definitely conceded that we have to work harder for our grades.</p>
<p>I should probably say some nice stuff now though, because there's plenty of it! I absolutely love it here. I love the location, that i can get to New York by train in an hour whenever I want (I've been 4 or 5 times so far) and that I can still come back to this wonderful, safe, and green place. The residential colleges sponsor trips where for 25 dollars they bus you up to see Broadway shows or operas or ballets from orchestra seats and then feed you on the way back. I love walking on this beautiful campus among these historic buildings. It's a good thing I like walking on campus because my residential college, Forbes, is twice as far away as any other- it's even in a different zip code! Its distance does make it so that you get to know the other people in the college pretty well. I'm on one of only two all female halls on campus (it's called the Nunnery!) and at first I thought it was going to be boring, but now I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. It eliminates all kind of awkwardness and you just don't have to worry about hormones and relationships with hallmates and everything else. The girls on my floor have all gotten really close and we've started a weekly Friday night chick flick tradition. I've found that there isn't really time to get to know people really well that don't live by you or are in activities with you, so it's worked out wonderful for me. Oh, also I didn't believe people that told me I'd only have time for one or two activities but it's the truth! I'm in Glee Club which rehearses seven hours a week, a musical theatre cabaret revue that is now having rehearsals almost every day, and I'm involved in my church student leadership which ends up meeting about three times a week. Oh, and I usually take a dance class on Nassau Street once a week. Anything more and I think I'd die, but there is definitely no shortage of awesome things to do here. Another thing that's so great about Princeton is that you don't have to compete with graduate students for professor's attention and they don't teach your classes, just maybe help out with leading weekly precepts. They definitely are kind of on the outskirts of things here since it's so undergraduate focused, and it's a little sad for them I think but it's good for us! Princeton's music program was another reason I chose here. I liked that you can be involved in anything without having to be majoring or minoring in it. The certificate program is pretty cool too, you can take a certificate in a couple things of you want, so I'm considering doing one in music or maybe theatre and dance. At the same time I can major in any academic field I want. Everyone always asks about the food, so I'll say it's fairly good. It can get a little repetitive but the cooks are always willing to make you a variety of different options at the grill in your dining hall. And about eating clubs, I think they're wonderful, not because I'm always at them though I do go out to the Street most weeks Thursday or saturday night, but because they keep the partying away from your dorm. People leave the dorms to go out and party and get drunk, leaving it quiet if you want to get some studying done and clean without any gross messes in the bathrooms. I don't know if I'll join one when I'm a junior, I'm thinking about doing the new 4 year residential college option instead.</p>
<p>I have a question regarding admissions. Is there a difference when I submit the application?</p>
<p>elphaba88, thank you that was very helpful. two things that I wanna ask about. </p>
<p>you said that is quite impossible to get A's at princeton, and that grad schools factor that in. is this true for all majors? and so are you suggesting that since colleges know you go to princeton, they will factor that your GPA is lower than other students from other schools and still be fine with that?</p>
<p>second, if you are considering playing a sport at princeton, will that eat up all your time and not allow you to participate in other clubs? will that also hinder your grades a lot? </p>
<p>thanks.</p>
<p>It's not impossible to get A's. For me, I know I will have an extremely difficult time getting A's in areas that are not my strong point (math, science...) It might be different for you! And yes, grad schools do factor it in (or so Shirley Tilghman tells us!)</p>
<p>Sports do take up a lot of time- I don't play one here, so I don't have any first hand experience with this.</p>
<p>Does princeton really not look at our freshman grades?</p>
<p>Freshman grades are not factored into the gpa that the admissions office reconfigures for each applicant.</p>
<p>elphaba88: I just realized that I know you. Haha, like I see you about every day now. </p>
<p>Let's just say that our sn's are ironic.
See you at 5! ;)</p>
<p>No way! Our sn's are SO funny then!</p>
<p>wait, you have been together at P-ton for almost a semester and you are JUST figuring this out??</p>
<p>Well it's kind of awkward to introduce yourself, and then add, "Oh, and if this means anything to you, I'm glinda on CC."</p>
<p>wow that must be pretty cool =p</p>
<p>I am lost about the sn's though... =/</p>
<p>They're from Wicked...SEE IT! (and that's an order)</p>