Academics and Social Life At Princeton

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
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<p>Sup CCers, a buddy of mine said he wasn't feeling Princeton and I decided to give him a better description of the place academically and socially. This is far from complete but it'll be a great starting point for you guys to feed off of and ask questions. I looked into a lot of other programs so I can make specific comparisons if you want too.</p>

<p>Pros:</p>

<p>• The academics are, across the board, absolutely amazing. Out of all the top schools, it’s definitely the most well-rounded. You could come in as an engineering major and end up as an English major, and you’d get an equally good education. That won’t happen at Harvard, Yale, or even Stanford. As you probably know, Princeton is the smallest of the top three and really emphasizes undergraduate education, but Harvard and Yale have probably said similar things, that they really care about undergraduates too. Princeton simply does things that bigger schools don’t do.
•<br>
• They have several special courses for underclassmen that are intense and incredibly enriching.
o If you’re interested in science, there’s a 2 year integrated science program. It’s a really intense but really amazing program which combines biology, chemistry, physics, and computer science. It’s two classes per semester and you work your ass off for either one or two years but I’ve heard it’s a great program. </p>

<p>o Princeton also has a humanities sequence, which also takes two courses a semester but only lasts 1 year. You go through every major classic literary work—the Bible, Plato’s Republic, The Iliad, etc. They have an insane number of amazing professors working with you, you’ll have weeks where you read a thousand pages, and you’ll probably struggle but grow tremendously. They bring in amazing guest lecturers—translators for the books they’re reading, experts in literature, etc. </p>

<p>o I’m doing the integrated engineering-math-physics program (we call it EMP) and it’s pretty much defined my Princeton experience so far. The class is ridiculously intense, I have class every day at 9:00 AM for 1-2 hours and a lab once a week. I’m in a twenty person class, and my physics professor used to be the head of the physics department at Princeton and has his own equation. My math teacher is the most famous female mathematician in the world and is supposed to win the fields award in the next decade. Both of these teachers are willing to meet with me any time I want. The labs are awesome. In regular physics courses you’ll do labs which reinforce things you already know. They’re pretty useless, you’ll learn how to measure acceleration and find standard deviations, they’re boring. We’re designing a rocket, yeah, a freaking rocket. We learned rocket science over the course of a couple of weeks, learning the differential equation to model rockets, designing the accelerometer to find the rocket’s acceleration, velocity, and position, and now we’re learning fluid dynamics and moments of inertia. It’s so awesome. I’m working all the time with a group of 40 people who are really cool and really accomplished. Some of my best friends are in the class It’s made me realize that engineers aren’t naturally brilliant and aren’t naturally smarter than me, they just work incredibly hard to be great engineers, and it’s made me realize that this is definitely something I want to do. Next semester, instead of math we have an engineering lab course where we explore the different engineering branches through labs. We have about 15 different faculty members working on the course for 40 people. </p>

<p>• Professors really really make themselves available to you. My politics professor, who’s won teaching awards and has been a writer for The Economist, The Times, and acted as Bill Clinton’s correspondent to Kosovo, says hi to me when he passes me on campus and will talk to me for fifteen minutes after class if I so desire. He’s made himself as approachable as possible and it’s awesome. My precept (Princeton’s version of class) is taught by a full professor—at Harvard and Yale it will always be a grad student.</p>

<p>• Princeton academics are insanely intense. Most people I talk to say that their college experience is defined by the people they meet and the friends they have, etc. etc. At Princeton, your experience will be defined by what you study. We work really hard for our A’s at Princeton, and students get really into their studies. It’s a great place to fall in love with whatever you’re doing. </p>

<p>Social Scene</p>

<p>• As you know, the social scene revolves around the eating clubs. People always call the eating clubs elitist, mainly because the five “bicker” clubs have an admissions process for getting in and because you need a pass to get into certain clubs on certain nights. In reality, it takes two seconds to get a pass from your friend, and there are many times when it’s absolutely necessary to have a pass since the places are so packed. There are some clubs which are never on pass, and all of them are multi-million dollar mansions with dance floors and free drinks. Ther are definitely other social options (alcohol-free dances on Fridays, dodgeball tournaments, etc.,) but I don’t really pay attention to them because I have a great time on the street.
• Eating clubs are similar to fraternities. Frats have guest lists too, and frats have similar parties. Eating clubs have more money, more room, and better events (frickin’ Rihanna performed this year), they are also more diverse and co-ed. I have NEVER experienced racism at an eating club (I am a minority) while I have at other Ivies (I was not let into a frat at Penn mainly because I’m not oriental asian.)</p>

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<p>uh oh. now I REALLLLLLLYYYY wanto go to princeton...what will happen if i don't get in ????
:'(</p>

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<p>Great post, iv4me. Thanks:-)</p>

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<p>wow...iv4me thanks so much ..i feel so good having sent my ED app yesterday. hopefully i'll be experiencing the amazing academics and going to eating clubs next year!! :):)</p>

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<p>EATING CLUBS!!!-only for juniors and seniors.</p>

<p>ps. random facts
there are 12 eating clubs total that line Prospect Avenue (simply called "the street")</p>

<p>the scars of battle (from cannons) on the side of Nassau Hall are NOT from British cannons, contrary to popular belief. The garrison building was used by the British. So the cannon marks are actually caused by the Colonial Rebel Cannons :)</p>

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<p>another random fact.
About 75% of the Juniors and Seniors are in at least 1 Eating Club.</p>

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<p>Can't you only be in one eating club? Isn't that kind of the point (or maybe I'm totally missing the point...)?</p>

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<p>yes you can. but the thing is, people move from one to another looking for friends. it also depends on who has the best band on certain days</p>

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<p>yes, btles, as far as i know. i suppose one <em>could</em> join two clubs, though, if he or she really wanted to pay twice as much money for twice as many meals. also, there are only ten eating clubs, despite there being about twice as many mansions on prospect. many of those mansions were originally built as clubhouses but now house various, smaller academic operations.</p>

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<p>how competitive are students at princeton? i think half of the academic experience is learning from others and helping each other -- is there a lot of this at pton or are students typically independently working?</p>

<p>thanks</p>

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<p>in my opinion, princeton students are about as competitive as college students everywhere, no more no less. not that i've been a college student everywhere, i just don't think student bodies differ much on this measure - college students are college students. in fact, if someone tells you that the student body at a particular school is "cutthroat," chances are they're just trying to justify their choice of their own school over one that rejected them. so, it shouldn't be an issue.</p>

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<p>your post is biased; you have no cons.</p>

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<p>f.scottie yes there are only 10 eating clubs. my mistake. and i don't know why so many people would elect to join dining clubs and forfeit their meal plans. i guess they don't like the dining hall buffet food. my friend, who is at princeton at the moment doesn't mind it too much. (hes a junior)</p>

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<p>Cons: </p>

<p>-I think that the new residential college system is being implemented sloppily, and I don't really understand it. </p>

<p>-I wish the campus wasn't uphill. Riding a bike uphill sucks.</p>

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<p>it's good exercise :)</p>

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<p>^ yup! Good way to keep away the freshmen 15.</p>

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<p>also good: princeton junior daphne oz's "dorm room diet":</p>

<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dorm-Room-Diet-Creating-Lifestyle/dp/1557046859/sr=8-1/qid=1162354295/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-9406130-5979203?ie=UTF8&s=books%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.amazon.com/Dorm-Room-Diet-Creating-Lifestyle/dp/1557046859/sr=8-1/qid=1162354295/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-9406130-5979203?ie=UTF8&s=books&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Competitiveness at Princeton is a hard issue to tackle. Generally, I find it's not a problem at all. We all work hard and we all know we're all smart, so where's the need in constantly butting heads with one another? Furthermore, the professors all want their students to succeed. In my materials science chemistry class, for example, my professors have yet to fail a single student in all the years they've been teaching it. </p>

<p>However, I'd be lying if I said unhealthy competition did not exist. As students, most of us hate the grade deflation policy that puts a cap on the number of As a department can award. Some people let this policy affect their course selection, opting for easier classes to ensure a better GPA. </p>

<p>Working together is encouraged, some classes even have problem set sessions where the students can all get together and just work on their problem sets together with a grad student nearby to help explain the more difficult concepts. </p>

<p>All in all, I'd agree with f.scottie and say college students are college students, there's going to be some competitiveness. At the same time, I have to add that the academic environment here is definitely intense, people work, and the philosophy here is, those who work deserve to pass. Princeton will do everything it can to make sure you do well.</p>

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<p>Hey everyone. I’m a Princeton freshman (CLASS OF 2010!!). The following are some answers to questions someone posed about Harvard. I chuckled because I realized that A and B would receive similar answers from students at any of the Ivies, but question C is different. I’ve changed a few words in the original poster’s questions, as you’ll notice. If you are a prospective ’11, definitely check out these friendly tidbits.</p>

<p>For all the people who have ever had a <em>Princeton</em> experience...</p>

<p>A) Are the people there "crazily" smart? Are they drastically different from people in an "average" high school in the sense that you shouldn't expect to do well unless you're really, really good? Or is it more like high school, but with more people who are working hard?
- People here are incredibly talented (intellectually of course, but also in many other important ways). There will be people in every class (especially in small precepts) whose perspicacity and insight will blow you away. It’s not like high school at all (although that depends on which high school one is from). I can attest that students here are nothing like average high school kids. The conversations people have at lunch and dinner are much more interesting and still just as fun (maybe more). As far as academics, Princeton is very rigorous, but I’ll discuss that in a bit more depth in my answer to C.</p>

<p>B) How's the competition? Is it really bad, or kind of like high school (and I know everyone had different high school experiences, but just in general)?
- Your uses of “general” and “average” are important b/c everyone comes here with different backgrounds. Some people come from schools that are similar to Princeton. I came from a public school. From my perspective, I don’t find a cutthroat atmosphere at all. In fact, people are always helping each other (i.e. forming small study groups to better understand a topic; working on homework together; reviewing for exams together, etc.). I’d say the competition is higher than the “average” high school (since many of the brightest students in the world attend here) yet not as crazy as you’d think (because people aren’t selfish or insane). :D</p>

<p>And finally C) Is it difficult to get As in <em>Princeton</em>? (I know it was known for grade <em>deflation</em>, but is it still true?)
- As you’ll notice from my corrections, Princeton is known for grade DEFLATION. The cut-off for getting A’s is 35%. This means that 35% of students in classes (and ultimately, in a department) will be earning grades ranging from A- to A+. The rest get B+ and less. There are professors who don’t enforce this policy as stringently as others. Some professors refuse to abide by it at all. Grade deflation is a source of pretty big controversy on campus because students feel that no matter how hard they work, that A’s are often unattainable. Unfortunately, some of our sister institutions (e.g. Harvard, Yale) give out A’s to more people than actually deserve them. When it comes to applying to grad schools, a B+ Princeton student looks inferior to a Harvard or Yale A- student, when in reality; all three students are about equally qualified. I’d say grade deflation is the one aspect about Princeton that I dislike. Though it does keep us working hard; and for those of us who get A’s: it’s very rewarding to know that we truly do deserve them, and that they aren’t mere gifts.</p>

<p>Thanks a bunch!</p>

<p>-Your welcome a bunch. I hope my advice helps. If anyone has further questions, please feel free to PM me.</p>

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<p>Ummm... if you ride a bike uphill your gonna have to ride downhill just as much...</p>