<p>I have heard a great deal about Princeton lately and I need help in understanding whether what I have heard is accurate. I recently spoke to my counselor, who told me that Princeton is the "epitome of Ivory-Tower elitism and snobbery" and that the school has a "disasterous effect on students who are not white, who are not preppy, and who are not rich." She said that at Princeton, there are few, if any, fraternities, and that instead, the school has 'eating clubs,' where students are accepted or rejected based on shifting criteria made by groups of students. She said that hazing is common at these eating clubs, and that not only are the clubs central to any type of social life at the school, but that white, rich, snobs make up the admittance committees who decide whether to reject or accept those who apply. </p>
<p>Is this true? It's hard enough to get past Princeton's role in the creation of the CollegeBoard, but as someone who was accepted, I am considering jumping ship due to this counselors words. I know that would not be wise, but is this accurate?</p>
<p>More than 56% of the students recieve financial aid of some sort (usually grants) is all I want to say...you really think that your going to get stuck with rich snobs now?</p>
<p>Rich snobs don't get into Princeton. At least not most, period.
Rich snobs as you describe them go to Harvard, Yale etc...not Princeton!</p>
<p>Can you explain your statement, "but as someone who was accepted,I am considering jumping ship due to this counselors words..." Are you implying that you have been accepted for the Princeton class of 2010?</p>
<p>There are rich snobs at any Ivy type school, but your counselor definitely needs to update her image of Princeton by several decades. Most students are there because they are excellent students with one or more special talents. It is a campus where, whether you are interested in playing a sport, writing for a publication, joining a music or dance group, or participating in a political organization, you will find yourself in a setting that is both stimulating and social. As soon as you arrive on campus during freshman week, representatives of every student group are recruiting you through a variety of fun activities. Actually, fraternities and sororities are popular on campus, though they're not official. And you will be part of a residential college with its own student council and its own full array of activities, from trips to Broadway shows and major league sporting events to fun parties, seminars with world-class speakers, movies, and study breaks with great takeout. You may take vacations with friends over breaks, or go on one of the many community service trips. If you are friendly and fun to be around (i.e., you don't have an attitude) you will have the time of your life.</p>
<p>After you have made your friends and found your various niches on campus, then you can decide during sophomore year whether you want to join an eating club, either just by signing in with friends or by bickering (rushing), usually a club where you already know people. If you don't join one, then you can just stay in your residential college. </p>
<p>It's a friendly campus where students quickly plug into a lively social network. Your counselor should be ashamed.</p>
<p>I had the same stereotypes about Princeton that your counselor did before I visited (plus my mom had told me it was anti-Semitic!). The girl who showed me around, however, smashed all those preconceived notions of mine. She was as down-to-earth as could be; a great girl. Those she introduced me to were very nice folk as well - I got to hang out with some of the basketball team, and even though I'm about as far from athletic as can be, they still showed me every courtesy and just seemed like nice guys.</p>
<p>In fairness, I go to an extraordinarily preppy school in Greenwich, CT, and Princeton seems to be the perennial favorite among highly-qualified students from my school. When I asked my headmaster, who used to be a guidance counselor, about the differences between Yale and Princeton, he said that Princeton was a "country club" Ivy. Now I don't think that means that the kids who go there are all members of the "country-club" set; as one of the posters mentioned above, a huge percentage of students are on finanical aid. I do think it means that you get treated like you're at a country club, with Princeton really going out of its way to make things easy for you.</p>
<p>I know this is off-topic, but I also think Princeton delivers what may be the best undergrad education in the country.</p>
<p>Don't make your decision based on what your guidance counselor says... at least check it out for yourself. To pass up on Princeton using anything less than your own judgment would be a huge mistake, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Goodluck, and hope you enjoy wherever you end up attending,
DMW</p>
<p>Coluhopeful, Im afraid that I dont quite understand. You state that youve been accepted and you certainly imply that youve already committed since you are now considering jumping ship. It seems a little odd that you would not have investigated Princeton fully before applying and then, certainly, before accepting an offer of admission. Im also a little suspicious of the capital letters in your thread title.</p>
<p>Still, well take you at your word that you are, in fact, a committed member of the Class of 2010 who is now worried about having made that choice. Fear not. Princeton is nothing like the university described by your guidance counselor who must have been living on another planet for the last thirty or forty years. </p>
<p>Princeton is an incredibly diverse and dynamic place today, with an extremely high percentage of undergraduates on financial aid (as has been noted above). Check out the four threads I started today, highlighting four extremely talented minority students from very different backgrounds and different parts of the country. These will be your classmates and I think youll be proud to know them. </p>
<p>The issue of eating clubs has been discussed endlessly on these boards, but thank you for giving us an opportunity to provide links to outsiders evaluations that should put your fears to rest.</p>
<p>Finally, if you can, visit the campus. Im confident youll come away with impressions very different from those of your counselor who really should be encouraged to visit Princeton herself!</p>
<p>There is more than a little that is suspicious in the OPs post.
On November 22, 2005, Coluhopeful posted:
Hi. I would really appreciate any thoughts on my chances of admission to Columbia College. I am a high school senior thinking of applying for regular decision .SAT I Scores: Reading: 800; Math: 690; Writing: 780...10th- Vice Pres of the Class of 07
Yet on May 26, 2006, the OP asked, Hi. I would really appreciate any thoughts on whether these schools are reaches, matches, or safeties:
Middlebury
Amherst
Swarthmore
Haverford
University of Chicago
SAT I Scores: Reading: 750; Math: 610; Writing: 690
This is also the person who posted on May 26, 2006: I dislike Princeton as an institution of learning, and I recommend not applying.</p>
<p>So my questions. If the OP is a senior in November 2005, why is the person in May 2006 asking about reaches, matches and safeties, especially as the OP has implied he/she was admitted to Princeton? How did the OPs SAT scores manage to go down between November and May? How is the OP a senior in November 2005 and yet Vice President of the Class of 07? Why is the OP posting about rumors about Princeton when the OPs has already posted about disliking Princeton? Finally, do the comments of the guidance counselor really sound credible?
Ptongrad2000, Aparent5, this one does not appear worthy of your thoughtful responses.</p>
<p>PDaddy, I wish the guidance counselor's comments sounded incredible but, unfortunately, they are almost word for word what one of my d's best hs friends was told by her guidance counselor! </p>
<p>However, unfortunately I read the OP's posts just after replying and came to the same conclusion you did. Given the interplay betweeen cc and google, though, it's probably best not to let a post like the OP's stand in cyberspace uncontradicted.</p>
<p>Re Princeton as the country club Ivy...I wouldn't say you get treated as though you were at a country club! Yes, Princeton is very responsive to a dedicated student who has drive and fresh ideas; you can apply for funding for all sorts of study abroad, thesis research, community service, and internships. You can work with your departmental advisor to create the program you want, though you will not find the flexibility of curriculum at, say, Brown or Amherst. And you will enjoy the luxury of all the support you need to work your tail off on your junior papers and senior thesis. </p>
<p>To me the "country club" stereotype" is a reference to the beauty of the campus and to two major social events each year. The place is gorgeous, has beautiful architecture, has lots of green and lovely gardens everywhere, has a golf club on one side, used to have tennis courts right in the middle until those were torn down to build Whitman College, has the best weather in the Ivies. The eating clubs sponsor lawnparties in the fall and houseparties in the spring, including well-known bands, formal and semiformal dances, and the whole campus enjoying themselves outdoors. <a href="http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2006/05/08/news/15580.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2006/05/08/news/15580.shtml</a></p>
<p>I will not waste my time attacking the character and intentions of those who have attacked my character and intentions. The purpose of CC is to respond to questions and to discuss issues in current education. I think it is disgusting that people find it appropo to demonize those with who's QUESTION they may disagree.
I have no obligation to post on this site. I do so because I want to. Furthermore, I think it is beneficial to CC, and Colleges like Princeton, that questions like this are raised. Now I have a question: who are you all, and what gives you the right to disparage me???</p>
<p>I got full financial aid from princeton! I am a BLACK IMMIGRANT and i'm obviously POOR! and i know for a fact that i'm not the only one in the same situation! there are prolly a few snobs left at pton! but every other school in this country is in the same predicament!!</p>
<p>Colu, I don't see anyone disparaging you, I see people raising legitimate questions given your prior history and your stated situation.</p>
<p>If you are already committed to Princeton 2010, then presumably you have turned down your other offers of admission. Hence, people are puzzled as to what recourse you would have now. It is also odd that you would have accepted a school that you knew nothing about.</p>
<p>It is also strange that previous posts never mentioned that you were considering Princeton - and reflect discrepancy over what year you are in. If someone else in the family has been using your screen name, or you are using someone else's, all you need to do is explain that.</p>
<p>Shame on your guidance counselor....assuming your post was a legitimate one (which may be a silly assumption considering your posting history). I don't believe any counselor is in the position to convince/persuade/frighten a studentwith regards to a particular schoolby tossing around shallow and inaccurate stereotypes such as those that you describe. I detect a lot of hostility, and proceed to think that having (not to mention, expressing) such feelings is hardly a characteristic of COUNSELOR. They are supposed to help you along in the road to making a decision, not make the decision for you.. no? I can only wonder what their letter of recommendation would look like, should one of his/her students defy him/her and apply anyway (as it appears you have).</p>
<p>Dear Princeton,
I hate your stinking guts. Yoooou make me vomit. You're scuuuum between my
I assure you that Sally Smith is most worthy of admission, and give my highest possible recommendation that you offer her a place in the class of 2010.</p>
<p>as for the stereotypes, they are getting so old/exhausting/similar that the need to disprove them has dissipated completely.</p>
<p>There are some truths in what OP GC has said. For your common man, there exists a stereotype in top school.</p>
<p>Harvard: The absolute best in every thing except engineering- #1 school. Period.
MIT: The best engineering school in the world</p>
<p>Yale: Law School and great humanities
Columbia: Politics, Core-Curriculum
JHU: Medical School. Cut-throat competition among students, wide-spread lab sabotages students within
Penn: Wharton famous, other than Wharton, so-so
Chicago: Best Economics dept, very academically challenging
Berkeley/Stanford: Great west coast schools. Stanford has a slight edge in under program
Caltech: Genius school for science majors</p>
<p>Brown-Cornell: Easy Ivies
Princeton: Very preppy, easily-get- into Ivy if you play sports or rich.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Princeton: Very preppy, easily-get- into Ivy if you play sports or rich.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>No, BMW. Aside from being incoherent, this is false and not the "common man" stereotype you claim it to be. I said any need to disspell this kinda stuff had dissipated (and still feel that way) but if you knew what you were talking about, you'd know that Princeton has need-blind admissions, and almost half the student body is on financial aid.</p>
<p>And it's no easier for an athlete to get in here as it is elsewhere in the ivy league.</p>
<p>So I'm not so sure this is the right depiction of what the common man thinks....given he is slightly informed</p>