So my DS and I went to Princeton for the day on Tuesday, which was “Tiger Tuesday,” a day of programming at P for admitted SCEA students. We had a great time, and here are some impressions in case they are helpful or interesting to anyone else on CC:
- The group was very diverse. There seemed to be about 150-200 students in the main room at "go to lunch" time (so likely most were there at that time). I estimated about 10-20% URM (Black, Hispanic), and another 30-40% Asian. There were at least two families dressed in traditional Muslim style, and at least three dressed in traditional Orthodox Jewish style. I will say that the welcoming group was mostly white women, but there were a handful of minority volunteers as well.
There was also a wide variety of styles/type of dress, including some tall preppy/horsey/lacrosse types but also a whole lot of everything else I might see in my school (I teach HS). I did not see anyone dressed “Goth” but that’s about it. I had been worried that the other moms might dress really fancy with lots of makeup or expensive purses and so forth, but they did not look like that to me, particularly on the Engineering tour when I felt we all had similar LLBean or Naturalizer boots (it was rainy and muddy) and non-designer clothes and little makeup.
There were affinity groups listed for open-houses such as GLBT groups, the Jewish Center, the Women’s Center, and others. My strong impression was that P is bending over backwards to be a welcoming place. I saw a handful of those “safe space” stickers on faculty offices - not as many as I see at our HS, but still quite a few.
- There was a jam-packed schedule. I was annoyed because apparently the events started at 8am, but we weren't told when to arrive ahead of time, just "check in before 11am" so by the time many arrived, several programs had been missed or were already in session. It would have been great to have the schedule, or at least the arrival time, sent out beforehand. We would totally have come in earlier if we had known, for instance, that there was a welcome address from the Dean at 9ish and then classes to sit in on starting at 10am.
- We took advantage of some open-houses, such as in the FA office, where they confirmed they'd gotten our 2015 documentation and said that the early FA read from December would stand unless we heard otherwise.
- We went to a couple of departments that were open for us to stop by, and not everyone knew what TT was, though all were extremely friendly. In a couple cases, they even found someone to sit with DS and talk about distribution, preparation, and levels for various classes.
- The library was very interesting, and though we didn't do one of the guided tours, it was neat just to walk around. (This is the main library; I know there are others too and I'm sure they are also interesting!)
- The engineering tour started off concerning to me. You know how colleges sometimes "protest too much" like at JHU they go on about how safe campus is - well, the P engineering head was talking about how it's "not just theory" for a bit of excessive time, but then it actually seemed fine. Even as an MIT alum, I saw lots of great equipment and lab space being used. I felt like Civil Engineering got a bit of short shrift on the tour, but all the rest of the departments were very interesting and welcoming and we saw actual students doing actual work.
- I learned that "Mathey" is pronounced "Mattie". :)
- I had wondered about P graduates being able to get employment right away upon graduation if desired, if they're not planning on more school. But I spoke to a lot of seniors, and was totally satisfied on this point!
- Students seemed very jazzed and happy about their lives. I would say that there was one exception, a boy in engineering who wanted to be able to do less math (?) but you will find exceptions everywhere. In general, when I asked kids why they picked Princeton, or what they were studying, their eyes lit up and they had tons to say.
- There was a lot of walking, and the campus is beautiful, even in crummy weather. It was kind of like Disneyland, if Disney were real once you go inside a building LOL.
- I loved that there was a grocery/convenience store (WaWa) with clean bathrooms right at the train station on campus. It felt welcoming and convenient right when we arrived.
- The train process seemed smooth, but did take a long time from Boston (Amtrak, then NJTransit, then Dinky). However, not unreasonable, and not overly expensive.
- Each academic department that we visited or saw seemed to be really full of scholars. People who just love, love, love their work, and are indisputably at the top of their fields.
- There was a lot of school pride, with cute tigers everywhere and lots of P t-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, etc. Not just on the students, but also on the pre-frosh (my own son had said it would be decidedly uncool to wear his gear) and on the staffers and even decorating the walls.
- Specific to the kosher eating plan - it seems like lots of P students, of all religions/backgrounds, come and eat in the kosher dining hall. There was a ton of diversity, including a group of women of several cultural backgrounds who came and sat with me at my table (my DS was elsewhere) who are students in a Christian group but they finish services nearby on Tuesdays and come for lunch. This was different than other campuses we have visited, where the kosher eating scene is kind of set off to the side or not integrated into main campus life, and I think it is a real positive! Also, they had chocolate ice cream and cones. ;)
- I didn't have much time to use it, but the wifi seemed plentiful. :)
Any questions, I’m happy to answer what I can! In all, TT was a major positive on my DS’s (and my) internal scale of figuring out which college to pick.
ETA: There seemed to be a lot of prefrosh from New Jersey, but I’m going to guess that a one-day trip is more reasonable for kids who live nearby.
