<p>I am currently a junior in high school and I've been looking into a lot of colleges lately, but Brown and Princeton seem to stand out. They both have great undergraduate programs and are good research institutions. I'm not really sure what I want to study yet if I go to either.</p>
<p>Can anyone go into detail about the pro's and con's of each of them?
(I know I can apply to both, but according to Princeton, they won't consider the application if I apply early decision somewhere else, likely Brown).</p>
<p>Nah, jk. But seriously. Anyway, is there something more specific you want to know about Princeton? We can give more focused advice if you give us a bit more structure.</p>
<p>How rigorous is the curriculum?
How open are the choices for classes?
General student attitude? (i.e. relaxed, workaholic…)
Social life?
Class sizes?
Student-teacher interaction?
What does the school emphasize its students to be?
The dorms?
Food?</p>
<p>1) The curriculum is incredibly rigorous. The material in the classes is challenging, and you will definitely have to work. Some professors are better than others, but there are tons of resources available for you to help determine which professors to avoid. This means that you can take classes you know will be great. You can adjust the difficulty of your schedule as you wish. ECO 100 (Intro to Microeconomics), for example, is less challenging than a 300-level History course in terms of workload and content. There are plenty of options available for your to make your classes each semester the appropriate difficulty. But there really is no ceiling to the challenge. :p</p>
<p>2) Princeton is less open than Brown, because Brown has no core requirements. Princeton does, but there are so many that fulfill each requirement that it really isn’t an issue. To satisfy Language and Art, you can take an English class, a foreign language literature class, a literature class, an art class, a music class, etc. With so many options, I would be shocked if you couldn’t find one that you enjoyed in each distribution area. So there are requirements, but no one class is required.</p>
<p>3) The student body is very motivated. If you want to be around people who are incredibly relaxed all the time, I suggest you check out California. People are stressed at times, of course. But they don’t let it rub off on other people, which tells you something too. The student body is actually incredibly friendly and welcoming. Many people think of Princeton as stodgy, but it is simply not the case at all. Even I was surprised at how nice everyone was (in fact, I find students here to be more polite and gregarious than those on the West Coast, which would defy stereotypes as well I guess).</p>
<p>I’ve had the food at each. I would say it’s pretty much equal. </p>
<p>Although I will say that brown has some AMAZING “off-campus” food options (I use quotes because the restaurants are basically on campus). There’s an amazing crepe shop (that also sell smoothies!), an INCREDIBLE indian restaurant, a yummy sushi place, a coldstone… mmmmm.</p>
<p>Haha you may have just sold me on Brown right there. I love indian food and sushi
I live close to Princeton, so I understand what the surroundings are like. But how are the professors? Are they accessible or hands-off?</p>
<p>Very accessible, in my experience. I have lunch with my professors frequently. For most of them, teaching is not a chore (they could go to Harvard or Yale if they just wanted to do research). They are at Princeton because they actually want to interact with undergrads. There are isolated exceptions in each department, and I think that math department in particular tends to be pretty inaccessible except to genius people.</p>
<p>Seriously, it edits out c o c k ? What if I was talking about a chicken? I have been seriously influenced by Top Gear (James May) and now i cannot say c o c k. </p>
