<p>It may be just me but do any other applicants here think that eating clubs are cool?
I see them as a uniquely-Princeton social outlet and I am very excited about them, if I am later admitted of course. </p>
<p>Am I the sole person?</p>
<p>i actually think they’re cool too haha! ik some of them can be considered elitist and exclusive and too “high-society” but for some reason i think that they are a very appealing social aspect to princeton! =]</p>
<p>I like their idea … but I honestly don’t know much about them lol. I’ll find out if I ever get accepted (not likely).</p>
<p>To me, eating clubs are stinkin’ awesome. The problem is, eating clubs cost a lot of money. I guess that’s why more people don’t do them.</p>
<p>tigerton- some are much more expensive than others. The University also helps those on financial aid with some aspects of paying for an eating club, but it doesn’t cover social fees. You can also easily go independent, stay in the residential colleges, or join a co-op and still go out to the eating clubs on weekends, without having to pay for the price of membership. Eating clubs do centralize the “party scene” so that when you go out to the Street, you’re always bound to see people you know.</p>
<p>eatings clubs are possibly the only thing I dont like about princeton</p>
<p>Oh, that’s good news.</p>
<p>
Davidson also has them.</p>
<p>I think they sound cool</p>
<p>it’s the only con of applying to princeton (apart from grade deflation :[ )</p>
<p>^oh yeah that too
and student dissatisfaction with the administration…</p>
<p>There are three particular factors that I do not particularly enjoy about Princeton (the same as those already mentioned):
[ul]</p>
<p>Grade deflation [/ul]
[ul]Student-administration relationship[/ul]
[ul]Eating clubs (often associated with asinine hazing processes, exclusivity, elitism, alcohol consumption, and so forth) </p>
<p>[/ul]</p>
<p>Life at Princeton without eating clubs would be a hell of a lot more dull for many of us. They are definitely the single most important aspect of our social scene. There’s a reason 75% of the upperclassmen are in an eating club: they’re freaking awesome! Definitely join one! I, and many of my friends who are on financial aid, didn’t think much of the extra costs because they’re subsidized. It was my friends who were rich enough to not be on financial aid who weren’t so sure they’d want to pay the couple grand extra. But it’s definitely worth it - eating clubs rock. There are many social events that occur at the eating clubs that do not involve alcohol (such as lawnparties, semi-formal dances, etc.).</p>
<p>The hazing that goes on in the eating clubs is almost non-existent, especially among the sign-in clubs. Exclusivity? I was able to have fun at most of the eating clubs at some point in my freshman year, and I knew no basically upperclassmen back then. And again - sign-in clubs are completely non-exclusive.</p>
<p>On a side note: I think Conner Diemand-Yauman made great strides for our student-administration relationship, and hopefully it’ll continue to get better. He was an amazing USG President, and it’s no wonder that he won the Pyne Prize - the highest honor possible for an undergraduate (Justice Sotomayor won this when she was an undergrad):
<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/56/83K09/index.xml?section=topstories[/url]”>http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/56/83K09/index.xml?section=topstories</a></p>
<p>^Well, based on randombetch’s statistic, 75% of Princeton undergraduates participate in eating clubs so you would be far from alone, MSteve.</p>
<p>
mike yaroshefsky is the current USG president though, right? I met him at FBLA, he’s crazy nice :)</p>
<p>Thankfully, I would definitely not be alone. Almost every Princetonian I know is or was in an eating club, mostly TI and Ivy. </p>
<p>Without an intention to offend, some CC members sound a little anti-social and afraid of fraternities, eating clubs, final clubs, partying or anything with a social element. The only people I know at school besides myself who use CC are largely anti-social ones whereas the more social students with the same grades, have never heard of it. I know this changes when they get to college but it is interesting. Even second semester this year, some of my good “less-social” friends are coming to parties they wouldn’t even considered the year before. </p>
<p>But after speaking with my father, who works at and hires for an investment bank, he told me that in almost every case, they would take a 3.5gpa student who is president of their fraternity and plays a sport rather than a 3.9gpa student with that solely on their resume.</p>
<p>I really didn’t understand eating clubs before and it seems like a sorority or fraternity to me. In the sense that you have a group of people that you do activities with and eat with. Can anyone clarify or provide more info?</p>
<p>A Princetonian can come in and explain it better than I but there are ten clubs: half where you sign-in and you are a member (simplified) and another half where you spend a day with the members to see if they like you. You have your meals there, you relax there, you party there. You do not sleep there. Less elitist than it sounds and less exclusive towards non-members than many fraternities I have experienced.</p>
<p>I am a poster who has a long history at the University of Chicago, and who has a son who graduated from Dartmouth and who has a daughter at Princeton.
My take is different than any others I have seen on College Confidential.
Why does Princeton have a 60% alumni donation rate while Harvard and Yale have a 40% rate? Okay, we all know that Harvard and Yale aren’t undergraduate oriented while Princeton is. The usual explanation. But the difference in my mind between Dartmouth and Princeton and Harvard and Yale is that students at Princeton and Dartmouth have the power to make their own institutional social relationships while students at Harvard and Yale don’t. Harvard and Yale sought to mimic Oxford, but assign students to their residential colleges. At Oxford, the great majority of students apply to a college and are accepted or rejected. Identity with your college makes sense at Oxford, as it does for eating clubs at Princeton or your frat, sorority, or coed living arrangement at Dartmouth. At Harvard and Yale, it is the luck of the draw. Not a strong basis for identification there. More a message at Harvard and Yale of your powerlessness. And it shows.
My bias is to trust smart (or not so smart) students to make their own choices.</p>