<p>(Full disclosure: This thread is a total rip-off of the stickied one in the Harvard forum, but it's a useful concept, so I seek to emulate it here.) </p>
<p>Current students and alumni: What type of people would not thrive at Princeton?</p>
<p>People who feel like they have “finished” by getting into Princeton, and plan to not take their next 4 years seriously academically (i.e. get a bunch of C’s or below). Honestly, this answer can be said for many schools… but in particular Princeton is not a place where you would want to do this.</p>
<p>People who want to be surrounded by math/science/engineer-oriented people. I believe these kinds of people can thrive more at Caltech/MIT. </p>
<p>People who want a social city life. Princeton’s social scene is almost entirely based on eating clubs. Well, I guess you can always take the train to NY or Philadelphia with a group of friends from time to time. </p>
<p>People who don’t want to work “as hard” to get good grades. Grade deflation here makes you work harder relative to other schools. </p>
<p>Just as a note, I haven’t really met many unhappy people at Princeton. I suppose most of the stress would come from the difficulty of doing well in your classes, since everyone around you is so smart. The workload may also be challenging if you didn’t come from a high school that prepared you well.</p>
<p>Kids who really want to be in the social mainstream but would not be happy either at a sign-club or doing Bicker or staying out of the clubs altogether. For whatever reasons. Kids who want to live in cities.</p>
<p>People who can’t tolerate being around alcohol/somewhat of a “drinking culture”. Not to say that you can’t have a thriving social life without alcohol (you certainly can, and there’s a large segment of students who go that way), but realize that this is college, and that people don’t go out to the Street for orange juice and chocolate milk.</p>
<p>People who want to focus exclusively on academics for their four years here. Again, not to say you can’t, but I think schools like Harvard, Caltech, and MIT are more for the people who love their subject of interest to the exclusion of other things. I tried that for my first year here, and I always felt that I was missing a vital aspect of Princeton life - I wasn’t really happy here until I started “stretching my wings” socially, so to speak.</p>
<p>“People who want to focus exclusively on academics for their four years here. Again, not to say you can’t, but I think schools like Harvard, Caltech, and MIT are more for the people who love their subject of interest to the exclusion of other things. I tried that for my first year here, and I always felt that I was missing a vital aspect of Princeton life - I wasn’t really happy here until I started “stretching my wings” socially, so to speak.”</p>
<p>I actually have to agree with this and I think it is the only type of student that I visibly saw not enjoying Princeton. For whatever reason, there is no culture of self-isolation for the pursuit of academics. I know that may sound weird but I had friends at MIT and Harvard who were perfectly content just locking themselves up and studying all the time but the few people I knew at Princeton who did that didn’t really enjoy their time. I got the same vibe at Stanford too, take that for what you may.</p>
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<p>Same as Princeton, or same as MIT/Harvard?</p>
<p>Sorry, realized I wasn’t too clear there. Stanford strikes me as being more similar to Princeton than Harvard/MIT in that respect.</p>
<p>I agree on Stanford, having lived next door to it for years.</p>