<p>Pizza, this is not a 60/40 situation…more like a 90/10…</p>
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<p>Your ice-cream scenario is not analogous, nor did I suggest that other people’s opinions should “override one’s own opinion.”</p>
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<p>Yeah, because the OP would really be screwed by going to Duke (which offers SUCH a better college experience than Princeton)</p>
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<p>Do you operate solely in the realm of logical fallacies? Did I even mention Duke at all? No. You explicitly stated that the OP should NOT go to Princeton because he will forever be associated with Princeton in a positive way post-graduation.</p>
<p>You tell me how reasonable that sounds.</p>
<p><a href=“which%20offers%20SUCH%20a%20better%20college%20experience%20than%20Princeton”>quote</a>
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<p>Princeton offers SUCH a better college experience than Duke. See? I can make totally unsubstantiated statements too!</p>
<p>Well you’d be wrong. Princeton, New Jersey? Yeah, no…</p>
<p>Duke has a better athletic program.
Duke has better school spirit.
Duke has more Greek Life involvement.
Duke has better weather.
Duke has more attractive guys/girls.
Duke has an incredible college town (Chapel Hill) merely 11 miles away.</p>
<p>How is this even a discussion that Duke offers a better undergraduate experience than Princeton? It’s indisputable Baelor.</p>
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<p>Well said.</p>
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<p>First, academics are not equal to fun. I think we can all agree that the University of Hawaii is probably a more fun place to go to school than RPI.</p>
<p>Second, I’d like to see evidence (please spare us the boring anecdotes) for your claim that Princeton is the top undergraduate college in the country. Thanks to hawkette and a few others, I whipped up the following list in no time that suggests otherwise.
[ul][<em>]Both have exactly the same application to student ratio (17.7:1).
[</em>]Yield: 76.2% Harvard, 58.6% Princeton
[<em>]Both have exactly the same racial/ethnic compositions.
[</em>]Both have exactly the same peer assessment (4.9).
[<em>]Harvard and Princeton have the exact same PhD production percentage (14.3%).
[</em>]Harvard has a higher percentage of Pell Grant recipients.
[<em>]Harvard’s programs are ranked slightly higher. (though the “difference” is imperceptible)
[</em>]Harvard blows Princeton and every other school out of the water for post-graduate award production, even accounting for size.
[<em>]Harvard has 3.7x as many graduates at Yale Law and 4.5x as many at Harvard Law as Princeton, despite being 1.3x as large.
[</em>]Harvard has 4x as many graduates at Hopkins Med, again despite being 1.3x the size of Princeton and having its own excellent medical school.
[<em>]Harvard’s graduation rates for Asian, black, and Hispanic students are slightly higher.
[</em>]Harvard has a slightly higher percentage of classes with fewer than 20 students.
[<em>]Harvard’s library holdings are 2.5x bigger. (not that this is really relevant)
[</em>]National Academy of Sciences: Harvard 163, Princeton 73 (again, not really relevant)
[<em>]National Academy of Engineering: Harvard 19, Princeton 25 (Advantage Princeton, but good showing for Harvard’s “really weak” engineering)
[</em>]Nobel Laureates: Harvard 74, Princeton 32 (also irrelevant)
[<em>]House system > eating houses
[</em>]Undergraduate-Graduate ratio: Harvard 2.1:1, Princeton 2:1[/ul]</p>
<p>On a positive note for Princeton:
[ul][<em>]It has less crime than Harvard.
[</em>]It requires a thesis and a junior project, which mandates that every undergrad does research.
[<em>]Princeton funnels nearly all of its resources into A&S, as it lacks the main professional schools.
[</em>]Prettier campus (in my opinion)[/ul]</p>
<p>Factual evidence is always helpful. Personally, I’ve never bought into the “Princeton is so warm and fuzzy and a magical place for undergraduates!” and “Harvard professors are so aloof and hate undergraduates” stereotypes. </p>
<p>Incidentally, I’m amused by your screenname. After all…John Adams did go to Harvard. ;)</p>
<p>warble, thanks for the information on Harvard v. Princeton.</p>
<p>however</p>
<p>Princeton is the top undergraduate school in the country</p>
<p>I hope this helps…</p>
<p>In your opinion, maybe.</p>
<p>congrats OP–i didn’t get the robertson though =(</p>
<p>Since when did princeton have a good engineering program as some of these people have been saying? HPY cannot compete with MIT/Caltech in that space.</p>
<p>if it isn’t too much of a hassle (plane tickets are expensive haha) try visiting. best of luck–not an easy choice by all means, and just choose the place that you feel like you’ll be happy at.</p>
<p>lesdia, ha!..you are a funny person</p>
<p>my comments in bold below</p>
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<p>2 8 10 2 2 2 2 2 -1 (princeton/duke are second-tier engineering programs) 2 2 2 2 2 2</p>
<p>Can you all stop bickering. big babies… </p>
<p>I pretty much think the OP has already decided and if he hasn’t, he has stopped listening to you all.</p>
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<p>True. Princeton has a stronger intellectual and debating community. Of course, these strengths are irrelevant if you don’t care about them in the first place. So cherry-picking is in invalid basis here, which is exactly what you are doing.</p>
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<p>See above.</p>
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<p>For many, this is a huge negative. And the comparison of eating clubs to frats is generally and appropriately caveated. So again, your totally subjective opinion is not applicable to everyone.</p>
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<p>I hate heat and love rain/cold. You tell me which school has better weather.</p>
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<p>1) Arguable
2) Only relevant if you are interested in getting involved with an attractive person (versus not at all, or in terms of not caring about attractiveness)</p>
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<p>I don’t want a college town. I want a very clearly defined campus with access to a major city that is only occasionally taken advantage of. In other words, Princeton, NJ.</p>
<p>The fact that you’re wrong is indisputable.</p>
<p>warble, you are wrong yet again here</p>
<p>Enjoying the academic work at a top school like Princeton is the beggining of the fun experience of undergraduate life for students as gifted as those that attend Ol Nassau. Sprinkle in participation in a few Varsity athletic teams and an Eating Club event or two and you are all set…</p>
<p>good try though</p>
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Yep, I’m very impressed by the impassioned posts all around. I think everything that can be said has been said, though. </p>
<p>Perhaps from this point out we should simply refer to previous posts rather than type everything out. Or perhaps a simple key stroke? Say, type:</p>
<p>1 if you want to say “Princeton pwns Duke in life.”
2 if you want to say “Duke’s social scene is, like, so much awesomer.”
3 if you want to say “Everyone at Princeton is totally rich because their dads invented Toaster Strudels.”
4 if you want to say “Robertson scholars walk on water.”
5 if you want to say “All Princeton students walk on water, PLUS we invented it.”
6 if you want to say “Nobody has heard of the Robertson.”
7 if you want to say “I Am An Authority Because I Interview People.”
8 if you want to say “You are totally dumb if you disagree with me.”
9 if you want to say “I am totally not prejudiced about that school; my best friend went there.”
10 if you want to say “Hey, where did the OP go?”
11 if you want to say “Durham is the level of Hell Dante forgot”
12 if you want to say “We left NJ for a reason.”
13 if you want to say “Duke has better weather than California!”
14 if you want to say “Princeton: For Kids Who Can Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too”
15 if you want to say “Why isn’t Berkeley or Michigan an option?!?”
16 if you want to say “What you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”</p>
<p>I think that covers the basics. It’d be ever so much easier!</p>
<p>EDIT: hpysm2014’s post corresponds with this one. I added a few more numbers.</p>
<p>Try your hand at advanced statistical thermodynamics or computational fluid dynamics and tell me if that is fun JohnAdams12 
Ever try building mesh grids and finite difference methods?</p>
<p>now hpysm2014, why would you ask this of me?</p>
<p>it seems that you might be a potential ChE. student, am I correct?</p>
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<p>wrong, I am relating it to the OP, who wanted to do MechE, and CFD is more related to MechE duh ;)</p>
<p>i don’t think eating clubs and Nassau can ease the pain of trying to learn stuff like that. your professor is quite possibly one of the most brilliant in his field, and will not be particularly enlightening. your TA might not be able to speak english.</p>