Eating Clubs

Hi everyone. My sister was recently admitted to Princeton University and Duke and is ecstatic to attend either. Right now she’s leaning a bit more toward Pton, but loves Duke as well. She tells me her essays are what got her in because her grades/scores weren’t exceptionally amazing. Anyway, she said she’s too lazy to make a CC account so she wants me to ask this (her only point of concern for Pton): what are the reputations of the eating clubs at Princeton? Are they really as segregating/displaying tokenism as much as people say? My sister is a minority so she feels like these eating clubs would be too elitist for her and wouldn’t be too friendly to her. While she loves to “let loose at parties”(quote from her, not me), the idea of “bicker clubs” scare her bc there’s some sort of interview process in order to get in. Although one of our cousins is currently in the Cap and Gown Club, and is a minority, and is doing fine/enjoying his experience. Any pieces of advice for my sister?

Try going to the website real talk princeton on tumblr. It answers all kinds of questions from students and prefrosh. When you google it (I can’t post the link here), make sure you pick the site that has a hyphen between realtalk and princeton. Your sister will be able to read about the eating club scene there as well as a bunch of other issues pertaining to student life.

She’ll most likely find the same situation with the Greek Life at Duke.

@junior1818

or, lol, you could just ask your cousin… why ask a group of strangers, most who have never joined an eating club, when you have a direct family source?

Several of the club are sign-in only, there are no interviews! Some are elitist and very hard to get into.

Princeton says:

link: https://www.princeton.edu/main/campuslife/housingdining/eatingclubs/

My son says there is plenty of diversity to be found in the eating clubs scene, that she can find her niche. Another site to google is “princetoneatingclubs”

Can she visit both schools? I’d choose the school first, and then figure out the social scene second.

Tell her congrats!

My kids are biracial. One attended Duke and joined a “selective living group” which is sort of a half ass fraternity/sorority; the other went to Princeton and joined a non-bicker eating club. Neither had any complaints.

For a somewhat humorous take on Eating Clubs (“funny” because it’s true?), go to the Daily Princetonian website (the school’s newspaper). Search for an article in July 2013 about Street’s Take on the Street. You’ll get the stereotyped explanations of the eating clubs, fwiw.

^^ http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2013/07/streets-take-on-the-street

Almost everyone I know who didn’t go to Princeton, including me, thinks the eating clubs sound like a creepy, disgusting idea. (OK, people really into frats don’t think that, but I don’t pay much attention to them.) The eating clubs were one of the reasons I never completed my application to Princeton…

Everyone I know who did go to Princeton, without exception, either didn’t mind the eating clubs at all (a minority position), or affirmatively loved the eating clubs, especially whatever eating club they belonged to, be it Ivy or Terrace (by far the majority position).

From this I conclude: You gotta be there, you gotta trust the Process. Or maybe, if you are there, sooner or later you are gonna drink the Kool-Aid. Probably sooner. Or maybe, if you really can’t stomach the idea of the eating clubs, nothing anyone says will make you want to go to Princeton, but everyone else will be fine there.

My sister is fine with the idea of frats/sororities, she just feels like the culture around specifically Princeton’s eating clubs are too elitist/minority excluding (https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-reputations-of-the-eating-clubs-at-Princeton). :-? She’s already been to Blue Devil Days and (quoting her) “absolutely loved it.” She’s going to Pton Preview next week.

Speaking for my son who is a first-year now: prior to Princeton Preview in 2016, he viewed the eating clubs as a negative for the school. After Preview, he thought they sounded interesting and not at all like traditional/stereotypical fraternities or sororities. Eating clubs were more like social clubs than anything else (they’re all co-ed and are dining halls too). Now near the end of his first year? He views eating clubs as a classic part of being at Princeton and something unique that it offers. He is looking forward to joining one—the one in which many but not all of his friend group is also interested. My two cents filtered through communications with my son? Eating clubs sound snobbish, but in reality are quite social and relaxed.

Keep in mind, you don’t actually have to join an eating club. I was independent and so lived in a place with a kitchen and took care of my own food. You can still eat in the eating clubs as a guest sometimes and go to their parties if you want.

You can even just stay on a meal plan like your first two years.

At Princeton, almost everyone joins an eating club. At other schools, it’s usually a relatively small number of people who join a fraternity or sorority. This doesn’t necessarily mean the eating club system is more inclusive, but rather means that pretty much everyone is acutely aware of the social hierarchy that exists, and where they are in it based on their club affiliation. It sounds kind of immature, but this can be a factor for some people.

Also, I really don’t think the eating clubs exclude minorities. Half of the officers of one of the most exclusive clubs on the Street are African American for next year. I think you could make the argument that some of the eating clubs can be exclusionary based on income, though.