<p>I am from a lower middle-class family and am wondering about who elitist Princeton is.</p>
<p>I don't have any problem with elitism per se. In fact, I'm rather elitist in my general outlook.</p>
<p>What I'm more wondering about is how much social mobility there is. That is, will richer students look down on you for not being a zillionaire? Is it possible to get into selective eating clubs without wads of cash?</p>
<p>i actually have similar concerns and i have been talking to two current princeton students who say that elitism can be an issue depending on who you hang out with. and the eating club (at least the selective ones) have come under scrutiny and theyve published a report on ethnicity, gender, etc on the eating clubs. selective eating clubs are expensive, fa covers some of it, but not all of it. especially hte member dues (you’ve got to pay for alcohol somehow, and it sure aint cheap)</p>
<p>It exists, but it probably won’t bother you much.</p>
<p>“Is it possible to get into selective eating clubs without wads of cash?”</p>
<p>Getting into a selective eating club is much more dependent on what you do on campus than on how much money you have. If getting into a selective club is THAT important to you, it would probably be beneficial for you to join another selective organization on campus (varsity sports teams, a cappella groups, fraternities, dance companies, club sports teams, theater groups, etc). This way you’ll have more opportunities to hang out at selective clubs as a freshman and make friends with older kids who may be willing to speak for you during bicker.</p>
<p>
It’s not a HUGE deal, I’m more just using it as a barometer of how exclusionary Princeton is. They also seem pretty cool to me.</p>
<p>Thanks. I’m neither athletic nor particularly dramatic, but I will definitely be involved in debate + student government, and possibly a fraternity. Any idea if people with this background join eating clubs?</p>
<p>kamer, just join and eating club and enjoy your Princeton experience…</p>
<p>First step is even getting accepted to Princeton. :)</p>
<p>People from debate, USG, and frats all usually join clubs. However, debate & USG aren’t “strong” affiliations anywhere (as in, they don’t really help you get into a selective club). Those kids have a tendency to be in Tower, which, incidentally, doesn’t have nearly as many Greeks as the other bicker clubs have.</p>
<p>As for frats, most of them ARE strong affiliations at one or more bicker clubs, so that might be what you want to focus on.</p>
<p>so there are frats at Princeton now?</p>
<p>how does that work?</p>
<p>They are not on-campus. They’re a minor scene.</p>
<p>Elitism is something for which you have to search if you want it. Otherwise, you will not encounter it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Completely agree. +1</p>
<p>To echo randombetch and JohnAdams, it’s way too early to think about eating clubs. I don’t think I decided which club I was going to join until about 30 minutes before the deadline to do so. Princeton is so much more than eating clubs!</p>
<p>I think for the most part, people don’t promote the social status they were raised in - no one really talks about it nor do they really have any reason to.</p>
<p>I will say that they rich upper east side new york kids tend to stick to themselves, as do the kids from the big name private schools (andover/exeter) - probably because so many of them end up going to a given school (I know I would hang out with my friends if we all ended up going to Yale or Princeton together).</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses!</p>
<p>Now I’m just focusing on getting in to Princeton at all. :)</p>
<p>Eating food makes a great point. Sure there are some groups of friends that grew up together/went to hs together from the big prep schools but they’re friends because they grew up together, not because they’re all wealthy (and lets not forget that those schools have large numbers of scholarship students too).</p>
<p>One of the biggest things I noticed at Princeton (and I’m sure the same is true at its peers) is that its almost impossible to tell who comes from money and who doesn’t, I really wouldn’t worry about it.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the person.
I, for one, don’t enjoy conversing with other peers unless their outfits sum to values of at least $800 (it sounds stringent, but shoes do count). Some of my sorority sisters have even higher standards.
It’s not elitism, it’s just living the Princeton life the way it was meant to be lived.</p>
<p>Satire, I hope.</p>
<p>Yes, Kameron, it is.</p>
<p>i would go to princeton just for the elitism…although im poor as hell</p>
<p>I graduated 20 odd years ago and even then it was often very difficult to figure out who had money and who didn’t. Really, people hang out based on common interests and definitely NOT based on how much money they come from. One of my very good friends came from a family which wound up donating the money for some building. It took me years to figure out how rich this person was. (I was dirt poor!)</p>
<p>I am sure it is even more true today.</p>