if u go to princeton....

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
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<p>Hi.I'm a rising senior,eager to embark on the college admissions process, but I can't finalize my list. Up until this year I was set on Yale and Columbia; but after a college trip of some ivies during spring break,I had a change of heart. Now, I'm madly in love with Princeton.(Brown/Rhode Island was freezing for a girl from Georgia.Seriously, I don't own clothes for that weather lol) And each college tour guide made their school sound amazing....kinda...or at least help my decision. But there is nothing like hearing firsthand information about the school from students who go there everyday and can provide deep information outside a cheerful college/campus tour. In short, I want the truth about all these schools. </p>

<p>What is the worst thing about some of these campuses? What is the best? And can I ask you some more questions as they come up? Thank u!</p>

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<p>Well I would like to say that the people are the best part of Princeton, but I suppose every respondent from every school will be saying that, so I’ll talk about something else. </p>

<p>I really like Princeton’s eating club system. So during your first 2 years at Princeton, you live in, and eat at, one of the 6 residential colleges (kind of like how it is at Yale). Once you become a junior, you can stay in a residential college, cook for yourself (going independent), or cook with a bunch of friends (joining a co-op). However, the majority (70+%) of students choose to join an eating club. </p>

<p>On campus there is a road called Prospect Avenue (we call it “The Street”) - it is where the 10 eating clubs are (some defunct clubs also line the Street). Each one has its own house (which has like a servery, a dining hall, lounges, a taproom/bar, a big-screen TV, pool tables, etc etc), hires its own chefs, serves its own meals, etc. Each club is co-ed and holds a lot of social events for members (theme nights, semi-formals, field trips, etc). In short, eating clubs could be described as co-ed fraternity houses that you eat at instead of live in (only student officers live at the club).</p>

<p>In the spring of your sophomore year, you choose an eating club you want to join. There are 5 “sign-in clubs” (Colonial, Terrace, Quadrangle, Cloister Inn, and Charter) and 5 “bicker clubs” (Ivy, Cap & Gown, Tiger Inn, Cottage, and Tower). If you want to join a sign-in club, you just go online and indicate which club you want to join, and you’re in! If you want to join a bicker club, you have to go to the club on 3 consecutive days and participate in “bicker” (a little bit like rush, but without a lengthy pledgeship or forced consumption of alcohol). The bicker process varies from club to club, but generally there will be a mix of casual interviews and icebreaker games - for example, one game I participated in this past year was one where a bunch of members and prospective members wrote the most horrible thing they had ever done onto a slip of paper, put all the slips in a bowl, and went around trying to guess who looks like they could’ve committed each deed. </p>

<p>After these sessions are over, prospective members go home and the members have discussions where they “bicker” over which kids should become members. Bicker is from Sunday to Tuesday and you are notified on Friday morning as to whether you got in or not (on average, around 2/3rds of all kids bickering get in). If you don’t get in, you can choose to hold off on joining a club or you can join a sign-in club that still has space. In case you are abroad during your sophomore spring (or didn’t get into your club of choice), some clubs hold bicker/sign-ins during the fall for juniors.</p>

<p>Naturally, each club has its own personality, so how do you decide what club you want to join? A good way is to go to meals/parties at the clubs to see which one fits you best. Basically all the clubs have parties on any given Thursday/Saturday night. Generally half of the parties will require a guest pass (easily obtained from a member), but if you don’t have a guest pass, the other parties will always be open to anyone with a student ID. As for meals, sometimes there is a “Taste of Prospect” where you sign-up online and get to have a meal at a randomly assigned club. At other times, simply ask a member if they’d be willing to take you to a meal at their club sometime - you’ll find that they are generally all too glad to oblige.</p>

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<p>aha wow! Thank you for all the insightful information. On my tour, they pointed to “the street” and spoke briefly about the eating clubs, but you provided the information I was looking for. What eating club are u apart of (just curious…my friend’s dad is an alumni and he says T.I [whatever club that is] is the best…but i think that’s because he was apart of it).
And apart from these clubs, are there any other forms of social life/activities? And like Yale, do your residential colleges host guest speakers,trips,“bonding” times (like ice cream socials,etc.),and that whole Hogwarts-y style of being apart of said residential college? And in terms of social dynamic, is the school generally divided and cliquey or?( I don’t know, so I’m asking…I’ve heard lots of stories about covert racism/discrimination at Princeton)? Thank u so much!!</p>

<p>&& others feel free to add!</p>

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<p>the rescolleges host a lot of events, but probably not up to the level of y. They have a lot of trips to NYC that are subsidized, and study breaks, etc. They also host parties on the weekends with free t-shirts. Whitman also has (or had) college nights, where only ppl in whitman could eat in the whitman dining hall. There isn;t really a ton of college specific pride, more princeton pride in general, but you do see ppl wearing college gear</p>

<p>There are also other social scenes on campus outside of the eating clubs- from murray-dodge to cafe viv to room parties.</p>

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<p>Yeah the tour guides are kind of instructed to kind of only give the clubs a passing mention or otherwise tour groups would just spend all day asking questions about them. It’s only natural for the alumni of whatever club to say that their club was the best. Tiger Inn (aka T.I.), was once referred to as Princeton’s version of “animal house” by Sports Illustrated. As I mentioned before, each eating club has it’s own personality and so, you will get wildly differing opinions regarding each individual club depending on who you ask. If you ask me, I’d say that TI is a fun place and always a good time on a Saturday night. However, others may like it so much they don’t ever want to go to other clubs or they may dislike it so much that they’ll refuse to ever set foot in it.</p>

<p>ec1234 is right, there are a lot of other places to hang out/spend your free time at night. Besides the places he listed (btw, Murray-Dodge Cafe is big b/c it features free cookies right out of the oven), some people like seeing movies at the small Garden Street Theater (right on Nassau), attending a Princeton football or basketball game (during their respective seasons of course), or watching a performing arts group (e.g. the Triangle Show, Raks Odalisque Bellydancing, Quipfire Improv Comedy, BodyHype Dance Co, etc etc).</p>

<p>As ec1234 also mentioned, our res colleges do host things like guest speakers (usually at meals in each college’s private dining room), trips (LOTS of trips to Broadway), etc. “Bonding times” exist both as study breaks (just come in and grab free food - happens once a week) and signature events (casino nights, etc) that happen less frequently. I would agree that our residential colleges probably “do” less things than the ones at Yale do, but we’re also less cliquey when it comes to the res colleges, which leads us to your question about social dynamics. See, you could say Princeton has cliques, but like, it’s no more cliquey than you would expect any college to be. What I’d really like to say is this: if you’re going to look for covert racism/discrimination/exclusion, you’re going to find it everywhere, including at Princeton. But if you’re willing to come in with an open mind and just put your best foot forward with everyone you meet, you’ll find that, by and large, ppl on campus are very welcoming and friendly. And forgive me if I sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I think that people sometimes are biased in that they would like to believe the worst about Princeton with regards to exclusion and discrimination simply because it is Princeton. Therefore, they are all too willing to latch on to perceived occurrences of the aforementioned and propagate further rumors about our elitism and such.</p>

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<p>lol wow. thank u guys! that’s a lot of information…</p>

<p>But what about study abroad programs? Is that a popular option at Princeton? I’m also looking at Davidson,UVA,UGA, and some others, but if i were to be admitted for any of these schools’ honor programs/scholarships…I would be receiving amazing travel stipends
(which is really exciting for me). But I just want to make sure that if I were to be accepted at Princeton, traveling/study abroad options would be a “no-go” due to funds.
Thank u again for answering all of these questions!</p>

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<p>Study abroad is pretty popular here. You should check this website out to learn more about it (and additional funding opportunities), but the bottom line is if you go during the regular academic year, you don’t really pay any more to go abroad than you would to attend Princeton during that semester (and you basically pay Princeton directly while they take care of the rest).</p>

<p>[OIP:</a> Finances and Funding](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/oip/sap/finances/]OIP:”>Financial Matters | Office of International Programs)</p>

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<p>Question: How does study abroad and eating clubs mesh? I know that if you are studying away soph. spring, you can sign-in or bicker jr. fall, but is it asked or held against someone if they, say, bicker soph. spring, but then go away fall of jr. year?</p>

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<p>No one asks if you’re going abroad (nor do they really care). Anyways, once you’re in, you’re in. Just talk to your club steward and/or club treasurer and they’ll prorate your contract so you don’t pay for the meals you miss while you’re abroad.</p>

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<p>I second Ray on his general description of the eating clubs and his endorsement of study abroad. I’m considering going abroad next spring, so I’ve definitely considered the money angle. If you’re on FA like me, Princeton is great, because you keep paying what you normally pay and Princeton will handle the finances, like Ray said. Very convenient. If you’re not on FA, then study abroad is usually a better option financially, because you’ll end up paying less (very very few study abroad programs are as expensive as the full-boat Princeton price). Most of the people I’ve talked to who didn’t want to go abroad hardly did it because of money, but because they didn’t want to miss a second of Princeton! I’ve considered it and I think study abroad is too amazing and once-in-a-lifetime of an experience to pass up. For the record, I think I want to go to Ireland, and I’m in Paris right now for the “Princeton in France” internship program, where I’m interning at a publishing house (perfect for me, an English major with a French certificate). Keep in mind that Princeton has many opportunities to go abroad during summers and breaks! =)</p>

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<p>Is it possible to ‘bicker’ at more than one club and then just see where you get in? Or do you have to commit to one?</p>

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<p>you have to commit to one, although you can bicker multiple times so you can try multiple clubs (ie sophomore spring, junior fall, junior sping, senior fall)</p>

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<p>Ok thanks, and thanks ray for giving some details about what actually goes on in the bicker, could anyone give more examples? I have a thread here asking that too
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/731045-bicker-what-exactly-do-you-do.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/731045-bicker-what-exactly-do-you-do.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Thanks again for answering all these questions. Your responses are very informative and helpful. </p>

<p>But…in terms of academics, is grade deflation truly an issue? Is it even noticeable to students? And are dual majors/minors possible at princeton,or is the workload too demanding to be doubled?
In general, what are classes like? Is the professor simply providing his genius as the standard for students to later say right back or are classes more hands on/engaging?</p>

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<p>Double majors are not allowed. You can definitely minor in more than one subject though. In my experience, professors do not use their genius as a standard, nor do they (at least, in social science classes) simply ask students to regurgitate the material. Rather, they generally require you to demonstrate a deeper understanding of the material covered in class through application of concepts on assignments/papers.</p>

<p>Of course, certain classes (seminars) are much more hands-on/engaging than others (lectures in McCosh 50).</p>

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<p>So i’ve started the application process…kinda (mainly just looking/outlining my 11 applications,essays,etc.). And I came across another question, a question that I think sums up all the answers I was looking for, but what is the personality of Princeton students? What’s a common activity and/or passion that they all share? What would make an admissions officer reading an application say"now,she sounds like a future member of the c/o '14." (This will also answer if Princeton is really right for me.) Thanks again for all your help;its much appreciated!</p>

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<p>Wow. This thread is really useful. I always wanted to know more about eating clubs/residential colleges and now I know enough to actually feel interested in Princeton!</p>

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<p>lol @quasiprofound, i know! after i started getting responses i wanted to fast forward to april 2010 soooo badly.</p>