<p>Im on a full scholarship with less than $500 of student contribution. Will it be possible for me to join an eating club, using my scholarship. </p>
<p>Or do I have to work to get cash so that i can join an eating club.
I dont want to be left out of the Princeton experience. In light of that, is there any way people who dont have much cash available can join an eating club.</p>
<p>How much does an eating club cost? Must people pay in cash or can they take a loan? How do most people fund their eating club--do they not pay for university dining and instead pay out of pocket or mommy+daddy? </p>
<p>If your scholarship package includes money for University meals, can you subsitute them for eating club options?</p>
<p>Are the 25% who dont join eating clubs, those who cant afford it? </p>
<p>Is there any truth to the statement that "Only those with money to pay for the food can join an eating club?"</p>
<p>What kind of food is served at an eating club? Can i eat anytime I want at an eating club? How does this work, do they schedule meeting times to have dinners or something? Is it fancy 3 or 4 course meals? What kind of selection?</p>
<p>Finaly, if the above is true about exclusion of the poor, how can the university condone such a class divide? Is the university moving to allow financial aid to be used in Eating clubs? And finally are the eating clubs "quintessentially" princeton.</p>
<p>"At present, the difference between residential college dining contracts and full eating club membership fees ranges from a few hundred dollars to over $2000, depending on the club. The University provides no financial aid grants for these expenses, but loans are available through the financial aid office, just as there are for unsponsored trips or computer purchases."</p>
<p>the undergraduate student government is currently pushing the administration to cover the difference in grants instead of loans.</p>
<p>to expand a bit, biz, you ARE going to have to come up with a bit of extra money if you want to join an eating club. remember, though, that the extra money above and beyond the cost of a residential college dining contract will pay for things that will directly benefit you as a club member - like dj's, bands, and alcohol at weekend parties, and new amenities and maintenance costs for the club building. if you absolutely refuse to take out a loan through the university or the club, you can easily earn it yourself during the summer, or even during the school year. there are tons of campus jobs available, including ones like library jobs that allow you to study while earning a paycheck. if that still doesn't work for you, you can join a club as a "social member" only and take your meals elsewhere. such membership would get you everything but the meals. finally, you can not join at all, but still party at the clubs on the weekends - most parties are open to anyone with a PUID. this, after all, is what all freshmen and sophomores do, since you can't join until spring sophomore year.</p>
<p>As f. scottie says, your social costs other than the eating club at Princeton are minimal, because there are free or extremely low-cost tickets to every event imaginable and the clubs themselves are open to all for most parties. Just to take it a little further....</p>
<p>As you know, Princeton does not require financial aid students to take out loans. If you compare the cost of tuition, room and an eating club with the cost of tuition, room and board at many of Princeton's peer institutions, you will discover that it comes out about the same. (Princeton without the eating club membership, which is at most around $2700 a year over the cost of regular board, has been the least expensive Ivy for the past few years.) So...if you have to borrow a little to afford the club, you would have been borrowing to attend most other schools, anyway. </p>
<p>Also, there is a ton of money on campus for internships, summer study, travel abroad, etc. You can even get paid to do community service work. So consider the cost of the eating club in light of your overall access to funding.</p>
<p>Re the food, the ones I know have some sort of food out most of the time, but meals are scheduled, which is what helps people get to know one another. There are also take-out meals available. The food varies a lot from club to club. </p>
<p>For the first two years students don't eat in the clubs. They dine in their residential college hall (or that of a friend) or in the Frist Campus Center.</p>
<p>as others have said, the difference between the cost of a dining plan and of an eating club is ~2000 per year, with terrace I think being about the same cost (could be wrong though). Meals vary between eating clubs, ivy has served dinners every night by hired waiters, charter has served dinners many nights- but by student waiters, and other clubs such as tower have buffet style meals. There are set meal times, the same way that there are set meal times in the residential colleges. </p>
<p>The richest eating clubs (ie ivy) have endowments that allow them to fund scholarships for students. At charter, you can work in the dining room to make money to pay your dues, and to graduate from princeton with only $4000 in loans really isn;t such a bad deal. Unlike at other schools where you have to pay $5 to get into a party, or in a city where youd pay a lot of money to go out to bars/clubs, at princeton parties are totally free. </p>
<p>With the opening of the 4 year residential colleges, I'm pretty sure that princeton is going to deal with financial aid for the eating clubs, probably only making you pay for the alcohol money, which would further reduce the cost of joining.</p>
<p>and, as everyone else said, its easy to use the clubs even if you don't join one. By the time youre a sophomore, you tend to know people in your favorite clubs so that you can get in even when theyre on pass, and also be invited to members only nights. There always somewhere to hang out that only requires a puid to get into.</p>
<p>i've never heard of such low costs quoted before - i'm under the impression that at least for cottage, ti and ivy, the cost of a year's membership is in the region of $8000.</p>
<p>i've eaten at ti and cottage, and ti is buffet style, with american-style food like burgers/wings etc. cottage is served to you from a buffet by the staff, and then you sit at tables with linen and candles - it's a really nice dining room. ivy is indeed rather more upmarket, with a similar setup to cottage except waiters come take your order, and then clear the dishes for you.</p>