<p>I have not been making this argument. I have been arguing that students should receive the grade that they deserve, and that Princeton should be praised for making the effort to ensure that this happens.</p>
<p>I have been implying that institutions that practice shameless grade inflation should be demonized instead, for imparting on their students an inflated sense of self-worth–thereby deceiving them and potentially hurting them in the long run.</p>
<p>I acknowledge that “grade deflation,” or exercising stricter scrutiny toward the quality of a student’s work and rewarding/punishing her accordingly, inadvertently hurts students interested in applying to graduate and professional schools.</p>
<p>However, schools that practice “grade inflation” commit a greater crime by possibly rewarding mediocrity and failing to punish it–thereby distorting incentives, neglecting to maximize students’ intellectual potential and growth, and ultimately deceiving students by instilling them with a sense of entitlement and unmerited self-confidence.</p>
<p>ChoklitRain, while the grade deflation may be something valid to deter you from going to a school that doesn’t hand you grades that you don’t deserve, your other bullet points are not sound reasons to not even apply to Princeton.</p>
<p>1) What is wrong with them asking you what you did the last two summers? On the 2009 application, UPenn asks you to choose a professor from their school and write about what you would like to do with those professors in terms of studying or research. What you did last summer is perfectly relevant to seeing what types of things you do when school isn’t in session: do you work hard all year round, do you utilize your free time away from school to pursue other passions, or do you just sit at home?</p>
<p>2) Yale also has a senior thesis which holds the same amount of intensity as Princeton’s senior thesis. At Yale, you take “Senior Thesis” as a course for fall and spring semester of your senior year. At Princeton, you take a reduced courseload during your senior year. Both Yale and Princeton work a thesis into the structure and curriculum of their programs.</p>
<p>3) While it’s true that Yale is in the city, there is not much for the average college student to be gained from New Haven in terms of social life. While there are outreach programs that you can get involved with at Yale because of its close proximity to that demographic, Princeton has many opportunities to get involved as well, especially through the Pace center.</p>
<p>You can like what you like, but if you are going to make your opinions public, be ready to substantiate them.</p>
<p>Penn doesn’t ask that question anymore, and in any case it’s easy to research it. I had a 6 week internship, cross country practices, and a few smaller things going on this summer, and I didn’t sit around last summer either. I think Princeton’s question perpetuates the idea that, as a 16/17 year old, you need to be working your ass off all year long. I don’t want my life to peak before 18, so I take precautions against burnout. </p>
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<p>I thought it was optional at Yale, though the thesis is the least important of my concerns.</p>
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<p>Things are just easier to access in an urban environment. For example, if a student wants to visit an erotic massage parlor(hypothetically), you can find them in Princeton, New Haven, and Cambridge/Boston. But it’s a lot easier to get to the ones in New Haven and Cambridge thanks to public transportation, taxis, and the lack of suburban sprawl. And personally, I lived in Brooklyn when I was younger, so I prefer a grittier environment.</p>
<p>There is a difference between being productive and “working your ass off all year long.” If I were on the adcom, I would want to recruit students who show ambition and utilize their time off from school to either do sports, or do internships, like you yourself have done. Of course I wouldn’t be objectively evaluating your academic potential at my university based on how many hours per summer you spent resuscitating dying squirrels on ivy-league campuses, but I would definitely be looking to see that you were ambitious. Personally, I have a job as the manager of aquatics recreation for the City of Huntington Beach where I work 40 hours a week in addition to additional hours spent teaching private swimming lessons. Yet I don’t consider myself burnt-out at all. I am taking a few weeks off from work to enjoy myself, and if I were to write about my summer again, I would definitely have something to write about. This is not to suggest that you are less capable than I am, but I think a student’s tenacity and work-ethic can often be suggested by their activities. This is what I think Princeton is trying to do.</p>
<p>Princeton and Yale’s individual academic departments specify that there is a senior requirement. Sometimes the senior project is research-based, essay-based, or report-based. The senior projects at both schools are extremely rigorous but offer a lot of flexibility for you to find what best allows you to represent yourself at the end of your undergraduate experience. (For example, look at the Senior requirement for a BS/BA degree in Chemistry at Yale: [Chemistry</a> | Yale College Programs of Study](<a href=“Yale College”>Yale College))</p>
<p>Lastly, it’s ironic but very true that the train station is closer to Princeton’s campus (the Dinky actually stops directly at the south end of Princeton’s campus) than the train stations for Yale or Brown, for example. The New Haven train station is a couple miles away from campus, and Brown’s train station is several miles away from campus. Accessibility is generally not an issue. However, if you do admit yourself to be an aficionado of erotic massage parlors… I’d go to Brown and just check to see if Hermione could lend you a hand. They’re not exactly in abundance at Yale or Princeton.</p>
<p>At any rate, apply where you like, and don’t try to rule out schools too early. With today’s low acceptance rates, a lot of it is based on luck, and I prefer the shotgun strategy: Take advantage of the Common App. Fire out those applications and hope one hits. You can have your dream school, and hope to get in, but just in case you don’t, there are a lot of schools out there that are just as good, or even better than what you thought was your #1.</p>
<p>“At any rate, apply where you like, and don’t try to rule out schools too early. With today’s low acceptance rates, a lot of it is based on luck, and I prefer the shotgun strategy: Take advantage of the Common App. Fire out those applications and hope one hits.”</p>
<p>That’s what I did, and it landed me at Princeton. Luckily, Princeton and Yale were my top two schools (Harvard was up there too, but I preferred Princeton and Yale more), so it worked out for me in terms of getting into a dream school of mine.</p>
<p>Yeah, I did hear a lot of Princeton students, mainly on these boards, say that the academics at Princeton were falling. I highly agree that Princeton is definitely not as desirable as Harvard or Yale. Quite frankly, I like Harvard and Yale better, for a variety of reasons. Besides, Princeton is located in suburban New Jersey, a place without much excitement. I am a more big-city type, or even just a city in general.</p>
<p>“Yeah, I did hear a lot of Princeton students, mainly on these boards, say that the academics at Princeton were falling.”</p>
<p>Define “a lot.” There are students everywhere that don’t like their school. You find them at Princeton, at Harvard, at Yale, at Stanford, etc. And where on these boards have you found such comments? </p>
<p>Also, I find it interesting how grad school acceptances have actually risen slightly in the past few years, yet you claim that the academics are falling. I have heard disgruntled comments about Princeton’s grading policy, which is definitely understandable, but I have yet to see a negative impact of the policy itself in terms of the success of the students after college.</p>