<p>soomoo,</p>
<p>Can you give us some details on how your son is doing academically at Princeton? My son tells me (he has heard from former students now attending Princeton) that the courses are extremely challenging. Has your son felt that he has been embraced by the Princeton community, mainly the non-latino students/faculty?</p>
<p>Tejana,</p>
<p>The classes ARE very challenging at Princeton. My son seems to be doing fine though. He got two As and two Bs his first semester. He says that his biggest challenges are not the class difficulty (he went to a rigorous high school), but are around organization and procrastination. These were huge issues for him in high school too, so I am not surprised.</p>
<p>Like most of the students there, he has had to make a mental adjustment. He has had to adjust from being the straight A kid to one of many very smart kids. He has had to/ is still learning to accept the Bs also. This has been stressful for him at times but I think it’s a good thing to learn to deal with not always being “the best”</p>
<p>He has found the student body very accepting from day one. He is involved in a very nice extracurricular which has allowed him to meet all types of people and has given his life some necessary balance. His friends are very diverse both racially and ethnically.</p>
<p>As for faculty, of the eight professors he has had so far, he has loved six and could do without the other two. He never mentioned anything about his ethnicity being a factor in any of his relationships with his professors though.</p>
<p>The only incident I can think of in which his being Latino might have affected him is this:</p>
<p>When he was choosing his first semester classes, his adviser didn’t want him to take a difficult math class since he “needed to get adjusted to college life”. My husband was mad because he (my husband) thought it was because my son is Latino. He swore if his name had been John Smith he would have been told to take the class. (I wasn’t so quick to agree). Well he is taking that math class now (second semester) and it IS hard. I am glad that he didn’t take it last fall. </p>
<p>So basically, he is a typical, sometimes stressed, but mostly happy freshman.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information… It is so helpful to get the perspectives of those students living on an Ivy campus (which is perhaps very different from the schools/neighborhoods that some URM’s come from). </p>
<p>I’m glad to hear that your son has acclimated well to Princeton. Was Princeton his #1 school? Does he have an idea about what he wants to major in? Is Princeton good about letting the students explore classes (stepping out of their comfort zone) during the first two years.</p>
<p>Actually, MIT was always his dream school so he applied early and was deferred. If he had gotten in, that would have been the end of it. He only agreed to apply to Princeton since, as I have mentioned in other posts, he had legacy status there. In the regular decision round he was accepted to both MIT and Princeton. After doing revisits and talking it over with teachers, he decided on Princeton. It seemed a bit more well rounded. Even though his interests are in Computer Science and Math he decided he felt he would meet more types of people at a liberal arts school. </p>
<p>Princeton basically forces you out of your comfort zone in the first two years 
Although there are many courses to choose from within each required area, each student must take 8 classes in specifically defined areas.</p>
<p>It is true that it can seem like a different world to a URM coming from a very different background. That was my husband’s experience when he came to Princeton from the inner city many moons ago. Rest assured though, there are many many students that come from very modest backgrounds at most of these types of schools due to the great financial aid available.</p>