<p>Hi everyone, I already know Princeton has amazing academics and prestige, but I was just curious about life at Princeton. Can someone please inform me on dorm life, lawn parties, what people are like, have you had any funny encounters with elitist people (my friend's question), fun things that go on on campus. I kinda needs this at the moment. Princeton is my top dream school and I'm kind of frightened away from it with all of this talk of competition with other students, grade deflation, and boringness of the campus.</p>
<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I’m not a student there but I went on a visit and can tell you what I got from my outside perspective.</p>
<p>Honestly all the people I hung out with were not elitist at all and if you look at the amount of people on Fin Aid, I find it hard to believe that you would encounter much snobbery (although I’m sure it exists as with all the Ivy Leagues).</p>
<p>As far as eating clubs go, when I checked them out and went to some parties I realized that there are different clubs/social options so you won’t feel out of place.</p>
<p>I talked with a Professor about grade deflation and competition. In fact she brought it up saying that just in case other schools had told me about these issues she wanted to talk to me about these claims.</p>
<p>Honestly the Professor told me that the grade deflation doesn’t make that big a difference and that the whole idea is to help one improve and seek areas of improvement. I found it very refreshing to talk with an accomplished Professor who loved her job and cared enough about the school to pitch me on it.</p>
<p>To me, the campus wasn’t boring at all - I loved the size, and the overall vibe.</p>
<p>From afar I had an image of the student body being homogeneous, boring, etc. etc. compared to Harvard and Stanford but I didn’t find that to be the case at all when I visited.</p>
<p>Hope this helps you somewhat!</p>
<p>Thanks a lot PureVision. You pretty much summed up all of my questions except the dorm life and the lawn parties( that doesn’t matter). I originally wanted to attend Harvard but I got siked out like most applicants. Stanford and Yale are other higher education schools that I looked at, and since I’m from California I already good an idea of how the vibe could be at Stanford. Yale on the other hand is in a city which I didn’t like so much, and I heard that the surroundings around the school were not so great.</p>
<p>Princeton just seems to be the all round best school that I have researched so far. And I have been through the town of Princeton and it was very nice and kept up.</p>
<p>Spend some time looking around the site and then ask more specific questions. There’s lots of info about those topics on here.</p>
<p>@Ivyguy6: No problem, glad to help. I like Stanford’s “entrepreneurial spirit” and “spirit of innovation” etc. and also their close proximity to silicon valley was appealing to me, but I liked the size of P better. Between H and P was a tough choice, especially b/c I have grown up with the idea that somehow attending H represents a perfect culmination of 12 yrs and attests to my character/how remarkable I am etc. etc. </p>
<p>I also really like H when I visited. But when I compared the two I really felt at home at P and I will defs apply to H for grad school.</p>
<p>take a deep breath then enjoy this Princeton campus picture:</p>
<p><a href=“http://thewondrous.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/PRINCETON-University-8.jpg[/url]”>http://thewondrous.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/PRINCETON-University-8.jpg</a></p>
![http://thewondrous.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/PRINCETON-University-8.jpg[/url]](http://thewondrous.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/PRINCETON-University-8.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>@stlkarategal I will do that now.</p>
<p>@PureVision Exactly! I love Stanford’s “entrepreneurial spirit” and" I can create anything inovation spirit" as well! I’m stuck between deciding my major still entrepreneurship or engineering. </p>
<p>I felt that way about Harvard too, I think almost everyone that considers going to an ivy league school thinks it will make them feel as everything is perfect. </p>
<p>@JamieBrown That picture sure did help bring me back.</p>
<p>@ Ivyguy6: Where would you plan to major in entrepreneurship? Most schools don’t let you do that, and there is the argument that entrepreneurship doesn’t need to be taught.</p>
<p>IMO take advantage of a liberal arts or engineering curriculum and combine it with your entrepreneurial spirit. Depends on the school though.</p>
<p>@PureVision If I choose the I want my major to be entrepreneurship I would probably choose Stanford. I think they are also up there in the engineering department too so I’m not sure. I think I’m just going to have to wait to visit Princeton.</p>
<p>I don’t know if you’ve visited Stanford, but both campuses are incredible, in different ways. IMO, the two best in the country. I personally prefer Stanford’s campus but only because of the palm trees and weather; I was deciding between Princeton and Stanford for grad school and while I’m very happy with my decision, not a day goes by when I don’t say to myself “I can’t believe I turned down Stanford.” And the same would be true had I turned down Princeton (as one of my friends told me, turning down a (fully funded) offer from Princeton is like spitting in the holy water, defecating on a bible, and punching the Pope).</p>
<p>Speaking as a current sophomore - back to the spirit of your original post, I love life at Princeton. You’ll work hard. I think as an applicant I didn’t really consider how much time would be devoted to academics (coming from a regular public school this was a bit of a shock, but since I love what I’m studying…it’s all good).</p>
<p>I personally am not a huge fan of large groups / alcohol, and therefore don’t go to the eating club parties that often. But I don’t feel like I lack for social options - chilling with people until 3, 4 am is a regular thing on the weekends, and I feel like I have a lot of fun. Things I do include: the free movies every weekend, the climbing wall, the band (!!!), various student performances (theater, dance, orchestra, etc), and just hanging out. It’s true that there’s less to do here than at, say, Columbia, and getting off-campus doesn’t happen too often. That being said, the $25 trips to Broadway are awesome, so don’t stay in the Orange Bubble all the time if you enroll…</p>
<p>Dorm life: last year (freshman year) I was on a great hallway with two common rooms, so there were always people around, I left my door propped open, and just generally I always had friends really close at hand who would wander in and out of my room / living space. A very nice thing. This year, I don’t have a common room but I live near all my friends, so…yeah. I live in Forbes, and I always find people I know in the dining hall. Not having to leave the building = very nice, especially when it’s cold or you’re sick.</p>
<p>I haven’t been to Stanford’s campus but I love Princeton’s. :)</p>
<p>If you have more specific questions, do ask. I’m an engineering student but computer science so I only halfway count as an engineer. :P</p>