<p>I've been researching Yale lately, and I have come across the Master's Teas there.</p>
<p>They seem like an AWESOME opportunity to meet and interact with high-profile celebrities and influential figures.</p>
<p>Does Princeton have something similar? The only thing that is pulling me to Yale is the fact that Yalies get to experience this.</p>
<p>Funny, I was just wondering the same thing :P</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about the Master’s Teas, but the residential colleges seems to have speakers who come for dinner every few weeks (you sign up to have dinner with them, usually it’s maybe a dozen or two dozen people). Those are pretty cool, and usually feature professors but sometimes include other people. Also, every Friday in Forbes we had tea & talk in the lobby with the college staff. Plus you’re allowed to invite your residential college fellows to dinner any time – not enough people take advantage of this IMO. I think every professor is affiliated with one college or another, so many of the most famous professors will do this, too!</p>
<p>Um, yeah, that was a disorganized info dump. Bottom line: I’ve been to many cool talks / dinners / lunches with professors and other speakers. Speakers I’ve seen this semester include Peter Singer, President Tilghman (that was so cool! A small dinner talk – she is fantastic), and the former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt. There are literally far too many talks at Princeton to go to all of them, and many of them end up being quite intimate.</p>
<p>Yeah Master’s Teas are just a fancy way of saying important and notable figures come to speak to undergraduates. If you actually think about the practicalities of a Master’s Tea, you’re not going to be able to see most of them (think of Meryl Streep in a small room… yeah okay try getting a seat up front, let alone into the building itself). Once you get to college, you’ll realize all this flashy BS, both at Yale and Princeton and in fact almost all colleges alike, is pretty negligible. Any Ivy will frequently have phenomenal visiting guests and current professors. Don’t let buzz words cloud your judgment.</p>
<p>Okay. So I guess this is what I was wondering: are there a lot of opportunities to meet and interact with celebrities and famous people?</p>
<p>And who have you met during your time at Princeton?</p>
<p>When the Dalai Lama came to Yale, there were two opportunities to hear him speak: in Battell Chapel (by ticket, with maybe 1,000 tickets), or at JE’s Master’s Tea (first ~50 names on the signup sheet in the Master’s Office). I was at the Tea, maybe 5 feet away from him, and had the chance to ask a question. But it’s not like I could say that I’d met him in any meaningful sense, or that he’d recognize me 15 minutes later or anything. </p>
<p>Personally, I wouldn’t advise someone to make their decision based on the Teas. It’s not the kind of life-changing opportunity you should regret missing.</p>
<p>Having been at Princeton only a few months, I have seen Paul Krugman, Peter Singer, and John Nash. I actually had the opportunity to spend an evening in New York with Anne Marie Slaughter, and I had dinner with her. I’ve also seen Shirley Tilghman (our president) many times, and even gotten course recommendations for next semester from her.</p>
<p>If you want to, you can find many opportunities to meet famous/important people. What you’ll realize, though, is that you will generally not have very much free time to do so.</p>