<p>Okay, I have visited both MIT and Princeton (MIT extensively, Princeton once), and I know the general stereotypes of both campuses. Although it is best that you go for yourself and get a fell of the campuses, I really think that it is impossible to pick apart certain aspects of a student body. I am looking for a student body that I can most connect with. Here are traits that I have myself that I would be looking for in an ideal student body:</p>
<p>I am somewhat social for the geek stereotype. I can socialize and I do have social skills, but I definitely lean to the introverted side a little more than the extroverted side. I am also very focused. Especially when it comes to a topic I find interesting, I really delve into it hours and days upon end, and I cannot seem to get it out of my head. I've never really found anyone that shares my same passion for subjects, and I really would like to find a student body that overall has that type of intense focus. I know both student bodies of Princeton and MIT are intelligent, but I'd rather the types that have that drive and put their passions first rather than viewing learning (not school, but learning) as secondary. Also, I would consider myself quite conservative. Although I do respect other people's views, I would like to find a group of people that share my same political interests. Sometimes I become tired of hearing about the same old liberal topics over and over that I disagree on but really cannot speak out against without alienating people. Not that there is anything wrong with those views, but I just would like to find a sizable group that I can talk to about my views without being cast out to the beasts. I am also more of the maths and sciences type of person, but I also have quite the appreciation for government, classical languages, and some aspects of history.</p>
<p>If people could give a good comparison of both schools that would be of much help.</p>
<p>as far as politics go, Princeton is the better choice if you are conservative and prefer to be around conservatives. From what I have read, MIT has a very liberal student body, with some 90% of the professors also being liberal. However, I don’t think this should be a deciding factor. Personally, I consider myself very conservative, and I have just accepted the fact that I will be a red dot in a sea of blue. You’ve got to make some sacrifices to go to MIT, but it seems to be worth it.</p>
<p>Did you get accepted to both yet? Because getting accepted will probably be a deciding factor.</p>
<p>^^It is not true at all that MIT has a liberal student body. A magazine once rated the top schools in terms of how conservative-friendly they were (red light for not conservative-friendly, green light for conservative friendly, and yellow light in between.) MIT was the only top school that had a green light rating.</p>
<p>MIT’s students tend not to be the sort that have some political axe to grind. I’m sure our humanities profs are liberal (we’ve got Chomsky after all), but I never noticed any type of indoctrination.</p>
<p>I can’t compare MIT with Princeton on these aspects, but I can tell you that I came to MIT as a conservative (actually, strictly speaking, as a fundamentalist and something of a right-winger), and although many of my friends happened to be more left-leaning than I was, I felt that my views were respected. (That’s not to say we didn’t argue about politics. But my friends and I like to argue. :)) MIT students tend to live and let live – as long as you can explain why you believe the way you do, people will accept it, as long as you’re similarly accepting of their beliefs.</p>
<p>EDIT: I see that I cross-posted with about a zillion people. I agree with collegealum in particular.</p>
<p>Another fact that is particularly telling: in 2000, MIT had a mock presidential election decided by the student body between all the major candidates: George W. Bush, Al Gore, and John McCain. </p>
<p>John McCain won.</p>
<p>“I’d rather the types that have that drive and put their passions first rather than viewing learning (not school, but learning) as secondary.”</p>
<p>Pick MIT over Princeton then. In general, I find Princeton students to be more career-focused, while MIT students are more genuinely passionate about academia.</p>
<p>I think people are somewhat understating both the political passion and the liberalism (or at least, the social liberalism - there’s a nice liberal/libertarian split) of the MIT student body in this thread. Perhaps this has something to do with where one lives on campus.</p>
<p>However, I do know a couple of genuine conservatives, and they haven’t been ostracized or anything, and they aren’t constantly being harangued about their beliefs (though if they actually start ranting about politics in a crowd, they have to be prepared for a bunch of people to start challenging them, in a way that liberal students don’t really). The only thing that’s really going to inflame people is if they perceive you to be anti-science. People are thoughtful about their politics, and have other things to talk about if their politics just don’t mesh well.</p>
<p>As far as finding a group of like-minded people - MIT has a College Republicans group, a pro-life group, that sort of thing. Heck, there may even be some living groups where people tend to be politically conservative, though I have no idea what they are.</p>
<p>I’m just a prefrosh, but I would point out again that [Facebook</a> Social Analysis: Fun with Facebook](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/varenc/www/facebook.html]Facebook”>http://web.mit.edu/varenc/www/facebook.html) is quite cool and has a graph of political stance vs. living group which I found interesting (and it corresponds enough with common sense that I doubt the whole thing is meaningless).</p>
<p>eisensteinprime: I’m not on Facebook, and hadn’t actually seen that before. It’s pretty cool. And useful to the OP to figure out where other conservatives are most likely to be found (though I should point out that as FSILGs are small, they can change a lot from year to year).</p>
<p>It mostly correlates with what I would have guessed (at least the dorm chart does - a couple of the FSILGs surprise me). And all of the dorms, and most of the FSILGs, have averages between 0 and 1 (i.e. left-leaning).</p>
<p>Although politics are somewhat important, it is not my main concern. I just want to know that I can at least find a group of people who share my views and that I won’t be ostracized because of my views. I can deal with people being liberal, so long as they don’t hate me for being conservative. My main focus is well…finding people that are focused on what they like to do. And from what you’ve all said, it seems like MIT is more the place for that, as opposed to Princeton, which is more career oriented.</p>
<p>Haha, so I was wondering what you meant by anti-science? Like, would that include having a just-for-fun interest in astrology?</p>
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<p>Actually, I meant anti-evolution/creationist. Nobody cares if you read horoscopes for fun. :p</p>
<p>^^Also, I would suggest you don’t go around campus with a T-shirt that says, “Richard Feynman sucks!”</p>