<p>My son just came back today morning from atttending PP and I thought I should write down his experience and thoughts on Princeton for future applicants and their parents
My son wants to do engineering and major in Chem E.
He had to choose between Yale/Princeton/Caltech/Cornell/Columbia and UCBerkley
At the end it came down to P vs Y vs C[Caltech]
Caltech-God for engineering but too techy and not a great fit for him[He wants to dance and sing and act and write in btw the engineering??I wonder......]
Yale-Spendidly Beautiful and how can one say no to Yale!!....But Alas!ChemE not that great.
Princeton-
In his words:
ChemE Department- fantastic and tough "I can't BS any more and will have to work my a** off" to get even a B+[btw has never got below an A/A+ in HS]
Students body- "pretty cool"
Eating clubs- "not bad and yes some of them do have an elitist upper class snootiness to them but who cares as there are many more to choose from so in the long run doesn't matter."
Other Clubs- "super fantastic"
Profs- "The best of the best"
grade deflation- "doesn't effect the engineering department as getting an A is anyways an impossibilty".
Campus- "super cool"
Dorms- He stayed in the worst of them all and the worst them of all was"pretty good and they are somewhat like the Res houses of Yale"
Atmosphere- "What's wrong with that?"
Feel- " Happy!!....What do you expect ?...It's Princeton"
"A world class education with undergrad focus-A Win win"
"One can't go wrong with THAT"
Go Tiger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>So glad to hear it went well. Visited with my daughter, also, and if she wasn’t completely head over heels in love before, she certainly is now. One thing you didn’t mention was the weather. Shirley’s weather machine was in full force and the campus was picture perfect! See you in September!</p>
<p>Go Tigers! So glad your son liked Princeton. It’s been a great place for both my kids, was for me way back in the day, and I wish the best to all the kids who have the good fortune to attend going forward.</p>
<p>Sounds like your boy may wind up in Triangle Club. So. Much. Fun.</p>
<p>Congrats! So exciting for him, and it sounds like Princeton will be lucky to have him as well. :)</p>
<p>Yeahhh Princeton! Princeton Preview was great!</p>
<p>[How</a> High Schoolers Imagine the College Admissions Process - YouTube](<a href=“How High Schoolers Imagine the College Admissions Process - YouTube”>How High Schoolers Imagine the College Admissions Process - YouTube)</p>
<p>That was my EXACT reaction! The place is FLIPPIN’ AWESOMEEEEEEEEEE!!!.. :D</p>
<p>I’m going to Princeton this week with my daughter. Is there enough for parents to do for 2 days? Do we get to partake in any activities? She’s also going to study chem eng.</p>
<p>@flashgrd3-Yes,forgot about the weather-luckily was beautiful as since yesterday it’s raining incessantly here in NJ.Yes!! Am so excited and relieved that S announced his decision to us yesterday.Time for me to give away all those SAT and college search books.</p>
<p>@Alumother-Thanks for all the advice and S is already hooked up on Disiac Dance Company.I know he will enjoy his 4 years at Princeton thoroughly.I hope so.</p>
<p>@mrscollege-Thanks for your kind words-He is blessed to be in the Princeton class of 2016</p>
<p>@decillion and supergrover911-GO TIGERS!!!</p>
<p>@njfamily-That was good .</p>
<p>@therese12-I hope your daughters chooses P.Keep us posted.Betw I didn’t go as S wanted to do this alone and we are close to P so will visit some other time.They have a lot of activities lined up for parents.Do log on to the admiited students website and click on the PP link.They have an online schedule if I remember correctly.</p>
<p>Thanks all of you!!I know it’s been a crazy time for us parents till the “adults” announce their decisions to us “oldies” of the golden days[as my 7th grader so kindly reminds me]</p>
<p>ypcccu: Great post.
Congrats. He will enjoy his experience at Princeton.</p>
<p>@therese12</p>
<p>THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO! They hand your child a folder for everything student related and you a pamphlet on things parents can do. There are literally like 8 pages of events, hosted by libraries, eating clubs, student organizations, res colleges, certificate programs, academic departments, sports teams, clubs, professors, admissions officers, deans/presidents/guest speakers, etc. On top of all of this, you can even sit in on classes and they have tons of lectures (although there aren’t too many interesting classes other than lectures on Thursday + Friday, so don’t come expecting too much).</p>
<p>You won’t be bored!</p>
<p>Hi Therese!</p>
<p>As Decillion said, there’s lots for parents to do. Our kid is a sophomore, and we were just in Princeton for a concert during the prefrosh weekend. We saw lots of parents milling about either with their kids or on their own. It’s such a pretty town and campus with lots of great places to eat, so even if your kid is busy hanging out with potential future classmates and ignoring you, there’s lots for parents to do.</p>
<p>PM me if you have any specific questions. Happy to help out.</p>
<p>BTW, the iPrinceton app for the iPhone is a great way to see what’s on the calendar at Princeton. It has maps and other helpful things as well.</p>
<p>Wonderful posts! We are so excited to head down this weekend…we went in Aug and DS visited again in Dec (and accepted the admission offer) but we want to go to the preview anyway. Might as well squeeze out every bit of the experience we can!</p>
<p>Thanks for the info! We are really looking forward to it! We attended a get together with other accepted students and their parents (Chicago) a week ago and really enjoyed it and met some very nice people. Can’t wait to see the Princeton campus in the springtime! I hope the weather cooperates.</p>
<p>My son is going as well and is very excited. We live in NJ so I am undecided about whether to go or not–he wants to travel down alone, at least at first. Know the town of Princeton but not the University. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>My son flew across the country by himself and it was fine. The folks at Princeton are very helpful in getting prefrosh where they need to go.</p>
<p>My D also soloed PP weekend, and that involved a couple of train changes. She had no problems. I wish I could say her reaction to the Engineering dept was as positive as the OP’s, however. Overall she had a great time, though, and she too is in awe of diSiac.</p>
<p>@tigerdad- Thanks!! I do hope so.Your posts were a big help and very informative for not such informed parents such as myself.</p>
<p>@ Cantiger-Princeton it is!!</p>
<p>@enonimouse- Let him go alone.My S wanted to do this alone without him having to look out for us and that worked out well.As we are in NJ we can always go later on.Btw what does your son want to major in?Also keep us posted on your final decision.</p>
<p>@sbjdorlo-Do let us know what your S decides on.I know how stressfull it is for us parents.</p>
<p>@rayrick-My S absolutely loved the diSiac.You know he basically had a great time because he knows a bunch of kids already at P and also some of his Gov school kids are also going to be attending P so he had a nice group to go around with for PP-makes it easier when one already knows other prefrosh .Do tell us which college your D decides to grace.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. My son is going down alone, he flew out to visit colleges by himself in the fall and I wasn’t worried about that–just wanted to know if there would be important stuff for parents.</p>
<p>I may go later on Thursday or possibly Sat. morning. That way he doesn’t need to look out for me at all and if I want to attend a parent event I can. He loves P’Ton and unless something goes terribly wrong this weekend, we will have orange everywhere the next 4 years!</p>