Princeton/Cambridge Dilemma, need help

Colleges & Universities A-Z Princeton University
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<p>So I have a conditional offer from Cambridge for Mathematics and also got into Princeton.</p>

<p>Technically though, a student is not supposed to hold offers from two schools after May 1st. However, in the UK, they have an insurance school should you fail to meet your conditional offer.</p>

<p>So I took my STEP exams, but am unsure whether or not I made the score I needed. If I did not get a 1,1, on STEP I,II, then I'll simply go to Princeton and then continue on with my life. No problem. If I do get the score I need, then I'll probably go to Cambridge. I didn't feel the need to tell Princeton that because I would probably lose my admission offer for doing that.</p>

<p>However, STEP results aren't released until August 19th, and a lot of Princeton matriculation forms, the bill and housing contract are due way before that (end of July/early August).</p>

<p>According to the housing contract, if I terminate it early, I pay a fine of $1000. Yet, if I don't sign it, I won't get housing. So now, it's like a gamble. I know a few students who were waiting on IB results in order to go to Cambridge over HPYSM, but for me, August 19th is extremely late...</p>

<p>So what should I do? I thought about emailing Princeton and asking them about what I should do in this situation, but then I realized if I were the admission staff, I would be very mad at a student holding two offers. At the same time, it's not really my fault, as my top choice is Cambridge, and I am waiting for my STEP results, yet at the same time, I do not want to be without a school should I fail to meet that offer.</p>

<p>Should I contact Cambridge and ask what to do in my situation? I am leaning towards signing the Princeton housing contract and just paying the $1000 fee if I do make my STEP offer...</p>

<p>But with the bill for the first year coming up, I do not know what to do. I suppose I need some way to stall until August 19th perhaps?</p>

<p>Your help is greatly appreciated as I am in a state of mental wreck right now.</p>

2

<p>You should go to Princeton since we’re awesome. All kidding aside, I think you should contact Cambridge before Princeton, considering the fact that you have two offers and you’re probably right, admissions probably won’t be too happy about that. You don’t really want to screw yourself over regarding Princeton since P’ton is a solid offer while Cambridge is still conditional…</p>

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<p>As someone who is from the UK currently myself, why on earth your considering coming to Cambridge (given the state of its affairs alongside Oxford and the general higher education system in the country) over an Ivy like Princeton, is beyond me. </p>

<p>Princeton would VERY easily be my first choice in your dilemma, but you should contact Cambridge if you have your heart set on it regarding the circumstances, they’ll understand as your an international student and thus things work differently to the UK UCAS schedule.</p>

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<p>^what’s so bad about Cambridge? If you know you wanna do math, a focused Cambridge education is pretty solid.</p>

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<p>Would Cambridge care that you’re holding two offers or just Princeton?
If Cambridge doesn’t care then contact them explaining your situation and hopefully they could expedite the results of your tests.</p>

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<p>Assuming Cambridge can’t help you, I would NOT contact Princeton. Send in the matriculation forms but don’t write a check. Princeton won’t rescind your admission for not paying on time – they’ll probably just send you a stern email saying you won’t be able to register for classes until you pay. That’ll probably give you enough time to wait on your STEP results.</p>

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<p>To be honest, you could be screwed to the point where you will end up in your local community college because of your dishonesty. An option to get out of this is to fail your STEP on purpose and go to Princeton. However, if you REALLY prefer Cambridge A LOT, then you could try the tactics mentioned by the previous posts. Be warned that Princeton may see through them and you will be in a lot of trouble!!</p>

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<p>starry, what is happening over at Cambridge and Oxford that is negative?</p>

<p>

</p>

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<p>If op is indeed interested in Math, it would be a big mistake to pass up the opportunity to study in Princeton. University of Cambridge is a fine school, but it is way over-hyped and over-rated by British media. In fact, in every category of hard sciences, it lags behind major US research universities in terms of output and impact. Here is the example of math and applied math in output and imapct of papers from Princeton vs Cambridge in the last 5 years:</p>

<p>Univ Cambridge: Math papers=260, Applied math papers=183, citations/year=141, H-index=10, citations/papers=1.77</p>

<p>Princeton Univ: Math papers=479, Applied math papers=271, citations/year=462, H-index=21, citations/papers=3.53</p>

<p>Cambridge not only produced less papers, but also produced less overall impact or impact per paper. For those not familiar with H-index, it is a measure of the number of highly cited papers. If one were to rank Cambridge among US univsersities in math output and impact, it will be in high teens, while Princeton will be #2 in output (behind MIT) and #1 in impact. In other hard science areas such as chemistry, physics and biology, Cambridge is also quite behind major US universities such as UCB, MIT, Stanford, Harvard etc.</p>

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<p>There is no dilemma here. The top papers of Cambridge are in the mid-pact of Princeton’s according to Reuter-Thomson data. It is a slam dunk.</p>

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<p>Shameless bump</p>

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<p>Derivate why bump it?</p>

<p>The posters of CC have decided that it is Princeton for you.</p>

<p>welcome to the club!</p>

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<p>Derivate,</p>

<p>You may run into problems getting a Visa if your acceptance comes too late. This happened to a friend of mine last year and she wound up having to take a Gap year in order to study in the UK.</p>

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<p>For what their worth, here are the impressions of Princeton University by one of its grad students who did his undergrad at Cambridge. This is from the March 3rd, 2010 issue of the Daily Princetonian, in The Prox section:</p>

<p>Orange and Apples: Cambridge</p>

<p>With midterms coming up you might be ready to run away to another country. In that case, how does time in the United Kingdom sound? David Sayers, a graduate student in Near Eastern Studies and former undergraduate at Cambridge University, compares the two institutions</p>

<hr>

<p>Cambridge and Princeton have a lot of superficial similarities. They’re both underdog rivals to better-known institutions: one of them to Oxford, the other to Harvard. They’ve both got gothic architecture: one of them real, the other fake. They’ve both got chapels: one of them the largest in the world, the other the second-largest. They’ve both got collegiate systems: one of them evolved over the centuries, the other instituted by fiat to rival unsavory dining establishments. You catch my drift. It’s hard to come from Cambridge to Princeton for the first time and see more than a pale imitation of the former place in the latter. If you happen to spend some time in both places, however, that first impression quickly evaporates.</p>

<p>Perhaps the greatest single difference between Cambridge and Princeton lies in the relationship between university and town. In Cambridge, the university is the undeniable core of the town. It occupies the center, all roads lead to it, and much of the town caters to it and its students in the form of shops, pubs, clubs and even the kebab vans that pull up on market square at three in the morning to feed ravenous partygoers. The centrality of the university also breeds its own animosity, however: the famous hatred between town and gown, courtesy of which, again at three in the morning, I received the first proper beating of my life at the hands of a group of townies whom, in my freshman innocence, I had dared to ask which college they attended.</p>

<p>Such a thing would never happen in Princeton, not because the relationship between town and university is so good, but simply because there is none. Only the Communiversity fair brings town and gown together — oh, I don’t know, every term? every year? — across the otherwise stygian divide that is Nassau Street. It’s not so much that you can’t cross Nassau Street as a student, but that once you’re over there, there’s simply nothing there for you. Sure, there is the Princeton Record Exchange, the biggest secondhand music store on the entire East Coast. But if you’re looking for an affordable place to drink with your friends, a clothing store that has anything other than what a 50-something WASP U.S. suburbanite might want to wear or, God forbid, a club, I wish you better luck than I’ve had.</p>

<p>I won’t even try to compare the two places in terms of academic excellence. If you’re lucky enough to be in a position to choose between two institutions like Cambridge and Princeton, it really comes down to apples and oranges. What you should ask yourself is what kind of environment would suit your character and goals better. Cambridge is diverse but distracting. During my time there I performed in plays, edited a newspaper, got kicked out of bars — and had an average grade to show for it. That didn’t stop me from getting into Princeton, a place that is introspective but inbred. Here, I can’t wait to escape to New York on the weekends, but academically, I’ve never done better. And who knows what that might get you into?</p>

<p>If you’re a former Tiger who is now pursuing graduate studies elsewhere or a Princeton grad student who attended undergrad outside the Orange Bubble and would like to contribute a comparison send an email to <a href="mailto:blog@dailyprincetonian.com">blog@dailyprincetonian.com</a>.
Posted by Daily Princetonian Web Staff at 1:20 PM<br>
Labels: Earning Your Stripes, Orange and Apples </p>

<p>1 comments:
Andrew Stella said…
Just a few things, courtesy of Orange Key. Cambridge does not have the largest chapel in the world, it has the largest <em>college</em> chapel in the world. Also, since 1959, Princeton’s is #3 behind Valparaiso University.</p>

<p>March 3, 2010 4:12 PM<br>
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<p>Your problem is</p>

<p>Cambridge does not care how many offers from how many other universities you hold.</p>

<p>However, Cambridge also can’t do anything about when your STEP results come out. I am not sure who marks the STEP papers? Find out (it might be Cambridge examining board or something) and call then to see if they can mark your papers early (I have NO IDEA if this has any chance of working, but perhaps it’s worth a try).</p>

<p>I don’t think Princeton has any powers to stop you holding an offer from an overseas university. </p>

<p>I think that article posted above about getting a beating is extremely bizarre. if this did indeed happen then it is extremely unusual as Cambridge is a very safe place with a low crime rate. I also don’t think there are big town-gown issues. It’s more like students live in their own bubble in the city centre and don’t meet anyone from the town, other than the college staff (who generally are lovely). Cambridge is a small, quiet, sweet little historical town. I can’t help thinking the person who wrote that article must have done something more to incite the reported fight, or was very very unlucky.</p>

<p>In the UK you will study only Math and nothing more. If that appeals to you, you should choose Cambridge. If there is any chance you may change your mind about Math, choose Princeton.</p>

<p>You main issue seems to be money. ie if you pay a deposit at Princeton you’ll lose this money should you choose Cambridge. If money is an issue DEFINITELY choose Princeton. The UK is extremely expensive for overseas students in tuition fees, and you also have to take into account the cost of airplane travel home and the high cost of living in the UK.</p>