<p>Sorry, but anyone who thinks Princeton students don't go to NYC is just plain wrong. Students go there for dinner, to see Broadway shows, for museum visits, for job interviews and internships -- and the incredible convenience of the latter is a huge plus. </p>
<p>I've spoken to art history grad students who went to MOMA or the Met several times a week to research their JP or senior thesis. No school at this level except Columbia can beat or even match Princeton for easy access to the amazing resources of NYC.</p>
<p>As an MIT student who spends alot of time in Boston (the majority of MIT's frat houses are brownstones sitting in Boston's Back Bay region right on the Charles River), I must say although Harvard is notably close to Boston, most H students don't venture outside their bubble 2 miles down Mass Ave. The option is always there but considering the events I've been to in Boston (mostly college parties, even the occasional movie or stroll through the Common) you don't see any people from Harvard venturing into Boston to mingle with other schools and only see the occasional crimson shirt going down the street. In the article Byerly posted the author spent two years in Cambridge w/o venturing out into the city and I'm sure the sheer amount of work (at Harvard LMAO that's funny, I wish I had their workload) prevented her from jumping on the subway sometimes.....</p>
<p>Anonymous: You said that a main difference between Harvard and Princeton is the people. How would you characterize the differences? I know Princeton, to me, felt much more... upper-class and elitist (although I'm not saying that as a bad thing). On the other hand, when I visited Harvard, I noticed a lot of "unique" people - or, as a friend of mine said, "weird."</p>
<p>Does that mean that Princeton still has some remaining racial, sexual, social class tensions?</p>
<p>I know it appears I'm just generalizing, but to me, these were some things I observed.</p>
<p>ummm...whoever said that 25% of undergraduate classes at Harvard are taught by graduate students got his/her facts wrong. grad students lead sections...but classes (aside from expository writing) are always taught by professors</p>
<p>Personally, I don't feel any elitist tensions at all remaining in Princeton. Perhaps the eating clubs, but I'm not qualified to speak on that. Princeton students feel more down-to-earth and social. Harvard students, don't seem to me as snobby as the stereotype would make you think, but they are definitely more into themselves. The availability of the city in dispersing the student body makes Harvard a bit less rah-rah for each other? Nonetheless there are definitely more "unique" people at Harvard. I call them "eccentric," haha. It's really a matter of personal preference. But these are generalizations. There are wonderful people at both schools. Lemme think of a quick pro for Harvard, just to be fair. Hmmm, I suppose the girls were hot when i visited?</p>
<p>Also there is definitely a difference when you visit as a prospective applicant and an accepted prefrosh at both schools, in terms of how you're looked at and treated.</p>
<p>I was a member of Cap and Gown 30 years ago. At the time, it was the most elite of the eating clubs that allowed women to join. Cottage, Tiger, and Ivy were still all-male. I left after a year because I could not make my peace with being served dinner, with the general tenor of the club. When my daughter and I visited for pre-frosh weekend we went on the club tour. As it turned out, the president of Cap was there and wound up taking us on a tour of Cap and talking to a group of us.</p>
<p>My things have changed. He was the nicest, most unassuming kid. He even talked about the change from the Princeton of old and the extreme privilege.</p>
<p>I understand Ivy may still be elitist. That Cottage may still have some of the old ways. But Princeton has changed enormously over the past 25 years and there is now room for many more sorts of kids. As I told my daughter, it's not about them choosing you. Your job now is to find the group and the community you choose to be part of.</p>
<p>Well that is really good to know. Maybe some of the current students who follow this board could pipe up with the current realities. I know eating clubs are one of the things that get talked about a lot vis-a-vis the Princeton culture.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Despite lingering elitist reputations, Princeton's eating clubs prove more egalitarian than other controversial institutions.
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</p>
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[quote]
The eating clubs are most akin to a combination of final clubs and the housing system at Harvard. Though Princeton has a college system similar to Harvard's house system and Yale's college structure, students are placed in colleges before their first year, not their sophomore campaigns. Also, students most often enter their chosen club with a group of friends. Though the club system may seem highly elitist and pretentious, in actuality, with nearly every upperclassmen enjoying the benefits of a club, it manages to combine the benefits of a final club with a sense of community of Harvard's Houses.
<p>Playfair, Cap was co-ed then. The guys were sort of half College types, half Ivy types, but all of whom wanted to be around girls. The girls, well, the few of us that there were, were some athletes, some extremely pretty girls, some just friends of these two groups, almost all WASPs. They picked us by showing our pictures on the wall with a projector, as I saw when I participated in Bicker from the other side my junior year. One of the reasons I quit, actually, and became and independent and lived in Spelman senior year.</p>
<p>Once a hippie, always a hippie, even during a brief period of wearing crewneck Shetland wool sweaters...</p>
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<p>Reputations don't always keep up with reality.<<</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>Exactly. Princeton's snotty eating clubs is one case of this. Harvard's no-undergraduate-focus/classes-taught-by-TAs is another.</p>
<p>Actually, I've never quite understood what the big issue was with the eating clubs. Why are some people so Concerned about eating clubs? Even if they are as bad as the worst that is said about them, so what? They can't be any more elite or exclusive than a frat, and nobody comes unglued over the presence of frats on any given campus. Can anybody explain to me what the big issue is over eating clubs? I just don't see it.</p>
<p>Coureur, I think some hs students come to campus and fear that they won't have a table where they can eat their meals as upperclassmen without first winning a popularity contest. The idea of going to college is scary enough, but that really worries them. In reality, people tend to congregate in eating clubs where their friends are. And they tend to like doing that!</p>