<p>Ok I know that the HYPS schools are some of the most prestigious schools in the entire world and that most of the most hard-working, dedicated, intelligent people attend these schools to receive some of the best education in the nation and world blah blah blah. </p>
<p>The thing is I keep hearing from my friends that they read or heard from people with college friends that Princeton seems to have this reputation of being by far the toughest school among the Ivys with the most rigorous course work, biggest competition, and stuff like that. </p>
<p>I like Princeton because of two things: 1) its education system (which can go for all the other Ivys and top state universities) and 2) the architectural asethetics are quite appealing. But hearing this forces me to take a double-take.</p>
<p>What do you think?
You might not have personal experience but if you've read something on the matters of college life in the Ivys your advise will still be appreciated.
Thank you!</p>
<p>In my experience, Princeton is as hard as you make it. If you choose to take hard classes or take more than the standard courseload, getting through all the academic work can be extremely difficult. However, if you want to design a curriculum with a fairly low overall difficulty, it can be done. I’m sure this is the case at all top schools. </p>
<p>Things that might contribute to the perception of Princeton as the toughest school include the following: mandatory independent work junior year plus the senior thesis (some engineers have less demanding independent work requirements); the existence of Dean’s Date, the day before exams start, when all written work for the semester is due; grade deflation, which a lot of people complain about even though we’re not exactly sure what effects it has, if any; the short semester, which forces professors to teach all the material in twelve weeks of classes. Princeton attempts to mitigate some of the components of academic stress with countermeasures including a full week off after midterms each semester, a nine-day reading period before exams (as opposed to two days at UChicago, for example), spreading out final exams so that no student has to take two exams in one day, and an increasingly generous pass/D/fail policy.</p>
<p>I really can’t compare Princeton to the other Ivies, since I’ve only been to Princeton. ;)</p>
<p>You can have a great work/life balance at Princeton; you just have to plan, and maybe get a little lucky. Personally, last semester I managed ~8 hours of sleep per night, plenty of time for friends, a campus job, and five classes. (Most people take 4 or 5 per semester.) But you have to pick your classes wisely – if all five of your classes are assigning weekly homework due on Wednesday, that’s going to be a problem.</p>
<p>FightTheTide already hit many of the aspects that can make Princeton’s academic schedule difficult. For me, the toughest parts academically were 1) learning to study and 2) taking time-consuming, hard courses in subjects that I was bad at. Number two is mostly because I’m an engineer – I really sucked at intro physics and it dominated my freshman year. As a sophomore I learned to create more balanced schedules filled with challenging courses AND easier courses that I actually liked.</p>
<p>I don’t think that Princeton is probably all that more difficult than its peer schools. Maybe a little more difficult than some, but…meh. It depends very much on what classes you’re taking, how much you’re doing for independent work, etc.</p>
<p>Also, I have NEVER experienced negative competition amongst students here. All competition that I’ve experienced has been of the constructive, I-want-to-do-well-for-myself sort of thing, and even in classes whose grades were totally curve-based (physics, math – gotta beat half the class to get a B+, or whatever) people form study groups and help each other out all the time.</p>
So, physics…doesn’t have to be my thing.</p>