Some Questions

<p>I visited Princeton today and it is absolutely beautiful. It is a reach school for me, but it's not way out of my league. My GPA is 95.5/100 and SAT 2280, with some leadership positions. Anyways, I plan on applying through Questbridge and would like some opinions about the following questions before I decide how to rank Princeton.</p>

<p>How are the computer science, molecular biology, and economics majors at Princeton? If I were to go there, those are probably the majors I would pick from, in that order. For Computer Science, would it be better to get a B.A. in that or a B.S.E?</p>

<p>How are the grades? I read somewhere yesterday on CC (on some old threads) that Princeton has grade deflation? Is it really serious? </p>

<p>The stores surrounding Princeton are expensive! Is that ever a problem for any low-income students? </p>

<p>And are the dorms nice? The outer stone walls look pretty clean (like recently renovated or something, so is that the case?).</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>I attended the info session and the tour.</p>

<p>Sorry, I don’t have time to reply in detail to your entire post right now, but I just wanted to assure you that you will feel completely welcome at Princeton as a low-income student. I applied through Questbridge as well (though that year Princeton wasn’t in college match, complicated story) and it was a great decision to do so. </p>

<p>The surrounding area is expensive, but I think the beautiful town is more a benefit than a consideration. Princeton University is a very insular community, so everything we do is mostly on campus. The only reason to go out to Nassau Street is to celebrate a birthday, or treat yourself to ice cream. </p>

<p>Also, Princeton’s financial aid is extremely generous. As a 0 EFC student, I’ve actually had credit in my student account which I can then use towards purchasing books and covering occasional social expenses. </p>

<p>Granted, there are times when you’ll have to explain to people your financial situation (for example, when discussing with roommates your common room furniture options), but people are terrifically accepting of financial constraints and there won’t be any social stigma attached. After all, a good portion of the Princeton student body is on financial aid, and when everyone’s wearing a Princeton hoodie anyway, you really can’t tell the fifth generation legacy student apart from the low-income student.</p>