<p>Ok. So I just sent in my slip to Princeton, with a little check in the "count me in" box.</p>
<p>I was completely torn between here or Brown, and am extraordinary talented in both the indecision and procrastination fields (read: sent the slip in today, final decision deadline=tomorrow). In the "big picture", Princeton was the better fit for me, but I've got some ?s regarding student life at my future home.</p>
<p>I'm a pretty laid back gal. I enjoy low-key kinda stuff, but am up to a good party every now and again. (which seems more Brown). And, though on this website it seems that "preppy" has acquired some negative connotations, I'd say I fit that bill for the mostpart. I've got some sundresses in my back closet and what not. (which seems more Princeton i guess)</p>
<p>Right, so the question. I'm not looking to have the eating club thing explained to me, I think I know enough of what I need to. What I do want to know is if there is a large laidback culture at Princeton too. You know, those wholike meenjoy a relaxed, chill evening sometimes in lieu of a crazy one. I mean, when I visited, it seemed to me that there was.. but stuff like that is hard to guage from an overnight.</p>
<p>You know, you're right. I guess I was being a little vague there. Relaxed evening as in.. dinner/movie with friends, quaint coffee shop dates, dorm room get-togethers..maybe a little midnight four square if the weather permits.</p>
<p>Four square I haven't heard about:). Perhaps you can start it. Or ask the kids on the Princeton 2010 board?</p>
<p>However, for example, it is common to decide at 11pm that if one is lonely one wanders over to some friends' room and hangs out and does homework there. People also wander up to Nassau street and eat dinner at Panera. Sometimes two friends at a time, sometimes the group expands to eight.</p>
<p>Movies - yes, but almost more common is deciding to go see one of the student shows, a play, a dance show, with one or two other people. Then maybe you go on to the Street, maybe only some of you do while others call it a night.</p>
<p>It's also true that the various activities, debate, community service, newspaper, teams, all have their own hangout nights in one way or another.</p>
<p>My D calls Princeton "Communiversity", because community life is so easy to find. The comparative safety and small/unified nature of the campus means that you can find people, in whatever quantities you want, at almost any time of day or night.</p>
<p>Wow alumother, you are wonderful. Thank you for providing such thorough (and refreshing!) input. It's always nice to hear reviews like this from the pleased parents of pleased students. (Shall i used 'pleased' one more time?)</p>
<p>Never heard of four square? Oh, it's a wonderful game. Grew up playing it at the poolall one needs are 4 big blocks of cement and a large bouncing ball. I'll leave it at that. :)</p>
<p>Coffee shop dates, definitely. Also a few girls and/or guys watching a dvd in a dorm room. And yes to dinner and a movie. Actually, the movie theater on Nassau St. is owned by the university; it tends to have slightly more highbrow movies, though I wouldn't call them art films for the most part (the latter are shown at various on-campus venues) and it is cheaper than most movie theaters to students with an ID.</p>
<p>Indeed, I chose Princeton because I visited the campus (not during the "official" visiting weekend, but another time) and found it to be more laid-back than Harvard and Yale. Both of those seemed rather high-strung, and Princeton was more fun and easy-going.</p>
<p>I'd agree that I lean a little to the "preppy" side myself. I have lots of jeans and sweatshirts, but I also don't see anything wrong with dressing respectably.</p>
<p>So I definitely look forward to meeting you in the class of 2010 (and all the other 1,220 of us).</p>
<p>You know, Zooey, adam, you sound like exact Princeton students to me. Articulate, highly intelligent, but prepared to enjoy life and other human beings and the social web that humans like to create. Go 2010. Here's to 2035, when you will both return for your 25th Reunion and wear really really goofy jackets with tigers on them - no matter how cool you are or how much of the rest of your life you spend dressed in black:).</p>
<p>Being OK with looking preppy is completely different than being a complacent, non-examining person. One of the things you will learn at Princeton if you haven't learned it yet is the value of precisely defined terms.</p>
<p>Yechk! At least Alu is on the same page as Byerly and myself!</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Looks like you'll have a great time Zooey (and I'm kind of hoping you do, as many of my personality traits coincide with yours within a half-degree or so, and I'm hoping to become a part of class '11 :)) Enjoy!</p>
<p>I believe Oscar Wilde would take you up on that one. I would provide a quote, but I am not sophisticated enough.</p>
<p>Sarcasm and snide remarks aside, it is still true. Princeton's undergraduate experience seems to very much be based on this small inclusive feeling, something. It is, in a sense, a summer camp. However, this very experience is something that many people enjoy and want in college, and for them it is perfect. Princeton seems to be a much better match for ZooeyO 33 than Penn or Columbia would ever be, as they havre radically opposite undergraduate experiences.</p>
<p>Only in America is a tightly knit community called a summer camp. In other societies they call it life! In fact, when I am visiting Princeton and walking past the collegiate Gothic buildings toward the chapel on a Sunday morning as the bells are ringing, I feel as though I am in an old European village..one whose residents are very, very smart and deeply involved with fascinating things all over the globe.</p>
<p>Come up with all the cutesy metaphors you want, but ironically enough, it is these "snide" remarks (as they have been labeled) that are making Princeton seem all the more endearing. And my decision, the right one. Afterall, there's a considerable rate of customer satisfaction at those summer camps.. am I right?</p>
<p>Cutie--I am willing/able to make name accomodations (boxball? i like it). I saw many a fine arena to play on my visit, so get pumped.</p>
<p>Adam-- look forward to meeting you also!</p>
<p>Windslicer-- good luck! If you have any questions about the admissions process, I'd be happy to share my own experiences. Best bit of advice: relax and never worry about what you can't control. At any rate, hope it all works out and that we end up on the same campus in a few years. I'll be the one playing "boxball" :) </p>
<p>and to the rest of us future/former "princetonians"-- peace, love, and orange.</p>
<p>You are exactly proving my point ZooeyO. For some people, princeton is the perfect place to be. For others, who crave a bit more independence, other schools are a better fit.</p>
<p>my point was not to prove points. but i think the one that you're making is in no way confined to princeton. it is a truism that can apply to college X, Y, and Z. no one school is the perfect fit for everybody. it's all about finding the right one.</p>
<p>and im not sure this is so much a matter of independence. i narrowed down my decision between here and brown, afterall.. and brown is about as independent as it comes. sure, it depends on what kind of "freedom" you're defining, and you can certainly pick and chose different elements of it at each place. but if the extent or degree of this freedom were so drastically different between the two, and if princeton were a place that smothered such a thing (which is, admittedly, an over-exaggerated rewording of what you impliedim not trying to put words in your mouth that don't belong there).. then i'm not so sure my decision-making process would have gone the way it did.</p>