<p>No, there is a system in place to combat grade-inflation. The system puts caps on how many students in each course can get an "A," essentially making it harder to get high grades. At yale and harvard, conversely, there is no such system. Hence, it is easier to get high grades at yale and harvard. Some of the criticism of the system stems from the argument that it will be harder for Princeton graduates to get jobs because their deflated grades won't look as good as Harvard and Yale's inflated grades.</p>
<p>but isn't it true that, despite the grade-deflation, job placement/grad school admission rates for Princeton graduates haven't really changed?</p>
<p>I'm not sure. I do know, however, that many students are concerned that employers will favor Harvard and Yale students because H and Y students' grades seem to be higher. An "A" from Harvard, although comparable to a lower grade from Princeton, looks better to prospective employers than the Princeton grade.</p>
<p>Well, I never intended to argue with anyone about the social scene at Princeton, I was just sharing my current feelings. I do hope that in a year it'll be like some of you said, and I will be feeling entirely different.</p>
<p>As for grade deflation, I haven't felt any of that thus far. It's definitely difficult enough to get an A based on just our performances, I've never had to think about my grade lowering. But I've been in large classes so far so maybe that's just the case there.</p>
<p>IAmNobody - Your statements are valuable.</p>
<p>sorry... this reply is probably a bit late in response to what other people have been saying</p>
<p>1of42, i completely agree with you that the preppiness is more of a funny dress code thing. I think on those occasions you see kids in embroidered pants/collar popping, it's definitely out of humor. then again, there is a significant contingent of students that dress in button down shirts and khakis, and for that reason, I do think that there are some "serious" preps. </p>
<p>The grade deflation thing probably tends to vary within departments, though I really am uncertain about that (tell me if I'm wrong). My sister is in the engineering department and she feels a lot of grade deflation. Her friend is in psychology and gets A's with ease. The thing I would say is that when you're at a place with such brilliant students and a system to combat grade inflation, it's hard to be at the top of the curve for a fair number of people, so you feel grade deflation weighng down a bit more. </p>
<p>As for clubs and exclusivity, my point earlier in the thread was that the simple notion that you have to bicker to get into certain clubs does present a slight amount of exclusivity. I know that a family friend was not accepted to Ivy and felt isolated because so much of her social clique was based in Ivy Club. The point is that to some, bickering presents one more hurtle you have to bypass to get what you want. But one poster makes a good point that in a sense, eating clubs are relatively inexclusive in that you know where social life is and you know where to go, and often times, it's not difficult getting in a party.</p>
<p>Bump. So apparently, Princeton elitism is very real.</p>
<p>rachael505...
Did you read the thread?</p>
<p>In fact, from a thread in the parent's forum, it appears that Princeton has significantly more kids getting financial aid than say, Yale. Either Princeton is way more generous than Yale or Princeton has fewer kids from wealthy families. So, elitist?</p>
<p>"So the actual percentages of students receiving no need based grants at big endowment Us are:</p>
<p>MIT 40.3%
CalTech 40.85%
Harvard 49.37%
Princeton 49.98%
Dartmouth 50.13%
Columbia 51.01%
Chicago 53.01%
Stanford 56.38%
Yale 57.59%
Brown 58.46%
Cornell 61.72%
Penn 62%
Duke 62.09%"</p>
<p>13</a> Princeton students taken to hospital | AP | 02/09/2009</p>
<p>It's better than a couple of years ago, when students were found eating their own vomit. (The Newark Star-Ledger link to the story is down, or I would provide it.)</p>
<p>(My d. is graduate at Princeton.)</p>
<p>Princeton has centralized, public places for drinking with understood procedures for handling people who drink to the point they are unresponsive. One reason the public numbers are high. Appalling none the less. None dead yet, unlike MIT. But the procedures in place have not reduced the behavior. Have they provided a safety net that acts to promote drinking? I don't know how to tease that out. But my hunch is that they have.
My daughter just joined an eating club and this stuff is just about the expectation.</p>
<p>mini...off topic, but are you saying that your daughter is a graduate OF Princeton?
Or is she a graduate student?
Or is she employed there?
This just gets to how close to the Princeton experience she is, and how privy she may be to this stuff.
An additional degree of separation we both have is that we are parents off site.
Back to drinking. In many ways the Princeton environment is ideal to promote drinking. Not only do you have the well-trained gentle safety net of the helping professions. You also do not rely on vehicles for transportation back to your room. Nobody from the 'hood is around to bop you on the head as you stumble back to your dorm. Nor are you likely to be run over at an intersection in bucolic Princeton at 4:00 AM staggering home. A perfect incubator for irresponsible drinking.<br>
I'm not saying that Princeton is worse than most of its peers. But it's right in there with those that have an active social life.</p>
<p>Regarding post # 29, % students receiving no need-based grants:</p>
<p>it may be appropriate to bear in mind that 20% of Cornell undergraduates, nearly 3,000 students, are New York State residents attending its state-contract colleges. As such they pay deeply-discounted tuition, an effective subsidy of over $15,000 per year. If you treat this subsidy as fully equivalent to a grant, then a quite different profile emerges, I imagine.</p>
<p>No Princeton content, well ok: </p>
<p>I dislike that we never seem to get put on the alumni function mailing lists, anyplace we've lived. Maybe grad school alums are viewed as different? Unless they simply don't have anything going on; which seems unlikely.</p>
<p>Dislikes:
Eating (drinking) clubs as focus of social life.
academic calender for fall term
residential college system a sham (at least compared to Yale)</p>
<p>The residential college system is indeed sham, compared to Yale.
But we have a natural experiment here. Most Princeton students are in an assigned residential college (like Yale) for two years, and then have the eating club experience for two years.
Most Princeton students will identify with their eating club experience over their residential college experience. Certainly it is the experience they have some power over. Meet an alum many years later? Hey, we were both in Silliman (Yale)! What a coincidence! We were both in Ivy (Princeton)! More than a coincidence, with a much deeper identification.
I don't see how powerlessness breeds identification.</p>
<p>
[quote]
academic calender for fall term
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Someone claimed on another thread that this is changing next year (2009-2010). I heard Harvard changed and Princeton is the only Ivy left with January exams. Anyone here about a possible change?</p>
<p>"Or is she a graduate student?"</p>
<p>Graduate student and praeceptor.</p>
<p>pssht, just read Michelle Obama's thesis and you'll know what sucks about princeton (from a minorities perspective). that said...it's still an AMAAAAAAZING school, and I know if i graduate from there, I will be set. :P</p>
<p>As someone familiar with the Southside of Chicago, whose kids once attended Chicago Public Schools on the Southside, and who now lives two blocks from the Obama's Chicago home, I can comment on that.
I can see how Michelle could have felt like a stranger in a strange land. It is very possible on the Southside not to carry on a conversation with a white person for months on end. For a child, some school personnel would be white, but the numbers there have decreased steadily. Without sliding into the political, the Rev. Wright is considered a mainstream success on the Southside. A wealthy man in a wealthy, connected church.
The point I am trying to make is that the environment she grew up in is as untypical of the world most Americans know as is Princeton's.
As a postscript, I noticed that Craig Robinson wore a Princeton tie at the inaugural. I know him personally and he has a very positive identification with Princeton. I don't know Michelle the same way.</p>
<p>Princeton is also a very different place today. It has been over twenty years since Michelle Obama graduated.</p>