<p>All the recent communications from Princeton--about binge drinking, frats, and the huge section in the Daily Princetonian about eating clubs--just make the place sound like it is awash in drunken tools trying to get accepted into various organizations that I think I would just hate. Please tell me that my intellectual son is going to feel at home there, be excited about the academic possibilities, and will find some kindred spirits to spend time with. I am really starting to get scared.</p>
<p>You should go see UC Santa Barbara.</p>
<p>its true haha, the newspaper made it look like fratastic</p>
<p>Princeton is overflowing with creative, charismatic, witty, and intellectually-gifted kids. Certainly not all of them are like that, at Princeton or anywhere. But your son will be able to find his element.</p>
<p>eurekanow- even the most intellectual high schooler is going to participate in the freedoms of college life. Hopefully you have taught him the advantages of moderation. All those binge drinkers, frats, and eating club students you have been reading about are (or were) bright, academically talented students.</p>
<p>Don’t worry, as a current bicker club member who goes out at least twice a week, I can assure you that we’re not nearly as drunk and fratty as the Daily Princetonian makes us out to be. Your son will have tons of “intellectually curious” folk to bond with.</p>
<p>There are a lot of tools though. It’s seriously insufferable sometimes, but I guess that’s just what happens when you take over a thousand overachievers and try to make them all feel mediocre and undistinguished for the first time in their lives.</p>
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Your son will die here. Send him to ASU.</p>
<p>The Prince definitely overemphasizes the Street culture in their prefrosh issue, to the detriment of everything else (i.e. academics). There are plenty of people on campus for whom the Street isn’t their social center. Don’t worry, when your son gets here he’ll find the people he resonates with.</p>
<p>And the literature sent out by the Admissions office overemphasizes all the academics and extracurricular opportunities, without mentioning social events. With their powers combined…</p>
<p>Grains of salt, people.</p>
<p>It’s very odd, the degree to which the current administration is waging war on campus culture. This year, the Prince is on their side. Some years they are not. Many kids go to the clubs, including, by the way, some of the intellectual kids. The clubs are all on Prospect Street, so if you never want to see that environment you don’t have to. Princeton IS more “fratty” than Yale, Harvard and Columbia. Less so than Dartmouth and Penn. Princeton is also a lot of fun. It’s a unique combination of comp sci geniuses and social mavens that supports people like Jeff Bezos, head of Amazon. </p>
<p>A very pronounced majority of Princetonians love it like no other Ivy League university. One has to wonder why.</p>
<p>I found Princeton to be very vibrant intellectually. Princeton students definitely like a good party, but even out at the street you’ll find people having good conversations about interesting things. Princeton’s famous independent work requirements (students have to conduct their own research in close contact with professors and scholars) affect campus culture very positively, I think, in that students begin to take their own ideas seriously and even more importantly, professors treat undergraduates like serious thinkers. I think your intellectual son will thrive in an environment like Princeton’s where students are empowered in this way.</p>