What's bad about Princeton University?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

The most recent thread I found regarding “negative points” about attending Princeton was from 2008. Considering that much must have changed since then, I decided to start a new thread.

Current Princeton students, alumni, applicants or other enthusiastic fellow CC’ers:

Is there anything bad at all about Princeton?

2

My impression of Princeton is that it’s even stuffier and preppier than some of the other Ivies.The whole eating club think seems mid-Victorian to me. But I’ve never spent much time there so I don’t really know. It was good enough for Michelle Obama and Sonia Sotomayor.

3

You’d have to look really hard to find faults with Princeton, but here are a few minor ones:

  • Eating clubs and general "snooty" stereotype
  • Less lay prestige than Harvard and Yale
  • Grade deflation policy, which although it has been recently repealed, will probably take some time for letter grades and GPAs to settle back to "normal"
  • Weaker engineering than MIT and Stanford
  • Boring suburban location (relative to Harvard, MIT, Columbia, Penn, etc.)
4

“It was good enough for Michelle Obama”

But not good enough for Malia Obama.

5

It was good enough for John Nash, Alan Turing, Jeff Bezos…

@goldenbear2020 wouldn’t grade deflation be sort of indifferent in the long term? Sure, with such policy students were discouraged from taking risks on their course selection, and many admits chose other schools in front of their fear of not getting good grades. In the long term, however, things change a bit. If it is hard to earn good grades at Princeton, a high GPA is highly valued when compared to a high GPA from a school with, say, grade inflation. And now that many departments decided to keep with the 35% of A’s policy, grade deflation still exists, but not officially – and only the Princeton seems to know that.

6

Yes… just because someone famous graduated from there does not mean they would choose it all over again.

7

Sure, a 3.5 from Princeton will look better than a 3.5 from Harvard/Yale (at least if the employer/grad school has heard of the grade deflation policy; at worst they’ll be treated equally). But maybe that 3.5 Princeton student could have gotten a 3.6-3.7 at H/Y. That’s a significant difference for grad schools, especially med/law which are very numbers-oriented.

8

"So you go to Princeton?

What would your GPA be
if you went to Harvard?"

http://gradedeflation.com

HAHAHA

9

@intparent EXACTLY. This whole idea of “good enough for person XYZ” is pointless. Schools are different and change throughout time; people are different; opportunities are different.

10

I would say that Princeton and Yale are pretty much tied for prestige, but maybe that’s just me.

11

Simply put: Princeton is much harder.

12

Location.

13

I think the junior papers and thesis might turn off some students.

14

On the flip side, the research experience can be a boon to students applying to grad studies with funded research positions.

15

Current Undergrad:

  1. The social scene isn't for everyone, but I've found that most people here are very nice, and that there's always something for everyone.
  2. The town is cute, but by no means exciting.
  3. NJ weather is extraordinarily fickle.
  4. Like what everyone else has said, grade deflation isn't too bad for jobs, but take it into consideration if considering med/law school. It's supposedly not a policy anymore, but a lot of STEM classes still curve pretty harshly.