<p>My child, a quiet person with wide interests from a middle middle-class family, has loved Princeton and has met very, very few people one could call snobby. I think that snobby notion is vestigial, left over from the days when eating clubs had a bigger role in school life. But, as with ANY college, there are imperfections. Two that come to mind: While eating clubs no longer dominate, the Street is indisputably where most mass gatherings happen (and any kid can participate, underage or not, club member or not) and the culture of those parties involves lots of drinking. Not sure how that’s terrifically different from any college, of course. The other is a weirder problem - many of the freshmen live in quaint quads in gorgeous buildings; the rooms I’ve seen aren’t on the long halls many of us remember from college days of yore. That seems minor, but the effect is that freshman don’t always have the serendipitous chance to meet people by wandering down the hall, seeing an open door, stopping in to say hi etc etc. The very charming quad set up can be isolating. PU’s college works on social events, but because it’s planned, arranged (fun, too) it doesn’t really tackle that loss of a casual way of meeting people. It took my child a while to find friends outside roommates. But it did happen, and said child now adores the school.
One perspective.</p>