<p>But I have spent lots of time at Princeton, and I can assure you that the concentration of pretentious people is no different than anywhere else. There are a few, but I encountered just as many snobbish people at Harvard in the three day prefrosh as I have at Princeton in two semesters, so…</p>
<p>My view of legacy acceptances is a bit conflicted… I know a few people who were accepted at places where they had legacy. One of them was eminently deserving, and would likely have gotten in even without legacy (she had legacy and was accepted to Harvard, but she was also accepted to UChcago, MIT, and Yale). Another is capable, but probably more along the lines of lower Ivys (she had double legacy and was accepted to Princeton, also accepted to Cornell, waitlisted at Dartmouth and Duke). But nobody was COMPLETELY undeserving. The less deserving ones will quickly realize that they aren’t as amazing as they thought (I’m positive this will happen for the second friend I described) and they will work harder. So I don’t think the legacy thing is a big deal.</p>
<p>It is human nature to want to knock down the top dog. Princeton and Harvard are at the top of the academic world with targets on their backs. It is logical they become the main targets.</p>
<p>Also, I have seen predictable characteristics on countless sports boards that apply here to CC. All it takes is one confrontational person who posts frequently to evoke an avalanche of negative reprisals. Things quickly deteriorate into a contest of insults. </p>
<p>Along those same lines is a volatile situation where you have many posters with an attitude of “my school is better than your school”. All it takes is one perceived slight toward one’s school to start the bickering. The result is twenty posts of mindless bickering for every one post filled with valuable information. I try to focus on the signal and filter out the noise.</p>
<p>I have gone to countless conferences where the attendees are alumni from Ivy League schools. I never detected any rivalries or disrespect. I certainly never heard anyone “bagging” on someone because they went to a different school. Don’t take the nonsense you read on CC too seriously. I sure don’t.</p>
<p>I can see why Harvard takes a lot of flak, as it’s unquestionably the most prestigious in the public eye (and therefore the coolest for “in the know” people to make fun of). But Princeton? I feel like Harvard and Yale have higher name recognition than Princeton. My dad thought Princeton was more on par with Columbia or Brown until he started doing his research. Stanford, Yale, MIT, totally beloved. But Princeton not so much.</p>
<p>And I’d have to disagree with RTGrove. It seemed to me that Harvard and Yale were much less numbers oriented than Stanford.</p>
<p>^how is what he’s saying deprecating? he’s only saying that Princeton is not totally loved and that Harvard and Yale are more prestigious in the public eye.</p>
<p>I find it odd that a future student would remark that even his/her parents thought little of the future school.
I’m going to Yale, and I would never type anything about Yale along the lines of something that christian soldier wrote in post #23 about Princeton. To appear to be bemoan Princeton’s lack of “prestige” is like having wealth and complaining because you have a lamborghini but not a mazarati. It’s sort of haughty, and an easy way to make people around you who are not as fortunate hate you.
The point of this thread was to discuss why the above mentioned schools receive so much criticism, and christian soldier insidiously criticized one of the mentioned schools by claiming that it is not even great enough to receive a similar level of criticism as the other school, while implying that he/she preferred other schools such as Yale, MIT, Stanford. Although such criticism came from his/her parents, if he/she disagreed, he/she would not share it/seem to approve of it on cc.</p>
<p>I believe you are misunderstanding what christiansoldier said. I think he means his dad didn’t know that much about Ivy League schools until he did his research. He implies that once his dad knew about the schools he ranked Princeton above Columbia and Brown. </p>
<p>Also, he is not at all saying he preferred Stanford, Yale, and MIT. He is saying those schools don’t seem to get as much criticism. </p>
<p>Squirtlebug: If you are going to Yale, what do you get out of starting this thread?</p>
<p>Yeah, dude, all I’m saying is that in my experience, Princeton is not as universally recognized as Harvard or Yale. CCers say HYP(SMC), but I think the general public just says HY. And I don’t mean that I like YSM better than P. After all, I turned down Stanford to go to Princeton. No need to get so excited.</p>
<p>Well, like I stated in a previous post, I loved Princeton but was turned down. Oh well. Guess I should stop lurking on Princeton stuff.</p>
<p>Instead of the what-you-would-expect reaction of hating Princeton because they rejected me, I feel irked when the Princeton-bound aren’t greatful for the opportunity to attend the school that I really liked. It’s like a punch to the ego.</p>
<p>Well if you click his username and then clicks “posts by this user” you’ll end up with a pretty good idea about the answer to your question in the subject line.</p>