<p>I have a high chance of getting into H, Y, and P. What do people not like about undergrad at P? Just wondering.</p>
<p>Please no hate, I'd just like some sincere yet rational opinions.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Analyze the grade deflation policy. Is it something you can live with?</p>
<p>Think about your prospective major. Would you mind a visiting professor whose English isn’t even his/her second language teaching a major requirement?</p>
<p>Think about how TAs are the ones who grade your exams and papers (not the actual professor who teaches the lectures.) Does not having a standardized grading system agree with you?</p>
<p>Think about the raging parties on the street. Can you function in such a social scene?</p>
<p>Tink about the semester NOT ending before the Christmas break. How do you feel about preparing for finals after the break?</p>
<p>Every school will have special and unique issues; so long as you can think about those issues a little beforehand, all will be good in your possible choices.</p>
<p>Stemit - do you have a child at Princeton? Your items confuse me. I attended Princeton myself, and have two children who have graduated in the past 5 years. I have posted here about some actual issues - that one about the TAs does not resonate at all. Nor does grade inflation, in terms of the feeling of the school. And as far as raging parties, alcohol is an issue, but there’s a robust set of options for non-participants. So, as I say, I’m confused.</p>
<p>Grade deflation causes problems for a few people. This is more prominent for people entering into humanities-related fields because STEM majors had grade deflated classes before anyway. But contrary to your claim, most people DO like undergrad at Princeton. Princeton has the highest rate of alumni giving back of ANY college. To me, that says that alumni really liked their experience at Princeton.</p>
<p>Grade deflation is the major issue on my end. P will not be on daughter’s list. We also did a campus visit and for some reason she didn’t like the vibe of the school. I actually loved the tour, so each person needs to make up their own mind.</p>
<p>I do have a very good friend that has a son there. He absolutely loves the school and is a rising junior.</p>
<p>A point about first semester not ending before Christmas- I actually like it this way. My undergrad ended before Christmas like most places, followed by a long winter break. I dreaded Princeton’s system but once I got through it, I liked it. After fall break in early November, it’s three weeks of class followed by Thanksgiving, followed by three more weeks of class, a three week break for he holidays, a week of reading period, roughly a week and a half of finals, and then another week off until spring semester. True, you don’t get a single long break but you get more time to study (should you want to) plus an additional week to study, and lots of breaks. Many of the other people I’ve spoken to (who went to different undergraduate schools) like the way Princeton does it. Trust me, it makes it much easier to study.</p>
<p>I’m not really getting a lot of stemit’s points. Sure, grade deflation is grade deflation, but the remarks about professors and TA’s are largely not true and also not Princeton-specific. I have yet to take a class with a professor who didn’t speak very good (though sometimes accented) English, though I’ve had two preceptors, both in engineering classes, who didn’t really speak or write very clearly. I can’t think of a research university of Princeton’s size that doesn’t have sections graded by different preceptors/TA’s, and I haven’t found it to be an issue, anyway. “Raging parties” happen pretty much everywhere except BYU and the service academies, and having exams after winter break is, as YanksDolphins pointed out, awesome.</p>
<p>If you want real, Princeton-specific concerns, here you go. The semester has only twelve weeks of classes, so material is covered rather quickly in comparison to other universities, though this is tempered somewhat by the long reading and exam periods. The fire safety policy is absolutely ridiculous. The administration is garnering a reputation for social engineering (see the freshman rush ban). Course offerings aren’t all that stable. Studying abroad can be quite difficult, depending on your major. Throw in grade deflation if you want. That’s all I’ve got off the top of my head as far as nearly universal concerns for students.</p>
<p>The only bad bits of Princeton that I saw were a) non-strategic advising b) alcohol.</p>
<p>And of course, anyone who likes cities and hates serenity or suburbs will never be at home there.</p>
<p>But otherwise? The place is astonishing. And that’s not hyperbole.</p>
<p>Anyone with “a high chance of getting into HYP” nneds to do what all applicants should - apply to a list that includes safeties that meet your needs. HYP are lottery schools, and I would put off the culture comparisons until I had acceptances in hand. I would just hate to have my heart set on a particular school at the beginning of the app season, when the reality is that many schools will make you happy. I think it adds stress to what is already a stressful time for students. Why not apply to HYP and a half dozen other schools and then compare the finer points of each one that accepts you?</p>
<p>If you read these forums, you’ll learn that it’s rare for someone to be accepted by all three. You just might be that rare applicant. Most have to deal with some kind of disappointment come April, so why not be a little fluid at this stage of the process?</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your input. I too was a bit suprised by stemit’s info. And I didn’t mean that people think their undegrad program is not enjoyable in general, I just wanted to know what people though was bad about it. </p>
<p>LefthandofDog: The thing is, I am a heavily recruited athlete and will be applying early action to only one of these schools. I can change my mind later of course, but can only apply early to one school and I hope I won’t regret my choice. I do have non-Ivy alternatives like Northwestern, Rice, and GA Tech.</p>
<p>That does put it in a different light. Why don’t you look at each school’s newspaper to get a feel. You’ll be spending a lot of time with your teammates so you might just “go with your gut” but ask yourself, too, which place would be best for you if for some reason you don’t continue in sports.</p>
<p>My comments were not meant to be taken as a positive or a negative. Just something to think about in choosing a college - which is what the OP specifically asked (“What do people not like about the undergrad at P?”) I thought the OP wasn’t looking for cheer leading.</p>
<p>As for the professors, I direct your attention to not one, but two, mid-level Econ classes taught during the spring 2012 semester. And, yes, I am sure that similar issues are the norm at Y and H. </p>
<p>Grade deflation (an enforced policy limiting the number of As in any given class), has it proponents and its detractors. Not thinking about how such a policy would/would not impact a student is simply burying your head in the sand. Alum mother, you and your children graduated before this policy was implemented.</p>
<p>I believe that the OP is a recruited athlete, so preparing a list of safety schools is moot.</p>
<p>The school newspaper is a treasure trove (as are all schools you are considering). So is PrincetonFML (and occasionally amusing).</p>
<p>Princeton IMHo has the best facilities for athletes in the Ivy league (but, you didn’t ask for the good stuff; you asked for the bad stuff (and the “bad stuff” is actually neither good nor bad - its just stuff to be included in the decision making process.).</p>
<p>I am very familiar with the school - warts and all. My family is completely satisfied with our student’s choice of P (and so is the student). That student also needed to make the decision between the schools you mentioned.</p>
<p>Stemit, no, my kids graduated in 2009 and 2012. </p>
<p>I think the university has made a very good case demonstrating that grade deflation prevents few kids <em>who are suited to the field</em> from getting into medical school and law school, or from finding jobs in investment banking and consulting.</p>
<p>I also heard very little evidence of grade deflation causing student competition etc. If there’s a social impact, it’s student grumbling at the administration. Also, Princeton kids think Harvard kids have it easy, and enjoy that sense of superiority:).</p>
<p>Grade deflation <em>can</em> be hard on some kids who are used to getting an A as long as they do their work. Few kids are going to get As in the classes outside their native skill areas, unless they work like crazy. But to my way of thinking that’s a good thing to learn sooner rather than later, as that’s how real life work if you situate yourself amongst top performers.</p>
<p>“Grade deflation <em>can</em> be hard on some kids who are used to getting an A as long as they do their work. Few kids are going to get As in the classes outside their native skill areas, unless they work like crazy. But to my way of thinking that’s a good thing to learn sooner rather than later, as that’s how real life work if you situate yourself amongst top performers.”</p>
<p>^^^ When you get a job and work as hard as you possibly can, you look forward to getting an ‘A’ (a raise, a promotion etc). After a while, if those kind of things don’t happen, you either start looking for another job which rewards you for your efforts, or you stay at your current job and become depressed because you’re not being allowed to move forward. To my way of thinking, nothing is learned from Princeton’s grading policy except how to learn to live with frustration before you find that better job. That is a life-lesson, but not one that I think should be taught in college.</p>
<p>Like many threads, we are suffering from what I call “thread drift” - slowly moving away from the specific issue posed by an OP. Here is the site which explains the grading policy in detail:</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.princeton.edu/odoc/faculty/grading/faq/[/url]”>https://www.princeton.edu/odoc/faculty/grading/faq/</a></p>
<p>Read it for the OPs edification. Then ask students how (if) the policy actually implemented effect impacts their lives (in other words, go beyond the words explaining certain aspects of the policy and see what was actually done). There will be opinions across the spectrum. I add, that if this policy was the panacea for the “evil” it sought to address, if the policy (as implemented) was so successful in distinguishing P students in their quest for future success, HYS and the rest would have adopted similar policies to avoid P students getting an advantage in the world of internships and grad schools. Those universities have not followed Ps example.</p>
<p>In closing, it seems that if a student has mastered the subject, that should be the measuring stick used in determining the grade. Not some artificial percentage. And yes, the Policy does specifically say that such students should not be constrained by the percentage. Which is why the OP (or anyone else) should not accept the administrations self-justifying words; ask students who are effected by the policy. I have no clue how they will respond - but they are the ones who know.</p>
<p>So we have a difference in philosophy. I think the current culture of constant parades for kids’ achievement is destructive. Bad for the kids, in fact. Better to keep loving them and laughing with them and urging them to do their best, and then let it go, than to agitate about the unfairness of a curved grading policy. That’s just my opinion.</p>
<p>Amethyst -</p>
<p>Congratulations on putting yourself in the position you’re in. As you surely know, to excel in academics and athletics requires a great deal of dedication, focus, and balance. And, as you also know, the payoff in terms of college choices is amazing.</p>
<p>My son was in your situation four years ago, and chose Princeton. I’m sorry, but I can’t give you any reasons to not choose Princeton.</p>
<p>I can give you one “why not Yale?” factor. Sadly, in my view, Yale has made a decision to de-emphasize athletics. Fewer athletes are being supported in admissions, and the teams are suffering for it. An unfortunate byproduct of this institutional change is that student/athletes seem to be less respected by their non-athlete peers at Y than at H or P.</p>
<p>Princeton’s grade deflation is real and, in my opinion, a mistake. I believe if everyone in a class masters the material then they should all get "A"s. On the other hand my son, who had an UW 4.0 in HS, feels that a restriction on the number of "A"s is a good thing and that showing a little “granularity” among high achievers is appropriate. He’s received a couple of "B"s at Princeton and it hasn’t bothered him.</p>
<p>You have great options. You can’t go wrong.</p>
<p>Congratulations and good luck!</p>