mzhang23

Music lessons

1. If you join Glee Club, you can get a 50% subsidy for your voice lessons.

2. Orchestra gives you a 50% subsidy for music lessons.

3. Lesson signups and auditions are at the beginning of each year. Teachers only have a limited number of spots to accept new students, so don't miss auditions week! It's hard to sign up in the spring since most slots stay filled until the new school year. Newbies are accepted for voice, as long as you display some basic promise.

4. Chapel Choir pays you about $6.50 an hour for rehearsal and performance. They used to offer a lesson subsidy too, but that no longer exists.

Wwoody123

Hey mzhang, good to see you on...Thanks for the responses, I hope you get to mine!

I also had one more quick question... If I were to try to use my voice as a "hook" at getting in, could I audition for someone at Princeton this fall to get a good word in with the adcoms perhaps?

mzhang23

Sending a CD can get you a little bonus, but probably not much. Plenty of kids come in with choir experience. As a member of an a cappella group and Chapel Choir, I've seen very few kids come in with professionally trained voices. You'll need something like that for it to really be hook.

Also, you don't apply to WWS until your sophomore year. Getting in as an undergrad is the bigger challenge.

rhapsodie3025

mzhang, can you talk a bit about a cappella? When are auditions, and what is the process like?

mzhang23

Auditions and callbacks usually happen the second week of school. During frosh week you'll be able to attend a whole bunch of archsings and get a feeling for which groups you may want to audition for. The groups also have an open house party where you can socialize with them some more and have the opportunity to talk to members directly.

I'm with the Princeton Nassoons, the oldest all-male group on campus.
http://www.princeton.edu/~nassoons/7...kthrough.shtml

That describes our audition process. Most groups follow something similar.

quirkily

the nassoons are great. absolutely go see them the first chance you get--they're by far the most entertaining group on campus.

glinda

Audition for a cappella!! I joined in the spring semester and I can't even begin to talk about the difference it has made in my time at Princeton.

If anyone has specific questions about the groups or auditions, feel free to pm me.

tiger011

Do many students buy printers for their dorm rooms, or are the printers in computer clusters adequate?

Also, just out of curiosity, when do upperclassmen move in this year?

Weasel8488

I've been wondering about the printers too. The website makes it sound like you don't need a printer, but I'm not sure I want to have to walk to another part of dorm at 3 AM to pick up a paper.

omar_e

I was wondering whether there was a major bookstore associated with the university that offered students a discount (kind of like the Harvard Coop)?

mzhang23

Printing is free, and it's fast. Your computer prints directly to the printer via the Princeton network. The only bad thing is that some buildings might not have printers, so you have to go outside.

The bookstore is the Princeton Ustore right now. You get a 6% there for joining the coop. Changes are coming in the fall, however. Labyrinth books is taking over as Princeton's official bookstore in November, but I sont know if they offer anything such as price matching (which the Princeton bookstore does).

tiger011

So, would you recommend getting a printer, or not?

Also, I asked this before but never got an answer: during Orientation Week, is it easy to get places to buy furniture, etc.?

mzhang23

Printer: no, save yourself the money. You might be doing a lot of packet printing too (100+ pages), so get used to going to the cluster.

Furniture: every place around Princeton is incredibly expensive. I suggest you find a friend and go to the closest Salvation army to buy stuff. You can just pick out a couch there and they'll deliver it to you for a small fee. Way better than $300 futons.

Picking up furniture at the end of the year is also a good tactic. All the rich students just throw their stuff out and don't bother storing it. I found a nice futon, bookshelf, DVD player, electronic keyboard, and two lamps in an afternoon of walking around campus.

ptonkatz10

I can answer a lot of the music questions and some of the engineering ones.

--Engineers can definitely study abroad, although not a lot do. Normally they go to England or Australia. Some Engineering majors also qualify for the Oxford Exchange.
--You can get certificates too, whether in Physics or something like Music (I'm doing a music certificate).
--Three out of the six engineering majors don't actually have to write theses . . . we do "independent work." I'm MAE so I don't write a thesis, I just get to play around in the lab.

--You can get a lesson subsidy if you're in the Glee Club, the Orchestra, Sinfonia (a secondary orchestra), and any of the Jazz Ensembles (unfortunately not the wind ensemble, Chapel choir or any a cappella groups).
--Not all lessons require an audition-- just the most popular instruments. I play guitar and had no trouble as my teacher only had three students anyway. It's tough to get voice lessons though, and some of the other popular ones.
--Definitely send a CD. I sent one with some voice and guitar, and thought that nothing came of it . . . however when I got to Princeton in the fall, Richard (the director of Glee Club) sent me an email telling me that he had heard my CD and spoken to admissions about me, and that I'd better audition for his choir. It was kind of scary actually.
--You can go and audition for Richard if you want. If you're really good he might give you a push. However he doesn't impress easily and he's very moody.
--A CAPELLA is awesome. I'm in the same group as glinda above-- the Katzenjammers. Our website is under construction but it's www.princeton.edu/~pukatz. It's a ton of fun, but it's not for everyone. It's a big time commitment and seeing the same people all the time can get wearing no matter how great they are/how much you love them. But it's been a really rewarding experience for me and I really encourage you to come audition for us in the fall!

General advice-- don't get a printer (unless you live really far from a cluster), go to Trenton for used furniture, and yes, definitely go see the nassoons because they're awesome. Then audition for the katzenjammers because they're awesome too

glinda

I hope we aren't wearing on you! Finally giving in to CC, I see...