whitecadillac

@ saugus, "Everyone just kind of sits around drinking tea all day."

obviously a poor exaggeration of what i was asking. obviously they don't sit around drinking tea all day; that's very different from people being sophisticated in general, in the extracurriculars they choose or the lifestyles they lead.

"Consider the fact that the majority of the students are on financial aid."

doesn't mean they aren't high-class or sophisticated...

"And it's a college. Why would you be looking for that lifestyle?"

i don't understand what this is supposed to mean. you assume everyone is looking for a traditional "frat, drinking, parties, hook-ups" kind of college experience? wow...

@ fauve, so once they allowed women in, it stopped being elitist? doesn't make any sense. there are leagues of sophisticated women...

randombetch

Lol what? Yes it does. "High class" is synonymous with "high socioeconomic group" when referring to a type of people. Usually, rich kids aren't given fin aid.

whitecadillac

uhh high-class is also synonymous with "classy", "elegant", "cultured", etc. high-class can describe behavior/mentality just as much as it can describe literal socioeconomic status. seems pretty easy to pick out the right connotation of the word given the context of my post.

selter01

lol at the whole post =P

seattleyj

^
agreed with selter01.

randombetch

You're right, it is pretty easy to see what you meant by "high class" from your posts.

High class certainly can describe behavior, but that's not what you meant in your first post. I had merely assumed you were staying consistent with the type of "class" you were talking about - guess all of us making you feel silly got you to try to change what you had meant so you won't be as embarrassed.

whitecadillac

did you read the whole first post? obviously not.

"despite not being wealthy myself, i love the "upper-class" sophisticated lifestyle, and princeton has a reputation for that, obviously. is it actually true? are most people at princeton sophisticated, high-class, preppy individuals?"

upper-class lifestyle. way different than just having money. there are plenty of rich people who aren't urbane in the slightest. the reason i specified that i'm not wealthy myself is so i didn't sound like a rich kid who doesn't want to be around poor kids. cuz the money is not the point. the whole point (which you obviously missed somehow) is that i enjoy high-class behavior/mentality/LIFESTYLE and wished that many kids at princeton still enjoyed it as well.

Frostyeel

upper-class lifestyle connotes being wealthy, high-class behavior seems like the most appropriate phrase for what you want. No college is going to give you want you want but I'd recommend looking into UK universities, from what I've heard they are at least slightly more sophisticated.

randombetch

^Thanks Frosty

Apparently you're looking for a school where middle class kids act rich and (somehow) have the lifestyle of the upper class. Princeton is not this place. Nor does this place exist anywhere but in your imagination.

Eiffel

@Frosty: I don't know. Lifestyle and behavior are extremely linked. Someone's lifestyle is almost always defined by their behavior.

But anyway, I don't think it's a big deal, since whitecadillac has clarified what he meant. I already understood that was what he meant in his original post, although I guess it wasn't as clear for some. It should be clear now, I think, that his inquiry was about the activities people at Princeton pursue rather than their actual wealth.

Regardless, I had been under the impression that many Ivies were more "sophisticated" than other schools as well, and I am slightly shocked to hear that the social life is pretty much just the same as all other schools (i.e. partying, drinking, et cetera). Of course, I knew that kind of social life would exist at any school, but I did think many people attending Ivies might also engage in so-called "classier" extracurriculars. I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that there are sophisticated teenagers in our world and that they may be attracted to particular universities that carry a sophisticated reputation.

And I'm sure that there are at least some kids like that. I mean, there are almost certainly going to be plenty of wealthy people at Ivies who grew up living the "high-class lifestyle", and then there will also be those people like whitecadillac and myself who live the lifestyle regardless of wealth.

Also, whitecadillac, I'm not sure how true it is, but I hear the Elizabethan Club at Yale is characterized by old-school sophistication. People sitting around drinking tea with British professors and discussing Shakespeare, that kind of thing. It sounds like it might be right up your alley!

randombetch

Hate to break it to you, but we have competitive Quidditch teams.

xatuuatx

I think in comparison to something like Rutgers or a normal state school, Princeton is very classy.

The very town of Princeton attracts classy people because of all the boutiques, nice stores, and restaurants.

Princeton is very classy, but it's not elitist and you won't have people having tea time and going for a sail and whatnot. That's a very antiquated image of Princeton or any Ivy League school.

Frostyeel

Eh I don't really see how princeton is classier than say a state school. Sure people generally wear more expensive clothing here and there are more spoiled rich kids but very few people act in a way I'd describe as classy or sophisticated.

@Eiffel
I'm sure a lot of kids here grew up living a high class life but once they get here and realize that people here don't act like their parents the kids start acting more normal in order to fit in.