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Princeton University Visit Report by urtheman

Visit to Princeton University in May 2013 by urtheman
(Student, HS Class of 2012)
(Member since January 15 2012 with 23 posts)
 
1 of 3 people found this visit report helpful

Visit Activities:


Information Session: Yes - An hour long information session and then half hour for questions.

Campus Tour: Yes

Campus:


Friendliness/Courtesy of Students:
4 - Very Good
4 - Very Good
The students all seemed very friendly. I did not come across any student that seemed pompous or elitist.


Friendliness/Courtesy of Staff:
3 - Good
3 - Good
I didn't have a lot of interaction with staff, but the admissions counselor was informative and seemed friendly enough.


Appearance of Campus:
4 - Very Good
4 - Very Good
Princeton is a nice looking campus, though it's not the best looking campus that I have ever seen. The original buildings are attractive, but the newer buildings are boxy and seventies style.


Building/Facilities Maintenance/Cleanliness:
The campus was clean.


Security/Safety:
4 - Very Good
4 - Very Good
Seemed like a very enclosed and safe place.


Overall Campus Impression:
3 - Good
3 - Good
Well maintained campus. Some nice ivy league buildings, some seventies buildings.

Off-Campus:


Area Immediately Around Campus:
The main street across from campus has some chain restaurants (Qdoba, frozen yogurt etc) and a few stores (Ralph Lauren, JCrew, etc).


City/Town/Community:
2 - Fair
2 - Fair
Quiet, suburban town of 30,000 in the middle of New Jersey. Not that interesting.

Campus Visit Notes for Princeton University


Visit Description:

I expected to either really like Princeton or really not like it, but this was not the case. I thought everything was just okay. The campus was attractive, but not the best looking campus that I've seen. The tour guide was friendly, but generally underwhelming and only moderately informative. The town of Princeton is suburban, upper middle class and not that interesting. The students seemed nice enough and the population seemed diverse.

Nothing stood out as exceptional. Not the description of the study abroad programs, athletics, residential college life, social life. The tour guide said his Econ 101 class had 350 students in it and while he said that that is not the norm, I wasn't impressed with that figure. It's Princeton, so I am sure the education is great, but nothing about the campus tour made me feel like: I really want to go to this school. Maybe this had more to do with the lackluster tour guide and admissions counselor, but I'm not really motivated to learn much more about Princeton.