<p>Congratulations to everyone admitted to the class of 2016! I’m an RCA (Residential College Adviser) in the class of 2013, and I’d be happy to answer any questions prospective students (or parents) might have about Princeton academics, residential life, social scene, etc.</p>
<p>is it funnnn? also how bad is the grade deflation for science classes…i’m thinking of majoring in neuroscience or something and wanna go to med school, soo my grades are pretty important lol.</p>
<p>Which departments have the worst grade deflation policies? </p>
<p>Can you give me detailed info on the curriculum of Woody Woo?</p>
<p>How do freshmen allocated single rooms find the socialization process in the early going? Is this a big handicap in your experience, and if so what do you recommend as best ways to overcome it?</p>
<p>Is the atmosphere accepting of a non-partier/non-drinker? Is it possible to have a social life at Princeton without drinking?</p>
<p>coming from a rising junior</p>
<p>1) it’s fun if you have fun friends; be sure to talk to lots of people in your res college as a freshman and you’ll quickly find people you like hanging out with</p>
<p>grade deflation isn’t really that noticeable (if you work smart and hard enough, you’ll get an A); however, certain departments tend to have very intense, highly intelligent students with difficult courses (MAT / PHY / COS) and others tend to be way more relaxed (social sciences / humanities)…as one would expect, getting good grades in those more intense departments is quite difficult, and the difference in rigor was much larger than I expected. I think neuroscience / mol bio falls somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, so you should be ok</p>
<p>2) See above for “worst grade deflation policies”–again, if you’re concerned about getting good grades it’s not really a matter of grade deflation, but a matter of which discipline is more intellectually rigorous / conceptually difficult, so choose your department accordingly if your main concern is GPA</p>
<p>3) As freshman you live in “zee groups” such that even if you have a single you are surrounded by other freshman, so it’s not too bad; i was in that situation and made some great friends. it’s not too hard, just talk to people and be friendly, you may make a lot of friends through meeting new people and having discussions in the dining hall (I did)</p>
<p>4) yes; at least more than half the students don’t drink regularly</p>
<p>I’d endorse most of ib612’s responses–as for question 3, the RCA’s with lots of freshmen who have singles tend to make more of an effort to bring people together and make sure that you meet the other members of your zee groups. ib612 is right that if you’re in a single, you’ll have a lot of neighbors who also are; additionally, if you don’t request a single you’re very unlikely to be assigned one.</p>
<p>As for ivymania’s question–I’m a WWS certificate student (and just finished a draft of my JP this afternoon), and here’s my general thoughts on the curriculum: the task forces are excellent, you get to do focused analysis on a specific policy question in a small group (both of my task forces have been 6 juniors, 2 “senior commissioners” and a professor). The rest of the curriculum is very interdisciplinary–as a certificate student, I’m only required to take 3 WWS classes in addition to Democracy, but I have to take Politics and Economics in addition. </p>
<p>With all that said, the curriculum is changing substantially (including the core class, Democracy, going away, because it’s terrible) for the class of 2015 and beyond, so your mileage may vary.</p>
<p>Elmorell: In what ways would you say it is changing?
and…would you say the changes are for the better or for the worse?</p>
<p>Basically, with the class of 2015 and onward, there’s no longer a selective application process, but they’re adding prerequisites (a class in microeconomics, one in history, and one in statistics). They’ve removed the core class, Democracy, which is a terrible class that no one will miss, and added a requirement for you to take one of 3 or 4 other classes that will serve as a core class, all of which are much better, so that’s a good change.</p>
<p>Additionally, they’re adding a requirement that you get some kind of policy field experience, either in a study-abroad program or a domestic policy internship during a summer.</p>
<p>All in all, I think they’re good changes.</p>
<p>Hello,
Thank you for this thread!
Question: S will be matriculating as a freshman this fall. We live far away and must plan for what to bring or ship. We will be in Philadelphia briefly in early June. Do you think it would be possible to have a peek at a sample dorm room to help us get the lay of the land and plan accordingly?
For example–is it desirable to bring a small chest of drawers or bookshelf (as I did when I went to college back in the olden days)? Or–not necessary? . . . .that kind of thing.
Also, what do you think of bringing a bike? Good? No? Plenty of bikes locally?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>Paragpon: You won’t be able to get into a dorm in early June, for a couple reasons–first, the dorms are still being used for Commencement and Reunions through the first week of June, and then it’ll take the majority of the summer for Facilities to get the dorms cleaned and rearranged. In any case, there’s really no such thing as a “sample dorm room”–if you looked at a room in, say, Mathey, and then got assigned to Butler, your room would be completely different; there’s just a lot of variety in housing. </p>
<p>To answer your other questions, though, every room comes with a small bookshelf, a chest of drawers, and either a wardrobe or a closet–so probably not necessary to bring that.</p>
<p>Third: I have a bike, but I honestly don’t use it that much, and I’m an engineer so I trek back and forth from the E-Quad every day–campus just isn’t that big. Maybe if I lived in Forbes, though.</p>
<p>Hello: My D got in the college of Engineering and is trying to decide between Princeton and Vanderbilt (she also got into Duke and Yale). Vanderbilt has roled out the red carpet and Princeton will costs her a lot. As a parent, I like the idea of only one major. But as an Engineering student, how likely is it to take classes in other areas completely outside the major? What in your opinion would make Princeton worth the extra expense?</p>
<p>Are students in Engineering more isolated than others? She’s a true nerd, but a happy one with varied interests and abilities. Would she fit in.</p>
<p>Thank you in advance for your help.</p>
<p>I’m an engineer myself, with a Woodrow Wilson School certificate–so clearly, it’s easy (and encouraged, and actually required) to take classes totally unrelated to engineering. Out of my 5 classes this semester, only 2 are required engineering classes–two are WWS/Politics related, and one is a CS class that I’m taking for fun (not sure why I thought it would be fun…). So in short, she definitely would not be taking only engineering classes, and as a corollary, there’s no isolation. First of all, she’ll be living her freshman year with a zee group of 15 or so other freshmen and an RCA, and your freshman year, you’re much more likely to hang out with those people than people in your department, since you don’t have a department until the end of freshman year at the earliest.</p>
<p>And I love Princeton, so obviously I’m going to say it’s worth any expense, but not knowing your D, I obviously can’t say whether it’s the best fit :-)</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your insights. She will be visiting again for the Princeton preview days. It’ll be fun.</p>
<p>Elmorell,
Thank you so much! We will forego the June visit and will travel to campus fairly light. Guess we will skip the bike thing unless and until it becomes an obvious need.
Thanks again for this useful thread. :)</p>
<p>elmorell, I’ve asked this question before to other posters, but do you know the most common professions people go into from WWS (as a major, not as a certificate)? Or is it too varied to generalize? Also, do you know of people’s experiences with the WWS study abroad/internships? For the internships, what types of organizations are these done at? Thanks!</p>
<p>scrivener: I’d say it’s about an even split between people going into public service/government work (particularly, for some reason, intelligence work, although maybe that’s just me generalizing from my friends–the CIA does recruit from WWS pretty heavily though) and people going into I-Banking and consulting. Some people go straight to grad school, but that’s not that common. </p>
<p>As far as study abroad, everyone I know who’s done a WWS study-abroad program (you have to do one of the ones they approve because you write your JP abroad–they have 9 or 10 of them; this semester I think there are people in Johannesburg, Havana, Istanbul, and France) has loved it. As far as internships, a lot of government agencies recruit from WWS very heavily, and you’ll see a lot of people interning at investment banks as well.</p>