Princeton 2013 Parents

lefthandofdog
Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:17:56 +0000

D is a current freshman. As a parent, I don’t think you should have any qualms about sending your kid there. If you child is on the fence about it, I’d tell him/her to go.

I could write a book but will try not to. Some positive things: freshman seminars, Outdoor Action orientation (you really don’t have to have any camping experience to participate, and if you really can’t see yourself in the woods, there are more ‘urban’ choices, but orientation provides you with a group of friends from the outset); McGraw center for tutoring (those pesky math sets). Lots of clubs and activities going on around campus and cheap movies on Nassau St. The food is more than decent, though kids do get tired of the same thing. Facilities are excellent. Look on the website to see who comes through campus to speak. Precepts bring a large class into smaller focus. Grade deflation exists, but she’s learning and earns her As. Reputation as haven for the idle rich seems to be a bygone relic.

She’s spending her first summer at one of the Global Seminars, getting course credit and fulfilling a dream to travel to that country. Financial aid is generous, both during the year and for summer opportunities. D was at the top of her diverse, not all that academically focused HS, and I asked if she was intimidated in classes. She may have been before she began, but she said she was blown away by how thoughtful and articulate and funny her classmates are and she hasn’t encountered any ‘blowhards’. She said it’s a relief to be in a class where someone else knows the answer. The place can’t be perfect, but it’s exceeded our expectations in the first year and it is a place she will not outgrow during her time there. I can’t believe she’s 1/4 done and wonder how she’ll fit in everything she wants to do. I’d say it’s the people (students, staff and faculty) that make the place, though the facilities are top, too. We did not have to deal with homesickness or health issues or anything out of the ordinary, so I can’t comment on those, except to say that there is a room in the infirmary for out of town parents to stay in while their child is in infirmary. Apparently that’s a long standing tradition, supported by a parent group.

Go to Preview and see what you think. And remember that the parents you encounter will not be your child’s classmates. As you probably know, some of us parents can get a little over enthused about our children, and I remember riding the shuttle bus around campus while a couple of parents were bloviating on “well, at Harvard” and “when we visited Yale” and “Stanford does it this way” - but it was only one or two parents, the rest were lovely (and quiet) and there’s a chance those students didn’t matriculate or if they did, they’re nothing like their parent.