<p>Eating clubs are NOT that big of a deal. They range in prices, ranging from the same price of the dining hall, to double the price of the dining hall. However, a few of the more expensive clubs offer financial aid to students. </p>
<p>They are a great social outlet for students - not snobby clubs like banker and byerly portray. They havent been students at princeton. They do not know the truth.</p>
<p>“So I hear there are buses? Do they ever go to Taco Bell? Cuz I’m pretty much addicted to that nasty Taco Bell food, yes. Is there one in that mall, maybe?”</p>
<p>That is one thing you will have to miss (like my son) - No Taco Bell within walking distance. There is one about 10 miles, but you need a car.</p>
<p>But here is what he does. He takes packets and packets of Taco Bell sauce and on on Dorm Mexican days he uses them.</p>
<p>Manfredman - even I, as an alum and a former Cap member, had the image of Ivy that you are putting out there. But according to my daughter, it’s just not like that. Many of the clubs have changed enormously. For example, when I was there, Tiger Inn was so jocky I never even went inside. Not once. My D now tells me it is a wonderful place - still athletic, but now some place that women are comfortable and fun is to be had. So. Do better research.</p>
<p>hyp were originally for the wealthy/connected</p>
<p>you CAN’t change that. do you know why princeton has an 11billion endowment? rich people donate back to princeton… i know that if i get super rich one of my goals is to get princeton’s endowment larger than harvard… but, it’s one stock at a time</p>
<p>and there’s panera bread and subway that only take a five minute walk…</p>
<p>Clendenenator:</p>
<p>I understand your question, but the situation you describe will exist at any top private schools. The student bodies at any privates will not be same as your local community college or state U.</p>
<p>It is your choice. If you think you can not get used to the idea of co-mingling with students from other socio-economic backgrounds, you should very seriously consider not applying to those top privates.</p>
<p>OP;</p>
<p>I think Simba made an excellent point. A wise advice</p>
<p>It really boils down to you. Your choice: risk and merit.</p>
<p>Are you strong enough to brush off those elitist/snobbish attitudes, and reap the greatest award of Princeton education?</p>
<p>Are you comfortable with what you are (in terms of your social/economic status), and sure about enduring what’s coming at you in next 4 years without damaging your very soul?</p>
<p>No one can answer those questions but you….</p>
<p>You sound like a nice guy. Good luck with your decision.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Mom, you know little of the school from the words of your child and the information she regurgitate for you. Sorry if this sounds snide (because it is), but people tend to react adversely when the “value” of their advice is questioned. Go figure.</p>
<p>And from MY experience, and considering the fact that this is a forum for advice and assistance from diverse group of people, I would advise the individual who posed the original question NOT to attend Princeton if he/she feels uncomfortable about being surrounded by rich/snobby people because Princeton is full of those pricks and cows. Simple as that. </p>
<p>Sorry if that conflicts with your own experience, but that tends to happen when not all people agree with you. Crazy, I know. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>alumother is a princeton alumna with a daughter who currently attends the university. you, on the other hand, are a 15-year old. i think most of the readers of this thread would beg to differ as to which of the two of you “know[s] little of the school” in question.</p>
<p>Clendenenator, you need have little concern about any more exclusivity or snobbishness at Princeton than you would find at any of its competitors. I suspect you are intelligent enough to dismiss the comments of some of the previous posters who, based on their remarks, clearly know little about Princeton and have never attended. I wont dignify them by specific refutations. These posts are usually so over the top and hysterical sounding that theyre easy to spot. Any reasonable reader should have no trouble identifying them. </p>
<p>That having been said, this charge of exclusity/preppiness/snobbishness has been thrown at Princeton by its detractors for years. These stereotypes have about as much truth in them as stereotypes of Harvard or Yale which you can easily find by reading these boards. Most are completely false and, while youll find some differences in attitudes among the three undergraduate populations, the similarities are far greater. The easiest way of dismissing such absurd stereotypes is to visit each campus and speak with students and professors. As that is not always possible, Ill offer the following remarks in regard to Princeton.</p>
<p>Many of the negative stereotypes of Princeton are aimed at the eating clubs which are characterized as exclusive, secretive and highly selective. This would provide plenty of laughs for current undergraduates. While I didnt belong to an eating club, I spent plenty of time in most of them. When most juniors and seniors are members of these clubs and when more than half of them can be joined simply by signing your name on a form, they can hardly be said to be exclusive. For most of them, the cost of membership is approximately the same as the cost of a food services contract, so even price is not really an issue.</p>
<p>Still, dont take my word for it. Here are links to three recent articles from the Yale Daily News which do a very good job of explaining the Eating Clubs at Princeton, the Final Clubs at Harvard and the Secret Societies at Yale. I think youll find them useful and objective since they werent written from a Princeton perspective.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=32479[/url]”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=32479</a> = on Princetons Eating Clubs
<a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=32489[/url]”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=32489</a> = on Harvards Final Clubs
<a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=32518[/url]”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=32518</a> = on Yales Secret Societies</p>
<p>In addition to social exclusivity, the charge that Princeton is extremely preppy is also commonly made. You might be surprised to learn that Princeton has fewer prep school graduates than many of its most prominent competitors, including Yale.</p>
<p>As for Princeton being the choice of rich students, well, Princeton has the Ivy Leagues highest percentage of students on financial aid for its incoming class (measured as the total number of students receiving grants from the University). There is a very broad range of family incomes represented. My own large family was quite lower middle class (though proud!) and my father never finished high school. </p>
<p>As for the implication that Princeton is homogenous and overwhelmingly white, again, there is simply no truth in it. Princeton has approximately the same racial distribution as its competitors with students from across the globe. When speaking specifically about minority students, you might note that Princeton was recently recognized by the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education as the third best university in the nation (after only Duke and Emory) in terms of attracting and providing support services for African-American students. It also had the highest black enrollment in the Ivy League for the freshman class entering last fall. Princeton was also ranked by Hispanic Magazine (March 2006) as the second best school for Hispanics in the group of 25 leading national universities surveyed. Princeton came in second only to Harvard. Princeton was also just recognized by a leading gay and lesbian magazine as one of the 20 most supportive universities for gays, lesbians and transgender students. </p>
<p>Does any of this sound like the university being described by some of the posters above?</p>
<p>All students should visit and make their own judgments if at all possible. If not possible, call the Princeton Admission office and ask to arrange to speak with a current student. Theyll be happy to assist and youll be able to get a far less biased view than youll often get from postings on these threads.</p>
<p>“Princeton has the Ivy League’s highest percentage of students on financial aid for its incoming class (measured as the total number of students receiving grants from the University)”</p>
<p>Is that really true? I haven’t really found any percentages from the other schools, but I would imagine Cornell has a lot people on aid.</p>
<p>I know I’m going on more stereotypes (sorry), but it seems like Cornell has a lot of smart, but middle-class people.</p>
<p>According to Cornell’s website, about 50% of the students in the class of 2009 received financial aid (you can find the information under FAQs for undergraduate admissions)</p>
<p>Wow, I had no idea…</p>
<p>Absolutely. Cornell does have a great many brilliant students and many are on financial aid. However, at Princeton, the percentage on aid is even higher.</p>
<p>The final percentages for the Class of 2010 wont be known until this fall but early indications suggest that the percentage of incoming first year students at Princeton receiving aid will still be the highest in the Ivy League. </p>
<p>According to figures compiled by U.S. News, approximately 52% of last years entering class at Princeton received financial aid, the highest percentage in the Ivy League where the percentages ranged from Princetons 52% down to Yales 44%. (Cornell is reported at 47%.) </p>
<p>At Princeton, all need-based loans have been replaced by grants that do not have to be repaid with the result that Princeton students graduate with little or no debt. Because of this policy, (and, again, according to the most recent figures reported by U.S. News) only about 15% of Princeton students have any debt upon graduation. (The next closest school in the Ivies is Brown, where 36% graduate with debt and the highest percentage is at Cornell, where approximately 52% graduate with debt.)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the full information can only be obtained on the U.S. News website by paying a modest subscription fee so I cannot provide a link. However, the same information can be gathered from the Common Data Set forms filled out by many schools in the Ivy League (some, including Harvard and Yale, do not report with this detailed form). Yale has provided a handy link to web pages where this information can be found.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.yale.edu/oir/otherlinks.html[/url]”>http://www.yale.edu/oir/otherlinks.html</a></p>
<p>In summary, all of the schools in the Ivy League are relatively generous with financial aid. Princeton, however, is the only school that has replaced all need-based loans with grants and it has (albeit by a small percentage) the highest percentage of incoming students on financial aid.</p>
<p>Cornell’s student body is surely influenced by the presence of the contract colleges, which are less expensive for NY state residents. These include the College of Human Ecology, the agriculture school, the veterinary school and the school of Industrial and Labor Relations. The hotel school, while not a contract college, seems (based on our visit) to attract students who are less academically oriented. I am not sure whether discussions of Cornell vs. Princeton are based on Cornell’s liberal arts and engineering programs or on the entire university on the Cornell campus, which includes these quasi-state schools. </p>
<p>There are students at all socioeconomic levels at Princeton. And don’t assume that if a student does not receive financial aid, he or she is wealthy. As at any other expensive private school, many middle- and upper-middle class families do not qualify for aid and still can’t pay the full freight; this is why the Princeton Parent Loan program exists. College financial aid officers don’t ask whether you can pay out of current income during the four years. They expect families to take 10-14 years to pay for college.</p>
<p>Last point: although we had heard how beautiful Cornell was, I found that much of the campus looked a lot like a state school. I think Princeton sometimes comes across as Fitzgeraldesque because of the fairy tale beauty of the campus itself. Students are busy working, getting grants for internships, getting research grants, etc. As at any Ivy-type school, there are the students from famous families, but most of them make a big effort to keep a low profile.</p>
<p>“I know I’m going on more stereotypes (sorry), but it seems like Cornell has a lot of smart, but middle-class people.”</p>
<p>I will be blunt again. If socio-economic mix is that important to you, then you would not be happy at any private college. In real life people always find examples that reinforces their stereotypical perceptions.</p>
<p>Unless you want to grow up (be self confident) and If you are:</p>
<p>poor white - go to community college
poor black - go to a mostly black college
poor hispanic - go to mostly hispanic collge
poor asian - go to state U</p>
<p>Simba: I’m sorry if i mistake your tone, but it seems as though you’re insulting me. I don’t have any problem being around wealthy people. I just want to make sure they don’t have a problem with me, and it seems (according to other posts) that they won’t.</p>
<p>That was a blunt reality based tone. Not insulting. :)</p>
<p>Okay, good…I hate it when people fight on these things.</p>
<p>But no, I’m not like the person you described, and community college is…wow. That’s a laugh.</p>
<p>One important thing to keep in mind about financial aid statistics is that although it would seem that about half of the Princeton student body can foot the whole bill, there’s a good proportion of students who are attending Princeton on full or almost-full scholarships from outside organizations (which will reduce and in some cases eliminate Princeton’s grant). One of my roommates last year was an example of that type, and I’ve encountered numerous others on campus as well. So no, half of the student body does not pay the entire student budget. It’s in fact less than that.</p>
<p>Additionally, forgive me, but this talk of eating clubs is just ridiculous. Your characterizations of the various clubs are completely off-base, which is understandable considering some of those making the wildest claims are those who have not had consistent first-hand experience with the clubs. Ivy really is fairly easy to get into on the weekends (and especially during the week), people aren’t “tearing off their left arm” to bicker there, the other clubs are just as fun (and in my opinion, more fun), and few people make nearly as big of a to-do about bicker as those not attending or incoming freshmen do. You will usually go where your friends go. You’re going to want to eat together, no? Anything else is purely speculation.</p>