<p>Princeton is actually one of the friendlier Ivy League campi, IMO. The tour guide I had there was exceptionally energetic; every time I go there are alumni wandering around reminiscing (or attending some event in orange jackets and straw hats). The town of Princeton is dull but friendly in the way only a small town could be. I recall being served in the dining hall of Frist Campus Center by a kid who looked like he had just driven in with his daddy’s Lamborghini from Beverly Hills; he couldn’t have been nicer. When wandering around once while staying there overnight, people who learned I and several others were from another school were quick to say (or yell, from some distance) “Welcome to Princeton!”</p>
<p>One might accuse Princeton of elitism, but it is not of the pretentious variety.</p>
<p>At UVa we have that reputation, but it isn’t true. The folks in Blacksburg at VT just spread it around 'cause they’re jealous. I mean, we love UVa and we’re proud to attend such a great institution but there’s a difference between school pride and snobbery.</p>
<p>My relative, who will attend Tech said that she was glad to not be going to UVa due to the snobs. It may have been out of ‘jealousy’ due to the fact that (now, I believe…) she was waitlisted, led on, not taken off. It was her top choice. In all honesty she’s a bit of snob herself. It’s just really funny to here the story from someone “on the other side”.</p>
<p>Please, everyone who’s accusing Princeton of being pretentious, explain why. An age-old stereotype will not suffice.
Princeton offers financial aid to all its students. By itself, that’s not very impressive, until you see that the AVERAGE aid package is over $25,000 in grants.
If by pretentious, you mean happy to be at their school, Princeton students are quite guilty. You’ll find many of them would rather be there than anywhere else, and while you may dismiss this as pretentious behavior, I really think this is far from the case.</p>
<p>Sorry, in my post above, i meant about half, not all.
I’ll agree with yougotjohn here. I’m sure there’ll be a few people at Princeton that you might consider pretentious. You’ll find these people at ANY elite school, however. It’s a direct consequence of reputation–when people are attracted to a school for its name, you’re bound to find students who think that their “name” is superior to others.
This is a TINY minority at Princeton, however. If you visit, you’ll find that Princeton students aren’t any more pretentious than Brown students or UC Berkeley students or Swarthmore students.
It’s an unfortunate stereotype that, while true in the past, is completely outdated, and for some reason, now sticks to Princeton.</p>
<p>quirikily-- calm down. plenty of us, myself included, attend a school that has been named as “pretentious” several times on this thread. so many of these assumptions that princeton is pretentious, or harvard or yale or duke, are based on as you put it, “age old stereotypes.” and while you can sit here and say that “oh it’s just a miniscule fraction of the students, everyone else is really friendly” until you turn blue in the face, that will not change the perception of someone completely unfamiliar with princeton. the average american does not know (or care) how generous princeton is with financial aid – especially because awarding aid does not in anyway correlate to the levels of pretention in its student body. hell, any time you label a school as pretentious it’s ALWAYS going to be based on a stereotype. and it’s not just sticking to princeton, especially if you’ve read this thread and have seen plenty of other schools consistently being mentioned.</p>
<p>there are pretentious kids everywhere… there’ll always be that group of people who think they are entitled to everything. they can be at hyp or a state school. they will exist. and there’s different types of being pretentious. my friends who go to NYU are <em>incredibly</em> pretentious when it comes to things like nightlife and dining in manhattan.</p>
<p>From a friend whose sister goes there… Vanderbilt is supposedly a bastion of girls who fit the died-blond, fake-baked, high-heals-to-class mold. He even showed me a website made by former Vandy students-- something like VandySucks.com. And I’m not being sarcastic. To me, that is like the ultimate worst. I would much rather be surrounded by pretention based in intellectualism than pretention based in physical appearance.</p>
<p>i visited goergetown and it didn’t seem like there were many snobby people…but then again that was just a 5 hour visit…probably diff when you actually stay there</p>
<p>I won’t say Princeton students are pretentious or snobby, but I will agree with those that mentioned its having an unusually hostile/rude admissions office.</p>
<p>Princeton has the most percentage of its class coming from private schools than any other Ivy (I think), so it has a good chance of being pretentious.</p>