The social scene in Princeton

quirkily
Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:15:23 +0000

jt (this means you, amnesia),
i feel like this probably is not the place to be discussing the specifics of the bicker processes of clubs.

to the op,
as a (somewhat) shy, nerdy, (very) liberal, california public-school raised kid, i’m starting to find my place here at princeton. to be completely honest, princeton isn’t dominated by people like you (or me). there’s a solid theater/arts community (theater, musical theater, a cappella, dance, music) on campus, which a lot of people are a part of. if you’re not involved prominently in that part of campus life, it can be a bit difficult. however–and i think this is something that everyone should realize–princeton is a diverse enough place that there ARE people that you will like, and there ARE people that you will become awfully close to. as a social minority, it may be a bit harder, but it will happen if you want it to.

re: the eating clubs. you’ll hear from some people that the clubs affect your life only as much as you want them to, and from others that they dominate the social scene. in my opinion, neither of these things are true…you can control how much they affect your social scene to an extent, but they’ll be a presence on campus no matter what. since sunday-wednesday aren’t party days/nights to begin with, you won’t be involved with the clubs at all during that time. a sizable portion of students do go out on thursday/saturday, however, so it would be a little misleading to say that they have no effect on the social scene. if you have friends that don’t go out, then you won’t be affected, but by and large, you’ll know a few people no matter what that do.

that said, i would urge you to give the clubs a fair chance if you don’t like the sound of them now. i personally came in to princeton heavily biased against the eating clubs, and only decided to join a sign-in a couple of weeks before we had to decide.

and of course, feel free to pm me if you have any other questions!