<p>Eating clubs, as far as I know, are limited to Princeton. The vast majority of students belong to one the the ten, and although it generally costs $1000-2000 more than a meal plan does, students on financial aid get financial aid for joining the clubs.</p>
<p>The ten clubs are housed in mansions on Prospect Avenue, and they are entirely supported by alumni trusts. Generally they have very good food, but there is only one club where students sit down and are served by waiters (Ivy Club). There’s also Tiger Inn at the opposite end of the spectrum, which serves cheap food like hamburgers and hot dogs all the time because the rest of the money goes to funding heavy partying (which is to be expected, as Tiger Inn has lots of football players/contact sport athletes.)</p>
<p>The clubs are not exclusive at all – even the most exclusive of them takes 50% of the applicants, and half of the clubs are non-exclusive. There’s no social “ranking” for them – being a member of a sign-in club has no negative stigma. People generally just join whichever clubs have likeminded people, or whichever ones their group of friends join. All of the clubs are open to anybody on Thursdays and Saturdays (the party nights). Students often just go from club to club until they find a party/DJ they like.</p>
<p>The mansions on Prospect Ave, where the clubs are, are mostly just clubhouses. They usually have small libraries, computer clusters, pool tables, a small theater, and volleyball courts. Students hang out there to eat, study, and chill. Most of the clubs also use club funds to sponsor lawn concerts (which are open to everybody) – some of the recent artists invited were Lifehouse, Maroon 5, Third Eye Blind, and Vanilla Ice.</p>