Princeton University Top Questions

You're actually going to need a number of different stereotypes to accurately cover the Princeton student body. 1) Politicians / resume-builders (these are the kids that admission processes are designed for, they are resume building and extracurricular collecting from the day they step on campus, so get the hell out of the way because they need to go feed some homeless people and be back for acapella practice by 9) 2) Athletes (seemed like a healthy 10-15{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of student body, often shockingly dumb and academically under-accomplished, they did spice up the social life a bit) 3) Nerds (socially inept and consumed by their studies, occasionally you will run across them in the library, many you will see only on move-in day, in the paper when they make a nobel-prize winning discovery, and on graduation day) 4) Aristocrats (rich, white, overprivileged, snobby...highest concentration in Ivy and Cottage eating clubs) 5) Minority cliques (Jewish and black being the most notable) 6) Fallen stars (valedictorians of mediocre public schools who proceed to get a good academic @ss-kicking, also the sheltered and overprotected types who taste social freedom for the first time and go way, way overboard, either entering into some kind of weird, abusive relationship or going out 7-nights a week and forgetting to go to class)

There are definitely some people at Princeton who are like this. However, their influence is not monolithic. It all depends on who you hang out with; *which* eating club you go to. I've made several good friends who are the absolute antithesis of the preppy stereotype, as worried as I was about it when I came here. Princeton has changed so much since the pre-coeducation days--now I'm the biggest champion of its prevailing atmosphere of forward-thinking tolerance.

Like all stereotypes, the one about Princeton students being wealthy is rooted in truth, but taken too far. I have friends who are very well off, and I have friends who wouldn't be able to be here if it weren't for 100{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} financial aid. So yeah, the median income among Princeton students is a good deal higher the median for the population at large, but there's a wide distribution as well.

The stereotypes are not totally accurate, but they're also not way off-base. A lot of Princeton students *are* preppy and well-off. When I was a freshman, subscriptions to the J. Crew and Abercrombie catalogs were so ubiquitous that the companies delivered cases of them to the university, and the mail staff simply left stacks of them out instead of stuffing them in individual mailboxes. Once, at dinner, several people at my table left the meal early because they heard the new season's catalogs had just arrived. I wish I was kidding. Of the four people in my freshman dorm room, one was a legacy. She was a self-professed "English major all the way" who once confessed to me, near tears, that she was just SO upset because she hadn't been shopping in weeks and had worn everything in her closet at least three times already. So, those people DO exist and if my (and some of my friends') experiences are representative, they comprise a pretty sizable part of the student body -- though not a majority. However, my other two roommates were interesting, well-rounded people. Three of the four of us were on financial aid (you can guess who wasn't), and one of us was a local New Jersey resident. Over my four years at Princeton, I really did find the preppy part of the culture to be pervasive. Other types are to be found, if you keep an eye out. It is definitely true that some of the people at Princeton are so smart that you fully expect to one day be able to say, "I went to school with So-and-So" as a way to impress strangers. In some ways, students like that are who Princeton is for. It has to be good enough, and flexible enough, to keep those students challenged while not destroying the confidence of the rest of us. I'm lucky to have taken classes with a 15 year-old budding mathematician (who thought it was strange that we found quantum mechanics challenging). And, for the most part, my classmates and friends were brilliant and engaging.

A student at Princeton describes what they imagine the school’s reputation to be, and how much truth there is behind the myth.

I never really encountered the hyper-exclusive/competitive atmosphere that may be attributed to Princeton. I'm sure such uber-competitive people were out there, but they were probably locked away in their rooms plotting new ways to gain an advantage. In my experience, Princeton students generally cared a lot about their classes, grades, and activities, but that oddly didn't breed a competitive atmosphere, at least not one of student versus student. Students were driven to do the best for themselves, not to beat one another. Two possible exceptions: bicker club admission and pre-meds (I can't speak from experience in either case).

Not really. Many of the students are here on financial aid, and those students who are wealthy usually do not talk about it. You would never know they were a Rockefeller or that their father was the CEO of an international company. The pretentiousness is very overrated as well--most students are smart and down to earth--they do not care where you were born as long as you are interesting and intelligent. As for the preppy-ness, there are some days when students attempt to fit the stereotypes (like for Lawn Parties when they dress in pink polos, lobster shorts, and sundresses), but the majority of the time they dress perfectly normal. There are just as many jeans and t-shirt wearers as polo-donners.

Not really, I mean, there are kids that outwardly could be considered either of those stereotypes but it's so diverse here that it would be stupid to think there's a "classic" or "quintessential" Princeton student.

Not really

some people fit that mold, but very many do not.