Princeton University Top Questions

Those people exist, but so do lots of other kinds of people. I think Princeton doesn't have a lot of socioeconomic diversity, but you'll certainly find students with a spectrum of backgrounds and views.

People are generally well dressed which I actually find extremely nice. The vast majority of students are liberal although there is a conservative stronghold on campus, which is also very nice. It provides great balance and support for the minority of students.

On the whole, I would say these stereotypes are inaccurate. Are there people who are preppy, wealthy, and elitist? Yes, but what Ivy League school or any major college in America doesn't? Princeton is definitely not conservative, though we do seem to be more politically apathetic than maybe some of our liberal peer schools. Princeton is way too diverse and has way too good of a financial aid program to be stereotyped as white and rich. I'm willing to bet that for the average applicant to Princeton, Princeton will be much more ethnically, geographically, and socioeconomically diverse than his or her high school. More than 50{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the student body is on financial aid, and I believe Princeton has the highest proportion of African-American students among the Ivy League. However, it's true Princeton students are smart. Some are huge nerds, and some are extremely hard workers. Everyone here is a hardworker for the most part, and I don't think it would be inaccurate to say that Princeton students are generally very intelligent, hardworking, and high achieving Type A people.

All of them are true of some Princeton students, but certainly not all--Princeton is actually incredibly diverse in absolutely every way. But 75{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the campus still wears Northface fleeces and rainbow flip flops.

Not everyone is freakishly smart by any means. There is a ton of money on campus - I'm not sure how many people at state schools can start rattling off names of heirs who are their classmates - but just because you are wealthy doesn't mean you are snobby. Most people on campus are nice and not snobby. It's a few people who can give the place a bad rep, but you find that everywhere.

There are many spoiled rich white kids and nerds are Princeton, but that does mean everyone fits that stereotype. There are many people who can't believe that some of my friends and I went to Princeton. Obviously, for a variety of reasons, we don't fit that stereotype.

If a stereotype had no accuracy, it wouldn't be a stereotype. Princeton is a university that houses some of the most privileged children in America. Are they all a bunch of pricks? Definitely not.

As with any stereotype, they came about for a reason, but I would say that the stereotypes of Princeton hold no more weight than the stereotypes of other institutions. Yes we have a lot of preppy kids, yes people are pretentious, yes most of the engineers are Asian, but that happens.

I did not feel that the students were pretentious overall, however, there definitely were groups of people that were elitist. Also, I only felt like people were competitive in certain classes, namely introductory classes for pre-meds. Overall, I thought that students were really helpful and were willing to work together to complete assignments and to study for tests.

While the stereotype definitely holds true for a good portion of the students here, it certainly does not define everyone. The type of person you're going to find mainly depends on what social circles you interact with- and those circles are generally quite distinct with little overlap.