Princeton University

I visited Princeton University this weekend, where several of my sorority sisters and I were invited as dates to Winter Formal at an eating club. Along with our formal dresses and heels, we also brought our pong paddles to show our Princeton counterparts a good clean time post-formal. At first some members of the eating club were seriously opposed to pong (with paddles), but we soon had a crowd of boys in tuxes and girls in dresses watching, with people lining up to get next on table. We daughters of Dartmouth are very altruistic -- spreading free fun and cheer wherever we go.

I always think it's extremely interesting to visit other schools, especially ones which I seriously considered attending or at one point was convinced was the perfect school for me. In this case, I fell in love with Princeton's Gothic peaks and sun-dappled stone facades when I visited the campus in 9th grade -- it was the first college I visited as a prospective student, not counting the requisite Harvard University visit at an unreasonably young age.

The age and experience differential in returning as a college senior (for the first time since visiting as a high school freshman), not to mention actually staying with and speaking with Princeton students, offers a vastly different perspective, and I can now confirm to myself that it was puppy love back in 9th grade. Although I couldn't imagine any forward-looking 9th grader not falling in love -- the campus is gorgeous, the word Princeton rolls off the tongue, and F. Scott Fitzgerald is an alumnus. Not to mention the small and bright student body, small capped classes, undergraduate University focus, and other reasons that translate directly from the list of why I love Dartmouth.

Comparing the social and academic atmospheres of Dartmouth and Princeton -- and even Cornell, which I visited earlier this year -- is an enlightening exercise. I've ascertained that there is a lot of eating club-derived social pressure at Princeton that requires a level of foresight, planning, and anxiety (in one's social life alone!) not as necessary at other schools. Also I can confirm that we generally enjoy life (party) MUCH more at Dartmouth.

I had a wonderful time this weekend, very much enjoyed the company of the people I met, and would love to visit Princeton again... but I am so, so, so happy I went to (go to) Dartmouth.

P.S. Also, I played 'beirut' for the first time in my 21 years of existence. Some things take time.
P.P.S. This weekend, I met three Princeton students who had visited Dartmouth before, and two of the three experienced being arrested by Hanover Police during their brief visits (for underage intoxication). What does this say about ... everything?

Cloister Inn, an eating club on The Street

Whitman College at Princeton University

 

Newly completed in 2007

Some excerpts from a 2007 NYT article:

F. Scott Fitzgerald, a Princeton alumnus, offered a primer on the distinct character and social standing of the clubs in his 1920 novel, “This Side of Paradise.” He pegged the exclusive Ivy Club as “detached and breathlessly aristocratic” and Tiger Inn as “broad-shouldered and athletic, vitalized by an honest elaboration of prep-school standards” — both descriptions that could apply today. Fitzgerald was a member of the University Cottage Club, “an impressive mélange of brilliant adventurers and well-dressed philanderers.”

While not every eating club is easily defined, many have established identities that attract like-minded members. The Cap and Gown Club is said to attract athletes, though swimmers and rowers (“floaters and boaters”) favor Cloister Inn. 

And the best one:

"Tiger Inn — often called Princeton’s “Animal House”..."