A Townie's Guide to Attending Princeton University
Written: Jan 07 '00 (Updated Jan 11 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Intellectual Heaven.
Cons: Esoteric Hell.
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| MK2K's Full Review: Princeton University |
A Review of Princeton University and Princeton, NJ
I love New Jersey. I love New Jersey so much I lived there for four years. I love New Jersey so much I'm going back some day, no matter how many years it takes off of my life. I love Princeton, NJ so much that I wrote a book that takes place there. I love the surrounding area so much that most of my books take place in there.
However, Princeton University is another matter all together.
I lived in West Windsor, NJ from 1993-1997, which put me in the category that Epinions does not list: townie. I was a townie of Princeton, and I am writing this as a warning to prospective students at Princeton: humility is a virtue.
The town of Princeton, NJ will raise your IQ by a good ten points by the time you leave. If you survive it intellectually, you may earn the bragging rights that half of the students that come into Princeton have. If you don't survive it, no one will blame you… the atmosphere is tough.
Princeton provides for plenty of student activities. From the theatre at which "Our Town" was initially performed (I'd translate the Latin inscription on it from memory if I remembered how to translate Latin), to the Garden Theatre's two-screen art-house atmosphere, to MacWaber books on Nassau street, the town offers everything that an intellectual would or could hope for.
What, you ask? No coffee?
Oh, we've got coffee. Princeton has so much coffee that there are 17 coffee shops in a mile-and-a-half radius of the school, not including the number of cafes, bagel stores, restaurants (I recommend "The Annex", but to each his own). The athletic facilities at the school are very nice (I should know, an ex-girlfriend always let me in), the dorm rooms are decent, and the cafeteria at the nearby Seminary offers slightly better food and much more polite service. Access to the NJ Transit station is able to take you to Princeton Junction and from there on to New York City should you choose to spend a day that way.
Don't bring a bike, because someone will steal it in about thirty seconds. I went through four different bikes while living in Princeton, each one stolen. My fifth and final bike I paid friends to guard. Cross Nassau, Mercer, Alexander, and Canal Pointe as if you were running for your life… we have the doubling rule for speed limits and the cars come out of nowhere. There is a nearby canal behind the development Canal Pointe that provides for great jogging. There is also a nearby mall, my old haunt of the Princeton Marketfair (sorry, guys, it's just "Marketfair" now).
But whatever you do, learn to go to the Starbucks, and learn to go fast.
The culture in Princeton is what makes the town Esoteric hell. Everyone who goes to the University thinks that they are smart, and thus they will act arrogant. You will find, often, that the average townie has audited classes at the University, has spend their entire life learning second hand (and minus the huge tuition daddy is paying) at the University, and should you act smarter around one of them you will be put in your place.
Advice: Intellectually, Princeton is a town of pack hunters. Stay with a group of smart people or keep humble, or else you get marked.
Other advice for the prospective Princeton student: do not claim that you are an author (even if you are). A lot of women around Princeton KNOW that's a pick-up-line and won't stand for it. Also, the radio station WPST features a lot of free giveaways, and the local Sam Goody will price you until you bleed for CDs, so adopt the phrase "When in Rome…" FREELOAD.
You'll learn a lot from living in Princeton, both in and out of school. It's worth it if you get the chance.
Good luck, be smart and act stupid, not the other way around.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
MK2K
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Member: James Brundage
Location: Kent, Ohio
Reviews written: 400
Trusted by: 147 members
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