Princeton University

Princeton is an extremely welcoming school with excellent professors, students, and faculty members. I am wrapping up my first semester here, and I have had the time of my life...I really wish that time would just slow down and I could be here for the rest of my life. It's a work hard, party hard kind of place.

Because Princeton doesn't have any professional schools, it really is the case that they focus a massive amount of resources on undergraduate education. The course load is very demanding. Actually, it's essentially impossible to complete all assigned readings for every class. But the small class sizes, precept system, and dedicated nature of the students around you make it a workable model. Also, the distribution requirements encourage students to explore in all areas. Everyone I know has had some experience where they took a class completely out of their comfort zone and had gained amazing new academic exposure, and because Princeton is so focused on undergraduates many introductory courses are taught by the best members of the faculty. For example, I am a politics major but I took an introduction to molecular biology that was taught by a Nobel Prize winner. With such a diverse student body, world-class professors, and endless opportunity for activities outside the classroom, a Princeton student is hard pressed to find a moment where he or she is not learning in some capacity.

The classes are definitely extremely challenging, but after taking a summer class at Pace (a local Westchester private college), I am really missing the pace of Princeton classes and how intelligent my peers are.

Princeton is really the best of many worlds - it's a liberal arts college with the resources of a big research powerhouse; it's close to the city but is surrounded by a quaint town; it's 'academic' and Ivy-like, but also knows how to have fun. This is a place that will stretch your mind and challenge you like never before, in a way that's surprisingly exciting. The beautiful campus and storied history also make it impossible not feel proud about being a Princetonian.

Princeton has a beautiful campus! The students are friendly and hardworking. You definitely have to work hard to get in!

Princeton was my life dream, two months in I have no doubt I made the right choice. I have met so many unique, passionate, and amazing people. My classes are very challenging, but engaging and fun.

Being at Princeton feels a lot like winning the lottery on a daily basis. The people are incredibly interesting and I'm being challenged like I've never been challenged before. It's a place for those who love to work hard and play hard.

You will work harder than you have ever worked before but you will take away one of the best educations America has to offer. The environment is highly conducive to learning; your peers are motivated, every lounge and common room is a potential quiet study area, the professors are brilliant and care about their students. My computers' professor told me that he wished he didn't have to assign grades, since the important thing was learning something, not performing well on a test. That said, there is a LOT of pressure to get good grades. Widespread grade deflation doesn't help. Many students find their motivation to learn transformed into motivation to keep up their GPA. If this happens, you'll continue to take in an astonishing quantity of knowledge in an astonishingly short amount of time, but you will have a smaller soul. Resist the pressure.

Princeton is challenging and the content of what we learn is relavent to life. There is no other place I'd rather be. The wealth of networking and level of academics has been worth the work to get here!

Possibly the most exclusive college in the world, with fantastic academic resources for students' academic endeavors.