Work hard, play harder

Introduction
You had better be able to sit and work, but to leave your work when it's time to play. Princeton emphasizes communal dining for a reason: you need to be social. Those few people who really just want to study and be left alone will not have a good experience.

Important to remember is that Princeton also expects you to be able to enjoy yourself under pressure. The best parties are often during, if not just before, exams. You need to be able to budget your time to have fun. That said, you can have lots of fun. I graduated summa cum laude and I never missed a single party, save one my junior year, and I still feel bad about that one.

Campus Life and Social Life
Weekends are great, and they are campus contained. Parties are thrown generally at the eating clubs, though in the future they might be to some extent in the Residential Colleges. The clubs are better: they are open to everyone, they have ample dancefloor, taproom, standing around area, and many have terraces for when the weather is nice. Everyone is welcome.

Sports-wise, people will only go to a game if it's against a big opponent (ie Harvard or Yale). Otherwise, they usually don't check it out.

You'll mostly work during the daytime to have free time at night.

Everyone lives on campus off shared hallways. It's great, you really get to know your peers, and you really get to share your lives with them. Advertisement
Academics
All departments are superlative. You are lavished with attention. Literally. With the exception of Paul Krugman, everyone is accessible.

You can learn about the history of the CIA from its former Inspector General, Fred Hitz (Class of 1961).

You can learn about Economics from the former Vice-Chairmen of the Federal Reserve, Alan Blinder (Class of 1967).

The Wilson school is particularly good if you want to do public service. They paid for my research-related trips to Lisbon, Vienna, and Brussels.

Student Body
Princeton is diversely drawn from across the US. Unlike other Ivies, the New York community is not overrepresented, and significant efforts are made so that the South and Midwest are represented in the student body (a frequent failing of northeastern schools).

Some say the school has a southern feel, but this is just due to the fact that southerns can attend without being made to feel unwelcome, as they are at peer institutions.

Princeton students are not angsty. If you have angst, go someplace else. They do not dye their hair and chant "down with the man!" Yet the truth is that Princeton has an active liberal and conservative community. If you ask why no one protests, they'll laugh and say "Because I'd rather get my work done, and go on to a job where I can actually change things instead of ranting and raving for no good reason."

This is the Princeton ethos: don't fight the man, take his job and do it better. Princeton students are told from the beginning "You are important and you are destined to do important things." Everyone there and everyone who went there wants to see you climb to great heights and offers to help you do so.

That changes the way you operate in so many ways.

In Closing...
Princeton is not for the faint of heart. You have to want it all: social, smart, and enthusiastic.

If you get in, you are part of a family that will take care of you forever and will always help you succeed.

Do not pass up this opportunity for anything.