All but one eating club filled to capacity following Bicker and second-round sign-ins, signaling strong demand for club membership in the first year in which the four-year residential college system has been in place.
The selective clubs admitted a total ...(back to the article)
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Wait, since when has Cap been known for having the rich, beautiful, or refined?
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There are two interesting phenomena to explain both Tower's consistently high bicker numbers (and thus consistently low acceptance rate) and its particularly skyrocket numbers this year. First, unlike the other 4 Bicker clubs, Tower actively recruits bickerees. For one, Tower is the only Bicker club that advertises bicker with flyers across campus (reminiscent of flyers Quad puts up). While Cap, Cottage, Ivy, and TI all have sophomore nights or dinners, they are no match for Tower's multiple dinners, cocktail parties, sophomore study breaks, and most glaringly as "I'm True Blue" alluded to: Tower's four huge bicker parties--which we must not forget the club spends over $6000 on every year. Of course, this is for better or for worse, and one should make the case the Cottage, Ivy, Cap, and TI SHOULD spend more than the few hundred dollars they do on the bicker process--Bicker and the continued tradition of admitting new members being perhaps the clubs most important event of the year--it must be taken into account that they truly only recruit by word of mouth. Though Tower still offers the friendliest and most emotionally safe bicker process, an interesting thought experiment would be to see Tower's numbers after a year in which their pre-bicker events were as mundane as the other 4 club's few events. This comparison either speaks of Cottage et al's appeal to sophomores despite lack of publicity, or to Tower's desperate efforts to attract bickerees. I'm sure Tower would still have more bickerees than available spots, but their numbers would certainly be low--if not for that fact that a good number of those who Bicker hadn't set foot in the club before the first pre-bicker events. Given the amount of money Tower spends on bicker, no wonder its the only Bicker club that openly and proudly boasts its Bicker numbers--as if its trying to prove something. Secondly, this year the whole Street has seen particularly tough legal action and many clubs have had to act accordingly regarding Thursday and Saturday nights. As a result, several clubs changed their entrance policies and became much more difficult to get into for underclassmen. Cottage and TI were on tap less, Colonial has had issues since the spring, Terrace went members only more times than I can remember in 3 years here, and Cap practically abolished passes, instituting some new members-sign-you-in system, which from what a member has told me made it harder for people to come on a saturday night whim, and especially harder for freshman and sophomores, who know fewer members, to get in on the weekends. Aside from being on pass more than it historically has, Tower’s door policy did not really seem to change. As a result, sophomores not wanting to join mostly freshman at Quad and not willing to jump through hoops to get into Ivy, (which has been known to go on pass even when they’re not on tap) were left with Tower as the most accessible club for non-members. Of course many other clubs still offered their members consistent full-party-access, the options for non-club members were definitely limited this fall. While on one side this speaks highly of Tower, my point is only to say that sophomores did not get the same exposure to Cottage, TI, and Cap as in years past, and that they might have been a little over-exposed to Tower as being a place to fairly easily get into--the Quad for Sophomores. I theorize that as a result of these policies, Cottage, TI, and Cap saw significant declines in bicker numbers. Though my intention is not to hate on a club that I have known and loved for a good portion of my time at Princeton, I will end with a final thought that I think transcends the arguments raised about current and past trends. Compared to the other bicker clubs, Tower stands out as the only one of the five that consistently loses members to other clubs--not just to the 4 year colleges. Last fall, for example, at least 3 members of Tower dropped it for Cap, and this spring, at least 1 member dropped it to successfully bicker T.I. Moreover, in the time I’ve known Tower, more than I can count have left it for Terrace and I’ve even known one to swap to Cloister. The reverse, however, is rarely true. I’ve never known or heard of someone swapping from another bicker club to Tower, and almost all that get into Tower as juniors or seniors have either been hosed from Tower at least once, or have been hosed somewhere else on the street (read: their first choice club). 217 bickerees might be a lot, but where Tower stands out among the five in its ability to obtain members, it also stands out among the five in its inability to retain members. That, perhaps, is a more sobering truth than a 48% acceptance rate.
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There is a palpable perception -- perhaps it's only based on what little manages to filter out beyond FitzRandolph Gate -- of a notion among some segments of the campus population that, if a sophomore expects to get hosed in any event, then Tower is THE club to bicker, just for the experience. I'm not saying the notion is right -- nor, by any means, that it is wrong! And perhaps the totality of the campus environment obscures the impression. But if I've noticed it, regardless of its validity, there must be others who have the same perception. It would be interesting to develop a feature, based on interviews with anonymous hosees, as to their impressions, "after the fact."
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Ole School Dec Alum: they apparently pushed it back to 2010. Apparently, this is far from the first time that the club's return has been pushed back.
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what's the word on Cannon? I thought it was supposed to be ready for '08 bicker?
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The preoccupation with selectivity on this campus is disgusting. Even Nassau Hall constantly reminds us by hosing people from Woodrow Wilson and Orange Key. We're a great members club, and have enjoyed tremendous popularity because of our relaxed and friendly bicker process/club culture. But to be fixated on the question of "selectivity" is foolhardy. Every club's bicker pool and membership is self-selecting to a degree. And some students do participate in bicker, simply to have bickereed a club rather than signed in. But to say that pejoratively discounts the many advantages of being a bicker club. When we accepted 104 new members I knew something about each one of them, and could refer to them by name, even if they had no clue who I was. Tower's a bigger club then some, so others might argue that there are more tight-knit communities on the street; however, the bicker process does help to bring us together as a club, and does help create a feeling of inclusion for the new members. I think in such arguments we all lose sight of the fact that membership at any club, holistically speaking, is an amazing thing. Ten mansions for us to eat in, study in, party in. Anyone who judges someone based upon which of these mansions they hang out in really loses sight of how lucky we are.
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Hey now, everyone stop your hating on Tower. The true reason why we got 217 bickerees this year is because we're a great MEMBERS club, offering the best food and formals plus frequent, awesome members-only events. We've also been packing the club almost every Thursday and Saturday all semester--not just at our January bicker parties, where we would have to go members only by midnight. Moreover we've been improving in all these areas and I think that's reflected in this year's bicker round. Finally, of all the bicker clubs, Tower is the hardest to stereotype, although of course everyone tries regardless. Theater and acappella are probably the most prominent groups, but they are still minorities in a well-mixed soup of Kappas, AEPis, class presidents, Mock Trialers, Whig-Cliates, Prince editors, Rhodes Scholars, Princeton Faith in Actioners, Ultimate Frisbee players, Club Soccer members, Dancers, Press Clubers, College Republican officers, USGers, OA leader-trainers, and a smattering of everything else imaginable.
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Hey, how come charter is so popular this year? What changed? I also love how, despite everyone having friends at most of the clubs, the nitpicky hilarious stereotypes of each club persist.
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I just think it's hilarious that Charter is going to end up hosing more people than two or three "selective" clubs.
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Yeah I think we need to remember that each and every club (but especially the bicker clubs) has its share of stereotypes and stigmas. You can't take potshots at Tower for having tools unless you're willing to concede that your own club (whatever it may be) is in fact well known for its drunkards/cokeheads/airheads/etc. You might think you're rich, beautiful, and refined, but that translates easily enough to snobby, stuck up, and arrogant, and might explain why not very many people want to bicker your club. Regardless of what you need to tell yourself in order to justify the way you act, having money and/or being pretty does not actually make you better than other people.
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Why don't you all go finish your schoolwork instead of this bullshit? Or have a beer at any of the clubs. These comments will seem really clever when you can't find a job, getting hosed from "Employment Club."
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The main reason Tower is comparatively easy to get into is the size. The 'Colonial Plus' effect comes from that extra 40 people. The grad board remembers the lean years of the early '00s and wants to stock up on money while it can. If only 65 people were admitted per year, and a lot of us wish it were that way, membership would largely mirror the other bicker clubs, albeit with fraternities and sports teams replaced by a cappella and Triangle. (If that sounds like hell, just think about having to sit next to a sea of Pi Phis or KAs every meal. No thanks.) Hopefully people will stop bickering just to bicker--10-15 people at minimum will end up dropping the club by next fall. But as long as people see the Tower admission process as unthreatening and fun, they will continue to give it a shot.
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Many bicker Tower do so for the sake of bickering an eating club. Most members only know a few of the bickerees, and the ones that get in are either marginally more fun than the others or are members of Triangle/theater. Most selective alright...
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I think that what I'M True Blue said is probably correct, but he's kind of a stuffy jerk for directly pointing this out. He should also not limit his analysis to TI because the same could be said of Ivy, Cottage, and Cap. By the way, 'selective' means very different things: for tower is means the ability to impress their particular membership, whereas for TI it means the ability to fit into their cesspool of an alcoholic wasteland, etc etc etc for every other club. The few that still fit the typical definition of selective (rich, beautiful, and refined) seem to be only Cap, Cottage, and Ivy.
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Even with Tower hosing more than half the kids who bickered, it's still lamer than TI and really cannot be considered the most selective club in the sense of who and what the club is. The only reason why so many bickered Tower is because way more people with no shot of getting in bicker there than anywhere else, seeing just how lame so many of the current members are and thinking that based on that they must be cool enough to get in. Also, the club does a really good job of having parties in January that are way better than 99% of the nights during the year and of encouraging people to bicker by making it totally non-selective and not self-selecting to decide to bicker. TI has the opposite problem. The bicker there is so harsh that no one wants to do it unless they're pretty sure they're gonna get in.
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lolololol TI is about as selective as Charter.
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