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E-PrinceLast week, I signed into Cloister Inn. My membership in Cloister provides me with 200 new people to know and befriend, a good alternative to the monotony of Princeton dining hall food (Dining Services gets an “A” for effort, but ...
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so true!
Oh yeah, the Caribbean Connection dance was very lively, if you know what I mean. In case you were wondering, yes I am referring to the fact that police had to mace the crowd.
Second of all, a lot of current students have not had to earn their place here, thanks to affirmative action and need-based financial aid.
Third, I agree that co-ops are great, they're organizations made by students for students and embody one of Princeton's great qualities - the ability of students to create and run organizations which are more than just your average Mock Trial Club. On the other hand, co-ops are essentially primordial Eating Clubs anyway, they just lack the resources of the eating clubs.
Finally, Ms. Rutherford's comments are laughable. You don't have to conform to the Princeton stereotype to fit in at Lawnparties, just as you don't have to enjoy the taste of blood to wear a vampire costume at Halloween. If you don't like Lawnparties, that's cool, don't go.
I thought this was going to be about the Quintessentially Princeton posters w/ the squirrel portrait. I'm disappointed.
So let me see if I understand this: because I received a good amount of need-based financial aid, I somehow did not "earn" my "place" at Princeton? In other words, you are arguing that those who can afford to pay full tuition - through no success of their own, let me point out, but rather the good fortune of their birth - are the most deserving of a Princeton education? Someone with, say, 1500 SATs and a high school GPA of 3.0 whose parents can afford to pay the entirety of a Princeton education should be accepted to the university over an individual from a poor family with 2300 SATs and a high school GPA of 4.0? Boy am I glad that I did not go to the Princeton you envision. But then, I guess I would not have been allowed at the Princeton you envision...
Also, if you can explain to me how an 18-year-old who has had everything provided by his parents and whose college tuition can be afforded by his parents has somehow "earned" his spot, I'd appreciate that.
cringing at this sentence choice: "More disabled, though even more capable."
This may be the single most worthless paragraph ever printed in the Prince. It spends 1/5 of the entire column saying literally nothing. Kind of like the rest of this drivel; what, precisely,is the point of most of the words here? The complete lack of underlying structure here appalls me.
"Many Americans harbor a 1920s boy’s club image of the University. It is an image that a few still try to recreate (see “ ‘Stereotype threat’ negatively affects students” in Tuesday’s ‘Prince’), but it’s not the way most of us “dress,” anymore. We are far more colorful now, drawing from every imaginable background. We are more Evangelical, but also more atheistic. More gay, yet also more outspoken about sexual conservativism. More brainy, but still just as brawny. More disabled, though even more capable. We are male and female. And as the spectrum of our identity becomes increasingly broad, and the differences between us more immediately apparent, we’ve become empowered to act as ourselves, instead of how Princeton students are “supposed” to act. Accordingly, we patronize the events that cater to us. Consider this: Just as lively as eating club formals this year have been a head-bangers ball, a drag ball, and the Caribbean Connection dance. Thursday through Saturday, nighttime entertainment events have consistently sold out."
I really don't see how that paragraph is useless. It contributes to the article insofar as it comments on the transition from the typical, quasi-homogenous group that Princeton students comprised in the past to a more diverse and "colorful" group. The paragraph argues that we've transcended the image of a stereotypical Princeton student. I certainly would not call it worthless "drivel." Why don't you give it another read.
@@L:
Sure, allow me to explain. I am not saying that Princeton shouldn't accept people solely based on intellectual merit - that's why I despise affirmative action as much as I do.
First of all, let me explain why need+grant-based financial aid is one of the dumbest policies the university has ever taken on. According to Google, ~50% of Princeton students are on financial aid, average aid package is around $32k per year, and the estimated overall cost, counting tuition, room, board, books, and expenses, is around $50k. All things kept equal, Princeton would cost a total of $34k per year with no grant-based financial aid. That essentially means that, out of the $50k my family pays per year, roughly $16k of that goes to making sure that somebody whose family hasn't contributed as much value to society (I define 'value to society' to mean the amount of money or assets one has earned through free trade) can go to Princeton. So I ask you: what gives you or anyone on financial aid to go to Princeton on my parents' hard-earned money? I'm not saying financial aid is a bad thing, I'm just saying that it should be merit-based and in the form of loans, so you don't penalize the families who have worked hard to send their children to a good college in order to help families who haven't done as good a job at that.
Secondly, the combination of affirmative action and need+grant-based financial aid is especially deadly, because for some reason the University has decided that it is a good thing to accept people who are poor and have demonstrated less academic merit in some ill-fated attempt at 'diversity', which means that those who pay full price are quite likely funding the Princeton careers of people who don't even have the intellectual capacity to take full advantage of a Princeton education.
yay TwoD!
L, I can assure you that your family's money isn't going to pay for other student's tuition. You sound like a huge douche bag for assuming it does.