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What are you afraid of?
I feel that Princetonians have a keener sense of fear than is typical for young adults. We fear many different flavors of failure: social failure — having no friends, academic failure — performing worse than our peers and professional failure — not achieving career prospects worthy of our institution. It is these fears that drive us to succeed, to socialize and to strive for brighter futures. In addition to being capable enough to have gained admission to Princeton, we might have just been more afraid of not getting in than most students. This extra anxiety over our personal success may have driven us to put in the extra time, to do all of the little things required for a chance at Princeton. Fear is a powerful motivator and one that can compel us to great heights.
Editorial: Lawnparties as a benefit concert
Lawnparties is among Princeton’s most beloved traditions. At the beginning and end of every school year, thousands of undergraduates and guests take to Prospect Avenue for a day of music, preppy clothing and community in a truly one-of-a-kind event. Lawnparties is a great tradition, but the Board believes one step could be taken to make it an even more meaningful experience. The Board proposes that the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students and Undergraduate Student Government make Lawnparties into a benefit concert. Proceeds from the event would go to a charitable organization chosen by consultation between representatives from the USG and the student body.
A view from the minority
I’m a graduating senior, and it looks like a majority of the Class of 2013 enjoyed the Princeton experience. I can say with absolute sincerity that I am tremendously happy for everyone who found great enjoyment at Princeton over the last four years. Still, I am in what must be the perplexing minority who did not.
Welcome home
But Princeton doesn’t feel like home either. While my classmates updated their “current location” in September, it seemed like too big of a step for me, so I let it be, maintaining digital status quo while placing myself squarely between two worlds. I may say “I’m going home” when I mean “I’m going back to the 100-square-foot cinderblock cell that houses my bed,” or jokingly (as I did four weeks ago) refer to Icahn labs as a group home for Integrated Science students, but there’s something ever so slightly off about calling anywhere in New Jersey home.
Editorial: Spring rush
Majority: Last year, the University announced a new policy regarding Greek letter organizations on Princeton’s campus, forbidding freshmen to take part in any activity sanctioned through these organizations. The rationale given by the University was that Greek organizations isolate students from meeting people outside their organization and are dominated by ...
Manic delight
In an especially dark section of a letter to his younger brother Zooey, J.D. Salinger’s Buddy Glass writes, “I can’t be running back and forth forever between grief and high delight.” This sentiment is one I have come to understand in my final days at Princeton. I grieve that I ...
Not knowing everyone
Maybe it really is a fundamental ideological difference between the icy cold North and the warm, warm South, but I found coming to Princeton refreshing. The thing about small town America is that it’s only cute in indie movies and worn-out romance novellas.
The P-word
Put simply, privilege allows some people to walk around safely and comfortably without having to worry about, or even think about, how they are perceived. They can be ignorant to the reality that the rights and benefits they receive are not universal. In terms of race in the U.S., the benefactors of privilege are white people. White privilege does not stop outside the FitzRandolph gates — it creates inequalities in experience on Princeton’s campus.
An introvert's insight
My extroversion experiment lasted about two months before inevitably the novelty of nights out at eating clubs and excessive drinking wore off. I gradually returned to my natural, more reserved self, but not happily. For a large part of the next two years I blamed myself for feeling self-conscious or bored when in the large party environment every week, finding flaw with myself for feeling tired, for not wanting to get drunk and for judging others disdainfully to soothe my own insecurity.
Negative action?
Last month, Princeton University only offered 7.29 percent of its applicants a spot in the Class of 2017. With many qualified candidates and few spots, the question of how to stand out is constantly an issue. There are the factors that we view as in our control — such as extracurriculars or grades — but we recognize that the uncontrollable — namely race — is also taken into account. To the many who believe that college admissions should solely reflect one’s academic ability, the concept of admission based on the uncontrollable is unsettling.
Letter to the Editor: Regarding "Playing sports, choosing concentrations"
If one would study all of the diverse co-curricular and extracurricular "affinity groups" on campus, I expect that one would find a different pattern of concentrations in the majors declared among those respective groups. Indeed, diversity of thought and cognitive abilities is what contributes to an exciting intellectual environment.
Editorial: On-campus discipline for sexual assault
Sexual assault is unique among cases requiring on-campus discipline. The physical evidence in these cases rapidly deteriorates or is completely unavailable, and often the only witnesses are the victim and the guilty party. Such a dynamic makes it difficult to meet the current standard, since it is hard to accumulate enough evidence to meet the high burden of proof. This likely has the effect of discouraging students from pursuing claims of sexual assault in front of the Committee on Discipline because they feel that they will not be able to prove their cases.
Inclusion
In many ways, the University’s moves toward diversity are more reactionary than progressive. Instead of being as inclusive and representative of the population as possible, diversity on campus seems to target specific groups deemed important. As the categorization of different groups as marginalized changes in the public conscience, the University scrambles to demonstrate inclusion of that group.
Letter to the Editor: May 6, 2013
With no exception, students and faculty participating in these three events were overwhelmed by her grace, her gentle sense of humor, her persistent interest in the students’ aspirations and her encouragement for them to serve the world. She exuded wisdom, humanity and love of life. She was my inspiration and mentor. I loved her and shall miss her wisdom and gentle encouragements.
Multicultural obligation
I realized the enormous weight of America’s future that had always been looming over the shoulders of our generation. But contrary to my father’s claims, the burden of reaching racial harmony is not just for blacks; it is shared by Latinos, by Asians, by whites, by both minorities and majorities and by us all as we continue to define what it might mean to be American in the 21st century.
Letter to the Editor: May 2, 2013
“Class Council will provide a full refund” read the expected email I received the next afternoon, along with the 39 other forgotten freshmen, whose days of preparation, weeks of anticipation and hours of travel culminated in a spectacular view, from the pier, on a clear, New Jersey night, of our class cruise setting sail for the New York harbor.
Editorial: On P/D/Fing COS 126
The board understands the great difficulty that the Department of Computer Science must go through to provide these well-administered courses to so many students. However, we believe that even if COS 217 and COS 226 are to become no-P/D/F/ courses, the P/D/F option should at least remain for COS 126.
Faking nonchalance
Plenty of other people talk about how they spend hours procrastinating and not accomplishing anything, but meticulously finish math homework nearly a full week ahead of schedule. It has almost become a competition. The person who does it all — goes to parties, has a billion extracurricular activities, goes on Imgur and YouTube 24/7, and still gets perfect grades — wins. This facade of nonchalance is what we deem “cool,” even though actual nonchalance is at odds with academic achievement.
Jumping ship: (Not) giving credit where credit is due
Just days earlier, I was forced to reject an internship offer because, due to University policy, I could not receive academic credit for it. My heart sank as I read an email that stated that the company of interest could not offer me a position if I did not receive academic credit for my work — “otherwise we would hire you as an intern in a heartbeat,” they said.
Hating and loving Princeton
I encourage you — in whatever arena of campus life you feel it — to fervently hate the problems with that aspect of Princeton so that you can usher in a better Princeton down the road. Let your hate be motivated ultimately by an abiding love for Princeton that drives you to make it the best place it can be.
Thank you to the peanut gallery
When I first came to Princeton, my mother showered me with the routine barrage of advice, ranging from remembering to get a decent amount of sleep to cleaning my room before I had a precept of dust bunnies under my desk. However, one piece of advice stuck out to me as particularly strange. “Lauren,” she told me, after perusing Princeton’s web-based materials, “promise me: Whatever you do, don’t write for The Daily Princetonian.”
To not being remembered
I often tell the story of how a club I helped found commissioned me to put together a logo, which I did at 2 a.m. one random morning. That became the official symbol of the group, and it stuck, and now it is on all of our folders and stickers and pencils and posters. I like to say that after hundreds of hours working on my thesis and thousands of hours devoted to theater on campus, the only thing that will outlive me here is an early morning creation with MS Paint. And though I like this story, I don’t think it’s true at all — that’s not all I’ve left here.
Woody Woo or bust
I began the fall semester as an engineer, but I soon switched to A.B. and promptly set my eyes on joining the Wilson School. However, the more I thought about what major I wanted to choose and which classes I wanted to and needed to take, the more I realized that choosing WWS is a risky path to follow, especially for those of us who really don’t have any idea what we truly want to major in. Now that admission to the department is non-selective, it becomes even more important that prospective social science majors truly think about why they are choosing to join the Wilson School.
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