Princeton instituted its residential college system 20 years ago to provide students with a friendly, personal environment to help smooth the transition to University life.
The residential colleges — Butler, Forbes, Mathey, Rockefeller and Wilson — supply students with dining options, places for studying and relaxing and opportunities to pursue athletic, artistic and political interests.
Students pay a social fee to their colleges along with their tuition, and colleges provide special events such as study breaks and trips to Broadway shows and sporting events at discounted prices. Perhaps most importantly, each college provides its students with laundry machines that are free to use.
Randomness
Incoming students are randomly assigned to one of the five residential colleges, which are spread around campus from Butler near Poe Field on the southern part of campus to Rockefeller along Nassau Street to Forbes, part of which is literally in a separate zip code.
Both men and women live in the same colleges, and most hallways and entryways are also coed. The bathrooms are single-sex, however.
The colleges usually fall into three categories, dictated by geography: "Rocky-Mathey," "Butler-Wilson" and "Forbes." That's right, just Forbes.
Students may eat at their individual college cafeterias or at any of the other colleges'. While dining hall food is often subject to jest, dining services has tried to improve its image by changing its name from DFS to PDS to PUDS, hiring outside chefs for special dinners and refurbishing the serveries with grills, bread warmers and flashy white tile.
These efforts have been somewhat successful, but be prepared to consume large amounts of bagels, cereal, frozen yogurt and rice for lunch and dinner. If nothing else, complaining about the food makes for easy conversation with fellow freshmen.
After two years of residential college life, most students opt to live in upperclass dorms, while a small number decides to live off-campus. Most students join an eating club for daily meals, while some go "independent" or choose one of several other options.
Each college has resident adviser groups in which an upperclass student — the RA — acts as the leader of a freshman support group. Some of your best friends for at least the first weeks of school will likely be found in these groups.
To oversee academic and administrative matters, the colleges also have a master, a director of studies, faculty fellows and peer academic advisers.
Study close to home
Butler, Wilson and Forbes have their own libraries, while Mathey and Rockefeller colleges share the Laurence Rockefeller '32 Library.
College study breaks consisting of bagels, buffalo chicken wings, Thomas Sweet's ice cream and other delectables regularly provide students' brains with much-needed sources of energy.
Hoagie Haven study breaks are occasions for mild hysteria. Get there early and be aggressive.
Intramural athletics foster spirit within colleges as students compete in sporting events against other colleges, upperclass eating clubs, graduate students and various student organizations. Among the sports offered at each college are basketball, field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball, volleyball and ultimate frisbee.
The colleges all have certain quirks that you'll get to know well.
Wilson is known for its pink brick buildings, which contain some of the largest suites on campus. Wilson freshmen can look forward to the opportunity to draw into the "Zoo" or the "Cuckoo's Nest," for example.
Wilson's facilities include a ceramics studio, photo lab, the "Black Box" theater and a darkroom. The Julian Street Library in Wilcox Hall is a popular study space 24 hours a day.
Butler College's dorm rooms are infamous for their waffle ceilings and cinder block walls — that is unless you're lucky enough to be placed in 1915 or Walker halls.
Wu Hall, the main facility at Butler, houses a brightly lit dining hall, lounge, TV room and game room. Butler also has a fitness room complete with rowing machines and stationary bicycles.
Originally a hotel, Forbes College — formerly known as Princeton Inn College — boasts carpeted rooms, many of which have private or semiprivate bathrooms.
A $3-million renovation endowment from the Forbes family converted the former hotel into a residential college possessing a theater, cafe and country club-style dining hall.
Mathey College, noted for its Gothic architecture and vertical entryways, provides its students with a darkroom, spacious TV room, game room and music practice rooms.
Rockefeller College shares a number of Mathey's facilities, such as the Rocky-Mathey Library. Rocky has perhaps the most impressive dining hall on campus, but be prepared to take the "walk of shame" if you arrive alone and cannot find someone to eat with.
Two Rocky dorms — Witherspoon Hall and Buyers Hall — were recently renovated. The other, Holder Hall, will begin its renovation next summer.
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