Elite society targets young alumni

Soon after leaving their comfortable campus, Princeton graduates may feel the absence of a crucial part of their undergraduate experience: an intimate social community. Yet as recent alumni scatter across the country, some have sought to maintain the engaging intellectual and social experience they had at Princeton.

One nascent organization for such students is The Ivy Plus Society (TIPS), founded by Jennifer Wilde Anderson, a 2001 Yale graduate.

“I don’t know if I totally appreciated this at Yale, but when you’re at Princeton ... you and all your classmates are all these dynamic, intelligent, incredible people, and they’re just great to engage with,” Anderson said.

“When you leave Princeton you might miss that, and that’s part of the reason for starting [TIPS],” she explained. “It’s to get you engaged with people who are as talented as your classmates are now.”

Boasting a mailing list of more than 30,000 alumni, including numerous Princetonians, the organization hosts monthly events in the four cities where chapters currently operate, Anderson said. In Los Angeles, Washington, New York and San Francisco, roughly 200 to 400 alumni of the eight Ivy League schools — as well as “Plus” schools, which include Stanford, Duke, MIT, Washington University in St. Louis and West Point — gather to network and meet new people. The organization also caters to Georgetown and the New York University School of Law.

Anderson, then-coordinator for the Yale Club of Southern California, founded TIPS in fall 2006 shortly after she moved to Los Angeles. Finding something lacking from the “entertainment-centered social life” of Hollywood, Anderson said she discovered a way to bring together a diverse and interesting crowd.

“I started throwing the parties I wanted to go to,” she explained.

Anderson reached out to young alumni coordinators in Southern California representing schools like Harvard, Stanford and Princeton to get TIPS events off the ground.

John Fitzgerald ’97, who has attended several of TIPS’ New York events, said the society “fills a need” for “multi-alumni events,” referring to the mix of schools represented.

“They seem to get a different crowd each time,” he said. “You see some of the same faces, but there’s also a lot of turnover. You get a lot of fresh faces. It doesn’t seem cliquish.”

Anderson acknowledged that some who hear about the society might peg TIPS as elitist. In the past few months, the organization has received media coverage targeting its selectivity in the prestige of member schools.

“People have definitely been really hung up on the list [of schools],” she said. “It wasn’t a rigorous scientific process, and there’s no way to do a rigorous scientific process, because there’s all different lists for schools. [For] all different lists that rank schools, there’s all different criteria,” she added, noting that the schools included were chosen because they “are consistently academically ranked.”

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Anderson further emphasized the welcoming nature of the group and the positive qualities of its members. “There are many smart, talented people out there who are doing fabulous and interesting things who did not go to Ivy Plus institutions,” she said. “So by no means are we saying this is the definition of being a smart individual. It’s just one way of bringing together a community of these people.”

The foundation of the group is not elitism but rather the idea that people “share some common experiences and networks as people who went to similar institutions,” Anderson said.

“I’ve never said, ‘Don’t come,’ ” she explained. “I have found that the parties are very self-selective. If you think that hanging out with a bunch of Yale, Harvard, MIT and Stanford kids at a club on a Thursday night sounds fun, then you’re probably going to fit right in.”

“People can bring friends ... There’s no ‘Ivy Police’ running around,” she added.

Fitzgerald echoed Anderson’s sentiment, noting that he has met people at TIPS events who did not attend Ivy League schools. “I guess it’s somewhat exclusive,” he said, “but at the same time I’ve met people there who are friends — it’s not like they check your ID at the door.”

To target younger alumni, the events are held at “the hottest venues in town,” Anderson said, explaining that TIPS’ event coordinators “have relationships with all the hottest clubs and bars ... which attracts a lot of young alumni.” Members are mostly in their 20s and 30s, she added.

The parties are professionally planned and run by TIPS contractors, Anderson explained. Though there is no membership fee for TIPS, participants are asked to pay a cover charge of around $12 to $15 for each event they attend.

An important feature of TIPS, Anderson explained, is that its events attract “the whole social spectrum of Ivy [and Plus school] alumni.”

“At Princeton, for example, you have the really social, outgoing people who are super socially assertive and comfortable,” she said. “And then you have these really brilliant, amazing people who might be on the shyer side. And those people are really interesting to talk to and are equally fabulous, but they might not be the first [people] you meet at a party.”

“It’s definitely an environment that’s warm and welcoming,” she added. “I think you … create an environment where the sort of shyer, less outgoing of our peers that we know and love and hung out with in school and in the libraries can have fun and loosen up.”

Recent press coverage of TIPS has focused on the potential romantic aspect of a networking service targeted at young alumni, many of whom are single.

“I had reporters call me asking what it’s like to run a matchmaking service ... It’s not a singles mixer,” Anderson said. “Any party in your 20s and 30s, you’re looking to meet new people.”

“We don’t have any delusions about our loftier purpose,” she added. “At the end of the day, we threw a party, and the parties facilitate social and professional connecting. It’s a great way to meet new people, whether you are interested in meeting new people for business reasons or for romantic or social reasons.”

Yet Anderson acknowledged that TIPS has benefited some members’ romantic lives. “I’ve heard of some engagements coming out of it, some coupling up, some hookups that have lasted a while,” Anderson said. “There are definitely people who are there in couples. Absolutely, there are matchups that come out of it and, well, God bless! We just want people to have a good time, whatever that means.”