Anonymous wrote:My DC joined an open (sign-in) eating club with a bunch of friends and really enjoyed that aspect of Princeton, but had friends in other eating clubs as well as friends who chose not to join a club. Princeton has a variety of eating/housing options as juniors and seniors including co-ops and apartment style suites with kitchens. The school also makes it very accessible financially for students on financial aid (we are lower-income).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go to Harvard instead.

Harvard has finals clubs, same thing.

Quite different but okay.

Social club with a rush like process were members take meals and throw parties. Seems pretty similar, except some of the clubs at Harvard remain single sex.

Quite different but not getting into it.

DP who attended both Harvard and Princeton. I see two main differences, only one of which would favor Harvard if you were concerned about these clubs.

First, finals clubs aren't quite as big a part of the Harvard social scene as the eating clubs, so they are easier to avoid if you don't want to be part of that scene. But, second, there are no non-exclusive eating clubs. If you want to be part of that scene, that's the only game in town. And the finals clubs seemed significantly more pretentious than the eating clubs, even including the bicker clubs.

Did you mean that there are no non-exclusive finals clubs (at Harvard)? I always thought they were smaller and more secretive than the Princeton eating clubs - like taking the membership at Ivy Club, splitting it into five smaller clubs, and then acting as if membership in each club was a closely held secret. Or maybe I’m conflating the finals clubs at Harvard with the “secret societies” at Yale. It’s hard to keep these WASPy traditions apart.

Some of the eating clubs at Princeton are open to all juniors and seniors, subject only to membership limits based on capacity. And there are other games in town - you can remain a member in your residential college or you can cook for yourself if you end up living in one of the dorms with kitchens or in an off-campus co-op.

Yes, there are no non-exclusive finals clubs at Harvard, unlike Princeton where more than half of the clubs are non-exclusive and anyone can sign up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go to Harvard instead.

Harvard has finals clubs, same thing.

Quite different but okay.

Social club with a rush like process were members take meals and throw parties. Seems pretty similar, except some of the clubs at Harvard remain single sex.

Quite different but not getting into it.

DP who attended both Harvard and Princeton. I see two main differences, only one of which would favor Harvard if you were concerned about these clubs.

First, finals clubs aren't quite as big a part of the Harvard social scene as the eating clubs, so they are easier to avoid if you don't want to be part of that scene. But, second, there are no non-exclusive eating clubs. If you want to be part of that scene, that's the only game in town. And the finals clubs seemed significantly more pretentious than the eating clubs, even including the bicker clubs.

Did you mean that there are no non-exclusive finals clubs (at Harvard)? I always thought they were smaller and more secretive than the Princeton eating clubs - like taking the membership at Ivy Club, splitting it into five smaller clubs, and then acting as if membership in each club was a closely held secret. Or maybe I’m conflating the finals clubs at Harvard with the “secret societies” at Yale. It’s hard to keep these WASPy traditions apart.

Some of the eating clubs at Princeton are open to all juniors and seniors, subject only to membership limits based on capacity. And there are other games in town - you can remain a member in your residential college or you can cook for yourself if you end up living in one of the dorms with kitchens or in an off-campus co-op.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once you join an eating club, do you eat all your meals with the club?
Or do the clubs just host parties and events that members go to?

It’s your dining hall for junior and senior year

What if you want to eat with friends who don’t belong to that eating club? How does that work?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once you join an eating club, do you eat all your meals with the club?
Or do the clubs just host parties and events that members go to?

It’s your dining hall for junior and senior year

Anonymous wrote:Once you join an eating club, do you eat all your meals with the club?
Or do the clubs just host parties and events that members go to?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go to Harvard instead.

Harvard has finals clubs, same thing.

Quite different but okay.

Social club with a rush like process were members take meals and throw parties. Seems pretty similar, except some of the clubs at Harvard remain single sex.

Quite different but not getting into it.

DP who attended both Harvard and Princeton. I see two main differences, only one of which would favor Harvard if you were concerned about these clubs.

First, finals clubs aren't quite as big a part of the Harvard social scene as the eating clubs, so they are easier to avoid if you don't want to be part of that scene. But, second, there are no non-exclusive eating clubs. If you want to be part of that scene, that's the only game in town. And the finals clubs seemed significantly more pretentious than the eating clubs, even including the bicker clubs.

Did you mean that there are no non-exclusive finals clubs (at Harvard)? I always thought they were smaller and more secretive than the Princeton eating clubs - like taking the membership at Ivy Club, splitting it into five smaller clubs, and then acting as if membership in each club was a closely held secret. Or maybe I’m conflating the finals clubs at Harvard with the “secret societies” at Yale. It’s hard to keep these WASPy traditions apart.

Some of the eating clubs at Princeton are open to all juniors and seniors, subject only to membership limits based on capacity. And there are other games in town - you can remain a member in your residential college or you can cook for yourself if you end up living in one of the dorms with kitchens or in an off-campus co-op.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should also be aware that if you send your DD to Princeton and she wants to be part of the bicker scene, she will spending much of her freshman and first semester sophomore year getting drunk and hooking up with the boys in the club she’s targeting. It’s kind of gross in retrospect

This is so patently untrue as to be laughable. Stop spreading lies.

Were you there?

DP. This sounds like one of the clubs (TI) a decade or so ago, but not representative of most clubs or the behavior of most freshmen or sophomore women at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should also be aware that if you send your DD to Princeton and she wants to be part of the bicker scene, she will spending much of her freshman and first semester sophomore year getting drunk and hooking up with the boys in the club she’s targeting. It’s kind of gross in retrospect

This is so patently untrue as to be laughable. Stop spreading lies.

Were you there?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should also be aware that if you send your DD to Princeton and she wants to be part of the bicker scene, she will spending much of her freshman and first semester sophomore year getting drunk and hooking up with the boys in the club she’s targeting. It’s kind of gross in retrospect

This is so patently untrue as to be laughable. Stop spreading lies.

Anonymous wrote:You should also be aware that if you send your DD to Princeton and she wants to be part of the bicker scene, she will spending much of her freshman and first semester sophomore year getting drunk and hooking up with the boys in the club she’s targeting. It’s kind of gross in retrospect