Getting Grub
The Princeton social scene almost defies description. During the first few weeks, you and your 15 new friends from your RCA group, OA trip or whatever else will probably spend a lot of time chasing phantom room parties, hosted by various student organizations . . . or random sophomores celebrating their new-found nonfreshmen status.
After a room party or two, your group may decide to walk out to the clubs on Prospect Avenue. Street life consists of the 10 active eating clubs, large mansions that, during the day, feed 75 percent of Princeton's juniors and seniors (the rest join the Brown, 2D or international food cooperatives, take on upperclass dining plans, or go independent). On Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, many of the clubs host parties, which often include DJs, bands and theme parties (there is bound to be an "'80s Night" on any given night). During Orientation Week, however, the clubs are closed to all students. While this may seem unfair, it's because the University wants to introduce your class to other social options. Now take a deep breath: it's actually a good idea. What with all the cafés, theaters, ice cream shops, common-interest student groups and free events on campus, there's a lot to see, and a lot you'll miss out on if you spend your college years clutching plastic cups filled with fizzy beverages. And for the freshmen who are not interested in the party scene: go back and read that last sentence again. There really is lots to do here, so don't panic if you feel like you're surrounded by crazy people. It won't take you long to find your niche, once you start looking.
In any event, The Street will open to freshmen at Lawnparties, which happen the first Sunday after classes begin. Every club gets a band or two, and thousands of students get dolled up in their preppy best and walk up and down The Street listening to music, playing volleyball, throwing Frisbees, catching some rays and just generally having fun.
Eating Clubs
The eating club system started in 1879, when a bunch of guys rented Ivy Hall on Mercer Street. Several years later, Ivy Club was born. Its descendants have served as culinary and social hubs of University life ever since -- much to the chagrin of University presidents like Woodrow Wilson, who thought they made for unnecessary divisions within undergraduate social life.
The clubs serve meals to upperclassmen during the day, and they are where lots of people go each Thursday and Saturday (and some days in between) to hang out. Note that financial aid also covers eating club dining costs. If you wish, you can become a member of an eating club at the beginning of the second semester of your sophomore year. Some clubs are sign-in clubs, which means membership is obtained simply by signing up while space is available, and other clubs are "bicker" clubs. Bicker is like rush for a sorority or a fraternity in that there is an application process. Note: Fraternities and sororities are not recognized as student organizations on campus.
If you decide you want to join a club, you should get to know each one before choosing (there's no hurry . . . this is really something to leave for second semester or sophomore year). Although you eat and spend time at one club, joining a club does not exclude you from going to others. Each eating club has a personality. Terrace Club, for example, is known for being especially friendly to alternative lifestyles, while Tower Club has often been considered to have the most political junkies. F. Scott Fitzgerald described several in his semi-autobiographical novel "This Side of Paradise":
"The upper-class clubs, concerning which he had pumped a reluctant graduate during the previous summer, excited his curiosity: Ivy, detached and breathlessly aristocratic; Cottage, an impressive mélange of brilliant adventurers and well-dressed philanderers; Tiger Inn, broad-shouldered and athletic, vitalized by an honest elaboration of prep-school standards; Cap and Gown, anti-alcoholic, faintly religious, and politically powerful; flamboyant Colonial, literary Quadrangle."
It should be noted that these stereotypes no longer hold true -- in fact, with half the members graduating every year, the clubs change emphasis and style fairly quickly.
Some clubs are freshman-friendly, meaning you need only your PUID to get in at the door. Other clubs may require a pass, which is a single-use ticket obtained from a club member. Remember -- you're looking for a club that is right for you, not for the entire Princeton population. And if no club is right, or if the entire club scene is just not your thing, there are other options available to you. Such as . . .
Co-ops & Independent Life
As you'll probably figure out, much of Princeton's social life revolves around food, so it's not surprising that the counterculture of people who aren't crazy about the clubs tends to form a culinary counterculture as well, in the form of small, tight-knit communities surrounding old-fashioned communal kitchens. The most organized of these are the two venerable "food cooperatives": 2D (vegetarian) and Brown (unabashedly carnivorous). Students in the co-ops take turns cooking meals, and all sit down to dinner together, family-style. 2D even has a house on Dickinson Street all to itself (#2 . . . thus the co-op's name), and members have been known to do things like grow their own vegetables, brew their own tea and generally gleefully ignore the preppy side of Princeton life. Fall 2009 also marks the beginning of the International Food Co-op (IFC), featuring food from all corners of the world. Because the co-ops don't hire staff or throw weekly parties, they cost a tiny fraction as much as the eating clubs.
Outside the co-ops, Princeton sports a significant number of "independents," or students who manage to survive by either doing their own cooking, or by living at Frist, Panera and the Wa. Most independents draw into Spelman Hall (the funky-looking dorm by the Dinky), which offers four-person suites with private kitchens.
Drawing Back into the Residential Colleges
Upperclassmen also have the opportunity to draw into the four-year colleges, Butler, Mathey and Whitman. The University is funneling a ton of money into the residential colleges and their dining options, bringing in renowned chefs for the dining halls and offering wine-tasting events (only for the 21+ crowd), in addition to the plethora of benefits the residential colleges already offer. In order to draw into the colleges, students must either purchase a block meal plan or take advantage of one of a handful of combination eating club-dining hall plans. Even juniors and seniors who do not continue to live in a residential college may return to their college for two meals a week.
