Princeton: Behind the Academics
Departments bond over pizza parties, keg races and dinner parties
LIZ INKELLIS
Issue date: 9/12/05 Section: Princeton
If you look around Princeton's campus on any given day, you will find a shocking number of giant holes. New construction projects are seemingly continuously being started as Shirley Tilghman's plan to create "academic neighborhoods" becomes a reality. Through the new clusters of related academic buildings and the new four-year residential colleges, Tilghman hopes to create a more community-like feeling on campus.
But for some of Princeton's students, such a close-knit academic community already exists. As seniors hand in their theses, many participate in communal activities virtually unheard of at other schools, such as wearing thesis t-shirts, attending departmental parties, and perhaps most famously, jumping in the Woodrow Wilson School Fountain. Some Princeton departments, however, started to bond long before thesis crunch time.
Operations Research and Financial Engineering [ORFE] major Lauren McKenna '07 explains that engineers get a head start on bonding because they declare a major so early-in the spring of freshman year. "The ORFEs are definitely bonded," McKenna stated. "Because we had to declare our major last spring, we have been taking departmental and requirements together for three semesters now." The majority of ORFEs take at least two to three classes together per semester and see a quite lot of each other. McKenna continued, "we definitely have weekly (occasionally nightly!) problem sets groups. I wouldn't be able to survive without the help of my fellow students. In addition, we have been looking into doing some social activities together. A keg race against the MAEs [Mechanical and Aerospace Engineers] has been suggested, but has yet to come about. I'm definitely looking forward to it!"
MAE Steve Savin '07 cited the difficulty of the material in his department as the reason for why MAEs seem to get along so well. "The day a problem set is due, there will usually be at least five or more of us sitting in the MAE lounge collectively working on the problem set until we're done," Savin commented. "It's a very cooperative atmosphere rather than a competitive one." MAE Kait McNichol '08 added, "we definitely have department pride. There was an MAE kegger on Friday that apparently was pretty crazy…"
But for some of Princeton's students, such a close-knit academic community already exists. As seniors hand in their theses, many participate in communal activities virtually unheard of at other schools, such as wearing thesis t-shirts, attending departmental parties, and perhaps most famously, jumping in the Woodrow Wilson School Fountain. Some Princeton departments, however, started to bond long before thesis crunch time.
Operations Research and Financial Engineering [ORFE] major Lauren McKenna '07 explains that engineers get a head start on bonding because they declare a major so early-in the spring of freshman year. "The ORFEs are definitely bonded," McKenna stated. "Because we had to declare our major last spring, we have been taking departmental and requirements together for three semesters now." The majority of ORFEs take at least two to three classes together per semester and see a quite lot of each other. McKenna continued, "we definitely have weekly (occasionally nightly!) problem sets groups. I wouldn't be able to survive without the help of my fellow students. In addition, we have been looking into doing some social activities together. A keg race against the MAEs [Mechanical and Aerospace Engineers] has been suggested, but has yet to come about. I'm definitely looking forward to it!"
MAE Steve Savin '07 cited the difficulty of the material in his department as the reason for why MAEs seem to get along so well. "The day a problem set is due, there will usually be at least five or more of us sitting in the MAE lounge collectively working on the problem set until we're done," Savin commented. "It's a very cooperative atmosphere rather than a competitive one." MAE Kait McNichol '08 added, "we definitely have department pride. There was an MAE kegger on Friday that apparently was pretty crazy…"