Princeton University

"Fields medalists are nothing out of the ordinary at Princeton—you sometimes find yourself seated next to three or four of them at lunch!"

"Princeton is a wonderful little spot, a quaint and ceremonious village of puny demigods on stilts... Here the people who compose what is called society enjoy even less freedom than their counterparts in Europe. Yet they seem unaware of this restriction, since their way of life tends to inhibit personality development from childhood."

"Transforming hereditary privilege into ‘merit,’ the existing system of educational selection, with the Big Three [Harvard, Princeton, and Yale] as its capstone, provides the appearance if not the substance of equality of opportunity. In so doing, it legitimates the established order as one that rewards ability over the prerogatives of birth. The problem with a ‘meritocracy,’ then, is not only that its ideals are routinely violated (though that is true), but also that it veils the power relations beneath it. For the definition of ‘merit,’ including the one that now prevails in America’s leading universities, always bears the imprint of the distribution of power in the larger society. Those who are able to define ‘merit’ will almost invariably possess more of it, and those with greater resources—cultural, economic and social—will generally be able to ensure that the educational system will deem their children more meritorious."

"In brief, Princeton is a wealthy, private, research university of high standing with a long history. It is located in a largely affluent suburban community that is home to a number of highly educated people associated with knowledge-intensive institutions such as ETS (Educational Testing Service) and the Institute for Advanced Study, as well as Princeton, Rutgers, and other colleges and secondary schools. The university is residential, operates at a relatively small scale, and is highly selective at both undergraduate and graduate levels. The undergraduate college was all male until it became coeducational in 1969—a change that occurred a few years earlier at the graduate level. It has a famously loyal (some would say "fanatically loyal") alumni body."