Should I Go To Princeton University

Should I Go To Princeton University The tutors behind Varsity Tutors are not just here to teach theyre sharing their college experiences as well. Sanjiv is a graduate of Princeton University with a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering. He is an Austin tutor specializing in SAT prep tutoring, Calculus tutoring, Geometry tutoring, and more. Check out his review of his alma mater: VT: Describe the campus setting and transportation options.How urban or safe is the campus?Are there buses or do you need a car/bike? Sanjiv: Princeton is located in the quaint little town of Princeton, NJ. The campus itself is beautiful, with trees lining the sidewalks and gothic architecture overlooking everything. The campus is very safe, and Public Safety can always be seen patrolling the campus spaces. There are very convenient bus lines to take you to nearby malls, and most restaurants are right at the edge of campus, so I knew very few students who had cars or needed one. We have a train station right at the end of campus as well, to travel 90 minutes to NYC. VT: How available are the professors, academic advisers, and teaching assistants? Sanjiv: Professors and advisors are very available, as the student-teacher ratio is very small. There are usually about 6,000 undergrads at Princeton each year, and class sizes are usually small, around 20-30 students, so you get a lot of attention even before going to office hours. Anytime you want to meet with a professor or TA, they are more than happy to meet with you, and you will often learn as much from an office hour session than the class session itself! VT: How would you describe the dorm life rooms, dining options, location, socialization opportunities with other students? Sanjiv: It is actually mandatory for students to live on campus for all four years, so you dont need to think too much about housing options! This enables students at Princeton to really get to know each other in their undergrad years. Housing is divided into five to six different colleges (Butler, Forbes, Rocky, etc.), in the same way that Harry Potters Hogwarts is divided into several schools of witchcraft! Each college has its own set of dorms and dining halls, each with its own personality and points of pride. The dorms themselves are very clean and top-notch, and dining options are often tasty. This kind of dorm life is amazing, and your freshman year, you will be absolutely certain to make tons of friends in your dorms. VT: Which majors/programs are best represented and supported?What did you study and why? Did the university do a good job supporting your particular area of study? Sanjiv: Princeton is often categorized as a liberal arts school, so its no surprise that its top majors include English, History, and Biology. However, Princeton is very much an undergraduate institution, and does not have many graduate programs; for this reason, you can be absolutely certain that every department is top-notch (for example, the Physics and Math departments are world-famous). I studied Electrical Engineering, because of my interest in robotics. The Electrical Engineering department is great, and is top-10 in the country. Like many departments, it is small (less than 100 students per year), so I was able to get a lot of attention, and have my pick of thesis topics in my senior year. VT: How easy or difficult was it for you to meet people and make friends as a freshman? Does Greek life play a significant role in the campus social life? Sanjiv: As a freshman, it is extremely easy to make friends, partly because of the mandatory on-campus housing rule. Everyone is friendly and you soon figure out that the admissions office has brought together people of entirely different and amazing backgrounds, so everyone wants to find out each others story! I highly recommend becoming involved in clubs/organizations/sports as a freshman because you will meet many awesome friends for those four years. There is not much Greek life on campus because fraternities/sororities are not recognized by the university; in place of that are institutions called eating clubs, which are not technically Greek, but serve the same functions (hosting parties, charity events, etc.). VT: How helpful is the Career Centerand other student support services?Do many reputable companies recruit on campus? Sanjiv: The Career Center is helpful in your junior and senior years for preparing for internships and job interviews. However, I would highly recommend the following instead: find an upperclassman or professor who is studying/working in the field you want to work in, and ask their advice on how to get where they are. The Career Center can you give you general advice, but a person in your field of study can give you specific advice on how to pursue that career. Very reputable companies come to recruit on campus in the fall and spring, especially to recruit for internships. Its not uncommon to be recruited for internships as early as your freshman year. Examples include Google, D.E. Shaw, investment banks, etc. VT: How are the various study areas such aslibraries, the student union, and dorm lounges? Are they over-crowded, easily available, spacious? Sanjiv: The study areas are almost always easily available and spacious. Right before exams, many students will be spending the night at certain study lounges in the student union, so its not advisable to wait until the night before to stake out a space! The dorm lounges are a great place to study, as some serve food even late into the night. VT: Describe the surrounding town. What kinds of outside establishments / things to do are there that make it fun, boring, or somewhere in between?To what extent do students go to the downtown area of the city versus staying near campus? Sanjiv: The surrounding town of Princeton, NJ itself has many restaurants and clothing shops (J. Crew etc.), but as far as theatres or nightclubs, there are very few. The Princeton social life exists 1) on campus, and 2) in New York City. While there are always lots of fun events to attend on campus, many times, students will head to NYC for the weekend. In your freshman year, the dorms will sponsor group trips and very discounted tickets to see plays on Broadway. VT: How big or small is the student body? Were you generally pleased or displeased with the typical class sizes? Sanjiv: The student body is quite small, about 6,000 undergraduates, and perhaps a few thousand graduate students. Class sizes were always relatively small, about 20-30 per class, so I could always get help and get my questions answered when needed. One important thing to consider, however, is that because the student body is so small, it can take some time to find your social niche. So, in one respect, bigger schools have that advantage over Princeton. VT: Describe one memorable experience with a professor and/or class. Perhaps one you loved the most or one youregretthe most. Sanjiv: Once, in a math class, during a lecture on game theory, the professor mentioned the contributions of John Nash, the protagonist of the film, A Beautiful Mind. A few hours after the class was over, my friend and I were standing in the elevator when Professor John Nash himself walked in. We froze, as we wanted to ask him something, but didnt know what to ask him that would be worth his time. He seemed very engrossed in a paper he was reading, so we didnt ask for his autograph. There will be many times when you dont know whether to treat someone like a professor or a celebrity! Check out Sanjivs tutoring profile. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Varsity Tutors.

The Good Persons Guide to Office Politics - Introvert Whisperer

Introvert Whisperer / The Good Person’s Guide to Office Politics - Introvert Whisperer The Good Person’s Guide to Office Politics Like a lot of people, I used to think Office Politics was only about people who played dirty with each other. They were people who would smile and be friendly while figuring out how to undermine your efforts and make you look bad. The rest of humanity did their best to stay under the radar while the mud-slinging was taking place. With all of the nuclear fallout, it’s often difficult to not be impacted in some way. I discovered that, like many things in our society, we tend to notice the most outrageous, obnoxious examples of something and ignore the rest. Is It Possible That Office Politics Is Not Always Bad? In a word: YES! It’s important to understand that “politics,” no matter if it’s office politics, exists all the time whenever you assemble a group of people. I’m sure that’s a shocking revelation. Let’s look at what Politics is, why it’s important to understand and how you can play it well without turning into a person people avoid. I think you’ll change your opinion of it. In its simplest form, office politics is about building relationships in order to achieve some kind of end result. It’s how things get done and it’s done 100% of the time on all jobs. Our jobs are always dependent on our interactions with others. Also, when I say “jobs” or work, it doesn’t have to mean paid work, either. If you belong to a neighborhood association, parent-teacher organization or volunteer, all of those things have no income but there is still politics going on. Any time you get a group of people together, a dynamic soon forms. Generally, it starts with a person seeking to influence others to do something. That isn’t a bad thing most of the time. People need to sell others on their ideas most of the time in order to get them to give their resources. Those resources can include money, time and skills. In the workplace, we influence people to support and take action on everything from helping with a project to promotions. In other words, Office Politics is a constant. Once you start paying attention, most of the time Office Politics is taking place and when it is positive we either don’t notice it or call it something nice like “group harmony.” What Makes This Important to You? Office Politics happens all the time and it happens as a result of the relationships each person forms. Some people think that all they should have to do is show up, do their work and go home. They think they shouldn’t have to befriend people at work. Those people are the ones who are most damaged by office politics, because no one at work is there to support them and that is a huge problem. You can’t function like that. No one is autonomous, ever. You have to think of yourself like a cog in a watch, each cog interconnecting with others in harmony to make the watch tell time. If you aren’t “meshing” with others, you create problems for them and you. Sooner or later, you will feel like you’re working in a hostile work environment. It’s almost a primitive reaction that when a person doesn’t fit in a group, the group wants the outlier to either integrate or leave. It may seem like people are then playing dirty office politics with you as the brunt of what is transpiring. When I say you put your career at peril is because the situation I’m painting means that you not only won’t get vital support and information to perform your job well but people can openly want you gone. Clearly, none of that inspires a desire to promote you, no matter how skilled you are. It’s all connected, it won’t be fun and your career will crater. What Do You Do? Easy-peasy. You form good working relationships with people around you at work. This includes the boss and other people in management. Many people are too intimidated by management to feel like they can form a relationship with them. If this is you, you need to snap out of it. Management didn’t instantly show up as management. They are regular people like you who simply have a different job as you. They most likely had to put in the time and demonstrate some capability so they would get promoted. To be “awe-struck” by management does nothing for you, your career or the other person. The reason why forming good work relationships is easy is that you come in contact with a number of people routinely to get your work done. You may be so focused on your work that you ignore the few extra minutes it takes to connect at a personal level. If you’re like a lot of introverts, getting personal may have its challenges. The easiest way to start developing a relationship with a coworker is to show interest in them by asking questions. Start with the work they do and progress to interests they have outside of work. A vital part thing of getting to know the other person is to learn what is important to them professionally. (Like this thought? Tweet it!) Build Trust When you can understand where a person’s priorities are, you’re better able to support them. When you offer support to another person, it can be a gesture that will solidify your relationship and trust in you. Trust is a funny thing. For the most part, we trust each other but only up to a point. From there, our actions dictate if we endow the relationship with more or less trust. When our actions demonstrate that we have the other person’s interest in mind, the level of trust goes up. On that basis, the Office Politics is formed. We support and promote people we trust. People we trust are positioned to influence our decisions and actions. When we don’t penetrate the superficial nature of simply working at someone’s side, we don’t allow trust and understanding to form. You have to dig deeper and then show the other person you understand what’s important to them. Positive vs. Negative or Dirty Everything I’ve outlined is true no matter if the politics is positive or negative. What makes Office Politics negative is when actions and decisions are made at other’s expense. Positive Office Politics happens when it is done for the benefit of the business and in support of others. This means that even if some people are building trust and support of one another, the influence that is transpiring may be to advance one person’s objectives while destroying another person’s in the process. It doesn’t have to end up this way, but people who are jealous or competitive only see one possible outcome and that is to push back others as a means of advancing. I personally like to think that people who act like this will have karma visited upon them. I hope by this point you have discovered what I did: Office Politics is all around us and you can either play it well or be crushed by it. The fun thing to recognize is that it’s all about the relationships you form, and who doesn’t need another person in their corner? Go to top Power-Influence-Office Politics: it comes down to your Strategic Relationships and understanding of how you build each one of these elements. I want to help you accelerate your career by connecting you with your Free Instant Access to my video that outlines all of this and meaningful actions you can take today!  Start watching now by clicking here! Brought to you by Dorothy Tannahill-Moran â€" dedicated to unleashing your professional potential. Introvert Whisperer What’s your understanding of Office Politics? Let’s discuss in the comments. Image: Flickr