Your dorms are locked prior to move-in day. You’ll need an inside man, somebody doing Outdoor or Community Action or sports, to help you get in.
In Hamilton Hall, you’ll need to climb two small flights of stairs to get to just the floor with rooms. This makes moving a challenge. Especially if the doors are locked.
There are three Marriott hotels near the Princeton campus. Make sure the one you book is the one you want.
The whole campus is crowded. Parking on the streets is a challenge and not the fun type where you rescue the girl from a giant, angry tortoise.
There’s no air conditioning in Hamilton Hall no matter what the news article in 2003 says. Bring a 20-inch fan and thin bed sheets.
The shower room in Hamilton Hall is three segregated cubicles, no lockers.
The 235-meal plan implies you have to eat at a non-dining hall location approximately times every two weeks, which is not the most convenient thing in the world. I recommend the unlimited plan.
If you are on the 235-meal plan and you live in Mathey, you have prime access to the grocery U-store where you can buy sandwiches, scallion pancakes with soy sauce, and other small meals for $8 or less. Muffins are a bargain at $1.25.
Plan on using cardboard boxes or a suitcase as another table, or bring portable shelves.
If you wear glasses and you’re sleeping on an upper bunk, a tiny, stick wall hook is nice so you can hang a bag for your glasses.
If you can identify Clio Hall (big, white marble building) and the Chapel (gigantic church), you can navigate a good 20% of the Princeton campus—the northeastern part where most of the residential colleges are.
If you can identify Nassau and Washington Road, you’ll be able to travel to the west and the south parts of campus where the engineering buildings are located.
If you can identify and stay on Elm Road—a harder task than it seems due to the narrow road, the low-level traffic, and the narrow, uneven sidewalks, you can move down to the rest of the campus. Finding Clio Hall is the key to finding Elm Road.
There’s a path in front of Clio Hall and Whig Hall, but the really convenient path is behind them. It’ll lead you to Friend Center, the Engineering Quadrangle, the Architecture Building, the Art Museum, and a small path to the Frist Center.
To the right of the Clio/Whig streets is a diagonal street that leads toward Frist Center and Fine Hall. Use it.
Use the free time during orientation to memorize the campus. It’ll come in handy.
In Fine Hall, a room number of 1201 means it’s on the twelfth floor, not the first.
Course readers and other services are available from the University’s printing service, Pequod. It’s located on the second floor of the grocery U-store, where they also sell furniture. Imagine that.
Lewis Library books are not located in the new Gehry building. Instead, they’re located in the Biology Library or in the Math/Physics Library in the basement of Fine Hall. What.
The Fire Safety people prefer power strips to extension cords. You can’t prop doors open, ever ($25 fine). You can’t hang mirrors on any doors but the closet doors.
The printer behind the Mathey library is under the name of “Madison.” It jams, sometimes. All Princeton printers are free unless you print an obscene number of pages in a week.
Fine Hall 110 is in the Taplin Auditorium building for Some Reason.