Admission difficulty: High

School size: Small

Miles from home: 1,130 mi.
Tuition: $47,000/year

Type of student who goes there: the valedictorians of America; kids who knew what investment bank they wanted to work for before they learned how to multiply; kids who saw the sandbox as a networking opportunity.

Pros: Beautiful campus; great professors; wads of financial aid and funding in general; justification for guiltlessly resting on your laurels.

Cons: Beautiful campus in New Jersey; coursework that’s actually demanding; facing five seconds of awkward silence each time you tell someone you went to Princeton (otherwise known as ‘dropping the P-bomb’).

Surprises: Far more laidback than its reputation — martini consumption and faux Brtish accents are a lot less common than you’d expect; pink pants and popped collars, however, are a lot more common than you’d expect.

Famous alums: F. Scott Fitzgerald; Brooke Shields; Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Samuel Alito; Carlton Banks of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air fame.

Scene: Dominated by the famous eating clubs, which are co-ed frats, of sorts. They are abnormally fond of playing “Sweet Home Alabama” (in addition to a whole library of ‘80s pop hits) at dance parties.

Sports: Consistently good at crew, squash, lacrosse and the like. There are rumors that we have a baseball team ... or are getting one? Who knows.

The Town: Best hoagies and buffalo wings this side of the Hudson River.

Perks: New York and Philly are both an hour away. Annual college reunions that are possibly as fun as college itself. Being able to say that A Beautiful Mind and Across the Universe were totally filmed outside your dorm room.

Juan Carlos Aguirre graduated from Princeton in 2006.