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And with any Ivy league school, it's not like you the see student body being largely made up of people who live nearby, or in the metro area. People from all over the country and world go to them.
So I think the makeup of the student body is irrelevant. If there happens to be a larger number of New York kids who go there than Philly kids, that's mainly a reflection of NY being a much more populous city, and you'd see the same thing if Princeton was located in Wyoming.
I live in Mercer County, and have for 40+ years. I'm close enough to Princeton that my eye doctor is there, I get my hair cut there, I go out to eat there, etc. If the question is whether the university is an NY school or a Philadelphia school, the answer is neither. It's in a suburban location, and isn't like a college in either city (except maybe Penn and Columbia -- two Ivy colleagues). But if the issue is whether the residents of Princeton associate more with NY or Philadelphia, the answer is absolutely NY.
Princeton is at the northern end of Mercer County. Most of the population growth in the past 20 - 30 years in that area has been from people moving south from the immediate NYC area in search of less expensive housing, but with trains that make the commute relatively easy. Mercer County is on the NE Corridor train line, and has always had direct service into NY Penn. Mass transit into Philadelphia isn't great from Mercer County.
Mass transit into Philadelphia is better further south in NJ, so it's more typical that someone commuting into Philadelphia and living in NJ would be further south than Mercer County. Most people who work in Philadelphia but live as far north of Philadelphia as Mercer County stay in PA, in Bucks County.
Commuting statistics are skewed by the fact that the towns in Mercer County with the largest populations -- Hamilton and Trenton (47% of the county population) -- also have a lower percentage of people who commute into NY than 4%. I'm sure the percentage of NY commuters in Princeton (and a few other towns) is much higher than that, resulting in the county average of 4%.
It's definitely a matter of degrees, though. I live in Hamilton, and I would say there's closer to an even split between NY and Philadelphia-centric people in my town. And if you go a bit further south, you're firmly in Philadelphia territory. My husband grew up about 20 miles south of me, and it was definitely Philadelphia-based.
Does anyone know the demographics of students by state? Seems like that would be very telling.
To a point earlier not sure the student make up will have anything to do with it. Princeton is not a local draw school. It draws people from all over the country/world
Is Bucknell a Pittsburgh, Buffalo, or Philly school? see how silly it sounds to try and tie a school to a metro area?
Lehigh is 45 minutes from Philly, and about 90 minutes from NYC. The school was made up of tons of people from NYC, Long Island, and NJ. and some philly as well. not to mention all the people from around the country and world. Is Lehigh a Philly school? No, it's a Bethlehem school.
The original name of Princeton University was The College of New Jersey--long before Trenton State College co-opted the name.
Originally, it was located in Elizabeth, NJ, and later relocated to Princeton, where many folks (G. Washington included) referred to the school simply as "Nassau Hall", the name of their only building at the time. All of that being said, Princeton University is, and has always been, a New Jersey school--as evidenced by its original name.
Case closed!
Last edited by Retriever; 09-27-2011 at 09:36 AM..
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Quote:
Originally Posted by manderly6
Does anyone know the demographics of students by state? Seems like that would be very telling.
I don't think that it would tell anything. It's an Ivy League school. That would be like saying that if, by chance, U of P or, say Duke had more NY students in a given year that they had magically become NY schools.
Princeton is not a NY or Philly school. It has it's own identity. Philadelphia doesn't try to claim it.
Some of the logic in this thread is weird, in my opinion. Philadelphia has it's own, MidAtlantic, identity. If you go by some of the logic here, what's the next step? Claiming cities in NC as being in the NY metro? There's a lot of NYers in NC cities who work from home, for their NY employers.
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From the standpoint of "marketing" Princeton has not associated itself with one metro area or media market. Rather, it has embraced the "region" and presented itself as being "within easy reach (an hour or less) of major urban centers: Philadelphia and Trenton to the south, Newark and New York to the north. International airports are located in Philadelphia, Newark and New York. Bus and train stations to these cities are adjacent to campus." (Direct quote from their website. See this page.
This is the same tactic that Rutgers - New Brunswick has used for at least 30 years. North Brunswick did it to entice grant monies to put up the technology campus along Route 1 in the Mid-80's. New Brunswick has been called "The Hub City" seemingly forever.
Frankly, Princeton is better off marketing itself as being in Princeton just because of the name. Trying to link to a media market does not help branding unless the market embraces the product. When that happens, then the market drives the connection which is the way it should be. (Certain people on another board I post on can't seem to get this simple Marketing 101 concept.)
EDIT: Retriever gets it perfectly in terms of the history. +1
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