This has come up multiple times in multiple threads when discussing the comparative strength of a city's higher education options. Basically there are three schools of thought here; some believe Princeton University is a NYC area school, others a Philadelphia area school, while others claim it is not strongly influenced enough by either city to be considered either.
The facts in this discussion have often been misstated and so I will provide some relevant information here to aid you in your discussion.
Princeton University is located within Mercer County, NJ. Mercer County New Jersey is part of the NYC Metro Area. This means that more people commute from Mercer County to the NYC Metro than to Philadelphia Metro. However the vast majority of the people in Mercer country commute to neither city. Only 3.66% of the people who live in Mercer County commute to NYC. (source:
Mercer County, New Jersey Economic Profile)
There has been much debate over which city Princeton is closer to, NYC or Philadelphia.
If you're going by straight distance from the southwestern corner of Princeton University's campus to the closest point in Northeast Philadelphia the distance from Princeton to Philly is 22.795 miles. That is barely closer than the distance the far northeastern corner of Princeton's campus is from the very tip of Staten Island: 23.134 miles.
Straight distance from Princeton to each city's city hall shows that Princeton is considerably closer to the center of Philadelphia than it is to the center of NYC(although obviously the center of NYC is much more up for debate, I think this is generous center to be picked for the purpose of this debate). Philadelphia's City Hall is located 37.367 miles away from the southwest tip of Princeton. New York's city hall meanwhile is located 41.998 miles away from the northeast tip of Princeton.
Now obviously you can't drive in a straight line from Princeton to these places so using google maps the driving distances from the closest points of each city to the closest points of Princeton's campus shows that NYC is barely closer by road than philadelphia. 29.7 miles to 30.8 miles. However it takes longer to drive to NYC than to philly, 44 min to 40 min.
Driving from Princeton to downtown NYC however is considerably longer and more difficult than driving from Princeton to Downtown Philadelphia. It's 51.3 miles to NYC and takes 1hr and 13min to get to NYC's city hall whereas it's only 45.3 miles from Philly's and takes 58 minutes.
Keep in mind these times are from google maps and do not take into account traffic. EDIT: Also please note that the route to philly I mistakenly posted the wrong map, with this one ending in eddington, pa instead of philly. This is literally across the street from philly however, add .1 of a mile and one minute of driving time to philly's numbers if you wish.
By train it is easier to get from Princeton to NYC using regional rail as an NYC regional rail line goes all the way to Princeton whereas Philly's stops in nearby Trenton. However it is quicker on Amtrak to go from Princeton to Philly than to NYC; 34 minutes to 46 minutes. So to sum up the distances. Princeton University is physically closer to Philadelphia than to NYC, although just barely. By road, NYC is barely closer, but this advantage is lost by the fact that it takes longer to drive to NYC. Princeton is closer to Philadelphia's Center than NYC's by a considerable margin. It's quicker to get to NYC by regional rail, but quicker to philly by Amtrak.
Honestly though in the end what really matters is what people who live in Princeton identify themselves
Again though the influence is cloudy. Mercer County according to the folks at Nielsen Media Research, is squarely in Philadelphia's Media Market and so many with satellite/cable providers in Princeton give only Philadelphia Television stations. However some providers offer both stations. If you're still going by broadcast most people can get both city's stations. With the exception being NYC's CBS station which some can't get and Philadelphia's FOX station which some can't get.
In radio it's the same story. In most places you can get stations from both cities but Philly's come in stronger. Trenton also has a few of its own stations, which lean much more towards philly news and sports than NYC considering Trenton's very close proximity to Philly.
As far as print media goes, mercer has it's own option with the Trenton Times - which leans much more philly heavy than NYC. However it's easier to get NYC print media than philly print media... although this undoubtedly has something to do with nyc print media's ubiquitous presence throughout the entire northeast.
Sports teams certainly trend strongly toward Philly throughout mercer county. However Princeton being closer to NYC than most of mercer county does have a considerable amount of Devils fans... and to a lesser extent Nets... and even lesser extent giants, jets, or most rarely of all, yankees or mets fans.
Also to be considered is that mercer is in many ways it's own area with Trenton at it's center. Trenton is less than 15 miles from Philadelphia though so Philadelphia's influence is very strong.
So in summary Princeton is virtually right in the middle of NYC and Philadelphia. It receives influence from both. Which city do the people of Princeton identify with more however? NYC? Philly? Neither? Obviously opinions of people who actually live in Princeton would be very sought after and relevant.
(credit to kidphilly for providing me with a source for some of the commuting statistics.)
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