Eating Clubs at Princeton University

Eating Clubs At Princeton University

The eating clubs at Princeton University are private institutions resembling both dining halls and social houses, where the majority of Princeton upperclassmen eat their meals. Each eating club occupies a large mansion on Prospect Avenue, one of the main roads that runs through the Princeton campus, with the exception of Terrace Club which is just around the corner on Washington Road. This area is known to students colloquially as "The Street." Princeton's eating clubs are the primary setting in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1920 debut novel, This Side of Paradise, and more recently, the clubs appeared prominently in the best-selling 2004 novel, The Rule of Four.

Princeton undergraduates currently have their choice of eleven eating clubs. Six clubs—Cannon Club, Cap and Gown Club, Princeton Tower Club, The Ivy Club, Tiger Inn and University Cottage Club, —choose their members through a selective process called "bicker," involving an interview process, though the actual deliberations are secret. Four clubs – Cloister Inn, Colonial Club, Quadrangle Club, and Terrace Club – are non-selective "sign-in" clubs, with members chosen through a lottery process. Charter Club chooses its members through its own system of weighing applicants. While nearly three-quarters of upperclassmen (third- and fourth-year students) at Princeton take their meals at the eating clubs, the clubs are private institutions and are not officially affiliated with Princeton University.