Princeton’s subreddit, r/princeton, was created in winter 2010 and has since become a community for people to discuss a broad range of University topics. Whether one is a potential applicant, an admitted student, or a current Princetonian, the subreddit is a place where they can get their questions answered and express their opinions about Princeton in an informal and even anonymous context.
An alternative to the subreddit is real talk princeton, an anonymous Tumblr page where questions asked are often serious and academic in nature and can only be answered by select contributors.
The subreddit has over 11,000 members and ranks in the top six percent by size. The Daily Princetonian analyzed over 6,000 posts and 21,000 comments since the beginning of this popular subreddit.
The subscriber count of the r/princeton subreddit is one of the lowest among Ivy League university communities with 11,137 members, beating out only Dartmouth’s 7,450. Princeton has the Ivy League’s second lowest undergraduate population. While its subreddit membership has grown over time, its growth percentages do not compete with those of Cornell, Harvard, and Columbia, which have seen steeper inclines since 2019.
Reddit activity is quantified by both the number of posts and the total number of comments. Activity is evenly distributed over the days of the week overall, with Wednesday and Sunday being the most active days for commenting and Tuesday for posting.
Peak activity is different for comments and posts. Posts on the subreddit peak between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. For comments, they peak between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. Both commenters and posters are at their least active in the early hours of the morning, between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m.
Monthly activity has grown since the subreddit’s inception, correlating with the growth of subscribers. The peak month of subreddit activity each year is April.
“Nowadays there’s been a lot of Class of 2028 people asking questions,” Hannah Lee ’27 said in an interview with the ‘Prince.’ Lee has visited the subreddit often since arriving on campus. Princeton released its regular decisions this year on March 28.
Lee referenced a recent post titled, “Will I be rescinded?” In this post, an admitted Princeton student expressed fear that Princeton would rescind their offer if they fail a Multivariable Calculus exam. “I was a straight A perfect 4.0 student when I applied,” wrote the redditor on r/princeton. They continued with a draft email to The Office of Admission explaining the situation, and hoping to “quell [their] anxiety about the situation.”
This is one of many posts that display the flood of anxiety on the subreddit during April. This consistent peak gives insight into the types of posts that are likely seen on the Princeton subreddit.
On Reddit, a flair is a tag one can put on a post to give insight into what the content of the post will be. While the majority of posts are not marked with a flair, the most popular flair is “Future Tiger,” showing many posts on the subreddit are not from Princeton students.
All recent AutoModerator posts, made by the built-in bot, are in the “Future Tiger” flair. AutoModerators automatically regulate content, allowing the moderators to more efficiently define the rules of the subreddit and have weekly megathreads dedicated to admissions, mostly related to “Future Tigers.”
Comments on these flairs range from questions such as “How to submit high-school transcript and College Report for Princeton?” to “Is there any possibility for someone with a 1250 SAT to actually get into Princeton?”
“As a student, it would be nice if they talked more about Academic/Career issues for current students,” Lee said. “But, I understand there’s nothing about the subreddit that’s exclusively for current students.”
Current students have direct access to Princeton’s academic and career resources. Admitted and prospective students, however, do not have such access for getting answers to their questions efficiently, and by the nature of Reddit’s commenting tools, many are able to receive timely responses.
Chima Oparaji is a contributing Data writer for the ‘Prince.’
David Shao is a staff Data writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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