Does your college have a “reputation”? The Ivies certainly do. But even schools with great reputations deserve the chance for you to get to know them and earn your own opinion of them. Check out today’s post, in which Erica Sollazzo, now a Princeton sophomore, looks back on her first days on campus.

This past spring at Princeton, during a preview weekend for high school seniors, I caught sight of an excited disturbance on the lawn in front of Nassau Hall, the university’s main building. Curious, I drifted over toward the grass, picking my way through a crowd of prospective students and their parents. Only when I reached the front of the group did I realize what everyone was watching: On the lawn, dressed in pastel-colored polo shirts and knee-high argyle socks, was a group of Princeton students playing a rousing game of croquet.

Whenever a player managed to hit the ball through a wicket, the others would clap, but the kind of reserved, dignified clapping heard at golf tournaments when a player sinks a putt. To top it all off, the players were talking about their “troublesome yachts” and “summer homes” in loud, exaggerated British accents. I laughed, cognizant of the fact that my classmates were poking fun at a stereotype associated with Princeton—that the entire student body is made up of wealthy, prep-school kids from the upper crusts of society. Having spent nearly a full year at Princeton, I knew that this generalization wasn’t true, that Princeton’s students come from all walks of life. But as I left the lawn, I heard a boy whisper to his father in disbelief, “They really do wear argyle!”

When I first started at Princeton, I wasn’t very worried about how “pretentious” the student body would be. I knew that, like almost any college, Princeton would have a diverse mix of students who would be interesting, intelligent, and down-to-earth. The stereotypes that concerned me more were academic, not social, ones. For one thing, I remember fretting over whether I could handle the workload for what were sure to be difficult classes. I also feared that the pressure of attending an Ivy League school would create a maliciously competitive atmosphere, one in which my classmates would refuse to share notes or help me study. I recalled an information session at Harvard that I attended as a high school senior; the admissions officer had adamantly denied rumors about students intentionally hiding each other’s textbooks. If the representative had taken such trouble to repudiate these claims, I thought, there must be some grain of truth in them.

Luckily, my freshman year contained absolutely none of these academic horror stories. I collaborated with a group of eager students to study for my Calculus final, and I received constructive criticism from my peers on the papers I wrote for Writing Seminar. Not only did these students come from all over the world (I even made a friend who hails from Sri Lanka), but they seemed genuinely excited to study at Princeton, genuinely grateful for the many unique opportunities the university offers. I know I appreciated the chance to hear Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor speak (professor emerita and alumna of Princeton, respectively). And I quickly learned that each student has an interesting, hidden talent or passion that wouldn’t be noticeable at first glance—after all, what made them stand out to an admissions committee also makes them stand out as people.

The one drawback—if it can be called a drawback—to studying in the midst of so many talented and driven students is that I often worry about what career path I’ll end up taking. Being surrounded by budding doctors, lawyers, and stockbrokers is stressful sometimes, especially since I’m not yet sure about a major. But I’m glad I have the opportunity to explore Princeton—and yes, even don a polo shirt or two–until I figure it out.

Erica Sollazzo is a sophomore at Princeton.