the great thing about princeton is that you are going to get significant research experience, usually in a fairly cool way. And it's not just you doing b**ch work in some lab, it's you knowing your stuff, coming up with your own projects, writing up your own research in a junior paper and a senior thesis. And it's not boring because you choose what you're doing. I did a forensic anthropology study on post-mortem decay. it was awesome.
The thing about clinical experience is true-- most premeds take EMT classes and ride for princeton first aid and rescue squad (PFARS) or west windsor (twin W). There is a hospital very close to campus, i know my roommate interpreted in spanish and chinese there and volunteered in the ER, as well as did research there. She also got a job as a student in the health center on campus. There is also the opportunity that i know some students took of volunteering up at Robert Wood Johnson, which is only a fifteen minute train ride.
If quality of life is important to you, i can't even begin to tell you how amazing the princeton bubble is. It's totally focused on the undergrads, they put all of their money towards undergrad life, research, and educators. You can essentially do whatever you want academically, research-wise, and travel-wise. I went to france and did an archaeologic dig, one of my roommates went to Kenya to study zebras, china to play with the orchestra, spent a summer in china teaching english and traveling, etc. all of this was paid for by the university. The social scene is really fun, there are tons of alternatives to drinking if that's not your scene. I will never forget things like sportsnighter, where i got to play human foosball, do american gladiators on a moonbounce type thing, climb a moobounce mountain, play blind volleyball (wall between the teams so you don't know when the ball is coming), and so forth. The frequent concerts, intense dodgeball tournaments, free food on mccosh walk on dean's date before the concert, black box, the fashion show, the all ivy drag show, the 2$ movies every week, and the club scene make it pretty easy to find somewhere you want to be.
Oh and also, Princeton started the no-loan financial aid thing. For families they deem can't pay for princeton, they give all grants so people aren't stuck with tons of debt. Harvard is now adopting it, but Princeton has had it for close to ten years. The only time you get stuck with debt is if you have a family like mine who refuses to pay even though they can most definitely afford it.
