Snyder005

Hello! Just trying to learn more about California Institute of Technology, so any help is appreciated.

How does the level of rigor in studies compare with that of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford, and other comparable engineering programs? How does the Honor Code play a role in collaboration amongst students? Is there a similar amount of collaboration at Caltech as at MIT?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Kamikazewave

Level of rigor between Caltech and MIT should be about the same, looking at MIT's open courseware stuff. Not sure about Stanford though, since most people only go to school in one school . I will say that I've found that some freshman courses at Caltech use books that Standford uses for junior level courses.

MIT doesn't have as many core requirements as Caltech however, so Caltech might be harder for most people since they're required to take many different science and math courses that many people may not wish to take.

Honor Code plays a large role in collaboration. It basically allows professors to tell you how a set/test should be done, and they trust you to adhere to it without any further oversight. Usually for sets, you can discuss but not look at actual write ups. Sometimes you can also look at writeups but are responsible for knowing the material personally etc. Caltech would not be doable for most people without collaboration, since there will always be subjects someone is weak in.

Snyder005

Thanks for the information. I am looking for research schools that are academically challenging yet foster cooperation, as well as a broad education. Caltech is a huge reach, but it is nice to learn more about it and its Northeastern "counterpart" MIT.