Is CalTech a good fit for me?

T-bird · 10-18-2009, 09:29 AM

I'm so sorry to be bombarding this board with all my questions as of late. :3

Just so you know, I'm asking because visiting is out of the question for now, although if I were admitted it might be possible for me to visit in the spring, but I'm kind of curious right now.

CalTech is still on my list, but to be honest I haven't done a lot research on it. The only things I've heard that really make up my impression of CalTech are:

1) It's hard
2) Students love working hard because they love learning
3) Students have weird ways of having fun
4) It's collaborative
5) There's a house system where each house has its own semi-sub-culture.

I'll list a few things that I really like about CalTech, but please please let me know if I'm mistaken:

1) I love learning for learning's sake, and I love the intensity of just processing a lot of information for a lot of classes at once. CalTech seems perfect for this.
2) From what I can tell, most students stay in the House system all 4 years (am I wrong?). I really like this, I feel like it builds a better/closer community than systems where people rush to move out ASAP.
3) CalTech's small. I go to a somewhat large public high school about four times the size of CalTech, and I just like the idea of being able to know everyone in my class.

Some questions/concerns about whether or not CalTech would be good for me/I'd be a good fit for CalTech:

1) The honor code - it sounds good in principle, and I don't really foresee myself having a problem with following it, but can someone clarify what is meant by the honor code as an "absolutely integral part of student life," per lizzardfire's open letter? Does this mean that homework copying never happens? How do students treat situations where they see friends who might be violating the honor code - confront? say nothing? tell? I guess I'm nervous because I don't know exactly how this applies.
2) Diversity in the student body. Since the admissions process is so focused on academic ability, how different really is the CalTech student body? Obviously, there will be a variety of people with a variety of interests. I personally really really love music - how easy is it to pursue this kind of interest at CalTech? I'm aware of the orchestras that exist, but do people really like being in orchestra or do they just participate for the sake of participating?
3) Smallness as a downside? The field I'm currently most interested in is aerospace engineering. Recently, I heard (but have no way of verifying the accuracy of this report, so please correct me if I'm wrong) that CalTech no longer has any aerospace faculty because in such a small school, it simply wasn't popular enough to sustain the classes. My intended major obviously could change, but considering this, would CalTech still be a good idea? I know that CalTech still runs the JPL - would it be difficult to get experience there while majoring in something like ME?
4) Last, most insignificant concern for me, but please dont' shoot me. :3 I feel like I'd fit in very very well at "that other tech school." Do you current CalTechers know of any generalized differences between the two schools that might mean that someone very happy over in Cambridge might not enjoy Pasadena as well?

Any advice especially on the concerns/questions I had is really really most welcomed and appreciated. Also, please correct me if I'm wrong anywhere. I definitely will try to visit if I'm admitted, so this is just more to satisfy my curiosity for the moment, but I'll definitely understand if there isn't much you can tell me because it's one of those things where I just have to go see it to find out.

JNT · 10-18-2009, 02:57 PM

I'll take the first one. Absolutely integral to people's lives mean people get keys to lots of buildings on campus, are rarely asked questions about where they are and why, leave their doors open all the time, even if they aren't there, and leave laptops laying around all over the house. It means having other people turn in your set for you if they're going anyway and collaborating on lots of sets. I won't say that copying never happens, but I believe that it is pretty rare and more often a case of over-collaboration than copying. I'm not sure how people in general deal with violations they see, my guess is that there are instances of all 3 responses.

lizzardfire · 10-18-2009, 04:13 PM

Copying does occur, but it's pretty rare. You have to understand that a situation in which your friends are violating the honor code intentionally and you know about it is pretty hard to imagine--there is such a stigma against violating the honor code that virtually anyone doing it would be doing it in secret. I'm pretty sure most honor code violations are discovered and reported by TAs or Professors, not by other students.

Generally, if we see someone openly violate the honor code we assume they are doing it by accident, so we explain to them that what they are doing is an honor code violation and that they should stop. I've never seen anyone continue doing whatever the questionable activity was after this phase (and I've been here for over 3 years now...)

I haven't heard of anything regarding aero classes not being offered, and I'm pretty sure aero is still a major here... so... not sure where that's coming from. A lot of my friends have worked at JPL.

MIT vs. Caltech (my biased opinion)
MIT is bigger, more diverse--you can hang out with all sorts of different people (math, science, literature, drama). More classes, more clubs, more opportunities.
Caltech is smaller, less diverse, and way more tight-knit. Everyone you know will love math and science and everyone will know everyone. I feel like the campus has a much warmer atmosphere than MIT.
Caltech is harder than MIT.
MIT has more general prestige than Caltech.
It's slightly easier to do research at Caltech than at MIT (but still pretty easy at MIT). See SURF vs. UROP.
MIT has more fields of study than Caltech (although most are in the humanities, some, like nuclear engineering, are not).
MIT is in Boston--big city, cold weather
Caltech is in Pasadena--suburbs, warm weather

You really should visit both, they throw off totally different vibes. I feel like most people who love one will at least like the other, but they are quite different.

T-bird · 10-18-2009, 04:45 PM

"Generally, if we see someone openly violate the honor code we assume they are doing it by accident, so we explain to them that what they are doing is an honor code violation and that they should stop."

Is it possible for you to give an example of this? Scenes something like below are running through my head and I'm pretty sure I'm wrong:

<Person A scribbles down some answers>
Experienced underclassman: Excuse me, are you aware that that's against the honor code?
<Person A runs away in terror>

"I feel like most people who love one will at least like the other, but they are quite different."

I'm glad to hear that; I'll definitely try to visit in the spring if i'm admitted.

lizzardfire · 10-19-2009, 06:02 AM

A much more realistic example is one that actually happened... someone was storing food taken from open kitchen and eating it at later times, which is against the rules. It was pointed out to the person doing this that it was an honor code violation and this person stopped doing it.

Kamikazewave · 10-19-2009, 08:59 AM

Uh, not all houses are as picky about taking food from the kitchens as lizzardfire's is.

An academic example would be someone is collaborating on a set/question a prof deemed non-collab in the beginning of a course. Someone would tell them it's non-collab and they'll stop collaborating.

bookworm · 10-19-2009, 09:33 AM

Re: honor code. I was surprised to see money and valuables left around in computer room in S's House. Once he lost his cell phone, and it was found and returned.

dLo · 10-24-2009, 01:06 PM

I participated in the orchestra for about 3/4 of my terms at Caltech. I really enjoyed and I don't think anyone was there "just for the sake of it". The orchestra is a combined group of Caltech students, Occidental students, and community members.

T-bird · 10-24-2009, 02:26 PM

excuse my ignorance: what's Occidental?

Thanks for the honor code clarification

oaklandmom · 10-24-2009, 02:44 PM

Occidental is a nearby college. Occidental College :: Liberal Arts College in Los Angeles, California

T-bird · 10-24-2009, 03:19 PM

ohhhh. thanks

jdhutchin · 10-24-2009, 03:30 PM

I'll answer your aero questions.

Caltech has a "large" aerospace department (see GALCIT), which is very strong in the fields it researches. Any rumors that Caltech's aero faculty have left is simply false. However, the department is mostly focused on research and graduate level courses.

If you are interested in doing aerospace as an undergrad, you usually do a mechanical engineering degree with an aerospace minor. If you look at the course requirements at most schools, ME and aero are very similar. The aerospace minor is focused on aerospace applications, and has some courses taught by JPL staff. If you have more specific questions, let me know.

T-bird · 10-24-2009, 05:09 PM

Good to know about the aerospace - thanks. :] I do have another question - do you know how possible it is to intern at the JPL? Is it harder than doing research in any other area?

I'm getting ready to submit my application this weekend - wish me luck!

JNT · 10-24-2009, 07:34 PM

Good Luck!
Getting a surf at JPL isn't hard at all. I'm not sure how internships work though.

T-bird · 10-24-2009, 08:00 PM

surf is what I meant, sorry. :P

One more question - I just looked at the stats page on the admissions website for the first time, and I was shocked to see that there are half as many women as men. Is this a mistake? I don't really have an issue with it either way, but for some reason I was under the impression that numbers were about equal (I guess I must have misread something somewhere before).