Cal Tech v Harvey Mudd v MIT

[dawncoming]

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Caltech has had 3 or 4 student suicides and a professor suicide all within the past ten months.

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Small schools suck. None are harder than the others although you’ll see multitudes of people pontificating about how Caltech requires “Quantum Mechanics.” The truth of the matter is Ph2a and Ph12b are not overly difficult classes, and tons of people get by in both without the slightest idea of what is going on. For that matter no part of core is particularly difficult.

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<p>I am wondering that why almost all your posts are saying how bad Caltech is? if you hate everything about the school, transfer to another one and stop ranting here. </p>

<p>location</p>

<p>of all the three schools, Caltech has the best** location**:

the campus is located just 15 minutes from downtown Los Angeles, 30 minutes from the beach, and 20 minutes from Hollywood. Most importantly, in true Southern California tradition, Pasadena enjoys 286 days of sun per year, perfect weather for walking to the restaurants, movie theaters, shopping centers, and concert halls within a short distance from campus.

Mudd:</p>

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Nestled in the foothills about 35 miles east of Los Angeles, Harvey Mudd College is located in the pleasant suburban area of Claremont, which was once broad stretches of citrus groves. HMC is at the foot of Mount Baldy, the highest peak in the San Gabriel Range at 10,064 feet.

For MIT: Boston is a great place indeed, but it has such horrible weather. Many people cannot put up with it, for me at least.</p>

<p>the major difference between Mudd and Caltech I guess(I haven’t visited both yet. So only a guess) is that Claremont is not as prosperous as Pasadena. </p>

<p>academics
Caltech: to do research is vastly easy. the 3:1 student/faculty ratio is simply amazing. courses are hard, (If you don’t believe me try Apostol’s Calculus textbook, and then try Thomas’ Calculus.) yes, but I think you can taste the true flavor of science and math than if you don’t get a challenging course. </p>

<p>Mudd: Mudd is generally the same as Caltech. But professors here pay more attention to students than those of MIT/Caltech. here is an example:

Wonder why Mudd asks for two photos along with your enrollment deposit? Well, believe it or not, it’s by faculty request – your professors will actually spend the summer attempting connect the names and faces of all 190 students in the entering class. (Hence why, if you plan to show up to class scruffy and pajama-clad every day, the faculty would prefer a “realistic” snapshot to your squeaky-clean retouched senior portrait.) If you get all that attention as a prefrosh, imagine what it will be like when you arrive on campus…

the disadvantage of Mudd (which is the advantage of Caltech) is that you don’t have tons of opportunities to do research. and You don’t have many Graduate level courses, since Mudd is a liberal arts college. </p>

<p>the size of a school

The main disadvantage a small school as far as academics is concerned, is that you have a smaller selection of courses and on-campus research projects to choose from. <a href=“this%20is%20not%20true%20for%20Caltech:D”>color=red</a>[/color] I think for most students, that’s not necessarily a signficant factor, because you’re going to get the important core subjects for a physics major just about everywhere, so the differences in courses matter only as far as electives are concerned. Physics students aren’t expected to specialize until graduate school anyway. And at the undergraduate level, with research the main thing is to get the experience of doing research and learn something about how it’s done. The actual topic doesn’t matter much, so long as you have at least some interest in it.</p>

<p>On the other hand, smaller schools offer smaller class sizes and easier access to professors, in general. At a really small school, each professor will have you in several classes, so they’ll get to know you well and be in a good position to write detailed letters of recommendation for grad school or jobs.</p>

<p>On the third hand , smaller schools tend to be in smaller places, and students who want big-city life may not enjoy being stuck out in the boonies for four years.

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<p>this is a quote from another forum. I think it can solve your problem.
For me I like small schools though. Knowing everybody, and getting lots of attentions from professors…</p>

<p>actually, I suggest you apply to all three schools. See which one(or ones?) you can get into, then decide which one to attend.</p>