CalTech vs. Stanford (Grad School)

RacinReaver
Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:29:02 +0000

Health insurance for grad students used to be free until about three years ago when they changed it to something like $150 a quarter. Coverage isn’t bad, you can see an outline here: [Student Health Insurance](http://www.healthcenter.caltech.edu/insurance.html) The only kind of annoying thing is the high deductible since three years now I’ve visited the doctor once, and each time I’ve had a pretty decent bill since it didn’t reach the $500 minimum.

Graduate life is alright, a bit is lost since you’re at such a small campus with a very large foreign population. Many foreign students tend to stick with their own ethnicities, so you’ll find the Chinese association to be one of the most active groups in the grad communities. The Caltech Y is pretty active if you’re into outdoor stuff, though. A bunch of my friends go hiking all the time through them, and save quite a bit of money by borrowing supplies.

The gym facilities on campus here are definitely really good for the size of the school. There are a couple of good study spaces on campus (libraries and inside/outside of the dining hall are the most common), though I imagine there’s many more places to choose from at Stanford. There also aren’t a whole lot of public computer labs open to grad students; I guess they just assume we prefer to do our work in our offices.

How hands on your professor is is entirely dependent upon your lab. My advisor travels a bit, but if you ever need to talk with him he’s always in his office.

Also, about being a TA, it’s not necessarily bad. I’ve learned a ton out of the two classes I’ve had to TA. There’s actually a bit of competition to TA various classes within my department since it really is the best way to learn the class’s material (and get paid while you do it). That said, I’m certainly not getting a $3k bonus for TAing a class. This last class I think I got $350 for TAing. :(