Caltech vs. Yale

Colleges & Universities Yale University
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<p>Caltech vs. Yale</p>

<p>Geographic Location:</p>

<p>Although I’ve lived in Florida for the majority of my life, I’d be willing to go up north. The weather isn’t really a big factor in my decision to go to either college. </p>

<p>That said, I love going to the beach to skimboard & <em>attempting</em> to surf ;). I’ve heard many good things about Pasadena, and really only negative things about New Haven. Personally, my personal fit at the school matters much more than my geographic fit. </p>

<p>Enrollment/Campus Setting:</p>

<p>Smaller is better in my case. I really love the small size of Caltech, and I definitely don’t like the anonymity of a larger institution. Yale’s house system helps alleviate my dislike of large universities, and I don’t think Yale’s size will be much of a problem. </p>

<p>The one thing that I fear about Caltech is it’s Male to Female ratio. I’m not the type of kid who really dates/parties, but at times I feel like the ratio at Caltech is just plain unhealthy. Many people have told me that both campuses are beautiful, and that’s not really a big concern of mine as long as they are moderately aesthetically pleasing. </p>

<p>**Academic Focus: **</p>

<p>My intended major is physics, and I’m universally described as a math & science nut. I don’t really fancy English classes, although I like religion and philosophy in particular from the humanities. I don’t see Yale’s well-roundedness as a drawback in this scenario because I really don’t care enough for the humanities. Perhaps some Yalies would care to tell me about the core at Yale and how supportive it is for people with my academic tastes. The areas I’m most interesting in are Physics (1st) and Math and Biology (tied at 2nd); also I’m positive that I’m going to be majoring in a science related field. I’ve heard Yale is relatively weak in the sciences compared to Caltech, but I don’t think this will be a problem.</p>

<p>As far as research opportunities go, I’d like to conduct research throughout my time as an Undergrad. Caltech’s SURF program is very appealing to me, but I’m not well aware of the opportunities available at Yale (if someone would like to expound on this, please do so :)) I plan to become a engineer or maybe start up a business when I’m out of grad school (perhaps pursue a phd), as of now I don’t really want to go into academia. I’m worried about whether or not I can have a good time at Caltech with the insane workload, and whether or not I can even handle it.</p>

<p>**Extracurricular Activities: **
I’ll do whatever is available in terms of non-academic extracurriculars. I’ll definitely join an intramural team, but I don’t see Caltech’s small student body and <em>relative</em> lack of extracurricular activities/clubs to be a drawback.</p>

<p>About Me:</p>

<pre><code>Socially as I’ve said I don’t really care about partying/girls/the normal college experience much. I’m definitely extroverted, but I consider myself borderline geek =p. I like enjoying the occasional episode of Naruto and having halo lan parties at my house, but I am by no means a recluse. I feel like I’m a perfect fit for Caltech, but at the same time the variety of people at Yale (geeks and normal people ;), well just diversity in general) is comforting. Caltech feels like a hardcore version of MIT (M/F ratio, academic diversity, social atmosphere) to me, and to me choosing caltech means I can’t have a regular college experience.
</code></pre>

<p>At Yale, I believe I can have a bit of both worlds, and if I desire that geeky/mathsci atmosphere it’ll be there as well- just not in the same density. I find myself fitting the stereotypical techer in many ways.</p>

<ul>
<li>I like making alot of silly inventions (rockets, hairspray cannons, powerful rubber band guns, coil guns)</li>
</ul>

<p>-I love pranks, and I definitely have an odd sense of humor.</p>

<ul>
<li>I do consider myself to be an intellectual masochist. Though in highschool I’ve always slept through my classes and been labeled as a slacker because of boredom due to a <em>lack of stimulation</em>. I don’t have a problem working at Caltech, especially if it’s on stuff I love- but I feel like there’s a delicate balance between work and play at Caltech. Whereas at Yale you can take it easy or really make it hard on yourself. </li>
</ul>

<p><em>Actually, I think Caltech’s core is good, because I’m somewhat lazy and taking required hard courses is a definite plus</em></p>

<p>Almost done…
If you’d like to know anything else about me that you feel will help you give me advice, feel free to ask. This is an incredibly hard decision for me, although I’m leaning towards Caltech on paper. I’m planning to visit both places during their pf weekends - I haven’t had the chance to visit yet. Thanks in advance!</p>

<p>*I apologize for my inability to write, grammatical errors, and length. (It’s 1:20 AM) I know it was a hard read, but I really need help deciding so thanks again. I’ll definitely update this thread once I come back from PreFrosh Weekend/Bull Dog Days, but I just want to get this out there.</p>

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<p>I’m not going to waste your time telling you why I think Yale is better, because I’m very admittedly biased. You seem to have already fleshed out the pros and cons of each university. I think the next step would be for you to go to the admitted students weekends and see which school has the best “fit.” They’re both fantastic places; if only you could spend two years at each!</p>

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<p>From your post, Caltech seems like a better match (“My intended major is physics, and I’m universally described as a math & science nut” “intellectual masochist” lol) as long as you’re willing to deal with their extremely intense math and science core. Caltech’s SURF program makes it one of the easiest places to get an undergrad research position. And anyway, the silly inventions/pranks part definitely matches more with Caltech than Yale.</p>

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<p>Bumpity Bump Sauce.</p>

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<p>Pwn’s Thread Necromancy is now Level 2.</p>

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<p>You have to check Yale out. The problem is that you’re a good fit for both college you’re considering. Yalies are a great, diverse, fun and intelligent bunch. Even if you don’t take English or History classes you can still learn about those subjects from your classmates who study those areas. I just think that Caltech is too focused for a real college experience. To me it’s the equivalent of an extremely cutthroat private high school–kids work really hard and try to get ahead instead of doing what is equally important in college: having fun and socializing.</p>

<p>You’ll find a lot of people you like at Yale, and even the people with whom you can’t connect, per se, will make good acquaintances and will open you up to different experiences. I think that, as a well-rounded institution, Yale churns out 1300 well-rounded individuals every year, many of whom go on to do wonderful things, whether their field is english or philosophy or science and math. You can’t go wrong with Yale, but you may go wrong by choosing Caltech.</p>

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<p>If you are 100% sure you are going into physics and research as you sound like you are–</p>

<p>Go to Caltech hands down.</p>

<p>Yale has a notorious humanities bent and its science program is only recently starting to recover (and that’s moreso in the biological sciences). Caltech will dish out Yale in any math/science major you can think of and it’s much more respected from a graduate school point of view… (caltech-physics vs Yale… physics…?)</p>

<p>THen again, if you’re not sure you wanna do physics Yale gives you more freedom. Plus imo having only 250~ ppl in each year kinda sucks.</p>

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<p>Actually, I think Yale might be a better choice because of it’s humanities bent. In addition to math and physics, you can take things like religion and philosophy that interest you. There is a Mathematics and Philosophy major that you might want to consider. In getting an undergraduate education it is very important to learn things other than just math and physics. Otherwise, you graduate college and become another engineer number cruncher type, which I personally find to be extremely boring. But it’s up to you; it depends on what you want to learn and what kind of person you want to be after college.</p>

<p>About the distributional requirements (Yale’s much more lenient version of a core curriculum):</p>

<p>“Students are required to take no fewer than two course credits in the humanities and arts, two course credits in the sciences, and two course credits in the social sciences. In addition to completing courses in these disciplinary areas, students must fulfill skills requirements by taking two course credits in quantitative reasoning, two course credits in writing, and courses to further their foreign language proficiency.” - <a href=“Yale College”>Yale College;

<p>Unless you really despise the humanities, which I didn’t gather from your post, the distributional requirements at Yale shouldn’t be bad for you at all.</p>