<p>Biggs, with all due respect I don’t see the point of posting “for the sake of argument” since this is not a thread meant to debate which method to getting to know a school is best. I am merely offering my opinion from my own experience. I don’t think visiting was nonsense at all.</p>
<p>Sample size is a frivolous point to bring up (although Caltech is small enough he probably WOULD get a very good idea of the atmosphere and people by visiting for a day). There is no way in the world that someone could get a perfect idea of a school, but I believe trying the best you can is better than something like letting your parents pick for you. Unless they actually went to either school, having them pick for you is a close analogy to picking a school randomly out of a hat, which doesn’t seem very pragmatic to me.</p>
<p>Seeing as how you’ll be living on campus for four years of your life, I’d say the campus and the overall atmosphere is a pretty important factor to take into account. Sitting in on a few classes, especially freshman and sophomore classes, would help you get an idea of the level of education (and hopefully dispel the idea that Caltech is a torturously difficult school) The classes I sat in were mainly freshman chemistry/physics courses plus a sophomore organic chemistry class. They’ll actually organize an entire day’s schedule for you if you sign up for the Caltech In A Day program that’s on their website.
And I must disagree with you that the Caltech campus is “bad.” I think it is quite nice here.</p>
<p>The professors here are for the most part very open to students and more than happy to discuss their work. Talking to them could get you early contacts for potential summer research or something like that. They probably won’t play that big of a role in determining whether you want to go to that school, unless you find a research topic you really like, but it never hurts to do so. As for which professors, it really depends on what your interests are. As for students, talk to anyone you want; the point is that we’re all pretty nice people.</p>
<p>PS: I thoroughly apologize if I angered anyone from Britain with my last post.</p>