Is Caltech the hardest school to succeed in?

[SlitheyTove]

<p>Sandra Tsing Loh on Caltech exams:</p>

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Consider that beloved academic tradition-- The take-home. . . open-book. . . infinite time exam-</p>

<p>“That’s right! Take all the time you want! Won’t really help you because, PS, Problem Number Two? It’s actually impossible. That’s right! It’s a famous impossible conundrum! Even Descartes couldn’t solve it, after working on it. . . for 37 years. Then he went insane. Had a fight with Foucault, bar in Lyons, few drinks, argument, duel. . . Funny story, we thought it would be amusing to give this unsolvable drove-Descartes-mad paradox to you freshman. . . in Math 1. . . your very first week at Caltech!” [“And then to really mess with your perfect SAT /high school valedictorian heads, we gave you, woo. . . infinite time.”

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<p>(from her Caltech commencement address [Caltech</a> Commencement](<a href=“http://pr.caltech.edu/commencement/05/loh_speech.html]Caltech”>http://pr.caltech.edu/commencement/05/loh_speech.html))</p>