<p>In order to provide context for prospective students who might be reading this really old thread, I am now a freshman at Caltech. Over the past month or so, I have found that there are several aspects of Caltech that I dislike (and that some other students dislike as well). But since this thread is about the houses, I’ll stick to that. I don’t want to bias future students against any of the houses, but I would like to mention that I live in “Avery Correctional Facility” (as SteelPangolin called it) because I think this might be relevant to my overall negative experience so far. If I had one word to describe this house it would be ‘isolation’. There are many reasons why this is the case, and I won’t go into them here. The problem is that I don’t think I would like the traditional house system (i.e. one of the other seven houses) any better. </p>
<p>I think there is a certain type of student who can be happy and do well at Caltech, and those students are few and far between. Every day I find another reason to believe that I am not one of those students. So if I could give a piece of advice to prospective students it would be this: if you are seriously interested in coming to Tech, be sure to consider things besides academics, research, etc. This probably seems obvious, but to me it wasn’t for some reason. I just saw that this place is tops for science and math, has great research opportunities, and has a lot of friggin bright students and faculty. I didn’t think other factors would matter that much to me. This was a very stupid idea. Don’t make the same mistake I did.</p>
<p>No, I disagree. At Caltech, at least, they are fairly common. My friends are not any sort of particularly gerrymandered sample, and the vast majority of them like it here.</p>
<p>There is a minority of disillusioned, truly unhappy students at Caltech, like anywhere else. But they are a minority; it’s just that the unhappy minority is a lot louder than the happy majority.</p>
<p>I do completely agree with Serj, though, that you should pay attention to the social environment and the people at the schools you are seriously considering. I got a generally funny feeling at Princeton, for example, and so I think I made the correct decision not to go there. Be careful… wherever you end up going, you’ll spend four years of your life. Make sure you like every major facet of it, or as many as possible.</p>
<p>By a ‘certain type of student’ I didn’t mean that all of the students who like Caltech are the same type of person. I meant that all the students who enjoy Caltech share certain qualities. The people (people in general, not just at Caltech) who have these qualities are few and far between. </p>
<p>By the way, I disagree with the statement, “the unhappy minority is a lot louder than the happy majority”. If I had met one of the unhappy students when I visited as a junior, or when I came to pre-frosh weekend, or if I had read their thoughts on the caltech website or in the propaganda bs they send in the mail, maybe I would have realized that Caltech wasn’t the best place for me. Unfortunately, I did not once hear from a single one of the students in the “unhappy minority”. I heard the phrase, “Tech is Hell” but I assumed it was a joke.</p>
<p>Wow, you seem to be less unhappy compared to yesterday! And this is when you’re on pass/fail!</p>
<p>Can you give a specific example of something that you dislike, which you assume will be better if you attended somewhere else? IMO, Caltech has many attributes that are unsurpassed elsewhere. (hm… I suck at constructing sentences now)</p>
<p>Are you unhappy with both the academics and the social life?</p>
<p>terrible, sagar. I feel so terrible for you. Really, this is a shame.
:-P</p>
<p>As for Serj T. – I’m truly surprised. I always think it’s a bit sick how at prefrosh weekend some of the unsuccessful angry people come out of the woodwork and accost prefrosh to tell them how Tech is terrible. So that’s why I always caution frosh to be careful and realize that the unhappy people are a lot more interested in getting attention than the generally content people.</p>
<p>But, for the benefit of everyone who might be reading – what exactly about Tech do you find doesn’t fit you? Why is the social life so disappointing for you?</p>
<p>Well, first of all, I do not like the small size (roughly 900 undergrads). It may sound strange, but I think I would prefer a school where I can have more anonymity. At a school the size of Caltech, everyone knows everyone else on some level; if not by name then by face. It reminds me of my high school in that sense. I would prefer a larger school, with more students and more diversity in the types of people who go there.</p>
<p>I do not like the narrowness of the core curriculum here. Last year, I thought I would like doing nothing but science and math all the time but I have found that this is not the case. I think I would prefer a broader undergraduate education. Also, I think the core courses are too rigorous and demanding for my preference.</p>
<p>Ah. Yes, well, Tech is hard. To any prospective applicants reading – do not come unless you <em>really</em> enjoy hard work.</p>
<p>And it is true that there is a serious math/science focus. On the other hand, it can’t be that narrow… I discovered philosophy and economics at Caltech (thanks to courses I took early in my undergraduate career), which I don’t think I would have done at another school. It seems this is mainly due to the intellectual rigor with which everything is taught – subjects that seem like pointless fluff at other schools are presented with the same care and substance here that math/science courses are.</p>
<p>But what Serj says raises a very important point. Make sure you’d actually enjoy doing serious math and science for four years. There is no better way to do this than to try out a higher level course through a local college, etc. High school is often just too easy to give people a decent idea of whether they want to dedicate four years to this.</p>
<p>Well, I thought first term was fairly crappy. Ma1a is interesting, but a ton of people are eager to get off it and into practical math (which I believe are at the level of a normal college class but just go at a faster pace). Ph1a sucked because I really didn’t learn anything. At 50% to pass, I basically practiced the same Phys I learned in high school. Ocasionally, they give you really hard (Caltech-level) questions (the book is Serway, which is your usual college-level book), but I really didn’t retain much from those specific questions. Plus, I thought the lectures for Ph1a were awful (either a review of stuff I knew pat or an insane ammount of notation so that I couldn’t follow anything).</p>
<p>I took Ph1bc prac, which I enjoyed. Prof. Politzer writes the quizzes and tests, and he does a pretty good job (compared to the horrendous quizzes in Ph2a–the second one which turned out to be a timed test of calculus operations). Obviously, you should enjoy doing a few hours of soldering and circuit work in your room every week.</p>
<p>Serj, maybe you should consider talking to your house’s ARC rep; the ARC cares very much about freshman core classes and would value input. Also, most upperclassmen would be very happy to help you if you ever need it (except on Ma1a. Most of them didn’t understand it themselves). Tutoring can also be arranged through the Dean’s office, and is free for any core classes. </p>
<p>Math 1a was very hard for me, but it was the class that taught me how to work with other people, which I thought was pretty important. Unfortunately, I hear that the guy teaching it this year kind of sucks. I then did Ma 1bc analytical track and am taking 2a (analytical as well) and found all of these classes to be far more enjoyable and easier to understand than Ma 1a. In particular, I really liked Ma 1b (linear algebra) with Aschbacher. </p>
<p>I too felt that Ph 1a was covered by my high school physics class, except the bit about angular motion, gyroscopes, etc. At some point, Goodstein said the lectures would not help you learn the stuff or do the homework easier. They’re kind of like entertainment. [I didn’t go to physics lecture first term. Instead, I felt the time was better spent getting lunch early so I wouldn’t have to wait in as long a line]. </p>
<p>Ph 1bc analytical was my favorite class 2nd and 3rd terms. When I went to lecture, Professor McKeown was enthusiastic and animated. He made the course material quite interesting. My TA, however, was super-awesome and usually taught our recitation a little ahead of the lecture, so going to lecture wasn’t that helpful. The textbook (Purcell’s Electricity and Magnetism) we used was an excellent book. The Feynman Lectures on Physics was also a lot of fun to read. </p>
<p>I just wrote that stuff about classes because webhappy did it :P</p>
<p>To offer a bit of a balance, I can honestly state that my experiences during the first month of classes have been extremely positive. (I’m also a Caltech freshman)</p>
<p>Some of my classes are hard, but it comes with the territory. I didn’t expect to succeed here without hard work and effort, and investing the latter two into my studies is well worth it. (For me, at least)</p>
<p>As for the social scene here, I was very surprised. Maybe I’m just an easily amused invididual, but there’s a lot of exciting things going around campus at any given moment; it’s far from the dry, staid place many high schoolers anticipate it being. The main challenge is to find out about these events, but they definitely do exist!</p>
<p>The student population is very diverse in terms of both temprament and character, and polar opposites exist amongst these categories. Therefore, most students can, at the very least, find a niche of similar individuals they enjoy spending time with. Practically every type of person is represented here.</p>
<p>And while I’ve met a few people that are already unhappy, I’ve met many more people that seem to really enjoy this place, and are fitting in very well.</p>
<p>Just my personal reflection after a month in Pasadena.</p>
<p>Sure there are plenty of “exciting things going around campus at any given moment”, like people dropping pumpkins from nine-story buildings- what a fun way to spend your precious free time! Seriously, though, Caltech isn’t as dull as most people think it is. Even so, the ‘social scene’ is pretty unusual because the people here are pretty unusual. </p>
<p>I agree that there are many different sorts of people at Caltech, but as I said before, they all have certain traits in common. They are all science nerds to some extent, they all have a crazy work ethic, most of them have a wacky sense of humor and many have a strange quirk or two. Some are a bit more ‘normal’ than others. But it is a lie to say that “practically every type of person is represented here.” Practically every type of science wiz is represented here, but not every type of person.</p>