<p>december the fifteenth looms ahead. i need to talk to people about their apps, but turns out no one applied to caltech from my school. hence this thread.</p>
<p>What say you, hopefuls?</p>
<p>I applied early! Im gonna be so nervous when december comes by X-(</p>
<p>me too :)</p>
<p>though I don’t know how to check my status…I wish they had something like
myCaltech…</p>
<p>Yeah, ditto what Hriundeli has written. My app. has been submitted, my recs. have hopefully been sent (but no confirmation postcards have been received yet), and… well, now the wait.
Btw, the other day I watched a decidedly lame video of Caltech. It was recorded while Caltech was in session, yet the campus seemed like a pastel- colored ghost town – what’s up with that? Reassure me that there’s life on campus, please.
Oh, and can anyone tell me more about the admissions process? Do students really sit on the AdCom?</p>
<p>How many people are on campus depends on the day and time of day. It tends to be very quiet on the weekends and in the afternoons from about 4 through dinner.</p>
<p>Every application is read by a student, a professor, and an admissions officer. If their recommendations don’t agree, the application is reconsidered by the committee.</p>
<p>What video were you watching, magd? Oftentimes, when things are being filmed students are kept out of the way.</p>
<p>The only way to get an even decent understanding of what the campus is like is to visit, which you should all do.</p>
<p>I returned the dvd a while ago, but I think it was produced by a place called “College Walking Tours.” It looked as if someone went on one of the regular tours and just held a video camera during the walk. It seemed very natural – even to the point that one felt somewhat sick after looking at the footage for any length of time (because the images were invariably wobbly). Anyhow, the person who made the video indicated that it was taken around 1:00p.m. when the school was in session and, seriously, I don’t remember seeing one student! Moreover, I didn’t sense that there was any sort of “cordon sanitaire” around the camera person – in fact I would have thought any sightings of students would have been welcomed. I visited Caltech the other summer, and it seemed rather quiet then, so I hoped that it would be more lively when in session. Whatever, I did like the atmosphere of the place, but it would be good to see a few students…</p>
<p>I would say that at 1pm many students are a) eating b) in class or c) sleeping. Caltech is most lively at night and in the houses / mods.</p>