<p>I picked between Caltech and Princeton and picked Caltech. I’d say 1of42, who is serious about squash, should almost surely go to Princeton. The engineering and sciences there are good and it’s basically obvious that you’re a much better fit for Princeton.</p>
<p>As for finding well-adjusted, happy people, there are certainly enough at Caltech. Econ at Caltech is great (certainly good enough to produce students who become top economists) and other social sciences are strong too. There are lots of humanities courses but of course Princeton has Caltech beat soundly on this. I’m a pretty broad person, I think, and I haven’t found Caltech to be constraining. If anything, the seriousness of the social sciences and humanities here (which are forced to “try harder” because of the dominance of the analytical fields) forced me to give those fields another look – and end up specializing in one.</p>
<p>Fundamentally, Caltech will challenge you much more in science and engineering (and even math) than Princeton will, but Princeton will provide a broader range of people and extracurricular opportunities. The broader range of people includes those who have very little interest in academics, which was a minus on the Princeton side form my point of view, but the very active extracurriculars at Princeton are certainly a big plus. I would say visit both places and see whether there are things that make you particularly happy/uncomfortable at each.</p>
<p>I’ll probably write a little more on this tomorrow – time for bed now, just got back from a marathon trip of grad school visits.</p>