<p>I guess I’ll toss in my opinion.</p>
<p>I’m a frosh entering my third term right now. I must say I’ve been pretty pleased with the teaching. I actually really liked Math 1a (which is from what I gather a usually much-loathed class) and only wish I had more time to spend on it. I might add however a lot of students got ****ed off at the prof, claiming he didn’t like taking questions. I don’t think it’s a very accurate claim as he generally did take questions, unless they were questions of how he got from one step to another which were merely exercises in algebra. I think another reason for a perceived dislike for questions is his brilliance (apparently he was a putnam fellow at 19 according to wikipedia). I don’t think he was quite sure what students were asking, so he’d just answer some related issue and quickly move on thinking he had answered it. Either way, I rather liked his class and fast teaching style. Sure I didn’t learn everything he said, but everything I needed to do well (not just pass) on the exams could be learned from the problem sets, so why bother limiting the lectures?</p>
<p>Learning physics was a struggle as David Goodstein (star of mech universe) is not his former self because he is old and had a stroke within the half year, but I anticipate he’ll be better this fall. However, my TA was beyond awesome. I was in the “super section” and it was quite an exciting time decomposing difficult problems.</p>
<p>Chem 1a was also taught well. Exams weren’t written so well…</p>
<p>My hum prof was also absolutely awesome.</p>
<p>APh 9 was a joke and not taught well, but it didn’t matter as nothing was really tested… That class doesn’t represent caltech very well…</p>
<p>Winter term wasn’t been so great in terms of teaching I must say though.</p>
<p>I really liked my math prof once again. My math ta, like fall term, was brilliant and helpful.</p>
<p>Chem prof 1 was scatter-brained wasn’t too great. Chem prof 2 was quite good, except the design of the curriculum was bad. I don’t think so much ochem should have been packed into so short a time… Chem postdoc who lectured was very good I thought. Chem 1 exams were again written poorly.</p>
<p>My hum class was the most annoying class due to my prof’s penchant for asking longwinded questions that lacked any real question.</p>
<p>phys prof was okay. he tried and he was very open to questions, but he just wasn’t the best at public speaking and for a large part he was just copying out of the book. my phys ta was very boring indeed. i stopped going shortly after fall term started.</p>
<p>chem 3 (lab class with no lecturer) ta’s weren’t so great. one was nice, but not too knowledgeable. the other was mean, but knowledgeable. it was always a dilemma as to which to ask. in general, i don’t think the class served as a good introduction because it expected frosh to know a lot more about chem technique than i think it ought have.</p>
<p>On a different note, caltech really offers a crazy level of opportunities. i’m playing on the tennis team at an intercollegiate level. i have an awesome research opportunity in front of me with an mentor that is really looking after me. i’ve been to a lecture given by midori and gotten her autograph and a photo with her, for free. i might go see the marriage of figaro next week, for free.</p>
<p>i think one thing that doesn’t get mentioned as much, is the true intimacy of the campus. i’ve played basketball with profs and eaten at their tables. i live in avery, so i live with profs and i’ve been able to talk to many profs at faculty-student dessert nights and just dessert nights they hold for us during finals/midterm weeks. besides with profs, i really feel connected with the upperclassmen. i’ve really come to love the seniors in my dorm. it’s totally awesome having them on campus, living with you, available for you, whether it be for advice on choosing classes or to go play ultimate. another aspect is just the way the dorms are set up. since they are “houses” and not “residence halls” you feel a lot closer to people. i’ve visited friends during break at berkeley, ucla, and ucsd, and it’s really different. instead of feeling just like a living arrangement, the houses really do feel like houses. there is no need to exit your floor or suite or building to go find someone else, because they are all living with you, granted this is because there are so few people so there aren’t that many people outside of your house to actually go see, but it is still quite nice to me.</p>
<p>yea, i really need to do something productive. that’s what sucks about caltech, so many opportunities and not enough time. it’s like that one guy who was stuck in the pond with the fruit overhanging him.</p>