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<li><p>Merely looking as an outsider doesn’t give you the experience of an insider. For example, when I was a high school senior, I thought MIT was harder than Caltech, but after having experienced both schools, I’m now sure that Caltech is harder than MIT. Simply said, being in HMC and skimming through Caltech’s coursework will not give you the experience of living through the coursework.</p></li>
<li><p>The environment should also be taken into consideration. Given a coursework of same difficulty, it will actually be much more difficult when your peers are stellar students. I was an international students, and believe me, more than 1/3 of int’l students at Caltech are Int’l Olympiad medallist.</p></li>
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