20 questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
1

<p>Hey, I'm an EA admit planning to attend and I was wondering a few things about Caltech. Any answers are appreciated, and I apologize in advance for the incredibly long post :D</p>

<p>1) Has anyone here, to your knowledge, ever constructed a stuffed inductor?
2) Which houses are the "coolest?" Is it true that there's an entire house of people that drink pig's blood and don't shower?
3) I am a girl. How easy would it be for me to get a date at Caltech, assuming I do not become part of the aforementioned house?
4) Quote from a Caltech-affiliated friend of mine: "The undergraduate teaching philosophy is Don't. Do research instead." Discuss.
5) Is the food appalling? (I'm hungry right now :))
6) When I go to Caltech, should I learn to drive and/or cook?
7) Should I bring my textbooks from high school?
8) How hard is the freshman courseload compared to work at highly-ranked high schools or most state universities?
9) What percent of people at Caltech play NetHack?
10) What percent of people at Caltech would make fun of people who like to play 20-year-old computer games in which you fight h's, f's, and semicolons?
11) Are there any classes that are so fundamental to most math/science majors that if you screw up in those classes, you'll have an extremely hard time recovering and will probably have to drop your major and/or drop out of Caltech? (Not including multivariable calculus and freshman year physics/chem/bio.)
12) How easy is it to get help with coursework at Caltech?
13) For those who have done research: has anyone ever taken credit for your ideas to get higher authorship on your paper?
14) The working on homework in groups thing -- do people mostly work with their friends? Will people allow you to work with them if you weren't their friend beforehand? What happens if you just happen to end up becoming friends with people who have no clue what's going on in the class?
15) If you walked into lab one day and introduced yourself as a black gay transgendered Jehovah's Witness anarcho-communist, how many people would wind up hating you?
16) Do people blow off non-science courses?
17) How many hours of sleep do you get a night?
18) How many classes do you take, and how much time do you spend on each one? Do these numbers increase with grade level?
19) Do you remember most of what you learn in your classes?
20) In most classes, can you learn a large percentage of the material from your textbooks?</p>

2

<p>2)I don't think they're allowed to talk about which house is the "coolest" because prefrosh are supposed to come in uninfluenced...otherwise they lose a rotation (or something like that)
16) I think it would vary depending on the person like any other school...</p>

3

<p>1) Has anyone here, to your knowledge, ever constructed a stuffed inductor?</p>

<p>-What's a stuffed inductor?</p>

<p>2) Which houses are the "coolest?" Is it true that there's an entire house of people that drink pig's blood and don't shower?</p>

<p>-The coolest house is Mannion's house. He gives out free food.</p>

<p>3) I am a girl. How easy would it be for me to get a date at Caltech, assuming I do not become part of the aforementioned house?</p>

<p>-It wouldn't be hard at all, whatever house you're in. Just sit around looking pretty and you'll get enough attention to last you a lifetime.</p>

<p>4) Quote from a Caltech-affiliated friend of mine: "The undergraduate teaching philosophy is Don't. Do research instead." Discuss.</p>

<p>-Do. And do research too.</p>

<p>5) Is the food appalling? (I'm hungry right now )</p>

<p>-It's not appalling at all. Breakfast and Lunch at Chandler are both really good. Board dinner is slightly lacking but it's gotten better over the years.</p>

<p>6) When I go to Caltech, should I learn to drive and/or cook?</p>

<p>-I've survived two years and a half without driving or cooking, I'm sure you'll be fine.</p>

<p>7) Should I bring my textbooks from high school?</p>

<p>-If there's one or two textbooks you're madly in love with, bring them along. Otherwise, most high school textbooks will be useless unless you're going over stuff you already know in one of your freshman classes.</p>

<p>8) How hard is the freshman courseload compared to work at highly-ranked high schools or most state universities?</p>

<p>-The freshman courseload: you'll work more and the sets will probably be harder that at pretty much any other school. Don't let that discourage you, though, it's perfectly doable (for most people).</p>

<p>9) What percent of people at Caltech play NetHack?</p>

<p>-What's nethack?</p>

<p>10) What percent of people at Caltech would make fun of people who like to play 20-year-old computer games in which you fight h's, f's, and semicolons?</p>

<p>-I played an ASCII game a very, very long time ago (but don't tell anyone). Chances are no one will make fun of you.</p>

<p>11) Are there any classes that are so fundamental to most math/science majors that if you screw up in those classes, you'll have an extremely hard time recovering and will probably have to drop your major and/or drop out of Caltech? (Not including multivariable calculus and freshman year physics/chem/bio.)</p>

<p>-You better know your calculus by the end of freshman years, because you'll run into calculus again in pretty much any major you can think of. But besides that, no, there's no fundamental class I can think of.</p>

<p>12) How easy is it to get help with coursework at Caltech?</p>

<p>-If you're looking for help and put in a bit of effort, you can find help. Your first resource would probably be other students in your class, but you can also get help from TA's, upperclassmen, or the professor himself. So, help is readily available.</p>

<p>13) For those who have done research: has anyone ever taken credit for your ideas to get higher authorship on your paper?</p>

<p>-Never had a problem with that.</p>

<p>14) The working on homework in groups thing -- do people mostly work with their friends? Will people allow you to work with them if you weren't their friend beforehand? What happens if you just happen to end up becoming friends with people who have no clue what's going on in the class?</p>

<p>-You should be friends only with the smartest people.</p>

<p>Ok, just kidding. I'm a somewhat atypical Techer because I do the bulk of my work alone. But you'll usually know at least a few people that are also taking a class you're in, and I can imagine most people would be open to having you join their study group (since it's a win-win situation).</p>

<p>15) If you walked into lab one day and introduced yourself as a black gay transgendered Jehovah's Witness anarcho-communist, how many people would wind up hating you?</p>

<p>-No one, Caltech's a very tolerant place.</p>

<p>16) Do people blow off non-science courses?</p>

<p>-Somewhat? Humanities classes are regarded by quite a few people as more of a hassle than anything else.</p>

<p>17) How many hours of sleep do you get a night?</p>

<p>-7-8, at least I try to. Last term I had about 10-15 all-nighters though. I'd make up for it by sleeping 15 hours in a row the next day.</p>

<p>18) How many classes do you take, and how much time do you spend on each one? Do these numbers increase with grade level?</p>

<ul>
<li>I've taken 5 classes every term so far. The amount of time you spend on a class in a week can go from 2 hours to 20 hours depending on the class and the problem set, so there's a lot of variability. Numbers tend to increase with grade level, but not by all that much I'd say. And seniors all catch "senioritis" and spend their days loafing around in the sun.</li>
</ul>

<p>19) Do you remember most of what you learn in your classes?</p>

<p>-Nope, I've forgotten a lot of what I've learned, but I'm sure I could remember if I flipped through my textbooks.</p>

<p>20) In most classes, can you learn a large percentage of the material from your textbooks?</p>

<p>-It really depends on the class and the textbook. Some classes stick pretty well to the textbook, and others go all over the place. Some textbooks are also clearer than others.</p>

4

<p>nethack is an old pc game, a mud i believe. considered to be one of the greatest pc games back in the day.</p>

5

<p>1) Has anyone here, to your knowledge, ever constructed a stuffed inductor?</p>

<p>Since I don't know what a stuffed inductor is, I'd have to answer "no."</p>

<p>2) Which houses are the "coolest?" Is it true that there's an entire house of people that drink pig's blood and don't shower?</p>

<p>The coolest house is the one I'm in. No, I'm not biased at all.
(By the way, don't expect this question to be answered seriously).</p>

<p>3) I am a girl. How easy would it be for me to get a date at Caltech, assuming I do not become part of the aforementioned house?</p>

<p>I know someone who came to Caltech so "she could be a slut." (Her words). My point is that assuming you're not a lesbian, you could get a date pretty easily. </p>

<p>4) Quote from a Caltech-affiliated friend of mine: "The undergraduate teaching philosophy is Don't. Do research instead." Discuss.</p>

<p>Do teach. Do research too.</p>

<p>5) Is the food appalling? (I'm hungry right now )</p>

<p>Breakfast and Lunch at Chandler are good. Board dinner is awful.</p>

<p>6) When I go to Caltech, should I learn to drive and/or cook?</p>

<p>It's helpful but not necessary.</p>

<p>7) Should I bring my textbooks from high school?</p>

<p>Probably not.</p>

<p>8) How hard is the freshman courseload compared to work at highly-ranked high schools or most state universities?</p>

<p>Harder. Unless you went to my high school. </p>

<p>9) What percent of people at Caltech play NetHack?</p>

<p>No clue.</p>

<p>10) What percent of people at Caltech would make fun of people who like to play 20-year-old computer games in which you fight h's, f's, and semicolons?</p>

<p>Depends which house you're in.</p>

<p>11) Are there any classes that are so fundamental to most math/science majors that if you screw up in those classes, you'll have an extremely hard time recovering and will probably have to drop your major and/or drop out of Caltech? (Not including multivariable calculus and freshman year physics/chem/bio.)</p>

<p>Not that I know of.</p>

<p>12) How easy is it to get help with coursework at Caltech?</p>

<p>Very easy. I think there are free tutoring services offered for core classes. Or something like that.</p>

<p>13) For those who have done research: has anyone ever taken credit for your ideas to get higher authorship on your paper?</p>

<p>In my case, no. That would probably violate the honor code.</p>

<p>14) The working on homework in groups thing -- do people mostly work with their friends? Will people allow you to work with them if you weren't their friend beforehand? What happens if you just happen to end up becoming friends with people who have no clue what's going on in the class?</p>

<p>I've noticed that people mostly work with friends. People might allow you to work with them, depending on how nice they are (and how nice you are). If you're friends with people who don't know what's going on, find better friends (Kidding).</p>

<p>15) If you walked into lab one day and introduced yourself as a black gay transgendered Jehovah's Witness anarcho-communist, how many people would wind up hating you?</p>

<p>Not very many, from what I can tell.</p>

<p>16) Do people blow off non-science courses?</p>

<p>What's a non-science course?</p>

<p>17) How many hours of sleep do you get a night?</p>

<p>I personally get about 7 hours.</p>

<p>18) How many classes do you take, and how much time do you spend on each one? Do these numbers increase with grade level?</p>

<p>I personally am taking six classes. On average, about 7 or 8 hours per class. I'm only a freshman, so I'm not qualified to answer your second question.</p>

<p>19) Do you remember most of what you learn in your classes?</p>

<p>For math, yes. For other classes, no.</p>

<p>20) In most classes, can you learn a large percentage of the material from your textbooks?</p>

<p>Depends on the class.</p>

6

<p>ugh. my response to 16 doesn't correspond.
The original question was how often do freshman call their parents.
But I guess my response also flies with the current 16 except to a lesser extent because I'm not qualified to answer. But I'd assume more people "blow off" non science/math courses.</p>

7

<p>3) I am a girl. How easy would it be for me to get a date at Caltech, assuming I do not become part of the aforementioned house?</p>

<p>I'm the girl nea mentioned, and for the record a) I was joking and b) I don't refer to myself in the third person. That said... it would probably be easier than you'd want it to be to get a lot of attention and/or a relationship, and possibly harder than you'd want it to be to get a "date" in any traditional sense. People tend to exaggerate the impact of the Ratio for humor, but there <em>are</em> real effects--some positive, some negative. (PM me if you want; I spend probably too much time noticing this.)</p>

<p>5) Is the food appalling? (I'm hungry right now )</p>

<p>I'm the only one I know who actively likes board dinner, but honestly, it's delicious. (Tonight I had a potato, some pasta, walnuts, chick-peas, tofu, fruit, and chocolate soy milk.)</p>

<p>12) How easy is it to get help with coursework at Caltech?</p>

<p>Very very easy. Not only is there official free tutoring, but a lot of upperclassmen are eager to help people out with courses they've taken and done well in. (I've been offered help in chem 1 based solely on the fact that I'm a freshman multiple times. Maybe I give off a bad-at-chem vibe.) TAs/profs have office hours and are easy to find, too.</p>

<p>14) The working on homework in groups thing -- do people mostly work with their friends? Will people allow you to work with them if you weren't their friend beforehand? What happens if you just happen to end up becoming friends with people who have no clue what's going on in the class?</p>

<p>So most of the working together on sets does happen with friends, at least while you're all pretty much in the same classes. However, it's not at all unusual to meet people via working together; a simple "hey, you started the set yet? want to start it together this afternoon?" or e-mail works fine. And being in a group of clueless people is much better than being completely clueless alone, because it inspires far more action ("None of us understand this--let's go corner a TA and get him to explain it") than being completely clueless alone does ("I'm stupid--maybe banging my head against this wall will help").</p>

<p>15) If you walked into lab one day and introduced yourself as a black gay transgendered Jehovah's Witness anarcho-communist, how many people would wind up hating you?</p>

<p>Depends on how hard you tried to convert people. =)</p>

<p>17) How many hours of sleep do you get a night?</p>

<p>About 6.</p>

<p>18) How many classes do you take, and how much time do you spend on each one? Do these numbers increase with grade level?</p>

<p>6, anywhere from 5--15 hours/week including class time.</p>

<p>20) In most classes, can you learn a large percentage of the material from your textbooks?</p>

<p>No, but some people can (or claim to).</p>

8

<p>* 1) Has anyone here, to your knowledge, ever constructed a stuffed inductor?*</p>

<p>I have no idea what you mean by "stuffed" when applied to an inductor. Are you sure you didn't mean something else?</p>

<p>2) Which houses are the "coolest?" Is it true that there's an entire house of people that drink pig's blood and don't shower?</p>

<p>The Houses are each "cool" depending on the type of person you are. I personally love my House. Others fit better in a different House. Such is the magic of our Hogwarts-esque sorting system. The majority of the Houses (if any) would not be considered "cool" by the average person. By why would you want them to be?</p>

<p>3) I am a girl. How easy would it be for me to get a date at Caltech, assuming I do not become part of the aforementioned house?</p>

<p>If you want a "date," you can get one. By "date" I mean someone to snuggle with while discussing physics. What is more romantic than that? </p>

<p>4) Quote from a Caltech-affiliated friend of mine: "The undergraduate teaching philosophy is Don't. Do research instead." Discuss.</p>

<p>Assuming that you're talking about professors teaching undergrads...
One of my professors this term is the best teacher I've had in my life. I've had others that were energetic and entertaining. Some, honestly, are kind of slow and boring. They are hit or miss in terms of teaching. If you have a bad teacher you can usually find a good TA (or upperclassman... or classmate...) to make up for it. I certainly learn a ton more in the about six hours (ideally) of problem sets I do a week for a class with a group of my peers than in the three hours of lecture. You really learn the material by doing the sets, the lectures just make the sets doable. ;)</p>

<p>5) Is the food appalling? (I'm hungry right now )</p>

<p>The breakfast and lunch food at Chandler is amazing in my opinion. The dinner food can be anywhere from very questionable (CDS pumpkin pie, anyone?) to amazing. Tonight we had "steak night," which is generally a favorite. I had chicken, tortellini with pesto sauce, ciabatta, and chocolate mousse cake, all of which were excellent. Food is usually good, almost always edible. When it's really bad, you can always go to Avery for that night (only had to resort to that once.)
Thankfully, you get to check ahead: <a href="http://dining.caltech.edu/board.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://dining.caltech.edu/board.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>6) When I go to Caltech, should I learn to drive and/or cook?</p>

<p>Drive? No. Cook? It's useful but you can survive without it.</p>

<p>7) Should I bring my textbooks from high school?</p>

<p>I brought my calculus book from high school and only used it once.</p>

<p>8) How hard is the freshman courseload compared to work at highly-ranked high schools or most state universities?</p>

<p>Pass/fail, [pre]frosh. If it were on grades, I would cry,</p>

<p>9) What percent of people at Caltech play NetHack?</p>

<p>Almost everyone I know used to play it. Generally when we play video games now though we try to play "social" games like Smash Brothers (hush, it's educational.)</p>

<p>10) What percent of people at Caltech would make fun of people who like to play 20-year-old computer games in which you fight h's, f's, and semicolons?</p>

<p>I don't know anyone who would seriously make fun of you for that here. For <em>not</em> having ever played Nethack? Probably.</p>

<p>11) Are there any classes that are so fundamental to most math/science majors that if you screw up in those classes, you'll have an extremely hard time recovering and will probably have to drop your major and/or drop out of Caltech? (Not including multivariable calculus and freshman year physics/chem/bio.)</p>

<p>No, not really. There are no individual classes that could singlehandedly do damage that a little major-changery couldn't fix.</p>

<p>12) How easy is it to get help with coursework at Caltech?</p>

<p>Ridiculously easy, especially for core classes. I've never had a question on a set that a fellow student in the class or upperclassman couldn't help me answer. Finding help in a core frosh class generally involves leaving your room and asking the first person you see. </p>

<p>13) For those who have done research: has anyone ever taken credit for your ideas to get higher authorship on your paper?</p>

<p>Haven't done research here yet but I've never heard of anything like this happening. </p>

<p>14) The working on homework in groups thing -- do people mostly work with their friends? Will people allow you to work with them if you weren't their friend beforehand? What happens if you just happen to end up becoming friends with people who have no clue what's going on in the class?</p>

<p>I do all of my sets in groups. All of the people I usually work with, if they weren't my friends before, are now. There is no shame in meeting new people through problem sets. I have about two or three people I work with all of my sets on with, 6 more than I work with most of the time, and 30 or so that I've worked with at some point and are go-to people if no one else knows how to do something. </p>

<p>15) If you walked into lab one day and introduced yourself as a black gay transgendered Jehovah's Witness anarcho-communist, how many people would wind up hating you?</p>

<p>It's more likely that people would think you were awesome. Individuality is not frowned upon here...</p>

<p>16) Do people blow off non-science courses?</p>

<p>Honestly, it's not hard to do a couple hours of reading, discuss stuff in class, and write an essay every once in a while. There's really not all that much stuff to "blow off;" a 9 unit hum course is just plain easier than a 9 unit technical course. </p>

<p>17) How many hours of sleep do you get a night?</p>

<p>7-9 on weekdays, more if I can on weekends. In high school I got about 5 hours a night. I love sleep, it's awesome.</p>

<p>18) How many classes do you take, and how much time do you spend on each one? Do these numbers increase with grade level?</p>

<p>I've taken seven both the terms that I have been here so far (lol, frosh.) Three core science classes (lots o' work,) a science elective class (lots o' work,) a frosh hum (not much work,) a seminar class (no work outside of eating pizza,) and a PE or lab class (not much work outside of the general time-sink.)</p>

<p>19) Do you remember most of what you learn in your classes?</p>

<p>I don't think I've been here long enough to answer this.</p>

<p>20) In most classes, can you learn a large percentage of the material from your textbooks?</p>

<p>Hard classes with awesome books? Hell yes, I'll read them straight through. I prefer learning through discussing problems with my friends and studying through reviewing lecture notes and problem sets. Most good classes have fairly extensive stuffs on their website.</p>

9

<ol>
<li>My two boys thought the pizza at Chandler was A++. I had grilled salmon cooked to order that was at least an A. I gather dinners in the houses aren't quite as good.</li>
</ol>

10

<p>When we visited, two things about the food situation concerned me:</p>

<p>It seems that on weekends the dorm dining halls are closed, and the only on-campus food is a snack bar, is that right? The kitchen facilities we saw didn't seem able to support more than a handful of students cooking, and our guide said that most students' weekend diet was cereal, ramen noodles, and pizza pockets. I know students can walk 6-7 blocks and get to restaraunts but I seem to recall that distances seemed longer when I was a student, so I worry that people might end up staying in the dorms eating poorly. Is this accurate?</p>

<p>Also, I wonder how students feel about the sit-down weekly dinners, both in terms of the scheduling constraint, and because I worry that the atmosphere (which seemed close to summer camp) might become less appealing after a while. </p>

<p>Comments?</p>

11

<p>


Some do stay and eat not so well, but a good number travel off campus for at least one meal a day on weekends. I personally think it's kind of nice to be semi-"forced" off campus a couple times of week. People also order food a lot, and a few cook decent meals on campus.</p>

<p>Last year the administration attempted to institute a 7-day board plan, and while there were many problems in how it was to be implemented, in general the vast majority of the undergraduates thought it was a completely terrible idea, if that helps to give some perspective.</p>

12

<p><a href="PM%20me%20if%20you%20want;%20I%20spend%20probably%20too%20much%20time%20noticing%20this.">quote</a>

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You should actually never listen to anything flierdeke says, especially regarding human relationships. PM me if you want to know why.</p>

13

<p>
[quote]
It seems that on weekends the dorm dining halls are closed, and the only on-campus food is a snack bar, is that right? The kitchen facilities we saw didn't seem able to support more than a handful of students cooking, and our guide said that most students' weekend diet was cereal, ramen noodles, and pizza pockets.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>When people cook in the kitchens they generally don't cook food for just themselves. Lots of times on the weekends it's more of an "everybody in the hall can chip in for ingredients and I'll make a massive amount of _______ for everyone" thing than people each cooking their own meals.</p>

<p>
[quote]
I know students can walk 6-7 blocks and get to restaraunts but I seem to recall that distances seemed longer when I was a student, so I worry that people might end up staying in the dorms eating poorly. Is this accurate?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Most of the people I know go out for food every weekend. It's only a few blocks north to Colorado where there are a ton of cheaper places to eat at. If we want nicer food or a sit-down place we just walk a few blocks west to Lake. Generally, I go out in groups of 4-12 (it's easy to acquire people simply by wandering through a few halls shouting "We're going to _____. Who else wants to come?") If everyone is especially lazy one night and no one wants to leave campus we just order a ton of delivery from one of the several places that give Techers nice discounts and eat it in the lounge. I haven't actually eaten a single meal alone since I came here.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Also, I wonder how students feel about the sit-down weekly dinners, both in terms of the scheduling constraint, and because I worry that the atmosphere (which seemed close to summer camp) might become less appealing after a while.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Most students enjoy the "family style" House dinners, even those who have been here for a long time. Stuff is always scheduled so it doesn't interfere with the normal House dinner time of 6-7 pm. I look forward to the dinners because they are generally pretty fun and relaxing. They also give a good excuse to take a break from problem sets and just chat with people over food.</p>

14

<p>1) No idea what a stuffed inductor is, so I can't say.</p>

<p>2) The "coolest"? It very much depends on your tastes, and also be wary of any stereotypes that people associate with the various houses. No house is intrinscly better than any of the others, and I'm not just saying that to abide by rotation rules. In terms of buildings and location, Avery is to the far north of the campus and is the newest building constructed; the South Houses (Fleming, Blacker, Dabney, Ricketts) have just reopened and I think they are still doing some renovation there, but probably not for long; the North Houses (Ruddock, Lloyd, Page) are just right across from them. I'm sure there are people who don't shower, and probably people who drink pig's blood ;) but it <em>probably</em> can't be said as a characteristic of any one house.</p>

<p>3) If you want to, I'm sure you could, hehe. But...well...if you mean "How easy would it be for me to get a good date at Caltech"; i.e, finding a right person...it wouldn't be any easier than at any other school. I think. I mean, you might get unwanted attention anyways...</p>

<p>4) Haha. Well, I'm not sure about that. I know that the Ma 1a teacher rotates every year, so it seems like nobody wants to be landed with the job -although I thought our Ma 1a teacher was really good. Our Ch1a teacher has taught Ch1a for, like, ever. I can't comment about the faculty philosophy with regard to teaching, but so far almost all of the teachers I've had have been awesome, and this term more so than last.</p>

<p>Another thing to keep in mind is, who your recitation TA is is very important as well, because a good TA will make a big difference if you can't understand something. But you can always switch sections if you don't like your TA, or just not switch sections and go to another TA's section anyway.</p>

<p>5) The food is...well. Chandler has a good selection for lunch, I suppose. The pizza gets high reviews and you can eat fairly well. House dinners, in my experience, have been...okay. But, I've only had two House dinners because I live in a House with a different dinner plan. Most of the Houses have a set dinner; Avery dinner runs more like a restaurant (but not waited). Supposedly Avery food is better. There's more variety, to be sure...but I'm not convinced the difference is so great. At least, this shouldn't affect your decision of which house you want to be in. And, my opinion of Caltech food is just really skewed, because I spent several weeks in China over winter break, and now that I'm back...Caltech food makes me cry. :(</p>

<p>6) I can't do either. Hehe. ALTHOUGH, if you have a car and you can drive, you might make a lot of friends. Learning to cook is a good skill to have too. I wish I knew how, but neither is by any means necessary.</p>

<p>7) If you want, depending on how useful they are. I've heard some friends commenting about how they wished they had brought so-and-so from home. At my high school though, I never bought textbooks nor paid attention to who wrote them. </p>

<p>8) This I don't know, because I didn't go to a highly ranked high school. For me, it was fairly brutal. But a lot of students have gone far into college-level courses and know the material fairly well coming in, so they don't have nearly as much trouble as I did with, say, Ma 1a or Ch1a. A fair number test out of Physics, some test out of Math, and a few test out of Chemistry - I think that's how the relative numbers stack up. So depending on your background, core can be manageable or intense; if it's too easy, you can try placing out. Although there have been some quizzes that have just been nasty and owned almost everyone - one of our physics quizzes last term had an average of about 3/10. Still, some people did well on it.</p>

<p>9) I don't know, but people play lots of interesting online games when bored. I'm sure that if you can't find anyone who plays NetHack already, you can start a cult and suck people in ;)</p>

<p>10) I think a good number of people would be more like "O_O. That is so awesome!" Actually, while we're on the subject, what game are you talking about? I'm curious. =p</p>

<p>11) I'm a current frosh, so I don't know. I've heard someone say that nobody learns anything in core, and they'll just reteach you, but I don't know how true this is. (probably not very)</p>

<p>12) Very easy. You can go to your TA for office hours, or much more conveniently, turn to any one of several hundred brilliant people around you. :P Of course there's the Honor Code to consider, so you want to make sure you understand it as well. But people are always willing to help, in my experience.</p>

<p>13) Never done research :-P</p>

<p>14) I find that people do work mostly with their friends. But I don't think someone you don't know too well will object if you just go to them and say, "Hey, I'm not sure I did this right, can we compare answers?" I think the chances are preeeetty low that you just become friends with people who have no clue what's going on in the class. If that happens, then just seek people out - I can't imagine that would be a problem.</p>

<p>15) Um...I really can't say. </p>

<p>16) Yes. There's a certain attitude towards those...<em>demeaning voice</em> Hum courses...but it's not like everyone necessarily wants to blow them off. It just happens that you only have so much time per week, and that doesn't really allow you to enjoy humanities courses as you properly should. I don't really have the luxury of curling up with a book and taking my time to read it...although you might if you get all your other work done early.</p>

<p>17) Well, this term I've been a bad person and have gotten 4-6 hours a night. Last term it was more like 7-8, more on the weekends because I just woke up really late.</p>

<p>18) Apparently, we take a <em>lot</em> of courses compared to other schools. Right now, I have five core academic classes (not including CS11) and some other classes like gym and band which take up time as well. It's pretty busy. I'm sure that if I wanted to, I could just hole up and never leave my room. It's a good thing I have the attention span of a fly.</p>

<p>19) I try to. Sometimes we just go through things so quickly that stuff just falls through a sieve or gets lost in the shuffle. I guess that's a consequence of our 10-week terms.</p>

<p>20) In math core, this seems to be true. In chem core, the opposite seems to be true, although this term seems to be more reliant on the textbooks than last term. Other classes outside of core...well, I haven't really taken a whole lot of them.</p>

15

<p>This is so odd. I'm reading all these things and not disagreeing with anything. That's unusual for me.</p>

<p>PM me if you'd like to know why both flierdeke and neapol1s should be thwacked with a gerbil.</p>

16

<p>Why are so many guys trying to answer #3 (the date question) with authority??? As a girl, the only answer from above that I agreed with in any way was flierdeke's. Guys seem to think that because they're all desperate for a date, any girl that wants a date will get one. Not so! For one thing, a significant percentage of the guys here are far too shy to ask a girl out. So unless you're willing to do the asking, expect to get lots of attention, but few dates. (My roommate wants me to add, and I agree, that Caltech guys tend to have a specific type. So if you aren't little, bubbly, and naive, or Asian, you could find that you get far less attention than others.) </p>

<p>For another thing, the houses are very small environments. By the time a class graduates, there have been quite a few dating triangles within the group. (There are ~30 people per year per house.) It's impossible to date casually within the house, and a serious relationship ending can have a big effect on such a tight knit group. </p>

<p>Basically, it's possible to date at Caltech, but you'll have to put more effort into it than you would elsewhere. My advice would be to make sure you socialize outside your house and outside the school. Get involved in volunteer activities around Pasadena, go out to concerts, bars, coffeeshops -- wherever you think you'll find someone with similar interests. The house is a wonderful social structure for many reasons, but it is a horrible environment for dating.</p>

17

<p>"Guys seem to think that because they're all desperate for a date, any girl that wants a date will get one. Not so! For one thing, a significant percentage of the guys here are far too shy to ask a girl out. So unless you're willing to do the asking, expect to get lots of attention, but few dates. (My roommate wants me to add, and I agree, that Caltech guys tend to have a specific type. So if you aren't little, bubbly, and naive, or Asian, you could find that you get far less attention than others.)"</p>

<p>I disagree and restate my case: Any girl that's remotely attractive and that's trying to find a date will probably find one. In my house at least, more than half of the freshmen girls had a boyfriend by the end of first term and I'm not even sure any of them were trying.</p>

<p>(yay contoversy!)</p>

18

<p>I bet that if you think about who those girls were, you'll realize that they all fit into at least one of the types I mentioned. If you look around your house, you'll also notice that freshman girls are far more likely to get attention than any of the other girls, because they are far more naive. </p>

<p>Also, you're missing the difference between dating and having a boyfriend. Dating is when you can go out on the weekend to dinner or a movie, and have a fun time. Dating is about getting to know different guys in purely social situations. Relationships at Tech are far more like marriages than dating, and if you go on a date with two different guys within a short period of time, you'll find yourself the subject of a whole lot of gossip. Furthermore, working on a problem set together does NOT count as a date.</p>

<p>I can, however, think of one house where almost all the girls are in relationships. This house, however, is the perfect example for the fact that Techer relationships tend to be more like marriages -- in fact, there have been a few years where half or more of the senior girls were married or engaged to their Techer boyfriends before graduating. (Before anyone asks, no I won't say which house -- hopefully I worded it such that Techers will know which I'm referring to and prefrosh will not.)</p>

19

<p>You're right about relationship at Tech are closer to marriages than dating.</p>

<p>"little, bubbly, and naive, or Asian": pretty much every girl in the world can fall into one of those categories</p>

<p>And the lack of "actual" dates might just be because Techers are too busy working or staying at Tech to actually go out on dates. I just interpreted fizix's alluion to dates as how easy it is to find some sort of romantic interest as a girl here. But I agree with most of your last post, alleya.</p>

20

<p>a) A stuffed inductor is kinda like a stuffed bear, only an inductor instead of a bear. Think of it as a toy you'd give to your geeky kid. (Not sure how huggable it'd be, though.)</p>

<p>b)

[quote]
I bet that if you think about who those girls were, you'll realize that they all fit into at least one of the types I mentioned. If you look around your house, you'll also notice that freshman girls are far more likely to get attention than any of the other girls, because they are far more naive.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Wow...does this mean freshmen are actually above upperclassmen on the social ladder? I presume this means there's no hazing, etc. at Caltech.</p>

<p>c) Why does Caltech's culture seem so different from MIT's, given they tend to attract the same kinds of people out of high school?</p>

<p>d) Has anyone, to your knowledge, ever not fit into any of the houses? You say the houses are "tight-knit"; surely there must be some outcasts -- what do they end up doing?</p>

<p>e) Are things usually curved?</p>

<p>Thanks for all of your helpful responses!</p>