<p>I visited Princeton last weekend and was chatting with a chemistry professor who went to Caltech undergrad and LOVED it. I think he was leaving Princeton after this year to go teach there. He was telling me how if I want an education that is COMPLETELY math and science, that's where I should go. I think this description had the opposite of its desired effect on me. I had been considering Caltech, but I want more than math and science in my life for those 4 years. Is it true that ALL you do there is math and science (academically, I mean. Socially... I don't really care about that)?</p>
<p>Take a look at the Caltech catalog for offered courses and core requirements to get a gauge for yourself.</p>
<p>Here you go: <a href="http://pr.caltech.edu/catalog/%5B/url%5D">http://pr.caltech.edu/catalog/</a></p>
<p>("Humanities and Social Sciences Requirements
All students must complete satisfactorily 108 units in the Division
of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Of these, 36 must be in the
humanities (art, English, film, history, history and philosophy of
science, humanities, music, philosophy, and, with certain restrictions,
languages) and 36 in the social sciences (anthropology, business
economics and management, economics, law, political science,
psychology, social science), in each case divided equally between
introductory and advanced courses. The remaining 36 may be
drawn from humanities and social sciences, including HSS tutorial
courses. They may not include reading courses unless credit has
been granted by petition to the Humanities or Social Science faculty.
In general, no more than 18 units of freshman humanities
may be counted toward the 108-unit requirement.</p>
<p>Entering freshmen are required to take two terms of freshman
humanities; that is, humanities courses numbered 10 or below in
the Catalog. These classes introduce students to the basic issues in
the three core disciplines of English, history, and philosophy.
Successful completion of two terms of freshman humanities is
a prerequisite for all humanities courses, except for foreign
languages. It is not a prerequisite, however, for introductory social
sciences. The freshman humanities classes may be taken in any two
terms of the freshman year. Other humanities courses numbered
30 or greater are open only to students who have fulfilled the
freshman humanities requirement.</p>
<p>To encourage breadth, students will have to take their two
freshman humanities classes in different disciplines, the disciplines
being English, history, history and philosophy of science, humanities,
and philosophy.</p>
<p>A student must take 18 units of advanced humanities courses as
well. The classes that count as advanced humanities courses are
those numbered 90 or above in English, film, history, history and
philosophy of science, humanities, and philosophy. The advanced
humanities classes also include all foreign language classes beyond
the fourth term, whether or not the student has taken any of the
preceding terms in the sequence for that language. The first four
terms of a foreign language sequence do not count toward the 36-
unit humanities requirement; however, every term receives credit
toward the final 36 units of the 108-unit requirement in HSS.
Since writing is a crucial skill, all humanities courses, with the
exception of some foreign languages and courses numbered
between 29 and 90, require at least 4,000 words of composition.
Instructors give extensive feedback on written work and help students
improve their prose. As entering students may not be fully
prepared for the writing in freshman humanities, all freshmen and
transfer students take a writing assessment before the beginning of
the fall term. On the basis of this assessment, some students may
be required to pass En 1 ab, English as a Second Language, or
En 2, Basic English Composition, before entering freshman or
advanced humanities classes. (En 1 ab and En 2 count as general
Institute credit only.) At the discretion of the instructor, students
in freshman humanities who do not meet expectations for writing
may be required to seek additional instruction in consultation with
the writing center, or to pass En 1 ab or En 2, or another suitable
composition class, before continuing with their freshman or
advanced humanities classes. Any student who has taken En 1 a,
En 1 b, or En 2 may not subsequently enroll in more than one
freshman humanities class per term.</p>
<p>Students are required to take two introductory social science
courses and 18 units of related advanced undergraduate social science
courses. The introductory social science courses must be
drawn from the following list: either An 22 or An 23, Ec 11, Law
33, PS 12, either Psy 15 or Psy 20, SS 13. The 18 units of
advanced undergraduate social science courses (numbered 100 and
above), in fields following at least one of their introductory courses,
must be taken as indicated below.")</p>