<p>Hey, i was wondering if there are some students at Caltech that are not pursuing a career in the fields of math and science and just wanted ur opinion about what it's like being a humanities major in a math/science school.</p>
<p>I go to Caltech and study math but am going to grad school in economics/political economy. The social sciences at Caltech (econ, polisci, etc.) aren't viewed as humanities but rather as sciences in which the objects of study aren't molecules but people. If you like that approach, Caltech gives unparallelled preparation for further study in these fields. Usually, it appeals to people who came to Caltech not knowing that the social sciences could be cool and interesting (or outright hating social sciences, like me) and then have their minds changed by the scientific approach here.</p>
<p>By the way, we just added a political science major, so you can officially graduate in it. Still, I'd say if you are coming in aiming mostly to do polisci or something of that nature, you might be happier someplace else. Caltech is all about science, to the tune of 5 terms of physics through quantum mechanics and 5 terms of math. I don't know that many humanities concentrators who t hink that would be a fun way to spend two years. But if you are one of the few, proud, etc., then maybe Caltech's right for you.</p>
<p>In general, quite a few students come into Caltech with a specific option in mind (math in Ben's case), but then discover something else (economics) and end up optioning in that. </p>
<p>The incoming freshmen alll fill out a student interest sheet in which they list their intended option. This year nobody listed geology, but as our Dean pointed out, a few people graduate each year in geology. The next thing he said was "when physics doesn't work out," but it's best to ignore comments like that.</p>
<p>Our tourguide last spring was an ex-physics major who switched to geology. :)</p>
<p>When I attended "The Caltech Thingie" - NY Regional Program - sort of Open House, a few graduates talked to us. Of those, a vast majority were either going to Economics grad schools (like NYU) or were already working on Wall Street, including the former captain of Caltech's basketball team. That surprised me a lot, to be honest</p>
<p>I'm still graduating in math, you goofball. <em>POKE</em></p>
<p>Hriundeli, sure, in the NY area, you will see a lot of grads who have gone into the finance world. But not all grads do this- you just had a highly skewed sample.</p>
<p>thanks for all the replies, although caltech is predominantly a math and science school, i thought that going as a poli sc major with an emphasis on environmental policy would actually be helpful towards understanding the environmental aspect so i guess that's why i'm seriously considering it...plus it's also only 3 miles away sort of helps too</p>
<p>i do like the approach that Ben was talking about but i'm not so sure that i'm a big fan of the physics and math requirements</p>
<p>From a purely get-ready-for-grad-school-in-poli-sci viewpoint, the Caltech physics requirement is a misallocation of time and effiort. But quantum physics is pretty cool, and a lot easier to learn in a college class than on your own. (I stopped physics after E&M because I thought the next class-optics/waves-looked boring, but now I wish I had stuck with it longer.)</p>