<p>Hey guys. So I'm a high school junior and I am very interested in Caltech for a couple reasons: its close to home, I would get free tuition if accepted, and I absolutely love the campus and its location. However, I am not entirely interested in math or science. My main passion is international relations, but Caltech does not offer that; they offer Political Science and History. I would be very fine with those majors instead, but I am questioning how anyone could get into Caltech under those majors. For example, there are multiple questions on the Caltech supplement about participating in the STEM world or how I would like to impact the world of STEM.... things that I don't think I could answer, as my extracurricular activities do not have anything to do with STEM (the closest thing I have is Academic Decathlon...) I mostly do Speech and Debate and Model U.N. (I hold very high leadership positions in both). I have 3.9 unweighted GPA, and I haven't taken the SAT yet (I will this winter), but I am preparing for a very high score. I guess what I'm asking is: How is someone not involved with, or plans to be involved with, STEM to apply to Caltech? Would I even be considered without STEM related extracurriculars? Or do they value Non-STEM majors highly because there is a shortage of them? </p>
<p>How would you get free tuition? My son didn’t get that. Caltech does have a liberal arts program and they can also tailor your major but your stats and activities have to be top notch. They ask how you, as an incoming freshman student, would impact Caltech. That’s what they want to know.</p>
<p>There are non-STEM majors and non-STEM classes at Caltech, but they often are not what you might think. The classes in many social science departments are often still very STEM-oriented; for example, introductory economics classes involve calculus; and studying “political science” is largely game theory.</p>
<p>Also, remember that every undergraduate at Caltech, regardless of major, must complete a rigorous core curriculum including 5 terms of physics, 5 terms of math, 2 terms of chemistry, a term of biology, etc., which will cover things like special relativity and quantum mechanics. That means, yes, even if you are an English major you will need to learn a decent amount of quantum mechanics, something which physics majors in other schools may not go into as much. So this is not something you want to do unless you love and are willing to go through tons of hardcore STEM material.</p>
<p>When people have non-STEM majors at Caltech, it is often for reasons other than this being the primary thing they are interested in. Sometimes people take a humanities or social science as a second major because you are required to take so many humanities and social sciences classes to graduate anyway, that it’s not that much more effort to get a second major if you plan it right. Sometimes people who find it hard academically or otherwise to complete their intended major end up with a humanities or social science major as a way out.</p>
<p>The things you mentioned, campus, tuition, location, are not good reasons to go to Caltech. You should only go there if you are passionate about math and science. And even that is not always enough; many of the best and brightest of STEM-oriented high school students in the country go there and flame out.</p>
<p>I second spoon!'s statements. Caltech emphasizes STEM majors, and the majority of English majors are in fact double majors with their other major being some part of STEM. You need to be interested in science/math in order to survive in this place (and as spoon! stated, even the cream of the crop at Tech can burn out). If you like the campus/location, you may want to look into Occidental or UCLA (I presume you’re in state for that anyway). Caltech is simply not a school you ought to consider based upon the reasons as you have described.</p>
<p>Spoon! and Chewydog are absolutely right in stating that you need to have a love of science, math, and research just to learn it. To even begin to consider Caltech as one of your choices, you need to understand they’re thinking Read the “open letter”:<br>
<a href=“http://www.its.caltech.edu/~tgwinn/Caltech.pdf”>http://www.its.caltech.edu/~tgwinn/Caltech.pdf</a>
Students who attend Caltech aren’t in it for the prestige. </p>
<p>oops, lots of syntax errors! "You need to understand their thinking: read the open letter. </p>
<p>Thank you for the input! In response to aunt bea, my dad works for an program associated with Caltech, and children of scientists in that program can get free tuition at Caltech… which is a pretty big deal for me and my family. Basically what you guys have told me is that it’s not worth it to go to Caltech (assuming I was accepted) if I don’t like STEM. However, is it easier or harder to get accepted in the first place as a non-STEM major and only a non-STEM major (as in not a double major). I really appreciate the feedback!</p>
<p>If I were on admissions and I saw a prospective Techer applying for non-STEM, I would question his fit at the school. Sentiments by spoon! and Chewydog further echoed.</p>