<p>Hey - the Big Bang Theory is my favorite show, and it obviously is based on Caltech. I was wondering how true to life the show is, and if it represents Caltech culture? Like, are the Leonard and Sheldon characters more extreme than most Caltech students? And do you see the Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock game done on campus?</p>
<p>Big Bang Theory has almost nothing in common with Caltech. Physics students outside the lab for that long would get dropped from their PhD program. If you’re passionate about math and science though, and want to be around other people who are just as passionate, you should definitely apply here. If you get in, you can visit during prefrosh weekend and see for yourself.</p>
<p>Thank goodness for them that they are professors and we all know that they bid grad students a fair TTFN as they go home to leave the Ph.D. wannabe slaving away. The arrogance of Sheldon–that seems spot on (Norbert Weiner take off).</p>
<p>the Big Bang theory is what initially got me interested in Caltech :)</p>
<p>They have a professor from UCLA i believe as the science advisor and it is he who writes all of the white boards for the show. Once he took his advanced physics class as a"present" after they took their final exam. The boards on the set had the answers to all of the exam’s questions.</p>
<p>What amazes me is that while they are comic characters when they talk about a particular part of physics, they get it right, not just the big stuff, but the jokes too…and the episode when Sheldon and Raj get down to work on a problem and the camera jump cuts them staring and staring at the blackboard for hours is so spot on.</p>
<p>In response to Dauntless9, they are not Ph.D. students. They all already have their Ph.D. They are researches/post docs.</p>