<p>hey guys</p>
<p>this probably sound really stupid. but i was looking at random universities today, after submitting my uni apps, and i came upon caltech... and i must say, it really attracted me and made me want to apply. so... about 1 hour ago i decided to apply. yup, i dunno why i wrote this
caltech rocks :P</p>
<p>hopefully my crappy app will stand a little chance</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Why did "caltech rock" for you?</p>
<p>iunno... i guess the small undergrad population that makes the student-prof relationship really strong
as well, the great financial aid
and then, also the fact that ppl in caltech get great research opportunities and is connected to NASA
the one thing that kept me from applying earlier was the fact that it was very engineering focused, and i was leaning a little on business/med.
and.. the fact that some ppl dont graduate and that the course is very hard
but i guess it's challenging in a way and all for the best :)
well... i tried my shot at it
app wasnt very well done.. but at least i wont have to regret when im older that "damn, i wish i applied to caltech"</p>
<p>Er, you went through your college search without having come across Caltech once? @_@</p>
<p>It's not that surprising. I had no idea Caltech existed until I joined CC and came across one of those "Caltech vs. MIT" threads on MIT's forum.
Tell you more, of all math and science teachers in our school, only 3 know about it, and 1 student out of ~4000 has heard about this school</p>
<p>I think it depends more on where you live or your parents's profession(s).
For example, in the bay area you hear a lot more about it especially if your parents are in engineering. But even then, a lot of people don't apply because they think it's too nerdy/intense/weird or quirky! like our apps said. Or they're just turned off by the guy to girl ratio. When they don't apply or think about it, it doesn't come up in conversations.</p>
<p>It could also be because it's such a small school with such a small area of focus.</p>
<p>Yeah, I first heard about cal-tech from my physics teacher, who told us many stories about richard feynman and others. It seems that if you are in the engineering profession, caltech is very famous and beats out stanford, harvard, and even MIT. But out of the engineering field, say, in business or law, it'll be less known. </p>
<p>But then again, fame doesn't matter much does it? I don't see much importance in walking around and bragging to people that you went to caltech. When you are at a workplace, it's the work you do that counts, not the school you went to.</p>
<p>I'd say in hard science Caltech is most famous. In engineering MIT wins out in name recognition.</p>
<p>a question for Ben Golub: does caltech notify applicants that their applications have been received? And if so, approximately when?
Also, on the website it says that an interview will be held in California in February. Is that required for all applicants? And is that the only type of interview opportunity we have? (no regional interviews?)
Thanks a bunch!</p>
<p>StuckatUofT, I'm obviously not Ben Golub, but -- I received two confirmations from Caltech for an application sent in on December 31. The first was sent to me on January 4, and said that they'd received my application; the second was sent on January 17, and said that I'd be informed about how complete my app was in a few days' time.</p>
<p>Hope that helps. :D</p>
<p>Caltech doesn't do interviews except for the UCSD medical scholars program.</p>
<p>I'm not an expert on the medical program, but I believe that February is the only interview opportunity, and it is on-site. But they may be willing to make arrangements if this imposes a hardship on you -- if you are selected as one of the students that they will interview, you can talk to them about that directly.</p>
<p>I want an interview :D....</p>
<p>Ben, is the medical scholars program focused on providing DOCTORS or scientists with a medical background? Because I have no interest in becoming a doctor and I think I stated that in my application, so I was wondering what it was they were actually looking for.</p>
<p>As I said, this is probably the thing in admissions that I am farthest from being an expert on, but for what it's worth:</p>
<p>the Caltech/UCSD program would probably be more open than most to a more research-oriented track, but most research/medicine programs still want you to have some interest in clinical aspects. Especially the doctors reading the application may decide that an outright rejection of clinical-type work is a little extreme. But who knows. It's always better to be honest.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply Ben Golub!
and Noldo!</p>
<p>Ben, you've made notes about how interviews aren't beneficial to the process.
So why would they tack it on to the UCSD/Caltech program? Just to make things more competitive and just to differentiate people?</p>
<p>Kami- I'm not sure if you want to attend med school (MD)without a clinical interest. I think you can receive enough education through a MS/PHD. At Stanford, most of the researchers in the pathology labs (since I haven't bombarded all the labs next to the hospital yet) don't have MDs even though they're working with human/bio related topics. But I would go into more research about the issue.</p>
<p>Well, I don't make all the decisions :). Med school people tend to think interviews help, despite mixed evidence. So for the med program, we have them. It's not so bad. We'll see how it turns out.</p>