<ol>
<li>Is there any reason why a person who wants to study science/engineering and is willing to do hard work shouldn't come to Caltech?</li>
</ol>
<p>Question number 13 seconded by me.</p>
<p>To Silverrose and mathwiz: </p>
<p>I think there are three reasons.</p>
<p>One: You want a practical engineering education that will well prepare you for an immediate job in the industry and/or you don't care about the theory behind engineering.</p>
<p>Two: You care a lot about dating girls, and you're a guy.</p>
<p>Three: You don't love math and/or science. Although you may be willing to work hard, if your work is not something you love, then it's not worth it.</p>
<p>With regard to 13)one part a):</p>
<p>
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You want a practical engineering education that will well prepare you for an immediate job in the industry
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</p>
<p>So are you saying Caltech prepares students for grad school rather than industry? And I thought a bunch of Caltech grads did immediately go into industry and started off very well.</p>
<p>To answer your question, yes. I'd say in general Caltech prepares students for grad school.</p>
<p>That being said, that does not preclude your statement. Of course, many students can and well immediately go into industry and will do excellently--because they excelled to begin with. </p>
<p>My point is simply that a Caltech education is not going to be as practically based as at some other schools and that if you are not interested in theory it's going to seem like a waste of time to you. If you like the theory, then great! I am a EE major and I certainly don't mind (so far, haha).</p>
<p>Mathwiz, each school has its own tradition. From Caltech Catalog 2006-2007, p-12,</p>
<p>
[quote]
On November 29, 1921, the trustees declared it to be the expressed policy of the Institute to pursue scientific research of the greatest importance and at the same time" to continue to conduct through courses in engineering and pure science, basing the work of these courses on exceptionally strong instruction in the fundamental sciences of mathematics , physics, and chemistry; broadening and enriching the curriculum by a liberal amount of instruction in such subjects as English, history, and economics; and vitalizing all the work of the Institute by the infusion in generous measure of the spirit of research."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think Caltech's approach is to prepare you to solve future problems, not just learning current methods.</p>
<p>Lizzardfire is correct. The engineering does tend to be on the more theoretical side. The idea is that you're bright enough to figure out things like how to use design software on your own. There's no reason why you can't go into industry out of Caltech, but it does seem a bit pointless to be studying quantum mech and the likes if that's your goal. (I know someone's going to argue that it's useful to know all the physics and theory so you know exactly what's going, etc. etc, but honestly, you really don't need to know these details for most industry jobs. Being drilled in common design methods and being very familiar with leading software packages would be more useful.)</p>
<p>hmmmm.... I dunno.... I know I like theory, but I like practicality too.</p>
<p>Mathwiz- the most important thing is if you enjoy the school. Come to prefrosh weekend and not only will you be able to get a better idea of how engineering is taught (you can talk to any of the engineers here) but you'll also see if you fit here, which is much more important. You'll be able to do pretty much anything you want if you're dedicated, no matter what school you go to.</p>
<p>For example, in my class of five E&AS: Aeronautics majors, four of us went straight to grad school. (All got into top 5 aero schools too, which I think is a pretty good record.)</p>
<p>But then, also, the fifth guy didn't have any trouble getting an engineering job straight out of Caltech, and I know I had several interviews lined up without much legwork on my part before I decided on grad school for sure.</p>
<p>Just over 50% of Caltech students will eventually earn PhDs, but that ratio is heavily skewed towards the pure maths and science folks. I'll bet it's more like 1/3 for engineers--which is still probably a huge number compared to other schools of engineering, but going to grad school is far from the only thing you can do coming out of Caltech.</p>
<p>In the end, having to spend some time on the job learning the latest CAD package is probably not going to hurt your performance very much when you have a solid grounding in the fundamentals and the theory, and employers seem to realize that.</p>
<p>How can I edit my original post dLo? I was under the impression that after a certain amount of time you couldn't edit it.</p>
<p>14) Do you actually know any seniors with 4.0 GPAs? If so, were they the IMO-gold-medalist type?
15) What determines the social "pecking-order" at Caltech? What makes one student more popular than another?
16) How can you get Caltech professors to like you, write good recommendations, etc.? How can you participate in class when some classes have large numbers of students (as I've heard)?</p>
<p>14) GPA isn't really discussed that often here. (I don't know anyone's GPA other than my own... then again, I'm a frosh)
15) Uh... there really isn't one. There's no one "Caltech social pecking order"... and it doesn't really seem like anything is based on 'popularity'. Of course, some people will be liked by more people than others, but it's not like high school (AT ALL) where someone looks like such and such or does something or acts a certain way and is held in high regard.
16) Work hard and speak up. There aren't many classes with large amounts of students outside of core.</p>
<p>14) According to a registrar newsletter, approximately 9% of the people at Caltech have 4.0 or higher GPAs. Of course, I imagine a good portion belong to Geo or Bio majors. Also, Techers usually don't talk about their own GPAs or high school achievements, so I really don't know what "types" of people get these ridiculous grades.</p>
<p>15) The "popular" kids are probably the ones who were also well-liked in high school, granted Caltech is more accepting of geeky behavior. Honestly though, popularity doesn't really mean the same thing here as it does at other schools, and being "popular" does not seem to be priority for most people. There isn't really a "pecking-order", but if I had to say... Attractive Females > Upperclassmen > Everyone Else?</p>
<p>16) Only the core classes are large, once you start splitting into your own major, I imagine it is much easier to get to know the professors. Some professors also TA core recitation sections which have much fewer people, so you could get to know them then.</p>
<ol>
<li> If one puts in a reasonable effort, is there any doubt over whether one can do some sort of Undergraduate Research? The website seemed to talk about the SURF grants as something one competitively applied for. Are there other opportunities, or are there people who want to have some research experience, but can't get it?
Wow - the number of helpful Caltech students here is great!</li>
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<p>I have never heard of a student wanting to do research and not being accepted by any professor. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that the SURF acceptance rate is in the vicinity of 75% or 80%. Usually only the people who submit proposals that don't sound reasonable get rejected.</p>
<p>Aside from SURFs, people do research for units, work-study, or (if they're lucky) just plain ol' paychecks. The first two are very attractive for professors because they get undergraduates helping out in the labs without having to dish any money out of their lab accounts. So in those two cases, the only reason a professor would turn down an undergrad would be if s/he doesn't have space for the student at the moment. Maybe if a professor were mean, s/he could turn down an undergrad just because s/he doesn't like the student, but I've never heard of that happening before.</p>
<p>Thanks - that sounds promising.</p>
<p>I'm in uni in the UK, and cal tech is one of the places I can apply to for 3rd yr.
Interest is biology/biochem and in the UK, these are the only courses you take.
However, exhange form says that for caltech - even in biology.biochem, you have to have taken in 1st and 2nd yr, calculus, linear algebra, probablity and stats, differntial equations, physics, statistical waves and quantum mechanics, 2 chem courses and 1 biology.
Given that the uni curriculum here in the UK, doesn't allow for all of these course, and I would have thought that Quantum mechanics is abit over the top as a pre-requisitie for a biology course.... I'm just wondering if anyone out there has applied to go on one of these exchanges and if all of the above courses are in fact required??</p>
<p>Yes, they are. If you have not taken them at your university then you'll have to take them here. Either you'll have to work very hard for however many years you have planned to be here to take all of those in addition to whatever advanced bio/chem classes you want to take, or you'll have to plan on an extra year or two. If you really really don't want to take advanced math and physics, Caltech probably isn't somewhere you want to go.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>In terms of amount of work required: Chemical Engineering and Electrical Engineering
In terms of difficulty of classes: Astrophysics and physics</p></li>
<li><p>Not once.</p></li>
<li><p>If you meet any of the following criteria, you should not go to Caltech:</p></li>
<li><p>Don't like math and physics or are not willing to tough through a large amount of it for a field of study that may only have a little to do with math and physics.</p></li>
<li><p>Don't want to spend most of your time working or a significant portion of it working very hard. You can still have a lot of fun here, you just have to accept the fact that it's Caltech, and you're going to have to work for your play time.</p></li>
<li><p>Don't love science or engineering in whatever field you want to study.</p></li>
<li><p>ASCIT's Donut website has a feature called "The CLUE" which is much better (it is used much more often and has grading statistics are well.) Also, upperclassmen are a great resource for course recommendations. </p></li>
<li><p>At least 10% I would think.</p></li>
<li><p>Being arrogant. If you're a frosh with an attitude problem, you'd best get rid of it quick. Being overly confident in your abilities is the best way (if you like to brag about it) to not make friends and (if you like to take classes that really push yourself to the edge) possibly screw yourself over academically. There are things here you won't be great at and possibly won't be able to do, get over it and don't let your ego get in the way. There's no shame in dropping a class or asking for help on a problem when you've given it your best.</p></li>
<li><p>If you're an engineer and only want an extremely practical approach to engineering with no theory, Caltech is probably not great for you. For example, if you're a CS major, you're going to be learning a lot of math and theory. You're expected to learn programming on your own. Caltech CS grads still manage to get amazing programming jobs right out of senior year despite no "classes that teach programming" being required for the major. If you're a ChemE, be prepared to do everything a chem major has to do (with easier/fewer labs) but with engineering classes on top. Also, all engineers have to take three years of math (and ACM 95 a notoriously difficult class.)</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, I do. There are a good number of people with 4.0+ GPAs. Many aren't IMO gold-medalist types, some probably even came off the waitlist. If you work hard, you can do well even if you didn't do as well in high school as some Techers. Likewise, if you did well in high school compared to most Techers, don't expect to do well without hard work. </p></li>
<li><p>Secret to being "popular" at Tech: Leave your room, go talk to people, don't be an *******. This isn't high school. And no one will stuff you in a trashcan or punch you into a locker just because you're a huge nerd. :D</p></li>
<li><p>In small classes: Participate, go to class, don't fall asleep in class. ;) In large classes: Talk to the professor after class, go to Ath lunch when he or she invites students, do research in his or her lab (this is not as hard as you think.)</p></li>
<li><p>No. If you really want research, you can get it.</p></li>
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