<p>Personally I felt that P/F-ing HSS classes was like giving up free GPA points. In a lot of classes it only takes a little bit of extra effort to really stand out (and can also be extremely rewarding intellectually).</p>
<p>The one exception I made was for Latin. I'm not very good at foreign languages and I was taking another HSS class on grades that term already.</p>
<p>question question:</p>
<p>Joe, you said you were taking Latin -- what opportunities are there to study foreign languages at Caltech, and how much flexibility do you get in choosing them? Placement tests or anything?</p>
<p>Language listings in the catalog: <a href="http://pr.caltech.edu/catalog/courses/listing/l.html%5B/url%5D">http://pr.caltech.edu/catalog/courses/listing/l.html</a></p>
<p>Courses are offered in French, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese, German, and there's a Latin literature class.</p>
<p>I think the way they do placement in the foreign language department is you discuss with the professor which class he/she thinks is right for you. </p>
<p>Note: Prerequisites are generally taken as guidelines around here, not rules. If you are confident in your abilities and want to go for a more advanced language track than others think suits you, no one will stop you.</p>
<ol>
<li>Is it very very very impossibly hard to double major in physics and math? How popular are math and physics respectively (as a major) at Caltech?</li>
<li>What is SURF like? can prefrosh students participate the summer before matriculating?
Is it very competitive? Do you apply for the fellowship and then do the actual research? once you're a fellow, do you still have to compete for the award?</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It's hard- math and physics share very few classes (maybe none, I haven't checked). Physics and math are two common majors, they're reasonably popular.</p></li>
<li><p>Prefrosh who get axlines can do a SURF in the summer before their freshman year. I don't know if you can otherwise- I doubt it (it'd be hard to get the right connections to get the SURF in time). Take a summer off and enjoy it- you've been accepted, there's nothing wrong with having an easy summer.</p></li>
<li><p>You have to apply for a SURF, but its acceptance rate is high (~80%). Once you've been accepted, that's it pretty much. You have to submit progress reports and do a presentation at the end. There are a few awards for best paper/best presentation, but other than that, it's not competitive- you're getting paid to work.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Answer:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It is pretty much impossible to double major in physics and math at Caltech. Physics is one of the most popular majors, and math is relatively popular. I don't have exact stats.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, a few prefrosh students do participate, but I think they generally the ones who are offered a SURF as part of the Axline scholarship. For non-Axline prefrosh, I'm not sure. SURF deadlines have past anyway. Don't worry about this now. Enjoy your last real summer.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>You will get a SURF if you want one. Even as a frosh, it was amazingly easy for me to find a mentor and research project. I can not think of a single one of my friends (Granted, some had to look much harder) who wanted a SURF and did not get one. The award is the fellowship. Once you're accepted, you get the award and do not have to "compete". Oh, and even better, the fellowship was increased this year to $6000 from $5000.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It's so hard, it's literally impossible. You can't get a degree in both math and physics since they're in the same division. ;) Some people fulfill all the of the requirements that would get them the double major if it was allowed, but what is the point unless you're actually legitimately interested in all of those classes? The student body is made up of about 12% physics majors and 8% math majors.</p></li>
<li><p>It is my understanding that prefrosh who don't have an Axline scholarship can't do a SURF before coming to Caltech. It's not very competitive. About 70% of the people who apply get one. Finding a mentor is very simple - you can just email professor whose research interests you or you can respond to the the announcements of opportunity (many of which are at JPL) on the SURF</a> website. Someone who has already done a SURF can tell you more.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>"You can't get a degree in both math and physics since they're in the same division."</p>
<p>Look at the commencement brochures from the past two years. Richard Eager in '05 and Alex Mccauley in '06 are listed as math/phys double majors.</p>
<p>A senior at the physics roundtable at PFW last year said that he was going to complete all of the requirements for math and physics, but that they wouldn't let him get both on his BS because they were in the same division. Maybe that was Alex Mccauley and they only told him he could get both after PFW? Or maybe he had faulty information. I do remember him saying that pretty distinctly.</p>
<ol>
<li>Non-scholarship prefrosh have in fact done SURFs before. There was one 2 years ago and there were three last year. I have no idea what the procedure is, but whatever it is, it probably involves bending the rules and just having the right contacts. According to the SURF website, SURF's are supposed to be for Axlines and rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors.</li>
</ol>
<p>One of the forementioned non-scholarship prefrosh SURFers told me he applied as if he was a student at cal-state (since he was taking all his classes there) so the procedure was the same as for a non-caltech student.</p>
<ol>
<li>Does anyone know anything about what kids do at FSI? I recently got some information on the program through mail and I'm really excited; the only thing is I haven't really found any place with information on the program and the stuff they sent me wasn't very detailed .</li>
</ol>
<p>I've never heard of that, and certainly don't know of anyone who's done it. Maybe it's new this year or something? The website for it fails to provide any useful information.</p>
<p>It's a SURF-like thing that they invite all "underrepresented minority" prefrosh to do the summer before frosh year- you take mini classes part of the time and do research with a faculty member the rest, while living with other people in the program in a house near campus.</p>
<p>Thanks. I was just asking about surf because I just got a packet about it, in which no specific statements were made about prefrosh eligibility... I assume all admitted students got such packets?</p>
<ol>
<li>so, what do math majors usually do after Caltech? go to grad school and be mathematicians? go into finance/economics/others? teach math in high schools ^^? what about becoming a scientist?</li>
<li>Is missing prefrosh weekend or not visiting at all before enrolling a very bad idea? has any current techers regreted you choice because you never visited? what is the atmosphere like at Caltech?</li>
</ol>
<p>Yeah, they offer the Latin language (as opposed to lit) class only occasionally (when I took it, it was taught by a prof from Pomona), but French, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese, and German classes are easy to take and regularly offered.</p>
<ol>
<li>A lot of them go to grad school in math. Some get jobs in consulting, option trading etc (SIG alone hired 5 math majors this year). Some math majors go to grad school in other things- mostly economics or theoretical CS, a few who were fake physics majors went to grad school in physics, last year one went to grad school in computational biology etc. There are actually a surprising number of techers who come out of here teaching high school math (Teach for America etc), but you can do that after majoring in pretty much anything here.</li>
</ol>
<p>33) Earlier I think someone (Be?) posted that 5 math majors are going to math grad school this year, with 3 going to top school; I don't remember how many math majors there are a year, is it about 15?</p>
<p>34) What "type" of students are most likely to "succeed" at Caltech?</p>
<p>34) Everyone who is admitted can do all of the work, it's just a matter of how willing you are to put the necessary time in to actually do it. If you are genuinely interested in math and science, it shouldn't be a problem. If your parents are the only things pushing you to do work... you might have some problems. It's hard to say beyond that.</p>