<p>
[quote]
If I'm majoring in econ, can I use Econ courses to satisfy my HSS requirements?
[/quote]
You can use Econ classes to satisfy 7/12 of your HSS requirements.</p>
<ol>
<li>I've always been very "uncollaborative" in doing work throughout HS, mostly because the work has not been especially challenging. But I realize that in Caltech, it'll be a lot harder, and collaboration will be necessary. How easy is it to work with your classmates? How did you approach others to work together?</li>
<li>What is the typical grading scale for most classes? I.e.: A+=?,A=?,A-+?..... Could you guys (non-frosh) post the grading scales of your classes this year to give me an idea of how its been for you?</li>
<li>I'm planning to do a mathematical finance job after graduation and I'm worried that Caltech's toughness will kill me in terms of GPA. Do most companies compensate for Caltech's difficulty in hiring?</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Answer:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It's extremely easy to find a study group. All the frosh in your house will be taking the same classes. When a set is due the next day, just go knock on a few doors and I'm sure you'll find a group you can join.</p></li>
<li><p>Each class is curved differently so there's really no definitive answer to this question.</p></li>
<li><p>Finance firms recruit heavily from Caltech and they do understand Caltech's reputation. Also, while a decent GPA is important, I'm told that other factors like the interview are probably more important for getting a job in finance.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>40) How much better is Caltech than, say, UF? Suppose there was a hot nerdy guy at your high school who got into both, but got into UF with a full ride. How strongly would you recommend that he come to Caltech (if at all)?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The way I've operated since frosh year is I work on my problem sets alone and then when I get stuck on something I try to find someone else in the class who is also working on the problem or who can help me with it. This has helped me out quite a bit, since I am now taking small classes with people who live far away from me. The approach described in ddy's post is probably more common. </p></li>
<li><p>The way the classes generally work is the professor receives the grades at the end of the term and then decides where the cutoffs for the different letter grades should be. </p></li>
<li><p>I find it very unlikely that Caltech's toughness will actually affect you that much. As far as I can tell, anything 3.5 or above is decent and will get you looked at by the finance recruiters. If you have a low GPA, you will still get interviewed but they will ask you why your grades are on the low end. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>With regard to recruiters, Goldman Sachs' quantitative strategies group as well as a bunch of hedge funds recruit undergrads here (note: most places usually want people with PhDs in anything or a masters degree in mathematical finance or a related field), so I guess we're a target school. This is a good thing, as it makes getting an internship or job much easier. In some finance interviews, my friends and I were not given the brain teasers or math questions that are typically given because the interviewer decided that it was unnecessary, even for my friend with a low GPA. </p>
<p>I honestly feel that if you like what you're doing and you don't get <em>too</em> involved in student leadership, your GPA will be fine. If you don't procrastinate much, you're in even better shape. </p>
<ol>
<li>I like Caltech. I'm indifferent to UF (don't know much about it). Your question depends on several thing:
How much does your friend like math/science?
How much, in loans and unmet fin. need, would your friend have to contribute were he to go to Caltech, as well as how much he likes money (Note: These aren't things I expect you to know or tell us. Also, I'm serious about the "how much he likes money" part.)
Why is he going to college, i.e. what is he trying to get out of it?</li>
</ol>
<p>As these things vary a lot from person to person, none of us can make a good guess about how your friend feels about things (beside guessing that he probably likes math/science at least a little bit since you say he's nerdy. and hot). This being the case, you would want to tell your friend to consider those questions and research the differences between the two schools carefully. It is the case that there are some people to whom I can't recommend Caltech to (e.g. someone who wants to study comparative spanish literature or other things that we don't have many courses in), but I feel that I can strongly recommend it to most people with a passion for math and/or science.</p>
<p>41) Are there any ways to get strong preparation for finance jobs at Caltech? (In a specific way, i.e. obviously lots of applied math is useful, but that's just generally true of lots of analytical courses.) Econ is always nice (I know Caltech's econ is good), but is there anything else? Reason I ask is I'm also looking at Princeton, which has great finance and business preparation through certificates (Finance, Engineering Management, among others) and I'm getting this subtle feeling that I might want to do more finance-focused things as I go on.</p>
<p>Most places seem to have the attitude "Hey, you look smart. We'll train you to make us money." </p>
<p>We do have a Business Economics and Management major, which is probably one of the most common majors to double in. You can look at the BEM course listings here[/url</a>]. There are also graduate level courses like SS 213 and 214 <a href="SS%20course%20listings">url="http://pr.caltech.edu/catalog/courses/listing/ss.html"</a>. </p>
<p>We have a club called the Student Investment Fund, where members of the Caltech community (primarily undergrads) manage about $400k of Caltech's endowment. This club is very easy to get involved in, as you just need to show up. Most undergrads interested in finance will take at least BEM 101 and 103, probably BEM 105, and maybe BEM 107 and 109. In addition we have courses in applied math that cover stochastic calculus and random processes, ACM</a> 116, 216, and 217.</p>
<p>42) What exactly makes Caltech so rigorous? Is it the core curriculum, the level that the classes are taught at, the workload? Can a student find this rigor at other comparable schools if he takes the hardest math/sci classes available, or is this "fire hose" style learning only available at MIT/Caltech? (The schools I'm comparing Caltech with are HYPS, specifically Y)</p>
<p>42) Partly the core classes. How many bio majors at other schools take quantum mechanics? I would have never learned special relativity or how to do rigorous proofs if I'd gone to any other school. Caltech also pushes you to do a lot of a classes at once: first term of frosh year I took seven classes (five major,) second term I took seven classes (six major,) and this term I'm taking six classes (five major.) This isn't atypical at Caltech. The actual classes are also harder. We're given problems in sets that the majority of students aren't expected to be able to do on their own. Most schools don't have that kind of expectation of collaboration. </p>
<p>Caltech has a different way of teaching things in general. Even in the practical track for math, we still have to do some proofs and we still take linear algebra before multivariable calculus so we can derive all of the rules in multivariable. In analytic physics (which most frosh take,) we learn special relativity for half a term so we can derive the existence of magnetism. We don't use Maxwell's equations in E&M, we study different cases individually and derive them ourselves over the term. Almost all tests and quizzes I've taken so far have been open book and open notes; being able to think analytically is much more important than being able to memorize facts or equations. </p>
<p>It is probably possible to replicate much of this at other schools, but most people wouldn't be willing to. At other schools you can pass out of introductory classes and take a large number of difficult classes, as long as you're willing. But Caltech covers simple, introductory subjects in a rigorous way. This means that Ph 1, Ma 1, and Ch 1, while being as basic as you can get in these subjects at Caltech, still manage to cover general material in a more advanced way that could not be covered by an AP class (with an exception of Ph 1a.) People I knew who took AP Physics E&M say that it did not cover at all what we do in Ph 1bc. I had a really good calculus class in high school, and yet I still got owned by Ma 1a, as I did by Ch 1a (I'm a chem major :(.)</p>
<p>(Pardon my extreme ignorance, but) why is it considered so unusual to take seven classes? Don't people usually take anywhere from 5-9 classes in high school? Does each college class run for longer hours or something?</p>
<p>Oh, and does taking more/harder classes look better on transcripts for grad school? Do they pay a lot of attention to courseload, or is it mostly just research and GPA?</p>
<p>People tend to take a lot fewer classes in college than in high school. Most of my friends from high school are taking 3-4 classes in college. 4 is typically viewed as a "full load" (though it might differ between semester and quarter systems.) Seven classes definitely feels like juggling a few too many things.</p>
<p>I went to a seminar about graduate admissions, and they really prefer seeing good research as opposed to filling one's schedule with graduate level classes. However, taking hard classes in your prospective field as well as doing good research would be the best thing to do. If you were to take the minimum requirements in the field that you tried to get into while taking a whole bunch of humanities courses, I doubt graduate admissions would be impressed.</p>
<p>as someone who has been through the grad school admissions process, if you just take the minimum requirements for your major, that will be fine for <em>any</em> place you apply. </p>
<p>First of all, the minimum requirements at CalTech for a BS are more than any place in the country, anyway. Second of all, they don't really care about classes. If you get 3.3/4.0, you will be in a decent position to get into most of the top 10. 3.0/4.0 is a cut-off which most grad schools say, but in practice it is not really used anyway especially when you come from CalTech.</p>
<p>My advice to you is study as hard as you can in the classes that fulfill your requirements. Start working in the summer of your sophomore or junior year. If you have a paper published by when you apply, you will be in great shape. If you have a <em>first author</em> paper published, you will be very unusual. </p>
<p>If you want to take grad classes, great. Take them for your own edification. And don't worry about your gpa falling a bit (although I doubt if they'll be harder than the basic classes at CalTech anyway.)</p>
<p>If you are applying to med school or law school, then the rules are totally different.</p>
<p>Quick question(s) before I leave for Prefrosh Weekend tomorrow:
Can I visit any class I want during Prefrosh Weekend? Do I just walk into the class and sit there or do I have to speak with the professor first?</p>
<p>You can go to any class you want -- no permission necessary unless it's something like a lab where I imagine you wouldn't go anyway.</p>
<p>43) How would you rate the teaching quality at Caltech - as compared to other top schools?</p>
<p>how do i submit an attachment for someone to answer?</p>
<p>Look here: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=18%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=18</a></p>
<p>43) Overall, the teaching quality so far seems good to me. However, there are very few people who can actually compare teaching at different top schools. "I heard..." and "My friend says..." are not valid comparisons- you'd have to find someone who has actually taken classes at both to compare. </p>
<p>Also keep in mind that at any school, you're going to find some great profs, some mediocre ones, and some horrible ones.</p>
<p>44) What are some of the best paying jobs Caltech grads usually pursue/What fields are particularly lucrative? (For UG techers who go on to grad school)</p>