<p>Hey there :)</p>
<p>I am in the very fortunate position of having to choose between Caltech and Brown. My intended major is Computer Science, and after undergrad I'd like to pursue graduate studies.</p>
<p>So guys, what do you think? Could you tell me something more about these schools, such as social life, workload, fun, etc? </p>
<p>Thanks :)</p>
<p>Caltech is much better than Brown for CS. But as far as I’ve read, Caltech has high workload and social life isn’t exactly the most vibrant. Brown wins there.</p>
<p>But from a purely academic point of view, Caltech edges out Brown in the sciences by quite a margin.</p>
<p>It’s a tradeoff:</p>
<p>Caltech is world-class in CS, whereas Brown is middle of the road.</p>
<p>Caltech is world-class in workload too. Small, focused college in nice suburb, but not a college town.</p>
<p>More social life and “fun” would be anywhere but Caltech. OTOH, as an international, you should go with the prestige factor for CS which is easily Caltech.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies.</p>
<p>One more question: I plan on attending graduate studies and I’m reading lots of stuff on how hard it is to get a good GPA at Caltech. Will a “lower” GPA at Caltech keep me from getting in into my first choice grad school? And really, how hard is it to get a good GPA? I’m more than willing to work extremely hard, but will that be enough? I’m reading lots of “horror stories” of people saying not matter how hard you work, your grades will still suck :S</p>
<p>sry, can’t help there. I only know of one recent Caltech grad, and he did very well. Of course, he was the most brilliant high schooler that I have ever met. Caltech must have thought so too, bcos he attended on a full-ride.</p>
<p>If you’ve gotten into Caltech, you can probably handle their courseload. And don’t worry about the GPA for grad school much. For a CS program the Caltech degree will hold more weight.</p>
<p>Don’t worry and enroll 
Unless the “no-life” factor is a big one for you.</p>
<p>CalTech appears to be the consensus answer, so let me offer a different perspective.</p>
<p>It may really depend on your personal interests and what you intend to do with your CS degree. My son plans to major in CS, was accepted to Brown (and loves the place!) and refused to apply to CalTech. He’s a math and science natural learner – these subjects come very easy to him, he looks at the material once, understands and remembers it with little practice and repetition and moves on quickly.</p>
<p>Yet he also has broad liberal arts interests. He would really get tired of being exclusively around others who only want to work on math and science 24/7. For him, CS is a problem-solving toolkit that he may well apply in a cross-disciplinary approach to solving problems in other fields.</p>
<p>A degree from CalTech will undoubtedly provide you with more technical expertise. Yet a degree from Brown may provide you with the soft skills that will allow you be project leader, to interact/liaison with management, and to solve for multiple conflicting goals that go beyond engineering specs.</p>
<p>If you want to go on graduate studies then Caltech is the right choice. It has high acceptance rate to graduate schools. My son chose MIT over Caltech but I was a little sad when he made that choice. I visited Caltech 2 years ago and I saw they were completing a big building for CS (if I did not misread the sign). Furthermore Caltech also has a long list of required classes for humanites.</p>
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<p>Note the key word: required. In Brown’s open curriculum, everyone who is in a particular humanities class actually wants to be there – which results in livelier discussions and more enthusiastic teaching.</p>
<p>Lorem:</p>
<p>Anyone applying to Caltech desires what they have to offer. A perfect example is your son. While I don’t think anyone would disagree that Brown (and practically every other top school) offers a more, broad liberals arts program, that is not the point. Anyone desiring same would not apply to Caltech. Even MIT has a broader liberal arts offering, and for those that want to raise their gpa, they can cross register with H.</p>
<p>More importantly, the OP is an international…prestige is a requirement. In the science/tech world, few have the prestige as Caltech. Sure, Brown has prestige too, but as a liberal arts school, which in the international arena, ain’t worth as much.</p>
<p>Bluebayou, you make some valid points. I’m not so much interested in “selling” Brown as I am in trying to balance the discussion so the OP can make a more informed decision.</p>
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<p>Perhaps the OP would prefer a broader liberal arts degree, but is under family pressure to go with the prestige factor, as is typical with many internationals. Maybe a hair less prestige and greater flexibility would be seen as a positive. The fact that the OP is here posing the question implies that both colleges are still viable for selection. I think that Brown would certainly be the preferred choice in terms of “fun” and social life – Brown usually wins the happiest students title.</p>
<p>Interesting responses.</p>
<p>I’m a CS major soon to start a CS PhD program, so here’s my perspective: getting into a CS grad school does depend a lot on your GPA. Those who get into the top programs tend to have high GPAs. That said, while Caltech is a great school, I think it would be difficult to get a high GPA. Of course, grad schools would take Caltech’s difficulty into consideration, but you also run the risk of doing poorly. That risk is reduced at Brown, which by the way is pretty decent in CS. It’s not among the top programs like Caltech, but it’s not too far behind. </p>
<p><a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings[/url]”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings</a></p>
<p>In fact in some rankings they’re next to each other:</p>
<p>[NRC</a> Rankings Overview: Computer Sciences - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“NRC Rankings Overview: Computer Sciences”>NRC Rankings Overview: Computer Sciences)</p>
<p>(take that one with a grain of salt, because there are allegations of incorrect data in that ranking)</p>
<p>Brown is pretty great–students there are always at the top of the “happiest students” lists, their workload is lighter (pass/no pass), etc. On top of that, I think you’d have a better chance of getting a higher GPA, and like Caltech, Brown is well-respected among grad schools.</p>
<p>Basically, I think your decision should come down only to which one you enjoy more, so if you can visit both, you definitely should. But I’d suggest that you not even take into consideration that Caltech is supposedly “superior” in the hard sciences or that Brown won’t be as good. In the end, your personal happiness is much more important here. (Normally I’d advise to go to the one with the better CS program, but in this case it’s not so important.)</p>
<p>edit: by the way, I’m not affiliated with either Caltech or Brown.</p>
<p>Also if you’re interested in CS grad school, you might look at this:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~harchol/gradschooltalk.pdf[/url]”>www.cs.cmu.edu/~harchol/gradschooltalk.pdf</a></p>
<p>Brown is middle of the road in CS? That’s absurd.</p>
<p>One more suggestion to look at the programs in more detail - not just the overall prestige. I do not have any inside information on either program, other than that both schools have a long and established history in CS. Looking at the faculty, there are many more at Brown, and there appears to be more breadth in the Brown program as well. You should make sure that the program foci and strengths at CalTech match your interests. You can undoubtedly come out of CalTech with an excellent (or even one of the best) undergraduate preparation in CS, but there are subfields that are not emphasized (or even available?) there. Depends on whether you want to specialize early on or wait for graduate school.</p>
<p>^ good point–a CS program (or any program for that matter) is only useful to the extent that it’s relevant to your own interests. There are other CS schools I could have (naively) attended thinking that their prestige in CS is enough, but none of them focus in anything I’m interested in.</p>
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<p>Students in Brown’s ABET-accredited engineering degree programs must include some minimum number of humanities and social studies courses among their elective courses.</p>
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<p>Actually, it could go either way. Brown offers a lot more in terms of courses to build a broader liberal arts degree than Caltech, but it also allows a student (other than one in an ABET-accredited engineering degree program) to take a very narrow program of study with only courses in his/her major concentration.</p>
<p>Easily Cal Tech, Brown doesn’t even stand a chance in this regard.</p>
<p>I don’t think it will make a huge difference what school you go to for computer science. Good opportunities are available for students from ALL schools.</p>
<p>Neither Caltech nor Brown are at the very very top in CS, but both are excellent (top 20), and both are fine for getting into a good graduate school. Other factors like the overall feel of the places are much more important than minor differences in the strength of the CS departments.</p>