<p>right now I am trying to decide between Caltech and Stanford. I think that Caltech will certainly provides me with a better math and science education. On the other hand, I am afraid that besides math and science, Caltech may not have much to offer. Any advice?</p>
<p>What are you interested in going into? Is math/science your only interest? If you have other interests that Caltech isn't as strong in, or you want a 'larger' student body, you may want to go to Stanford.</p>
<p>Then again, take what I say from the perspective of a Caltech waitlistee. ;)</p>
<p>Our art history and economics are rockin'. :) Read some of the other threads in this forum, try to get a better feel for what Caltech has to offer.</p>
<p>I'm prolly going to grad school in economics, and I know that I will have a far better shot at the top jobs and Ph.D. programs in the field (after research, publications, one-on-one work with professors) than if I had gone to Stanford or Harvard, where I was also admitted.</p>
<p>Caltech's econ professors are absolutely top-notch (Colin Camerer, Matt Jackson, Preston McAfee, John Ledyard, are all lumniaries in their respective fields) and, unlike other places, you can actually have a claim on their attention and time. And that's just one HSS field that I know best!</p>
<p>Caltech's education isn't just better in math and science, it's better all around, because everything is done so seriously and rigorously from the beginning. There are no flaky undergraduate courses which waste time and have ten minutes worth of content, which other top schools have quite a bit of.</p>
<p>If you want to push your mind seriously, come to Caltech.</p>
<p>A lot of students I know had the exact same decision to make senior year.</p>
<p>It really depends on what you want out of a university. If you consider famous varsity sports programs and large parties every week essential, you're probably better off at Stanford. </p>
<p>Caltech's courses are much harder than the ones at Stanford. I took Stanford courses in high school, and they were a joke compared to similar ones at Caltech.</p>
<p>When you say that Caltech doesn't have much to offer besides math and science, what exactly are you looking at/interested in? Besides the afore-mentioned partying and famous varsity sports, I'm not sure where else Stanford has something that's entirely absent from Caltech.</p>
<p>Exactly my thoughts, GracieLegend.</p>
<p>I think southside wants to know about the poker department at Caltech.</p>
<p>It is extraordinary. We have several kids easily paying their tuition with poker winnings, going to World Series of Poker, being on ESPN... they didn't study the Bayesian Probability part of Core Statistics for nothing.</p>
<p>;-)</p>
<p>Hey, Ben, I didn't see you last week! That made me sorta sad, not gonna lie...</p>
<p>I saw him! You should have gone to the mathematics round table, guitarman!</p>
<p>Blah. Now you tell me :p I was at the physics roundtable, and they started talking about SURFs. At that point my decision became pretty clear to me so I didn't stick around for much else. Had lunch, then a meeting with a collaborator, then it was just mucking around until we went home :p</p>
<p>
lol, that bad eh?</p>
<p>"There are no flaky undergraduate courses which waste time and have ten minutes worth of content, which other top schools have quite a bit of."</p>
<p>Ben, have you ever taken APh 9a?</p>
<p>or Ay 1...</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm prolly going to grad school in economics, and I know that I will have a far better shot at the top jobs and Ph.D. programs in the field (after research, publications, one-on-one work with professors) than if I had gone to Stanford or Harvard, where I was also admitted.</p>
<p>Caltech's econ professors are absolutely top-notch (Colin Camerer, Matt Jackson, Preston McAfee, John Ledyard, are all lumniaries in their respective fields) and, unlike other places, you can actually have a claim on their attention and time. And that's just one HSS field that I know best!</p>
<p>Caltech's education isn't just better in math and science, it's better all around, because everything is done so seriously and rigorously from the beginning. There are no flaky undergraduate courses which waste time and have ten minutes worth of content, which other top schools have quite a bit of.</p>
<p>If you want to push your mind seriously, come to Caltech.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>While I won't quite characterize the difference of the 2 schools in the way that Ben Golub has, I think he is largely on the mark. I would say that if you really want to become an academic (i.e. get a PhD) in a technical discipline, then Caltech is better.</p>
<p>On the other hand, a lot of people don't want that. A lot of people would rather just become, say, an investment banker or a management consultant. Other people are aiming for the professional schools such as medical school or law school. So if this is you, then I would say that Stanford is better. It's hard to get the high grades at Caltech that the med and law school adcoms want to see. </p>
<p>There's nothing wrong with belonging to that second category.</p>
<p>Well okay we have a few flaky courses (I took Math 7 as my menu course :D )</p>
<p>Adam!!! -- so, where?</p>