<p>I see... It's just that... it seemed to me that people that chose to attend Caltech knew what to expect, and knew what they wanted from their lives.</p>
<p>But you are right - I shouldn't be questioning their decisions without spending four years at Caltech first. Sorry.</p>
<p>P.S. Just to prevent possible misunderstanding, and following it mudslinging, there is no sarcasm in this post.
Yeah :)</p>
<p>
[quote]
where did THEIR "passion" go?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The areas of the finance world that Techers usually go to work in has a lot of interesting problems, and is far from a bookkeeping job. These kinds of problems interest a lot of people, and are rather cool. The tons of money you make ($100k/year starting, huge signing bonus, and the salary will very likely rise rather quickly) doesn't hurt either.</p>
<p>An actual conversation:</p>
<p>Frosh: Well, I'm really passionate about science...
Senior: You have four years to change your mind.
Hum Professor: A bitter senior, eh?</p>
<p>I have more to say on this issue, but I have to meet with a math professor now.</p>
<p>Having had a few "careers" I speak from experience that expectations and career paths envisioned at age 18-22 might very well change. The "passion' I have for engineering has never diminished although I have not formally used this background in years. I think it unusual for an individual to pick a career at age 17 and never think to explore other areas.</p>
<p>This isn't unique to Caltech. I know of a lot of math majors who burned out because they worked too hard. That's why "take it easy" was the advice I heard the most often. So yes, it's entirely possible that Core killed a lot of passion. </p>
<p>I also suspect you're overestimating what "passion" means. There's a reason why "Pass/Fail frosh!" is heard more often than "It's-not-about-pass/fail-it's-about-learning, frosh!" It's not that people don't care about science, but not everyone has made a life-long commitment to it.</p>
<p>My husband is a research scientist (Caltech but for Phd not undergrad). Chasing grants and tenure is not much fun. You can be passionate about research, but the reality is much of your day will be filled with other stuff. And more than 20 years after getting a Phd. his salary is only a little over $100,000.</p>
<p>"Those Caltech graduates that don't go on to become scientists or engineers, why do they do that? Especially Physics or ChemEng majors that jump into business world - where did THEIR 'passion' go?"</p>
<p>Well, a lot of it could be money, frankly. Engineering is a well-paying profession, but obviously it's nothing compared to finance. Elite finance jobs aren't open to very many people, but they generally are to science and engineering majors from the top schools, and some people do take those opportunities.</p>
<p>Of my four closest friends from my class at Caltech, two are currently in graduate programs in their fields (EE and Physics) and two work on Wall Street (these two were also an EE and a Physics major). The two working on Wall Street make more money right now than someone who works in academia is <em>ever</em> likely to make--but no one does a PhD for the money. </p>
<p>"Then, maybe these people lied on their applications? But why would they major in Physics or ChemEng, and not in Math."</p>
<p>I'm assuming they studied what they enjoyed. The subjects you've just described, as taught at Caltech, are very different from each other and it's not obvious to me that the theoretical Math major would be the best-prepared for a finance career or business career.</p>
<p>Frankly, I subscribe to the view that there are a lot of good and useful things one can do with a Caltech education. I might like to go into politics someday--would that be a waste of all those years of studying science and engineering? I don't think so.</p>
<p>I actually took an intro. to finance course last term (I'm a junior) and found the material to be both interesting and practical; I would imagine that a significant amount of people who end up going into finance do so because they become more knowledgable about opportunities in that area than they had been upon entering college.</p>
<p>Way more than half go on to graduate school. A little more than half finish PhDs.</p>