<p>Very general questions. What is the culture at caltech like? what do the students talk about; what are they interested in?</p>
<p>What is the estimated percentage of students who are involved in research labs there?</p>
<p>70%, I think? Correct me if I'm wrong.</p>
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What is the culture at caltech like?
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<p>Well, you could visit and find out. It's kind of hard to summarize in a few paragraphs. Plus it really depends on who you hang out with.</p>
<p>I'm not there yet but if you want to find out and cant go try seeing if you can find current students? If youre the class of '12 (I'm guessing you're not) theres a facebook group. Otherwise its never too early to scope out this forum for other perspective students, though there will be many more in the fall. Try starting a topic looking for others in youre area. Also for the 70% statistic I've heard from various sources similar numbers and some as high as 80% although I'm not sure if that is each year or over 4 years etc.</p>
<p>~70% participate in a SURF at some point. Many people work in labs outside of SURFs, often during the school year, funded entirely by the lab they're working in, or through some other research program. Some people prefer to do internships (especially engineers) instead of research. It's probably safe to say that everyone who actually wants to do research, gets to do research. It is seriously incredibly easy to get involved in research if you just try, even for frosh.</p>
<p>What students talk about ranges from very normal things to extremely nerdy things. It really depends on the social group/situation. The only interest everyone really has in common is science. Other student interests here are pretty diverse, though I think rarer ones are probably better represented than in the general population. You can usually find someone to talk about, say, your favorite sport, whether it's football or speedcubing. :)</p>