FAQ: List of helpful items to bring to class and unnecessary items for Frosh

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
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<p>This is another Frosh FAQ thread for upperclassmen to answer.
Based on your Frosh experience, what did you find necessary/unnecessary to bring class Frosh year. Please make this thread useful by making your posts insightful. Thanks for sharing.</p>

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<p>I personally found a minifridge to be pretty useful… the houses have fridges, but I liked having my own. That and a microwave.</p>

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<p>i like having a printer. even though the library and house computer labs are within easy walking distance, it’s nice to have your own</p>

<p>also you don’t really need textbooks from high school, i have a bunch just sitting on my bookshelf not being used.</p>

<p>and a lot of this stuff will be the same at every college.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/82285-z-what-bring-college.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/82285-z-what-bring-college.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Duct tape and multitool/pocketknife are useful. and sticky notes. also feel free to bring your toys (nerf gun, magic cards, video games, electronics you plan to cannibalize, belt sander) if you’re into it, chances are someone else is too.</p>

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<p>For the love of god, don’t bring a belt sander unless you know how to use it. I’d rather not hear about someone losing a 4x6 patch of skin.</p>

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<p>Nah, I found CLRS (Algorithms) and Griffiths (Electrodynamics) to be quite useful. The key is bringing the right books.</p>

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<p>I think the question of high school textbooks being useful is really dependent upon which classes you took and what level they were taught at. I still pull my AP Calc textbook out whenever I need to check a formula since I can find stuff in there faster than I’ll be able to google it.</p>

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<p>Tool belt.</p>

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<p>

Any other books I should bring? Can these books be purchased at the Caltech bookstore?</p>

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<p>I brought clothes. In most social circles, nudity is not fully appreciated.</p>

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<p>only cuz you’re so pale, quello</p>

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<p>Also you’ll want to have at least one nice outfit for dress dinner.</p>

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<p>ethernet cables.</p>

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<p>@fizix2: Everyone uses Wi-fi nowadays. =D</p>

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<p>@davezhan: No, people only use wifi when they have to… gigabit ethernet is much better than wifi</p>

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<p>I agree with jdhutchin. Wireless isn’t terribly reliable and the wired is faster.</p>

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<p>Absolutely, you would only want wireless if you’re in a public space or you’re ethernet cable is broken. Would you rather download something at 10 MB/s or < 1 MB/s? It’s definitely worth it, but I’m pretty sure ethernet cables are in the rooms already, so it doesn’t matter. (I know mine did)</p>

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<p>it also depends on where you live</p>

<p>in dabney the wireless is alright
but i hear that in other houses it really sucks?</p>

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<p>In Lloyd a lot of us have our own routers, so we’re on wireless, just not Caltech wireless… like maybe a block of three or four rooms can use one router.</p>

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<p>Personally, I’ve never had trouble with the wireless working in Blacker, Ricketts, or Lloyd, but I’ve encountered a couple of dead spots in Ruddock. I have an ethernet cable, but uh, it’s somewhere buried under a large pile of whoknowswhat in my room. Still, knowing that there are dead spots, it’d probably be a good move to bring one along, if you have some space for it. I don’t think they’re provided by default (or at least, if they are, they seem to get taken often–I’ve lived in three different rooms on campus, and none of them had the cable already provided).</p>