<p>My S was admitted to the class of 2016 and just sent in his acceptance. He loves math and science and is extremely good at them, a characteristic that he presumably shares with the rest of his peers. His one concern about going to Caltech, and it survived pre-frosh weekend, was whether he would find enough people who share his other interests in life. He is not the popular stereotype of the socially shy and/or inept science nerd, although there are plenty of them at the science-oriented high school he goes to. He is an outgoing kid who has lots of friends, particularly in the A Capella and drama groups he participates in at school. He is a big fan of pro football and basketball and is also a fairly sophisticated film buff. He is into hiking and one of the selling points of Caltech for him was its close proximity to Hollywood and the beach, although he would greatly prefer not to frequent them by himself. (And yes, he does realize he will have to spend most of his time doing school work, but believes he will have at least some time to play.) He ended up persuading himself that he would be able to find enough people at Caltech who shared his interests. He also really likes the house system concept and the collaborative homework environment that the school encourages. But, as a parent who finds it hard to stop worrying, just how likely is he to find at least a decent number of people who share his interests?</p>
<p>What my S saw was that students either play video games or study. He did try to get someone to go with him to Mt. Wilson but the students were too busy.</p>
<p>Your S’s interests are similar to my S’s and my son chose a different school because the ability to be able to do those things was very important to him.</p>
<p>I can say that on average there isn’t a whole lot of time to go do really time consuming events (inclusive of day trips really anywhere). That being said, I personally am friends with a lot of people into sports and activities here. We would get together every Friday and Sunday to watch football during the fall, I spent all of spring break watching march madness with some teammates and I’ve been watching one or two games of baseball a week as of now. So I can say that there are probably a number of people with whom your son could be friends with as we really are a diverse school. The only caveat is that there isnt a whole lot of free time so we often exclude day lobg events in favor of shorter activities (pickup football, watching games, movies, dinner etc) feel free to pm me if you have other questions.</p>
<p>I just thought that I’d add that Caltech does have an a capella group.</p>
<p>I know people here who do A Cappella, I know people who do drama. I know people who go hiking on weekends, and people who watch sports. I like the beach but don’t get to go all that often (once or twice a term maybe?) I don’t know any film buffs, but they probably exist. The caveat is that most people don’t have time to do all of these things. Generally people have one or two interests that they devote time to.</p>
<p>@crazymomster I’m guessing the reason why no one wanted to go to Mt. Wilson with your son was a) the upperclassmen can’t drive prefrosh in their cars (not allowed by admissions) b) Mt. Wilson is really far away (at least a 45 mins drive) and so isn’t something that Caltech students will go to at the drop of a hat.</p>
<p>Even though Caltech is small and won’t have the sheer diversity of interests at at others schools, Caltech is great for allowing people who love math and science to branch out and enjoy their other interests as well instead of being defined by their math and science knowledge.</p>
<p>^ Hmm, I thought S said Mt. Wilson was like 5 miles away so he was happy to get there via alternative transportation methods. </p>
<p>Also after S wandered off campus to a nearby park, he found out that pre-frosh were not allowed to leave campus, so that kind of made Mt. Wilson off limits as well.</p>
<p>Jmgradon- I’m a prefrosh attending in the Fall 2012 and I had the same concerns as your son! I was glad to find that there are small clubs dedicated to such activities. For example, I was stoked to find that there was a surfing club who made monthly trips. Based on what i saw at pfw, interests like the ones your son and I have aren’t super common, but they definitely exist (and in cases such as sports, probably more than you might think).</p>
<p>Thank you for these posts. My son is strongly interested in chem and engineering but also singing and theater and scuba diving and… Good to know some folks have experience with Caltech being a little more diverse!</p>
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<p>As the crow flies it’s about 5 miles away. But getting up the mountain itself is a bit of a schlep.</p>
<p>Just for the record, prefrosh are allowed to go off campus; they are just not allowed to be driven off campus by current students.</p>
<p>jmgradon–I’ve definitely heard of (and experienced) spur-of-the-moment beach trips, going into LA late at night for food, hiking on the weekends (even though we’re in an urban area, the nearest hiking trails are less than 10 minutes by car), and tons of other social activities. Your son will have no trouble finding friends who are interested in these things.</p>
<p>LHC is right that you won’t have trouble finding friends who are interested in such things, but you will have trouble finding friends with either enough motivation or enough time to do such things regularly. I know that when I was a Caltech student I always wanted to spend more time exploring the world outside Caltech than most of my friends did.</p>
<p>After attending a public high school with the cream if the local crop and even unofficially surfing at a local college with uooerclassmen, my son found that at Caltech for the first time outside of advanced summer programs that he was able to quickly and easily find friends with similar interests. Fir the first time, he could just be himself. Don’t get too caught up in the claim that most Caltech students are shy or only interested in gaming ir studying. All Caltech students have to study ALOT, but they are encouraged ti collaborate, so they are nit lonely. My son is quite socially busy with his girlfriend (never dated before due to academic focus and no one who understood what he wanted to talk about), housemates, and general famous activities. I have a hard time reaching him but see him in Facebook photos surfing on foam they made with a homemade foam machine, building structures for a large themed party, on a date in Hollywood, and all dressed up for formal events. Every night they have fun waited dinners with announcements and traditions that bring humor. Don’t worry at all about nit finding like minds or being stuck with recluses. Caltech is a great environment. The workload is really the only challenge. Each prof only teaches one class so they make it all that it can be, and Caltech students take more classes ar one time than students at other schools. The material is covered faster and at a higher level than many other schools. You will find people to do things with, but you will be very busy and will have to pick your activities carefully. There are lots of very friendly students at Caltech. But, be aware that every house has a distinct culture, and you are in that house fir four years. You can change, but people rarely do. The placement process works really well.</p>
<p>Autocorrect got me again but then also didn’t work. I meant studying at a local college with upperclassmen.</p>
<p>Also meant campus activities, nit famous activities though he did see Steven Hawking on campus rolling in parallel with him one day.</p>