<p>What are the major reasons people like/dislike Caltech based on their experiences at CPW?
I know this is no replacement for actually going, but I live on the East coast, and my $250 travel expenses can probably be better spent elsewhere haha!</p>
<p>If you’re actually broke, you might want to talk to the admissions office and see if they can provide funding for you. And by the way, CPW is MIT’s weekend. Ours is simply called Prefrosh Weekend. Finally, how do you summarize the experience of visiting a school in a forum post?</p>
<p>I don’t know, I was keeping my hopes up in case there were any super-talented-at-summarizing people on this forum haha 
And that’s embarrassing, I didn’t even get into MIT… I must’ve been reading someone else’s Facebook status or something. There are too many other people who are more broke than I am; even if they could provide funding for me, I would feel bad taking it. Ah well, I will have to work off of College Prow.ler (why is this word censored?) knowledge for now!</p>
<p>All I can say is that if you’re seriously considering a school you really need to actually visit. A couple hundred dollars is nothing in the scheme of what a four-year college education at Caltech costs.</p>
<p>Personally, I think the most important part of prefrosh weekend is meeting the current students and deciding if you like them and the house system, although I’m sure some people would disagree. Turns out it’s really hard to summarize the atmosphere and feel of Caltech in a post, especially since there’s variability in what people experience.</p>
<p>Actually, there is sort of a summary available! Last year, a bunch of students contributed to a prefrosh weekend blog, talking about their own experiences at PFW as a prefrosh plus what was planning to happen that year. Here it is: [Caltech</a> as it Happens: Prefrosh Weekend](<a href=“http://caltech.typepad.com/caltech_as_it_happens/prefrosh-weekend/]Caltech”>http://caltech.typepad.com/caltech_as_it_happens/prefrosh-weekend/)</p>
<p>Thanks LHC, that blog is great!
I should clarify, I did visit Caltech, but I went during the summer – enough to see that I like the surroundings and campus and can deal with the size and the dorms, but, I do wish I could’ve gotten a better feel for the student body and campus culture. I do realize that it’s virtually impossible to summarize campus atmosphere in words, but at the same time, I’d rather get opinions from students there than from places that I don’t know to be as reliable. Right, thanks for the comments, sorry for the irritating nature of this question haha!</p>