Math / Comp Sci at Caltech?

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
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<p>Is anyone familiar with the Comp Sci and Math departments at Caltech? Are the professors interesting/responsive? Are the upper-level classes offered frequently enough? How large are the upper-level classes? How does the workload compare with other majors?</p>

<p>My son has been admitted EA, and is most interested in CS but may major in math instead.</p>

<p>Thanks!!!</p>

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<p>Reading your posts here on CC makes me feel very inadequate!</p>

<p>I tend to get obsessed with my son’s education (as well) and my wife keeps reminding me that it is his life.</p>

<p>Please don’t get me wrong. Threads you have started have yielded useful information for many. Thank you for asking those intelligent questions.</p>

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<p>It depends on the prof. Some profs are very interesting and responsive, others may be responsive but not interesting, or interesting but are just bad at teaching. Yes, the upper-level courses are usually offered once a year, with some special classes maybe every other year (these aren’t usually required for graduation). I’m not sure about the math/cs, but my courses typically have around thirty ish for required classes, and around fifteen or so for optional courses. </p>

<p>Math/cs has less unit requirements than some other majors, but are usually more theoretically oriented in nature. I don’t think comparing workload to other majors really gives you much info anyways.</p>

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<p>Gotta say, this describes classes at Caltech so well.</p>

<p>(Though you did leave out uninteresting and bad at teaching.)</p>

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<p>I usually play the “how are they here” game if they’re uninteresting and bad at teaching. To be honest though, I’ve only ever encountered one prof like that. </p>

<p>Still, they revamped a lot of courses to make them more interesting. For example, CS2 is taught by a pretty awesome dude, who’s just really bad at teaching. My friends taking that course now seem to be learning a lot more material after they revamped it.</p>

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<p>Yeah, I’ve heard a lot about the redoing of the undergrad curriculum here and its improvements. Unfortunately I’ve met with a lot of resistance with ideas for improving my program’s curriculum from professors and option representatives with the excuse “Yeah, it’s not the best, but it’s always been done that way.”</p>

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<p>Theoretical computer science is very strong at Caltech. On the other hand, Caltech’s undergrad CS option is not geared to be “practical” in that the focus is not on training students to become programmers. </p>

<p>Majoring in mathematics is a wise choice if your son’s interest is in theoretical computer science. In general, I’ve found the best taught classes at Caltech are in mathematics, and a solid foundation in pure mathematics will serve as preparation for some of the more advanced computer science courses. Further, picking up “practical” aspects of CS won’t be difficult if he can handle the math.</p>

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<p>The EE department recently completely revamped its course schedule as well as changing a few of the classes. It definitely seems to be a great department in that regard.</p>

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<p>@lizzardfire How big is the EE department at CalTech? I have attended Prof. PPV’s lectures at conferences, seminars etc. He is a very good teacher! I learned a lot from him.</p>

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<p>Probably about 20 faculty, I guess around 75 undergraduates and 100 or so graduates… although I’m just guessing here. It’s definitely one of the larger departments at Caltech, but it’s still quite small (like all of Caltech, heh).</p>