<p>I'm doing a SURF at Caltech this summer, and I've just got a few questions.</p>
<p>My flight gets in at 10 am June 16th. What's the best way to get to Caltech from the airport?</p>
<p>I turned in the housing application online but haven't heard anything back... should I be worried?</p>
<p>What kinds of things should/shouldn't I bring that I wouldn't/would bring to college?</p>
<p>What's there to do outside of the SURF? As I understand, the SURF program takes 40 hours a week. I'm guessing there's other stuff going on at Caltech too? Recreational stuff, like intramural sports?</p>
<p>I've heard that there's seminars and general advice-giving about graduate school. I've haven't really thought of it much yet, but Caltech might be somewhere I might want to be. Would a EE with a 3.7 have a decent shot at Caltech? (I realize that's not much information, but I'm not giving much more and just want to know if I'm in the ballpark)</p>
<p>Answers to these or anything else that you might think I should know would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>From the airport, I generally use a shuttle service (Primetime or Supershuttle). It’s about $25 with tip. If you make a reservation its usually cheaper. If you don’t want to pay that much, you can take public transit if you fly into LAX (the metro). I’ve never done this, however, so I don’t have any more info. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t be worried about housing, but you can call them if you want your peace of mind.</p>
<p>EE with a 3.7 is certainly a possible admit for grad school, especially if you make a good connection with your prof. Who are you SURFing with? (I’m a EE at Caltech, although I am SURFing at Stanford this summer for the same reason you are SURFing at Caltech).</p>
<p>OP- Caltech does not have summer sessions so there is no organized intramural sports. You could try to get something going if you can get enough participation.The students staying in the Houses are a mix of tech students doing SURFs, research or working a Caltech related job. The rest of the students are like you-non-techers living on campus for the summer doing a SURF or research.</p>
<p>There are several intramural leagues, mostly organized by grad students. I’m pretty sure there is a softball one, as our house had a team for it last year. You’ll also have access (I think) to the gyms, which have pretty regular open gym hours.</p>
<p>Your best bet to get here, as IMSAgeek said, is to take a supershuttle. SuperShuttles aren’t cheaper with a reservation, and you don’t need one to come back from the airport. At LAX, just find the “SuperShuttle” sign (under a bigger sign that says “Shared Ride Vans”), and tell the person there that you want to go to Caltech Stop #1- this will let you off right in front of SURF check-in.</p>
<p>There’s a summer softball league that’s filled mostly with grad students, some professors, and last year the security guards fielded an A league team (I heard they were pretty intense). It’s pretty fun, especially if your team brings some beers and your team is bad enough you’re still one of the better people out there even when you’ve got a buzz on.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend taking the Metro to Caltech. You take a shuttle to the train to a train to a train to a train and then you have to walk around a mile to get to campus from the closest train station. I’d take the Supershuttle (book in advance so you don’t have to wait forever) and set the drop-off point as the Landmark at Holliston Ave.</p>
<p>lizzardfire, I’m actually SURFing with someone at JPL, not a prof at Caltech. Does this lessen the importance regarding grad school? I’m just a bit concerned because my school, while a good engineering school, is not as well known (along the lines of HMC or Olin College) and I’m afraid a 3.7 would be viewed similarly as something coming from a more prestigious university. </p>
<p>RacinReaver, I don’t drink, but I’m guessing this won’t be a problem? And what else is there to do? (I was only giving sports as an example)</p>
<p>It won’t be a problem since you’d might be playing on a house team or maybe a JPL one (I forget if they had one last year) where I’m sure you wouldn’t be the only underaged person. I hadn’t planned on drinking during the games, but when your team has the worst record in the lowest league at Caltech…well…you need something to help you stop caring about it so much. :p</p>
<p>I think they run a decent number of things for the summer/visiting students, including a lot of seminars and the like. I don’t know if they’re scheduled for during the day or not, since if they are you might have a difficult time attending being off at JPL.</p>
<p>Also, hopefully the guy you work for at JPL is fairly integrated with the department you’re interested in for grad school, since that would give you a great “in” during the admissions process. One of my good buddies here was a SURF student and he was from a satellite school of a decent state college, but he was able to bypass most of the admissions process since he really impressed the professor he worked for (who also happened to be the admissions chair).</p>
<p>RR- Wait, you were on the worst team in the lowest league last summer for softball? I was on the BMB (Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics) Bombers and I thought we were the worst team in the lowest league. And I’m fairly sure you’re a material science grad student, so you likely weren’t playing for us. Which team were you on?</p>
<p>Some people also play pickup soccer several days a week at the north and/or south fields. And there’s always some people playing pickup basketball at the gym.</p>
<p>I think the team name was the Asteroid Pirates. We were some weird mix of MS, APh, Ph, geology, and planetary science people. We only won one game, which was due to the other team forfeiting due to not having enough players. We played a game just for fun, and they managed to beat us even while shorthanded.</p>
<p>Maybe we played on different days? I seem to recall playing Ruddock House and I know we played Harry Atwater’s team.</p>
<p>Ah, that makes sense. Our team and the teams we played against were mostly comprised of chem and bio grad students. I remember the Rudds playing on a different day than us. Our team was big on its beer, since we usually got destroyed and needed to something to make it worthwhile showing up.</p>
<p>On a different note, there is a SURFSAC committee that plans social events every weekend for SURF students. One event was a beach trip to Santa Monica which was pretty fun. I didn’t go to others (pool party? movie night? I think things like that).</p>
<p>I only know of two people at JPL who are at all linked with the EE department, and I don’t think either of them are linked incredibly strongly. One is Dimitrios Antsos, who is a lecturer for one EE class at Caltech (EE153). The other is the Director of JPL, Charles Elachi, who is apparently a professor in EE (but I don’t know if he’s involved in anything on campus, I don’t think he teaches). He’s also the Vice-President of Caltech (I didn’t even know we had one!). He used to teach a course here called Physics of Remote Sensing. </p>
<p>I would definitely find time to talk to the professors who you would be interested in working with if you applied here while you are here.</p>
<p>Thanks all! Here’s another couple of questions. </p>
<p>They’ve made a note of saying that we don’t get paid until July and that we should bring money with us. Should I bring cash (I’m guessing on the order of a few hundred dollars), or are there ATMs (BoA) around campus?</p>
<p>Still haven’t heard about housing. Do we get our housing assignments/contract when we get there, or should we get them beforehand?</p>
<p>You can bring cash, but there is also BoA within 15-20min of walking from campus.</p>
<p>As for housing assignments, we didn’t return our housing contracts yet. Once they know where all the undergrads are living, they will be able to make room assignments for summer students. So expect to get yours within a week or two from May 28th (that’s when our contracts are due).</p>