Really--how much work?

<p>So we all know Caltech has a reputation for pretty much being one of the most, if not the most, rigorous schools in the country. But just how much work does that amount to? For anyone who attended/is attending Caltech, could you give a general rundown of what a typical daily/weekly work/study load is like?</p>

<p>You probably have four or so real classes a term. Most classes will give you one problem set a week, each of which takes about a night (3-6 hours depending). But then for most classes you also have to read the textbook and absorb the material and generally study on your own, and Caltech classes go really fast (think one chapter/major concept per week), so that takes at least as long as the actual set.</p>

<p>It's a pretty busy life, but there's definitely time for having fun if you make some.</p>

<p>I didn't have AP Physics or proof-based math so I got totally reamed freshman year. ...and I decided to take analytical math and physics due to peer pressure, bad mistake. 12 hours per class per week sounds about right in my case, but I was not as prepared as my classmates. (Instead of credits, we have a unit system, and the number of units is supposed to translate into the number of hours you spend per week on the class. Most classes are 9 units and students tend to take 45-51 units, although 36 units is a "full load".) By sophomore year, I had caught up with my classmates (i.e. they were no longer repeating things they had already kind of learned in high school) and was spending the normal amount of time on my work. But yeah, still 45-51 hours per week which isn't that great since I spent another 50 hours sleeping and 15 hours eating, leaving only 50 hours for "discretionary" activities like showering, walking to class, and working in lab.</p>

<p>Don't forget the first two terms are pass/fail. In other terms, you can shift to p/f pretty late in the course.</p>

<p>Man, you guys actually don't put in that bad of hours if you're only doing 50 hour weeks on classes. I'd say that's actually pretty typical of most engineering programs at top schools.</p>

<p>(I suppose it's coming in without any pre-reqs for upper-level classes why my homeworks take myself and my group of friends forever to do. I spent around 36 hours on my thermo final this week. :()</p>

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Man, you guys actually don't put in that bad of hours if you're only doing 50 hour weeks on classes. I'd say that's actually pretty typical of most engineering programs at top schools.

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<p>It's worth adding that I'm not an engineer but a biologist :) Biology is one of the easiest majors, along with Geology and their bastard child, Geobiology. (Where by "easy," I mean "reasonable.")</p>

<p>But yeah, it's really not that bad - people here just need something to complain about. I suppose that at that other institute of technology, they really do have things to complain about, like the weather and the ugly women...but here we have to exaggerate a little.</p>

<p>I wouldn't try to start insinuating that Caltech has beautiful women by any means. :p</p>

<p>The best description I got of the attractiveness when I visited and talked with a current grad student that went to my undergrad school: "So how are the girls here at Caltech?" "Well, you thought CMU was bad..."</p>

<p>(We had been rated as having the country's ugliest student body by Maxim or one of those magazines. :()</p>

<p>I can't help but think Caltech girls are hotter than MIT girls after seeing the "Cannon Coeds" but that's not saying much...</p>

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I wouldn't try to start insinuating that Caltech has beautiful women by any means.

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Ouch! I am a woman and I am very offended...j/k who am I kidding...</p>

<p>Well, I will say that the girls here tend to be better looking than the guys, but I figure that's because I see so many more ugly guys in pure numbers than girls. Half my classes don't even have girls in them. :(</p>

<p>I was looking at the catalog and realized that a standard foreign language class (like beginning XXX) is 10 units. so that's saying the language classes at caltech are really hard and you're expected to put more time in there than in, say, ch1a? </p>

<p>I'm asking this is because I really want to take a foreign language class, but then I don't want to give up a science/math class to take the foreign language. Is it possible to take all the standard courseload and then add a foreign language class a top of that?</p>

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Is it possible to take all the standard courseload and then add a foreign language class a top of that?

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<p>Yeah. You just have to give up an elective. First term I took all my core classes and CS1 and a pizza class and it only took 43 units. I could have had room for two electives if I'd wanted to. It's easy to have room for foreign language.</p>

<p>Plus if you really want to, you can overload (>51 units for frosh or >54 units for upperclassmen), but you need the Dean's approval for that.</p>

<p>Vanita,
my son has been taking Japanese on top of his regular course load. He doesn't find it to be much work at all compared to his math & physics courses.</p>

<p>I've found that if you always go to class, do all of the assigned readings, and write decent essays, humanities classes will take around the 9 hours/week they're supposed to, almost never more. Some of my (non-core) physics classes have averaged ~20 hours/week. Core math tended to be ~9 hours/week freshman year and ~12 hours/week sophomore year. CS 11 tended to take me ~9 hours/week per lab to do them well enough to not get redos, and since there weren't labs for every week it comes a little closer to the 3 hours/week its supposed to.</p>

<p>My typical schedule as a sophomore physics major is something like this:</p>

<p>Ma 2 - 12 hours/week
ACM 95 - 6 hours/week
Ph 12 - 20 hours/week
Physics lab - 15 hours/week
Hum class - 9 hours/week
CS 11 - 6 hours/week
PE or PA class - 3 hours/week</p>

<p>I'm really, really slow! I'm taking ACM 95 on pass/fail, which is the only reason it takes me so little time. I spend longer on my physics classes than the vast majority of people and I always take a pretty full schedule so this is definitely going to be an upper bound for most people. If you for some reason take this many classes and suck as much at your (difficult) major as I do, it will be nice to know that you can survive this. You just have to learn how to multitask at relaxing. :)</p>

<p>Vanita, Caltech has a humanities/social sciences requirement of twelve courses, the equivalent of one course per term. So not only can you fit foreign language into your schedule, you basically have to fit some kind of hum class in there anyway. Two of those need to be "frosh hums" and are taken frosh year - foreign languages aren't an option for that requirement. Another four courses need to be in social science. You can take foreign language classes to fulfill the remaining six HSS requirements...and that is exactly what I did. Totally doable.</p>

<p>In my opinion the language classes are fairly easy, especially if you have had a foreign language before. The requirements for literature or "civilization" classes are more intense, but by that level you should have mastery of the language anyway.</p>