<p>^One of the dorms was just being completely renovated when we visited in 2007 and I believe the other oldest dorm was going to be up next. I don’t remember seeing any vulgar graffiti, but there is a tradition of painting the halls and I could easily have missed something off-color. I only remember a lot of geeky humor and nerdy art. We actually liked the run-down comfortable feel of Caltech more than the too perfect dorms of Stanford (where we were only allowed to see the dining hall area.) My kids also thought Stanford was too spread out. That’s why you visit.</p>
<p>In the end reputation in computer science trumped looks and my son did apply to Stanford (though given the lack of effort he put into the application he probably shouldn’t have.)</p>