<p>Hello,
I am currently a freshman at Caltech and I am considering applying for transfer admission to Stanford for fall 2006. There are many reasons for this, such as (i) core curriculum is too rigorous and narrow for my preferences, (ii) almost all students are very nerdy and aren't very interested in non-technical subjects or ideas, (iii) the 'Hovse' system is silly and socially limiting, (iv) the school is too small (900 undergrads), (v) the amount of work and sleep deprivation required to get by with a C in most classes (mainly after freshman year) is ridiculous. The list goes on, but these are some of my main issues with Caltech. </p>
<p>I would like to ask current or past Stanford undergraduates the following questions: What are some of the worst things about being an undergrad at Stanford, in your opinion? What are some of the best things about being an undergrad at Stanford? How reasonable is the workload? How would you describe the undergraduate students as a group?</p>
<p>Also, if any of you happen to know a Caltech transfer student (or are yourself a Caltech transfer student), I would like to know what their thoughts on transferring to Stanford from Caltech are (e.g. why they transferred, how they like Stanford, etc.)</p>
<p>I would appreciate any and all advice on these matters.</p>
<p>I, too, am interested in knowing about Stanford's workload. I currently attend a ridiculously competitive high school and I want to continue being challenged but at a healthy, mildly stressful pace.</p>
<p>How is the competition in the engineering division? I am interested in electrical engineering or chemical engineering.</p>
<p>And how do grades work? What percentage students get A's?</p>
<p>I'm currently a freshman at stanford. I might major in engineering, so i'm taking chemistry, math, writing, and humanities. This is 19 units (max is 20) and one of the toughest in my dorm. Still, I have time to sleep at least 6 hours every night, go to parties and athletic events on the weekends, socialize/watch tv/do club stuff for about two hours a day. It's tough, but no where close to what my friends at caltech and mit are going through. One of my friends at MIT doesn't even have time to eat. That's ridiculous.</p>
<p>one of the worst things:
- stanford's definitely not the mecca of hardcore science and engineering compared to mit and caltech. But that also brings out the best (IMO): the super well-rounded academics and also top athletic teams and a decent social scene.</p>
<p>Serj, you haven't even taken midterms yet have you?</p>
<p>I'm a soph at Caltech. I'll admit that there were times when I thought that I should've gone to a school like Stanford. But after 3.5 terms here, I think I made the right decision (that's my feeling so far at least...).</p>
<p>My main point is that I think you're being premature.
On academics, you're getting a very distorted picture. Yeah, everyone's going to be getting ~60% in Ma1a, but this is on purpose! They know that everyone's on P/F, so they ramp up the difficulty to insane levels (and they don't bother curving as long as people can still pass). You should realize that grading at Caltech is pretty reasonable (although you may need to choose classes correctly--eg. practical is almost always easier than analytical). On a related point, it's out of favor to discuss GPA's at this school, so you might not realize as a frosh just how many people have 3.5+ GPA's (ie. it's okay to complain when you get a bad grade, but people won't say much regarding a good grade).</p>
<p>Regarding social factors, I can say that I was in your position about this time a year ago. My roommate and I hated the house system because we just saw a bunch of drunkards, and we pretty much stayed away from them. I haven't posted about the houses in a while, but I think they're fine now (not the greatest thing at Caltech but definitely not a reason to transfer). It took me until 3rd term to even know the names of the sophomores on my alley last year, but I know them pretty well now (and we had some awesome LAN parties in the house computer lab over the summer).</p>
<p>If you really think that the size is too stifling and that the core curriculum is too narrow, I suppose those are reasons to transfer. But I think that those aspects of Caltech were made clear before you came.</p>
<p>webhappy,
First of all, your comments about Ma1a confirmed my suspicions (that they make it really difficult since it's on P/F). I hate that class. Perhaps I am making a hasty decision, but I have already decided to finish up the year at Caltech and not transfer until fall 2006 if I choose to do so. I was certainly aware of the size and narrow core curriculum before coming to Caltech, but I wasn't really sure whether I would like them or not. I don't think I thought through the college decision very carefully- I was accepted to Caltech early and didn't apply to any other schools regular decision after that, so I didn't get to explore other options. I thought I wanted to do hard-core science in college, but I'm not so sure that I want that now. I think I'll have plenty of time to do that in graduate school. So I'm not trying to say that Caltech is a flawed school; it's fine for what it is I guess. I'm just not the sort of person that would thrive in this environment.</p>