<p>Hey guys, sorry to bring up another versus thread. But surprisingly though, I am very torn by these two completely different schools...</p>
<p>I want to major in Genetics/ Mol. Bio, a subject which Caltech steers dominance. Yet if I do go to Caltech, I will lose my desire to be educated in the liberal arts. Most likely I'd attempt to continue studies on my own, but I'm sure the atmosphere will make it difficult. </p>
<p>Any thoughts would be helpful. Thanks!</p>
<p>(Naive thought here: why couldn't Harvard or MIT just take me...jeez)</p>
<p>Even at Caltech you have to take some liberal arts courses! I spent the better part of a year being the librarian for a guy who taught courses on African history and enjoyed working with students finding primary sources for their papers. (He had a huge collection which I believe he gave to the school permanently.) I can perfectly understand the attraction of both schools, even if they are very different. </p>
<p>My husband would say, that he thinks Caltech is better for grad school. He thinks it’s a bit too small and weird for undergrads. He loved being a grad student there, and I loved the three years I spent in Pasadena.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply.</p>
<p>Do you mind elaborating on the humanities courses at Caltech, particularly Literature classes if you could? After looking through their website, I’m starting to wonder whether this whole “weak humanities” talk at Caltech is simply a result of many students not putting too much effort in humanities classes. If you devoted to broadening your literary knowledge, is it possible to do that at Caltech as well?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Well, according to National Research Council rankings for Mol./Gen. Bio, Caltech is #4 and Chicago is #11. So although Caltech is probably better, the difference isn’t that significant.</p>
<p>hey phuriku…is that for Graduate school or under? What’s ranked 1st? I thought Caltech was 1st for Molecular Bio/ Genetics.</p>
<p>seadog, I was never a student at Caltech, I just worked for a while at the library a LONG time ago. They don’t have nearly as many offerings as some schools, but they may have enough for you. You’d probably do better to email somebody who’s teaching at Caltech. I’m sure they’d be glad to answer your questions.</p>
<p>Here are the rankings:</p>
<p>[NRC</a> Rankings in Molec/Gen/Genetics](<a href=“http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/area15.html]NRC”>NRC Rankings in Molec/Gen/Genetics)</p>
<p>And yes, this is for graduate school, although undergraduate and graduate departments are often of similar caliber at a given school.</p>
<p>UCSF? And UCSD for that matter. O.o </p>
<p>hmm what year was this?</p>
<p>UCSF is a free standing medical school/ Hospital/ medical research facility associated with the University of California system.</p>
<p>Have you closely compared the required classes at each college? Chicago’s core vrs all the required science classes at CT?. CT’s reputation is that it is one of THE places to go for science majors who want to dive into intense, fast paced science classes AND do research at the grad school level as an undergraduate. For many freshman, their classes are akin to “being thrown into the deep end of the pool”. Chicago is also intense, but in a more Renaissance-man sort of fashion. No one that I know has ever gone to CT to get a well rounded liberal arts education.</p>
<p>Thanks menlo. I don’t exactly mean well-rounded, more like 70% math/science, 20% English, 10% SoSc. Not exactly sure if that makes sense, but I just want to make sure humanities at Caltech isn’t completely underdog. I have a friend there now saying some professors are from Harvard and Cambridge and are really trying to improve the department, so I guess it’s a good fit for me.</p>