<p>Okay... there is a common stereotype associated with CalTech kids: that they're geeky, never socialize, blablabla. I know that most stereotypes AREN'T true so students who have actually attended CalTech (and not just walked through the campus once or twice) -- what's your true opinion on this?</p>
<p>Hmm ... when you compare them to other college students (i.e. UCLA or USC) yes they're much more geeky. But you can't blame it all on the students, it's just that at Caltech the workload/homework is overwhelming such that students normally do not have a lot of spare time, i.e many of them have to do homework during weekend. In general you need to be geeky to survive at Caltech</p>
<p>I'm a freshman here, and it seems to me that almost all the people here are genuinely nice. </p>
<p>Regarding geekiness, studying is much easier when one is interested in what they are studying. A strong interest in math/science/whatever may be considered geeky, but it's why many Techers are here. There are certain odd people who are especially geeky, and they stand out quite a bit, but I think that in living here you get used to whatever geekiness level there may be and you don't consciously notice it. except when someone makes a really bad math/science joke (I didn't hear this one at Caltech, but, "What did one cell say to the other cell? Mitosis cold"). </p>
<p>I have yet to do homework over the weekend, except for late sunday night (math is due monday). </p>
<p>Being a freshman, I'm not sure how much this applies to the school, but I was told this: "Grades, Sleep, Social life. Pick 2."</p>
<p>Hmm, so it varies a lot. </p>
<p>On average, people are less social than they are at other school. You don't go out clubbing four times a week and get drunk the other three nights; if that's what you wanted though, you shouldn't even be thinking about Caltech. There is something that is known as the "Tech Bubble" wherein most students rarely make it off campus; it's the idea that people don't care about the world more than 50 feet (I would say it's closer to 1000 feet, because it really should include Zankou and Panda Express) away from the borders of Caltech. </p>
<p>However, on campus people are really friendly. People here are genuinely nice people. I suspect that part of this comes from the fact that most of us were ... not so popular... in high school, and so it's easier to empathize with other people, and you don't want to exclude others. Furthermore, there is very much a sense of community at tech which is something that is one of the students favorite things - both a sort of Techer community (we've all suffered through the same very rigorous core) and very strong house cultures. </p>
<p>I certainly have worked over weekends - I would say that I've probably worked over at least 80 or 90% of the weekends since I've come here. I tend to work during the day on Saturday or Sunday, and it's not uncommon for me to work either Friday or Saturday night, but not both. I often go out to a club over in Hollywood on either Thursday or Saturday night, and manage to find time to do yoga (which is about a 2.5 hour commitment) about five days a week, and not be a super-troll for the rest of my time here. How much time you have to socialize depends a lot on your time management skills and your priorities. Some people don't have a lot of dedicated social time, but when they are doing homework it's really half social time half homework time. </p>
<p>Uhm, if that answered your question, awesome; if not, fire away a follow-up and I'll try to answer it.</p>
<p>thanks for saving me 50 bucks...</p>
<p>I suspect that part of this comes from the fact that most of us were ... not so popular... in high school</p>
<p>:D :D :D</p>
<p>Glad to be able to help dwintz, it certainly is the case that Caltech is not for everyone; and my goal is to help figure out if Caltech is the right place for you, as opposed to merely troll/recruit for Caltech. </p>
<p>Galen</p>