<p>In the next two weeks or so, many of you will choose a college. From now until then, I will post thoughts on life at Caltech on a semi-regular basis. Maybe it will be useful for some of you.</p>
<p>Happy reading and happy deciding.</p>
<p>Could you talk a bit about the support systems at Caltech? I was really impressed by the many levels of support for students at MIT when we visited for CPW. What kind of support systems exist at Caltech? Thanks.</p>
<p>If you could address the issue of the quality of teaching for freshmen/women that would be great. The whole thing with the Princeton Review rating does sort of make you wonder, compared to MIT.</p>
<p>Ah, peer counseling at Caltech is one of the best points of our House System.</p>
<p>Each House has a slightly different system, but all UCCs, Upper Class Counselors, are eligible for training from the Counseling Center and Health Center. In addition, we feel that it is more important to talk with one another and work out problems than it is to strictly follow the rules and policies, especially when it comes to another person's well-being</p>
<p>Generally, the rule is that we look out for each other at Caltech. However, if an issue is more serious in nature, then the RAs, with a few years more experience in life, become involved, in which case, students are often forwarded on to the professionals at the Counseling or Health Center. While we look out for each other, I think that students here are mature enough to know that we can't solve all of everyone's problems.</p>
<p>Furthermore, academics being the way they are, the cutthroat nature present at many other schools just isn't there. Our collaboration policy for classes, tests, and homeworks understands that some people may not be able to solve everything on their own. Related to that, our Honor Code focuses on protecting the community, not punishing people that break it. It's a perspective that I feel says a lot about Caltech as a whole.</p>
<p>They talk about this 3:1 student:faculty ratio, and that there is at least one Ph.D. on campus for every undergrad. What does that mean?</p>
<p>First names. It takes a lot of adjusting, but it's generally a frosh behavior to address someone as "Professor So-and-so". In all the labs that I know of, the norm is that the professor is Jeff, not Professor Kimble. Same goes for Nobel laureates. This is not some new-age experiment -- just the way the social equilibrium works.</p>
<p>Still, what does it really mean? Just because there are so few undergrads per prof, does that mean you're going to have beer and pretzels with your professors after class? (Actually, yes. That's a future post.) I found this implausbile, so it was always a mystery to me what the real life benefit was.</p>
<p>My prof in an econ course had taught before at UT Austin -- a place with tens of thousands of undergrads. He had a little, obvious speech the first day of class that consists of probably the five most valuable sentences I've heard at Caltech.</p>
<p>"When I taught at Texas, there were over 44,000 students. If I made time to see each student who wanted to see me, I would have time to do nothing else. And I still wouldn't be done. It isn't like that here. You should drop into my office and take advantage of that."</p>
<p>What do you do in this "office"? You become an intellectual adult, if you want to.</p>
<p>The difference between great scientists and people like you and me isn't that they have great ideas and we don't. It's that they know how to develop their germs of ideas into great ideas, and most of us don't. They also have the confidence that their half-baked and tentative and crazy ideas are worth something.</p>
<p>If you come and sit across from one of those people for half an hour a month, you get to see them fumble upon these brilliant ideas. You also get to see them throw away ten bad ideas, and make obvious errors -- which makes you feel a lot less bad when you do both. You bat their ideas back, and sometimes you are shocked to discover that your ideas can be good ideas, too. You never get patronized. If none of your ideas are good, you will be told. (Trust me.)</p>
<p>It's a sad fact of life that so much time must be invested in such apprenticeships. It would be much easier if there were some other way to become a scientist. There isn't. You have to literally hear the responses of some "very big deal" professor to your stupid undergraduate ideas, and realize that the difference between you and him isn't the quality of your ideas but the audacity of believing in them and the practice in making them work.</p>
<p>Do all students actually get anything like what I get out of the 3:1 ratio? And what about this beer and pretzels business. That's next time. Time for lunch and class byebye.</p>
<p>What Craig said about the support systems is true, but not the whole picture. He left out the deans, who are an invaluable resource on campus, and available to any student. If you get behind in your schoolwork, or find yourself getting overwhelmed, they can help recommend tutors, talk to your profs, and talk to you about how to get back on track. The counseling center is also an important resource. The Caltech health plan covers counseling and they see students all the time for stress-related issues.</p>
<p>What do you mean by the quality of teaching for women? How would it be any different than for the men? If you expand on what exactly you're concerned about, I'd be happy to address it. (I think I'm the only undergrad woman who browses these forums.)</p>
<p>I think the freshmen/women OP just didn't want to use the blatantly sexist term "freshman" to refer to a mixed-gender group.</p>
<p>Alleya, have you noticed any sexism, not just in academics, but in student life at Caltech? If so, how bad was it? My parents are kind of concerned about this.</p>
<p>Haha, is this series inspired by a certain person on the MIT forum?</p>
<p>So there is at least one other female undergrad here, I just tend to lurk a bit.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Alleya, have you noticed any sexism, not just in academics, but in student life at Caltech? If so, how bad was it? My parents are kind of concerned about this.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I haven't noticed any real sexism. My friends don't treat me any differently because I've got two X chromosomes, and there isn't any pervailing feeling that either "women aren't as good" or "she only got in 'cause she's female" on campus. I certainly haven't noticed any sexism in academics.</p>
<p>tetrahedr0n -- if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the certain person can consider herself flattered. ;-)</p>
<p>Nope, I haven't dealt with any sexism here, academically or socially. The one qualification I'd make is that the guys tend to be slightly overprotective. This may just be my house, but on more than one occasion I've had to fight to be allowed to walk home by myself. This is the only example I can think of off the top of my head, but there have been other incidents where I've been annoyed by their attempts at chivalry.</p>
<p>Edit: As an example of the fact that women are respected equally, the last three ASCIT VP's (of which I was one) have been women. In fact, women tend to be disproportionatly represented in student government and on committees.</p>
<p>I like when guys "overprotect" me though... like, during CPW at MIT we met these senior guys and they walked us home at 4 in the morning (like, a mile through the city and across the river) because we were a group of 17 year old girls in Boston. </p>
<p>So a lot of times it's a good gesture, even if it can be a tad... demeaning.</p>
<p>at some point you stop understanding. maybe education is the process whose goal -- at the very least, a waypoint -- is that moment.</p>
<p>it is a quiet tragedy, because the moment at which you stop understanding is a shadow of the upper bound on your abilities -- looming out there not so far away. (gauss wouldn't have stopped understanding here, you think -- not with stuff this easy. the shadow was farther from him.) if you don't believe me that this point of mystification is not wholly a glorious moment, think about those you know who reached the waypoint early -- calculus I, or algebra. you're them now, just at a higher level. reaching this waypoint means you stop going effortlessly. it's a sad moment.</p>
<p>you don't stop understanding permanently, but for a time. i have some learning to do before i can wring an education out of the gaps.</p>
<p>the problem with reaching this shadow late is that you get set in your ways -- used to understanding fully before you read on, used to knowing the answer before you go to the next thing on your list, used to not accepting even temporary failure. (but failure doesn't care what you think.)</p>
<p>when you reach this point, you have to start learning from the gaps between the moments of clarity, few and far between. the reassuring solidity of your understanding melts, and you come to live mostly in the gaps and shadowy places, going after things you can only barely make out. you have to get an education out of these gaps.</p>
<p>caltech doesn't come with many guarantees. you aren't guaranteed to graduate, or to be happy, or to like your house, or ten million other things. you are guaranteed (i guarantee you), no matter how smart you are, you will learn to learn in and from the gaps.</p>
<p>Thanks for that post Ben. For some reason (actually, for a variety of reasons), I needed to hear that.</p>
<p>Ben, </p>
<p>Great posts. Keep them coming!</p>
<p>One request: whenever the mood strikes, could you address Caltech's house dynamics and social life?</p>
<p>yes. i realize i've been writing about the intellectual aspects because that's what came to mind first, but i'll talk about the rest of life too soon.</p>
<p>
[Quote]
I like when guys "overprotect" me though... like, during CPW at MIT we met these senior guys and they walked us home at 4 in the morning (like, a mile through the city and across the river) because we were a group of 17 year old girls in Boston. </p>
<p>So a lot of times it's a good gesture, even if it can be a tad... demeaning.
[/Quote]
We have a name for overprotecting here. We call it glomming.</p>
<p>House Dynamics? That's what I'm here for, I suppose.</p>
<p>Here's the deal with the social dynamic:</p>
<p>You have seven culture concentrations within Caltech, one major point of anti-culture at a separate location in Caltech proper, and a scattering of social cliques in off-campus houses around Caltech. This is the setup of the social dynamic at Caltech.</p>
<p>The way the House System works is that prefrosh go through Rotation, which is a little like speed-dating. At the end of a week (and change), they are matched up with one of eight Houses. From there, you are welcome (with approval) to join any other House on campus. The reality is that most people settle and grow into their House and choose to stay there as much as possible. Houses provide social events for their members, areas to relax and converse, mentors through thick and thin. Also important, is that Houses host the majority of parties and weekend socials of the campus, with the remainder provided by either the student government or student-run clubs.</p>
<p>The system doesn't work for everyone, though, which is why we never force someone to stay in the House rotation puts them in. Furthermore, sometimes a clique gets close to the point where they cut themselves off from the rest of the House. These people all have opportunities to move off campus or off-off campus (respectively, Caltech-owned and non-Caltech-owned off campus housing). Sometimes it is a better fit than the Houses, and sometimes the off-campus people choose to stay affiliated with their House.</p>
<p>A little more rare are people that feel that they fit in to multiple Houses. I myself am a member of three Houses, and a social member of one House (and one House admits every Caltech student as a social member, but I don't count that). There's a bit of social stigmata associated with being a drifter between the Houses. Some people are bothered by it, others are not. Usually, one is tagged as being a member of the House he/she rotates into (the verb form of completing Rotation), which includes all of the social characteristics stereotyped to that House. Similar to some frats at other campuses, I suppose. All Delta Delta Delta girls are <em>characteristic</em> or whatnot.</p>
<p>In terms of social development, the Houses provide impetus for students (specifically frosh) to leave their rooms and stop studying for a healthy amount of time. Some Houses put more emphasis on this than others. Each House has a dinner area where members can eat. Many Houses have specific traditions and rules for dinner. The build-up to a House-sponsered party is often used as a bonding experience, especially with the construction intensive parties that are termed "Interhouse." The upperclassmen instruct the freshmen to "Build Interhouse!" though they are usually out working alongside the freshmen to get everything completed in time. It's a good chance for freshmen to get to know members of their House and use more than their brains to produce impressive results.</p>
<p>Interaction between the Houses... I suppose that's a tale for another day. It seems like I'm planning a grand treatise on the social structure of the Houses, but that's all for now, though.</p>
<p>For those who don't know, Craig is the new chair of the Interhouse Committee, which runs Rotation and punishes me when I say things like what I'll say in my next post. ;-)</p>