<p>Oh, there's a life at Caltech for sure outside of work--certainly not the kind you'd expect, though. Interesting things come out of the hovse/house system.</p>
<p>But if that kind of work scares the crap out of you, then Caltech is not the school for you.</p>
<p>Iâve been viewing this board for awhile, and finally made and account. I am a Junior currently and considering applying to CalTech next year. Your open letter is very helpful and I appreciate it.</p>
<p>Thank you, Respectfully.</p>
<p>Glad it helped :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>but caltech is a four year party 
no seriously,
i have a 3.8 gpa here,
and i work less at caltech than i did in high school</p>
<p>donât think you wonât get to have fun,
i spent most of this term
sitting in other peopleâs rooms,
going out to places,
and playing on the internet</p>
<p>typical day (if thereâs a set due tomorrow):
play around until 9 or 10,
do a little work until midnight,
then wake up early in the morning (6-7 am) and finish it before class
the problem sets donât take ridiculously long if you concentrate on them and donât go on the internetsâŠit might take like five hours if itâs a hard set, three if itâs not</p>
<p>and the only thing you have to do besides problem sets is read the textbook,
which is like ten or twenty pages a week.
and if you estimate one hour for every eight pages,
that takes you like three hours per class,
which isnât very much if you take five classes,
and only two of them require you to read the textbook</p>
<p>donât get me wrong. you will have to work.
but itâs not as bad as people say.
and we do get a lot of days where we donât have to work at all.</p>
<p>but hey,
your mileage may vary <3
there are definitely people who do work work work
they are the ones who get gpas above 4.0
but iâd say the best part of caltech is when youâre not working,
so those guys are missing out.</p>
<p>Iâm glad that youâre having a lot of fun, fizix, but I donât think most techers would agree with you about Caltech being a âfour year partyâ. Iâm not sure what year or major you are, but Iâve had plenty of sets that took me (and my colleagues) over fifteen hours, and Iâve had a couple that have approached thirty. I know plenty of people that work endlessly and donât have anywhere near a 3.8 GPA, let alone above 4.0. </p>
<p>Caltech can be a lot of fun, but Iâm fairly sure that the workload youâre describing is not a typical one.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>0_0
never had one of those before,
but i am merely a frosh,
so i assume it gets harder</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, it does. And just because you find it easy, doesnât mean everyone will.</p>
<p>Iâve had one set that took me maybe ten hours, but it was for a class that I had no business taking, and I ended up failing out of it anyway. But yeah, Iâm definitely working harder here than I ever did in high school, and my third term frosh year gpa is much lower than 3.8. There were other circumstances that made things a bit harder this term, and Iâm far from the brightest person at this place, but yeah, it hasnât really been too easy for my tastes. But again, there are people who can pull off good grades without working like crazyâŠbest way to find out is to wait until youâre here, and test your limits, I think.</p>
<p>Thatâs a good assumption, fizix, and itâs one you might want to mention when you make statements about how long assignments take. I mean that in the kindest and most gentle wayâI just want to make sure that the students interested in Tech know what they are getting into (in frosh year and beyond).</p>
<p>^yeah yeah whatever.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>what you should be taking from this, prospective students,
is you canât be like âHOW HARD IS CALTECHâ
âAM I GONNA SURVIVE HERE EVER EVERâ
because it depends a ton on who you are,
and how much background you have from high school,
and also,
if you can do your problem sets
without getting distracted a lot and going on the internets
(i think this is the most important skill to have)</p>
<p>i know a guy who finishes most of their problem sets in < 3 hours,
and he considers 5 hours a ridiculously long time to spend on a set
but he is also crazy smart, like IMO medalist smart.</p>
<p>there are plenty of people who do well here and get to relax,
and there are plenty of people who donât,
and i guess youâll find out which one you are when you come
(most of my friends are doing awesome here)</p>
<p>and the other thing
is i know people who are graduating with terrible grades
but theyâre still getting good jobs after college,
so you gotta realize a bad gpa at caltech,
is not the same as a bad gpa at other places
so donât worry too much 
and come to caltech,
because itâs awesome and fun</p>
<p>Fizix2; Does Caltech require any English classes that teach punctuation and sentence structure?</p>
<p>cardfan: Caltech requires 12 terms of humanities and social sciences, including at least two writing-intensive freshman humanities. A writing test is given when prefrosh come in that determines if they need remedial writing classes. These remedial classes would cover punctuation and sentence structure. </p>
<p>That would be the answer I would give to someone asking the question you did seriously. Unfortunately, since it appears you are just trying to be confrontational, I will simply point out that your post uses a semicolon incorrectly. It should be âFizix2,â not âFizix2;â. Additionally, you should not capitalize âDoesâ (should be âdoesâ). </p>
<p>It is obvious to most people that grammar rules are somewhat flexible in communication formats such as online forums because these forums are meant to approximate the spoken word. Apparently this is not obvious to you. </p>
<p>Since you are new to the forums, I hope that you can quickly move from seeking confrontation to contributing something valuable. If you can, awesome, and welcome to the forums. If not, go away.</p>
<p>Thank you for the writing lesson. I donât agree with it because the posterâs name was used as a salutation and not as part of the sentence. However, I am just going to move on and thank you for your helpful advice</p>
<p>it should still be either a colon or a comma even if it is a salutation ^^</p>
<p>^^youâre a poopyface</p>
<p>Quoted from dictionary.com:
âNo results found for poopyface: Did you mean populace (in dictionary) or Popovice (in reference)?â</p>
<p>perhaps fizix2
was merely writing
in prose</p>
<p>Jesus I knew Iâd find Quello and lizard on this page trying to make people feel inferior about what? thereâre enfereor gramer adn speling ereros? Another perfect example at the circle jerk(is that in your dictionary?) going on at CT. What are you guys roommates? âDonât capitalize Does, it should be doesâ. You must be socially â â â â â â â â my friend. NO @*#$ its Does (whoops âdoesâ). Get over yourselves and realize that if anybody knew who you were in real life youâd get no respect for who you are. Do you really have a superiority complex in real life or is this some kind of CC thing?
This is a perfect example of CT students friends and fellow CCâersâŠGO BEAVERS!
(perfect mascot, it perfectly exemplifies the characteristics of a CT student; reclusive and anti-social in their dams (dorms), beavers are known to stay away from other groups (nobody from other schools wants to hang with you guys, so stay to yourselves), not to mention the teeth (hygiene in general)).</p>
<p>Nah, not roommates. Just friends. </p>
<p>And yes, I totally have a superiority complex in real life. </p>
<p>GO BEAVERS! hahaha</p>
<p>how sad a human being youâve become. I really do hope to meet you one day, that would be a dream come true. do you have a facebook or anything?</p>