<p>Dear grammar police,</p>
<p>sorry about all the grammar mistakes.</p>
<p>You know you can just hit the edit button right?</p>
<p>I have a feeling someoneâs talking about my house (oh the stereotypes) :D. Still, the truth is there are 8 different houses, so very varied personalities. And yes, there are some people who will complain and not fit in no matter what house they end up in. Those people usually move off campus second year. However, the vast majority of people end up in a house that they actually like. Changing houses is also allowed, so if you find out the house youâre in isnât the one for you, go ahead and make the change. </p>
<p>Yes, college will be much harder than high school, no matter where you go (unless itâs a liberal arts school, but donât tell any English majors). For some people, it will be a bigger transition than others. My best advice is to enter college knowing that youâre probably not the smartest and brightest anymore; be prepared to realize what the other side of the grade curve feels like. Youâll have to put in a lot more effort obviously.</p>
<p>Caltech on the weekend days is usually dead. Everyoneâs either asleep or off campus. Nighttimes usually get better, depending on what youâre interested in. We do work fairly hard during the weekdays though. You will never see something like a Halloween party held on Wednesday for example; itâs just not doable. </p>
<p>Thereâs plenty of sports teams here, as well as interhouse sports. If you just want to play casually, interhouse sports are usually held several times a week. If you want to play NCAA, we have several D3 teams. The teams are no cut, but in some more competitive teams, you might not get to play in games, or not get much game time, if youâre not a very good player. If you have more interest in a specific team, you can feel free to contact a coach. You can even set up a visit to Caltech with an athletic team, if youâre certain youâll want to play for a team.</p>
<p>Also, this should be the last thing youâre worrying about on Christmas Eve. Once I make up an excuse why I checked cc tonight Iâll edit it in.</p>
<p>Hey thanks alot. This really helps. That means no procrastination right? Caltech seems like a great place. Now I have to figure out if I can get in. Btw, howâs the tennis team? Edit button, gotcha. Merry errr late Christmas!!!</p>
<p>Best way to get your own opinion is to visit. I agree with Kamikazewaveâs statements, though.</p>
<p>Try the link again, I re-uploaded it.</p>
<p>Having researched Caltech quite a lot, I think I get the basics of how the houses and courses work, but I donât know if I could actually get in , Iâm from the UK so itâs quite hard to correlate my grades with the plethora of ways that US schools seem to have to evaluate their students</p>
<p>Well, you can always contact the admissions office and talk to them about it. In a general sense, itâs usually harder for international students to get admitted than domesticâbut donât let that discourage you from applying if you think Tech would be a good fit.</p>
<p>Based on the ability to correlate IB scores (also handled by each uni separately) I think A and O levels should have a system established as well. The only disadvantage will be that suffered from being international . I donât know how big it is but I believe it exists.</p>
<p>It can be done-- two boys from Eton were accepted and one was waitlisted this past year. And I think there was at least one from Westminister too. (Others as well, I would expect, but just donât knowâŠ) You just give them your GCSEs and AS grades and the school also tells admissions the expected A level grades (which have a very high correlation with actual gradesâwhich come out in two days). Obviously you need to be taking science A levelsâespecially Further Maths.</p>
<p>My son chose Caltech because the small, tight knit community fit his personality better than MITâs setting which seemed more fend for yourself. This, even though heâs very independent and competent at fending for himself.</p>
<p>I have seen pictures of house parties at Caltech with a neon sign that students either made or bought in the outline of a reclined, nude female. The sign blinks on and off saying, âNo fat chicks allowed.â Parents, would you like your daughter to attend such a school? Prospective women students, how would you feel about this?</p>
<p>^ [citation needed]</p>
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<p>WeAreFive, your suggestion is that Caltech is the only college at which one might find boorish and insensitive adolescent males? Iâd have to challenge you to find a single campus at which this type of behavior and attitude is NOT present somewhere.</p>
<p>Many students themselves do not like the fraternity-type behavior of the houses at Caltech. The houses have hazing-like rituals and heavy drinking. One house got an admitted student drunk during Pre-frosh Weekend. The then-president of my childâs dorm wrote during his first year, âWe got ___ drunk again.â (Granted, I donât think they used a funnel to get it into him, but still, just want to get this information out there to prospective parents and students.) Yes, granted, a lot of boorish male behavior happens everywhere, but among a very small undergrad population where living in the houses is practically the only mode of living that affords a social life? There is simply too little choice of housing and ways to socialize, and this type of behavior too âin your faceâ at such a small school. At another campus, students could choose to live or socialize elsewhere if they found this offensive.</p>
<p>^WeAreFive, re:âThere is simply too little choice of housing and ways to socialize, and âŠâ Students can choose from eight houses and I think it is good enough. Different house has a different character/culture (according to what I hear). Or, one can choose to live off campus. There are sublets and apartments within a walking distance from the campus (I actually lived in one as a grad student). re:"Parents, would you like your daughter to attend such a school? Prospective women students, how would you feel about this? ". I have one child as freshman this coming year, thus I am sure we will learn a lot more about the undergrad life there over the next four years and our perception could change. However, my youngest daughter will certainly apply in a few years. I attended grad school nearly thirty years ago, and I am still of the opinion that caltech has one of the safest environments for a girl student to spend four years â both the city and the campus. I would feel far safer with my daughter at caltech than say, at yale. The size of caltech is small, but not too small, itâs 1.0-0.5 times the size of most liberal arts colleges, and I believe the student life that you are complaining about here is a small problem that you will find in any school. The kids need to have some fun in spite of such occasional (probably very rare?) boorishness, especially when they have such intense study life. I actually like the guaranteed housing of all years and not having to worry about it every year. My other child in another college, we have to go through this (finding housing and moving, etc.) annually which we donât enjoy.</p>
<p>As col2cal just said, there are 8 different houses to choose from. There is one house known for more drinking than the others, and the frosh quickly figure out which one that is during rotation. It is the house LEAST highly ranked by most frosh, which goes to show that most techers make good choices. By the new rotation rules, that house actually lost rooms based on the number of students choosing it. Due to rotation rules and other considerations, that particular house will not be named or discussed in more detail.
So, again, most Caltech students make good choices. I am sure there is LESS drinking on campus than in most ANY other campus. Most of us find the house system to be supportive, nurturing, and caring. Most alumni say the house system was their favorite feature of Caltech, and have close ties with their former housemates for years afterward. The frosh get to rank which house they prefer, and the houses choose frosh based on how they think that kid will fit in with their culture. No one is forced into a house they donât want to live in. And again, though there are many adolescent males and some are less mature than others, the caliber of the average student at Caltech is clearly way higher than the caliber of students at most any other place!</p>
<p>^poppingpopcorn I assume that you are a frosh, if I am mistaken about that, then you may be someone who actually doesnât know each house culture well enough other than outside of the house stereotypes. Yes, there is one house that **visibly ** drinks more than any of the other houses but you will be shocked to know that there are at least 2 other houses that drink just as much if not more than that particular house! Also, I have to agree with you and others that the amount of drinking here at Tech is nothing compared to most other schools. It is generally < 50% (if not less!). So even when I state that there is drinking going on, I would not say that it is âheavy drinkingâ</p>
<p>On another note there is a house that used to do notoriously worse during rotation until they got a PR rep. However, this year, due to rotation violations, on both sides, these unfortunate events occurred to the other house. Also, it was the actions of a few rash and stupid individuals (isnât it always?) that ruined rotation. The new rules were only meant to stop houses from acting extreme (misrepresenting how they actually are) during rotation, and if everything went correctly, no one house was suppose to be âpunishedâ.</p>
<p>Otherwise, I have to say that people are not forced to participate in anything they do not want to. If someone says otherwise, that is not true because honor code and admin can enforce that students feel safe. Also, there will always be people in each house that you should be able to socialize and hang out with (because even within each house there is a wide variety of people) that respect your values and views. If not, there are 7 other houses to choose from! It really is not as restricting as WeAreFive puts it out to be.</p>
<p>Well, itâs technically true that you arenât forced to participate in anything you donât want to. But there are most definitely situations where it would be more uncomfortable to demand a way out than to just play along, and because caltech houses think they are frats those situations arenât all that uncommon. So if your concern is simply not being forced into things, that might be valid.</p>
<p>Having said that, Caltech is definitely one of the best schools in terms of not having uncomfortable situations come up. Sure, at other schools you wonât find yourself pressured to do uncomfortable things if you make an effort to avoid that. But youâre also more likely to have random people do stupid things around you, and those random people are going to include the people you live with. So if you just donât want things youâre uncomfortable with to happen, just go to Caltech and pick a certain house known to be quieter, the identity of which you could learn fairly easily by just pestering people to tell you.</p>
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<p>Looking at the student population Iâd say fat chicks certainly are allowed.</p>
<p>^
If you are a former or current techer, you have just hoisted yourself on your own petard with the above comment for all the cc community to seeâŠ</p>