you guys should come to caltech

<p>i am not an idiot, i just find that atheists are not very nice people and i would prefer to be around as few as possible</p>

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<p>I can’t speak for every house, but I can say two things:</p>

<p>1) That doesn’t happen in my house
2) Gossiptron is only one house, most houses don’t use it/aren’t aware of it. I didn’t even find out about it until my junior year. Most of my friends still don’t know what it is. It’s really stupid, and it should be gotten rid of, but whatever, people in that particular house need to deal with that as they see fit. </p>

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<p>I don’t know anyone who has been forced to do anything you mentioned. I have never seen anyone be forced to do any of the things you mentioned. I feel that if people were really forced to do things and they spoke to the deans there would be a very swift and strong response to that sort of behavior. Additionally, (since we do surveys on this as an institute), the vast majority of the population doesn’t feel the same way you do with regards to house initiations being “hazing”. It would be one thing if it was the house leaders saying one thing and the population saying another, but that’s not the case here. Either all of those people are not involved in hazing or they are and they are lying about it. I think it’s pretty clear that the first option is the correct one–unless Caltech is just one massive conspiracy to make your life miserable (sounds crazy, doesn’t it?)</p>

<p>Additionally, I don’t agree with your characterizations of rotation, but I can see how someone so apparently hurt by the house system could feel that way. </p>

<p>Regarding BoC charges, I’m not sure what that comment is supposed to mean. I’ve never been involved in a BoC case at Caltech, so I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have been involved in trumping up charges about anyone. If this is just a general barb at someone else / the institute in general, why are you trying to take it out on me?</p>

<p>Although I’m sure for different reasons, I totally agree with you that there should be an opt-out for the house system; that’s what Avery was built to be but has now transformed from that original vision. It’s something I’m working on personally. </p>

<p>Again, I’m sorry that you didn’t get what you wanted; that doesn’t mean the system is to blame. A pretty good indicator of whether a system as a whole works or not is surveying the people who use the system and gathering their opinions. We tend to select the systems that best serve the largest majority of people–this is human nature. There are always going to be people better served by another system. Since the overwhelming majority of Caltech strongly supports the house system, I am forced to conclude that this is a good indicator of its success. You call this groupthink, I call it consensus.</p>

<p>hey guys how did you demonstrate an interest in science when you were applying</p>

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<p>dude you don’t even know him</p>

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<p>some atheists maybe. i’m personally both an atheist and a very nice person, so there
but for what it’s worth, the caltech christian fellowship is probably the largest group on campus.<br>
and there are definitely going to be liberals and democrats around (especially since scientists tend to be less religious and more liberal) but if you don’t want to hang with them you don’t have to.</p>

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<p>it’s gone now so frosh don’t have to worry about it
but i’m sure each house has its own problems
in the other house i’m in, they attack unpopular people on their mailing list
(which is mostly just a few mean people,
but it still happens)</p>

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<p>by going to competitions, publishing a paper, and taking all the science classes i could
i also wrote about it in my essays
basically what you would expect</p>

<p>I’m applying to college this autumn. I’m not sure what I want to major in, but I’m considering stuff like Law/Management. However, I’m also considering Maths/CS. Can you please persuade me to apply to Caltech? (I’m an international who will need a large amount of FA, btw).</p>

<p>our math classes are hard and awesome
also a lot of people here program in python :D</p>

<p>but really i should ask the question back to you:
what are you looking for in a university?
and if you answer this i can tell you if caltech fits that profile</p>

<p>Interesting question :). I’m looking for a place where I can:</p>

<p>-Learn subjects in-depth instead of just glossing over them </p>

<p>-I’d prefer small classes and the opportunity to interact with professors more, though I probably wouldn’t be too interested in research</p>

<p>-A place where anyone can make friends with anyone, if that makes sense. For a few schools, I’ve heard some of the types of people are really insular and don’t talk to many people - or, worse, the school has “cliques” or “old boys clubs” and stuff.</p>

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<p>hmm, well to be honest most of the classes i’ve taken
kind of go over material very fast,
and don’t really give us much time to explore it
but that might be because i’ve only taken freshman classes,
and they kind of have to cover a lot of material in ten weeks
because they have to teach you everything about calculus,
or everything about college chemistry</p>

<p>(this might just be a feature of all colleges,
slightly exacerbated by the fact that we have
three terms instead of two semesters)</p>

<p>classes here do cover a lot more material than classes at other universities,
so i guess you could call that learning it in depth,
but that’s because they just assume you’re smarter
so they go over things fast</p>

<p>that being said, i thought i didn’t learn anything from math 1,
but when i went and took math classes at other schools,
i found i was a lot better at math than i was in high school
so even if you don’t remember the specifics of field extensions
or magnetic dipoles,
you still get a lot of experience out of it,
and you end up being generally smarter</p>

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<p>caltech definitely has small classes,
except for the frosh classes
(because everyone takes the same thing in the beginning)</p>

<p>and it’s a shame about the research,
because it can really help you get into grad school,
if that’s what you’re aiming for</p>

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<p>that’s actually true at caltech.
caltech is divided into houses,
and there’s enough people in each house
(about 30 frosh/house/year)
that if you only make friends in your house
it’s more than enough.
but plenty of people become members of two houses,
i know one girl who’s a member of three
and you can definitely make friends outside your house if you want to
like a lot of people know folks from freshman orientation
or they do sports or clubs together</p>

<p>eventually you recognize a lot of faces,
even if they’re not in your house</p>

<p>^Thanks :)! It sounds like my kind of school, but there’s just one thing - to be honest, I’m considering into going to something like Law/Management (business studies) far more like something like Maths/CS. I’d probably want to become a lawyer/politician/etc. a lot more than I’d want to become a computer programmer or mathematician.</p>

<p>Would this be a problem? I mean, what do the people who don’t major in “techy” subjects say about the quality of their departments? (Please note: I’m not saying Caltech is bad at those, I just wanted to know how many people actually major in subjects like those, how reputable the professors are, etc.)</p>

<p>well i don’t know anyone who’s majoring in a non-science subject,
except this one person who’s in economics,
and she’s a tour guide so i bet she really likes it here</p>

<p>the humanities classes i’ve taken here have been very fun
(much better than the ones i had in high school)
but a lot of the students slack off and don’t care about them
because it is caltech after all</p>

<p>have you considered good liberal arts schools (like amherst)?
i don’t actually know anything about them but they’re supposed to be small and good at teaching
and they probably have nice humanities departments</p>

<p>(i am actually slightly more interested in psychology than i am in math.
but i really like math too so that wasn’t a problem for me at caltech
because i could just read psych stuff in my free time)</p>

<p>I’m considering that type of school as well, but (from what you said, and the impression I got of Caltech when I emailed the admissions department some questions) Caltech seems like a very friendly college, which is part of the reason why I’m considering it so much. I also picked it as one of the 4 free SAT score reports… I won’t be choosing humanities subjects like history or languages or culture, btw, more subjects like management.</p>

<p>Hmm… how open is Caltech to homeschooled students? What about students who are a few years younger than the average college applicant?</p>

<p>(Sorry for all the questions lol, it’s just that I can’t afford to travel there, and there are some things one can’t learn about a college without actually asking the students)</p>

<p>this would be your major then
[BEM</a> Requirements](<a href=“http://www.hss.caltech.edu/~cvitanic/BEM/BEM.html]BEM”>BEM Requirements)</p>

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<p>i have no idea
i personally don’t know anyone who’s homeschooled but i bet there are some</p>

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<p>my brother went to caltech when he was fifteen. and he got the lingle scholarship, which used to be awarded to the best incoming freshman every year</p>

<p>so they probably don’t mind</p>

<p><a href=“Sorry%20for%20all%20the%20questions%20lol,%20it’s%20just%20that%20I%20can’t%20afford%20to%20travel%20there,%20and%20there%20are%20some%20things%20one%20can’t%20learn%20about%20a%20college%20without%20actually%20asking%20the%20students”>quote</a>

[/quote]
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<p>ask away</p>

<p>Caltech doesn’t really have programs for management or law. Go somewhere else if you have a serious interest in them</p>

<p>Unless for some reason you really want to take five terms of math, and five terms of physics, and two terms of chemistry… etc to get a law degree. I guess it could work if you wanted to do patent law or something related to technology. </p>

<p>In general, I agree with dLo.</p>

<p>

Bigotry of any sort is unacceptable, and the fact that this individual has openly displayed such bigotry on a public forum suggests to me that (if he’s not fakeposting) it is a deeply ingrained problem. Him not coming to Caltech would be good for him (Caltech is overwhelmingly liberal and atheist/agnostic) and good for us.</p>

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clearly you’re bigoted against bigots :D</p>

<p><a href=“Caltech%20is%20overwhelmingly%20liberal%20and%20atheist/agnostic”>quote</a>

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who knows. he might learn something</p>

<p>@fizix2</p>

<p>I absolutely am dying to know what your brother applied with to get the lingle…</p>

<p>(please excuse the bump)</p>

<p>^ i think he got 5s on all his ap tests,
killer recommendations, and some research,
and also he was a physics olympiad semifinalist
but i don’t know anything else
this was back like 15 years ago,
when college admissions was slightly easier,
now there are IMO people who don’t even get axline</p>

<p>p.s. i was lingle too
but that’s because i had a paper in science
(and all of the above).
and it doesn’t really do me any good
now that i’m not here anymore.</p>

<p>Would that I had a research university close enough to do research while I was in high school…</p>

<p>Of course the Lingle is gone along with all the other scholarships, and I wouldn’t be surprised if upper class merit awards won’t be eliminated entirely in the near future. The official press release in the tech said that awards won’t return to prior levels until endowment revenues recover. I don’t find that particfularly likely to happen soon.</p>

<p>yeah sucks for future classes</p>

<p>but yay for you getting in anyway :)</p>

<p>Regarding an opt out of the Housing System, the New student packet this year said something about opting out. If you did not want to participate in rotation or the housing system as a freshman, you could contact the office and the would find a place for you. It seems to imply that it’s in Marks or Braun.</p>