Caltech
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Anonymous
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How is Caltech similar to or different than other CA schools such as Stanford, Cal, UCLA, Harvey Mudd?
And how is it similar to or different than east coast peers such as MIT, Cornell, Penn, Georgia Tech? |
Anonymous
| It’s very different from all except HMC because it is not pre professional at all despite graduates being highly sought after. |
Anonymous
| It doesn’t really compare to any other school because it’s so tiny. It’s much smaller than most high schools and you have to want that environment. Obviously the trade off is access and attention. But daughter’s best friend is finishing her first year there and climbing the walls… |
Anonymous
Say more about why she is climbing the walls? Do the students at Caltech interact with other area colleges? Or is it a small bubble? |
Anonymous
| It's a long drive to USC or UCLA. CSLA is not a near peer |
Anonymous
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Caltech and Harvey Mudd are very similar to each other. Caltech attracts more STEM superstars, Harvey Mudd students tend to more heavily value the liberal arts. Caltech has world-class faculty, Harvey Mudd has national-award winning teachers. Caltech is more theoretical, Mudd is more applied.
Mudd is a more vibrant environment due to its relationship to the Claremont Colleges; Caltech is self-contained. But Mudd students tend to stick to themselves the most within the consortium. None of the other schools are remotely alike, not even MIT. |
Anonymous
I’m not sure about other schools in the area. I think that might take social initiative that a lot of caltech students don’t have. In regards to this particular girl, she’s an athlete and the team itself is very insular I think, which creates an even smaller population within the already small school. |
Anonymous
| There’s a much larger pool of kids who could thrive at Mudd than at Caltech. If your kid is meant for Caltech, they’ll know it. |
Anonymous
| Caltech is the only school environment I can easily declare is completely miserable. There’s nothing fun going on at Caltech. It’s just an environment for people obsessed with STEM. Best for the introverted science kid who wants to go to aspires most to get a PhD/be a leader in STEM. |
Anonymous
So just like Sheldon Cooper? (Isn’t that where the character from “Young Sheldon” went to grad school and became a professor?) |
Anonymous
This is a good description. The other difference is that Mudd is undergrad-focused, where Caltech actually has more grad students than undergrads. That has benefits and drawbacks. The grad students drive the research programs, which any undergrad can get involved with if they want to. There's a lot of mixing between undergrads and grad students, much more than at most colleges. But it also means that the faculty attention has a lot of emphasis on the grad students. To whoever asked if Caltech students mix with other colleges - unless something has radically changed in the 25 years since I was a student there, no. Not at all. For one thing, it's LA ... any other college is at least an hour away. And Caltech is pretty insular. We had our own way of socializing. We did have fun, but most of us would not have blended well into another college except maybe Mudd. |
Anonymous
If you want to know what the social life at Caltech is like, watch the 80s movie Real Genius. It was based on Caltech and is disturbingly accurate. There's lots of fun going on, but it won't appeal to everyone. |
Anonymous
There is an exchange program (taking 1-2 classes) at neighboring Occidental College. But very few take advantage, too busy with Caltech schedule. Unless your DC is a die hard academic, skip Caltech. Trust me, I spent 7 years there, UG and G. |
Anonymous
This. Caltech is for kids who would find MIT too easy and be bored. Dead serious. It's a special place. ~1/1500 undergrads wins a Nobel Prize later. That is like 10x the rate of the next highest school. It is super intense and a hot house as no other nearby schools. But there are some for whom this is absolutely the right place. If a kid lives for math Olympiads, quantum physics, or writing their own LLMs to derive the math, and finds doing reckless science experiments their version of blowing off steam on the weekends, they will love it. Though the gender ratio makes things weirder than they need to be. If this description does not appeal to a kid, odds are it is not the right place. Which is FINE. Good luck. Signed Caltech grad alum, so no direct UG experience but saw a lot first hand. |
Anonymous
The question isn’t whether the school has wild parties and hot babes. The question is whether the school ends up being fun or soul crushing for students who love STEM. |