Student Profile
Ben
- Class: Alum
- Major: Engineering
- Gender: M
- High School:
- Transfer Student: N
Big Picture
Caltech is one of those schools where, looking back, you are quite fond of the uniqueness and zaniness of the experience, but during your time there, you longed to be elsewhere. I should stress that the dorm situation at Caltech is quite unique: each "house" at 'tech has a unique personality ( the hippie/druggie house, the sadistic house, the mostly christian house, the sporty house, etc.) that you will soon adopt as your own, whether you want to or not ( I was in the hippie/druggie). Once selected into one of these houses, a majority of the students will essentially confine themselves with this one group of people for the rest of their four years. So be careful about which house you choose to live in.
Academic Life
The classes are hard, but they teach you a lot. So be prepared to work your***off, but get a world-class education because of it. You'll get treated with a lot of respect when you graduate, too :)
Student Body
The type of people you'd meet as a student at Caltech are who I'd deem as the "outcasts" from your high school: the nerds, the hippies, the anti-socials, the quiet. Very rarely will you find the average dresses-trendy, basketball playing (if boy), wears a lot of makeup (if girl) student that comprises most larger universities. And I have a feeling that the admissions committee does this on-purpose; they select the unique applicants because they're usually the most creative. And creativity is definitely a part of Caltech that you'd notice immediately. Students are allowed to draw "art" on their dorm rooms, and build weird structures for parties and senior puzzles, etc. And that's the single greatest social aspect about Caltech: that the administration supports the students both socially and academically to express themselves and foster new ideas.
