火爆社区

The California Institute of Technology is a world-renowned bastion of innovation, and not just in the realm of science and engineering (though it is undoubtedly 鈥済eared toward training tomorrow鈥檚 leaders and pioneers in the field of science鈥�). Students at Caltech are encouraged to learn how to think and address challenges, and the school excels at 鈥渒eeping students occupied and entertained while at the same time cramming a ridiculous amount of information into our heads.鈥� Interdisciplinary study and teamwork are woven throughout the academic experience, or as one student cheers: 鈥淐ross-collaboration of ideas and ingenuity leads to epic-ness!鈥� While the 鈥渋ntense鈥� academic experience can seem overwhelming to the outside eye, resources are thickly spread across the 1,000-or-so undergraduate students鈥攖here鈥檚 a 3:1 student-to-faculty ratio, which means that 鈥渃lasses are small and it鈥檚 often easy to form tight bonds with the professors.鈥� There are 鈥渓ots of funding opportunities (for instance, the Housner Fund and the Moore-Hufstedler Fund) for projects outside of the classroom,鈥� and guidance is easily found. That鈥檚 a crucial part of the Caltech puzzle, given the rigorous and thorough core curriculum, which incorporates science, humanities, math, and social science and is designed to 鈥淸expose] each student to a broad range of subjects.鈥� According to one student, it鈥檚 鈥渁n extremely difficult whirlwind of humbling and fascinating knowledge,鈥� especially, adds another, in the case of a few professors who are 鈥淣obel Prize winners, [but that] does not make them good lecturers.鈥� Far more than not, students claim 鈥測ou鈥檒l love what you learn,鈥� and that Caltech is where students 鈥渨ork together to solve the problems of tomorrow, while enjoying great weather.鈥�

While the house system provides both 鈥渁 family-like support network for students鈥� and a quick shorthand to students鈥� particular cultures, 鈥渢here is a wide range in personality within the student body.鈥� Almost everyone seems to have 鈥渁n odd sense of humor and a serious hobby, whether it be Minecraft, building lasers, or rock climbing.鈥� This is a 鈥渂eautiful, small campus鈥� in which 鈥渆veryone knows each other,鈥� and there is 鈥渃omplete trust within the student body,鈥� which allows people to take a breather from the 鈥渆xtreme academic pressures鈥� of the workload. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no way around it,鈥� writes one student: if you self-identify as 鈥渘erdier than average,鈥� you鈥檒l likely fit right in.

The beating heart of undergraduate life at Caltech is its distinctive house system, which places first-year students into one of nine residential communities and makes it so they 鈥渋mmediately are integrated into a close social network/safety net. Basically, each student automatically gets ~100 friends.鈥� There is plenty of intermingling between the different house cultures (and between undergrads and grads or students and faculty), and 鈥渕ost people find that they identify strongly with at least one of the cultures.鈥� One engineering student testifies to his crafty house鈥檚 DIY nature: 鈥淢y house has a tool room and turned down the housing office鈥檚 offer to buy us a TV.鈥� Houses all sit down to their own familystyle meal on weeknights, and each also hosts one elaborate 鈥渋nterhouse鈥� party during the year, often involving elaborately engineered themes, light shows, and decorations. Traditions (and pranks) speak to the creativity of each house, like the one whose members experimentally 鈥渇reeze pumpkins in liquid nitrogen and drop them off of [Caltech Hall]鈥� each Halloween, and the school鈥檚 Honor Code provides a lot of trust for such well-intentioned shenanigans. Ultimately, while some students do find the time to 鈥渢ake trips to the beach and LA,鈥� most say that 鈥淸problem] sets and extracurriculars keep us pretty close to campus.鈥�

Caltech students do very well for themselves. In fact, according to PayScale.com, the median starting salary for recent graduates is $101,900, and 52 percent said they derive a high level of meaning from their job. Certainly, the school鈥檚 Career Advising and Experiential Learning (CAEL) should take some of the credit for this success. After all, the office provides some stellar career counseling, and it also hosts numerous workshops covering an array of topics such as maximizing your internship, preparing for secondary school interviews, and social media networking. Counselors are at the ready to connect undergrads with job, internship, and work study opportunities, as well as offer pre-professional advising specific to those going into industries such as health care or business鈥攁ll opportunities are centrally located on the recently launched platform Next Steps Caltech. Perhaps most importantly, the office hosts three big career fairs each year (every season but the summer), giving students the chance to ask recruiters about open positions.