California Institute of Technology

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 "geared toward training tomorrow's leaders and pioneers in the field of science"). Students at Caltech are encouraged to learn how to think and address challenges, and the school excels at "keeping students occupied and entertained while at the same time cramming a ridiculous amount of information into our heads." Interdisciplinary study and teamwork are woven throughout the academic experience, or as one student cheers: "Cross-collaboration of ideas and ingenuity leads to epic-ness!" While the "intense" academic experience can seem overwhelming to the outside eye, resources are thickly spread across the 1,000-or-so undergraduate students-there's a 3:1 student-to-faculty ratio, which means that "classes are small and it's often easy to form tight bonds with the professors." There are "lots of funding opportunities (for instance, the Housner Fund and the MooreHufstedler Fund) for projects outside of the classroom," and guidance is easily found. That's 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 "[expose] each student to a broad range of subjects." According to one student, it's "an extremely difficult whirlwind of humbling and fascinating knowledge," especially, adds another, in the case of a few professors who are "Nobel Prize winners, [but that] does not make them good lecturers." Far more than not, students claim "you'll love what you learn," and that Caltech is where students "work together to solve the problems of tomorrow, while enjoying great weather."

While the house system provides both "a family-like support network for students" and a quick shorthand to students' particular cultures, "there is a wide range in personality within the student body." Almost everyone seems to have "an odd sense of humor and a serious hobby, whether it be Minecraft, building lasers, or rock climbing." This is a "beautiful, small campus" in which "everyone knows each other," and there is "complete trust within the student body," which allows people to take a breather from the "extreme academic pressures" of the workload. "There's no way around it," writes one student: if you self-identify as "nerdier than average," you'll 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 "immediately are integrated into a close social network/safety net. Basically, each student automatically gets ~100 friends." There is plenty of intermingling between the different house cultures (and between undergrads and grads or students and faculty), and "most people find that they identify strongly with at least one of the cultures." One engineering student testifies to his crafty house's DIY nature: "My house has a tool room and turned down the housing office's offer to buy us a TV." Houses all sit down to their own familystyle meal on weeknights, and each also hosts one elaborate "interhouse" 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 "freeze pumpkins in liquid nitrogen and drop them off of [Caltech Hall]" each Halloween, and the school's Honor Code provides a lot of trust for such well-intentioned shenanigans. Ultimately, while some students do find the time to "take trips to the beach and LA," most say that "[problem] sets and extracurriculars keep us pretty close to campus."