Academic life of Caltech

The academic experience at Caltech is unlike that of any other university in the world. Every student has to learn the fundamentals of each major aspect of science while staying well rounded with a required number of humanities courses. Homework is done in collaborative groups and tests are almost all take-home. Participation in scientific research is easily accessible to every undergraduate and world-renowned faculty members interact with students on a daily basis. With big-time scientific research happening in an intimate small-school environment, the academic environment at Caltech is like no other.

When freshmen arrive at Caltech, they are all enrolled in math, physics, and chemistry courses. This is the beginning of the core curriculum, which is the heart of a Caltech education. Every undergraduate, whether majoring in biology, economics, literature, or chemical engineering, has to take five terms of physics, two terms of chemistry, one term of biology, one term of science communication, twelve terms of humanities and social sciences, three terms of physical education, and one term of astronomy, geology, or number theory.

At the end of the freshman year, students must declare an option, Caltech's version of the major. There are options in every aspect of science and engineering, with the most popular being physics, engineering and applied science (which includes computer science), biology, chemistry, mechanical engineering, mathematics, and electrical engineering. A few students each year graduate with degrees in history, economics, or literature, but they are very different from their peers at other universities-through the core curriculum, all humanities and social science majors will have taken differential equations and quantum mechanics. Changing options is generally very easy and double options are pursued by a few students each year. Every few years, a student design his or her own curriculum and graduates under the Independent Studies Program.

I have heard rumors that at other colleges, students are very competitive. They are protective of their class notes, homework, and lab books and only care about how well they do. I've heard horror stories of students stealing each others notes and sabotaging lab experiments. That doesn't happen here, we all want to help each other do well in our classes. It's comforting to know that your fellow students, even those you don't even know, are looking out for you.