Caltech - The Ivory Tower
Written: Mar 09 '00 (Updated Mar 10 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Outstanding faculty
Cons: Ivory tower
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| rag47's Full Review: California Institute of Technology |
Since graduating from Caltech, I have returned as a Microsoft recruiter, and for a couple of alumni functions. I attended Caltech from 1965 to 1969 and got my diploma in the usual four years. After my freshman year I seriously considered transferring elsewhere, but in the end I decided to stay. I have often thought about whether I made the right decision. Anyway, here's my thinking about this school. I'm writing this epinion as if to a high school student thinking of where to go to college.
Standards are really high at Caltech. About half of my class got the highest possible score on their SATs (1600 points). My total of math and verbal was 1579 which I still remember because this is the kind of place where such things are actually topics of discussion! I think almost every student got an 800 on the math part, it's only the verbal that was different. (This probably explains my lousy grammar.) It is really a pleasure to be with so many smart people who understand what you're talking about, who can follow a line of thought, and who have interesting things to say.
The teachers I had were outstanding. A number had either won a Nobel Prize or would later win one. I am tempted to drop names, but let's leave it at that. Sure the courses are challenging but if you are a good student, you love to study and learn new things, and so it's a pleasure, really. Students are treated well here. The administration is well organized. The student house system works well, especially for the many studious loners who would be isolated if housed in a regular dorm. The small student body and the small campus are nice and homey and you get a real feeling of belonging here. The narrow focus of the school is something to consider: if you want to be a scientist in one of the traditional hard sciences like physics, chemistry or biology, this is the place. For other things, like computer science or most engineering, it's only so-so. For other topics than science and engineering, the choice of courses is terribly narrow. I remember marveling over a UCLA catalog which offered a tremendous rainbow of things to study.
My feeling now, thirty years after graduation, is that college is a time of transition from being under your parent's roof to being a totally independent adult. The best thing a college can do is prepare you for success as an adult. And I'm not sure Caltech does the best job of that. First off, the social life is bad. Only about 15% of the students are women and that makes for a lot of lonely and sad guys. Secondly, it's such an ivory tower. The "Honor System" is an example of that. I think many students are attracted to the life of a scientist because it sounds like a noble calling - seeking truth and bettering humanity. The real world comes as a surprise. Grad students everywhere (not just Caltech) are treated like slave labor, helping their advisor to succeed and working for peanuts, with the time for their PhD dragged out for a shocking number of years. Then when they do get that PhD (the scientist's union card) they wind up in post-doc hell, trying to get on a tenure track or trying to get grants of their own, but mostly teaching for peanuts or doing the grunt work for someone else's research. Many finally give up and turn to other work, like computer programming. If I sound bitter, let me add that this is not my story. I was always interested in computers and went straight from Caltech into software development. But I have seen what happens to others.
I visited a number of times as a recruiter. A few students were fantastic - sharp and energetic, really kept me on my toes. But all too many were clueless dreamers. They were still learning computer languages like Pascal and Ada and LISP that time has passed by.
I think a better choice would be a larger and more diverse school with very high standards. For computer science, the best schools are Stanford, MIT and (a sleeper) the University of Waterloo in Canada. Good luck with your choice.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
rag47
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Location: Issaquah, WA
Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 12 members
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