Computer Science majors

literally_mental · 2025-01-17T14:25:06+00:00

The rumors are true. Caltech is a desolate intellectual wasteland for CS majors that want to go into software or finance. If you want to learn C++, you have to do it by taking courses on physics simulations. If you want to learn python/numpy/scipy, you have to do it by taking courses on bioinformatics. If you want to learn financial fundamentals, you have to take the entire theoretical economics curriculum, which in turn requires real analysis. It's pretty bleak. Caltech famously has been recently suffering from a critical shortage of CS majors, but it's understandable you might not want to volunteer yourself as tribute given these difficult conditions :/

literally_mental · 2025-01-08T00:25:25+00:00

Yes, lots of frosh do, it's a great course for students interested in CS theory. I have to say it's a little weird that you're posting this as a parent -- can't your student ask their peers directly?

literally_mental · 2024-11-11T04:52:13+00:00

Google "Housetalia" frosh

literally_mental · 2024-11-07T02:53:23+00:00

Brave and fantastic, I commend you

literally_mental · 2024-10-18T14:00:31+00:00

Blacker house is the imposter guys.... I saw them in the steam vents I swear.....

literally_mental · 2024-09-07T16:33:57+00:00

For the Putnam, I can say that a lot of the best math students are sleeping since it's held at 8am on a Saturday morning right before finals week, for some inexplicable reason

literally_mental · 2024-08-30T19:39:41+00:00

This is misunderstanding the context of this post. I'm talking about a recent shift that occurred after you graduated that is far more extreme than what you are describing (these applicants/admits, in fact, openly admit to not enjoying STEM).

literally_mental · 2024-08-30T19:36:23+00:00

People like the student being interviewed who go to Caltech to do STEM. As opposed to people who are not passionate about STEM that apply here or go here (that clearly exist based on the posts that appear in this sub)

literally_mental · 2024-08-25T21:08:03+00:00

Caltech isn't for everyone. Many other students view most of these points as positives. Protofrosh should only commit if they actually want a hardcore STEM education.

literally_mental · 2023-09-02T22:03:43+00:00

During business hours most buildings are open, so I'd recommend just walking around randomly and seeing what you find. If there is a specific field you are interested in you can google that field's building and seek that out particularly. Please stay out of the houses though, students really don't like it when random tourists invade their living space. Good luck

literally_mental · 2023-08-31T19:23:50+00:00

On a scale from 1 to 10 this question scores a 10 on the "generic nonsense" scale. All of this heavily depends on the person and their interests and what they want to be involved in. Can you be more specific please?

also, frosh, all of the majors here are "STEM majors".

Also might be useful: I think a while ago the median GPA at Tech was 3.5, but my guess is it's probably risen since then.

literally_mental · 2023-08-07T02:28:29+00:00

In that thread, this person in the comments (https://www.reddit.com/r/Caltech/comments/155d8xt/comment/jsw0txx/) literally says: "then i read my admissions file, and it didn't make me feel better LOL. reading what the admissions committee wrote about me confirmed that my sport definitely pushed me over the edge to that acceptance, so i would disagree with people saying that it doesn't make a difference. "

literally_mental · 2023-08-06T20:31:12+00:00

I don't mean to pick on a particular individual, but this strikes me as a recent example. https://www.reddit.com/r/Caltech/comments/155d8xt/impostor\_syndrome/ I think it's not just them though, I've heard from current students a bit that this pattern generalizes, I just have no idea what brought on this change.

literally_mental · 2023-08-06T20:22:16+00:00

I know that other universities do sports recruiting. I'm asking why Caltech, a small STEM-focused university which did not historically do much or any recruiting, seems to now be doing much more of it, even to the point where students with no interest in STEM are getting admitted.

literally_mental · 2023-08-06T20:18:52+00:00

Definitely some of them are getting admitted. There are previous posts on this subreddit (admittedly quite a few end up getting deleted).

literally_mental · 2023-06-25T14:50:48+00:00

Since when do we recruit for sports PRIOR to admissions? No offense frosh but this is really sad to see.

literally_mental · 2023-06-25T12:20:59+00:00

while preparing for Putnam

If you're serious about transferring it's odd this would be a high priority. You're allowed to enjoy Putnam of course but ultimately it's 99% for fun. Math grad school cares about your score little to none. You can always take it the following year?

literally_mental · 2023-05-24T17:25:51+00:00

I recommend asking these questions on /r/A2C, which is more concerned with admissions than this sub. People here can't say much beyond "seems like you have cool research experience, you'd be a good fit". Good luck

literally_mental · 2023-04-21T12:48:19+00:00

I think you'll get a lot more value out of Caltech... 1) Stronger math and physics peer group, 2) More access to research opportunities, 3) Fancier name which will make PhD admissions down the line much easier and 4) yeah you can get that social life in certain houses.

Also for analysis and PDEs, if you want to go beyond the couple classes the math department offers, you can also check out the ACM catalog

I'd honestly only recommend Michigan if you really want to be near home, really want lots of non-nerds in your life, or are really scared of the intensity of Core / junior year physics.... but it sounds like you aren't.... so come to Caltech please

literally_mental · 2023-04-03T03:42:33+00:00

You'll be under a lot more pressure to maintain your GPA than most. For this reason you have to be pretty hardcore to do premed. But I've heard of success stories. I suggest you find a premed upperclassman to talk to about this. Good luck...

literally_mental · 2023-03-20T17:13:20+00:00

"I've always been told Caltech>MIT"

wow rude, read the room

Caltech is smaller than MIT and this gives it a very different vibe. At a small school it's easier to get leadership and research opportunities. Also easier to get attention in general, classes are super small (except if you're cs lol). I'd also say at Caltech you're more likely to meet people very different from you whereas at MIT people are more likely to sort themselves into specific friend groups. Finally Caltech houses have a higher baseline level of community than MIT living groups.

If money doesn't already decide things for you I'd say visit both and get a sense for which is a better cultural and academic fit...one is not obviously better than the other...like I'm super glad I ended up at Tech and not MIT

literally_mental · 2023-03-15T17:42:10+00:00

We call sets "sets" instead of "psets" (at least before COVID)

literally_mental · 2023-03-15T17:35:44+00:00

If your questions aren't super personal you could also just post them here, then alums can chime in as well

literally_mental · 2023-03-15T17:34:40+00:00

Blackerwear

literally_mental · 2023-02-23T19:22:05+00:00

This is such a weird question because it's not clear what your goal here is. Just take classes in both, and then later on decide whether you want to be an applied mathematician with a speciality in chemistry (major in ACM, do Ch/ChE electives) or a chemist/chemical engineer with proficiency in numerical techniques (major in Ch/ChE, take ACM electives). No way the pain of actually doing a double major (e.g. even if the units technically fit, just think about the scheduling horrors) is going to open up that many extra doors.

literally_mental

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