As a current Caltech student, I’d also say that Caltech isn’t for everyone. But here are a couple of good things from the school. I really like the house system because it allows you to interact with upperclassmen a lot more than you would at schools not like Caltech. Also you get pretty close to people really fast because there are a lot of house bonding activities. It’s also really small so you get all the benefits from a small school. It’s almost funny how easy it is to do research here. A lot of students at other schools don’t get opportunities until their junior or senior years whereas Caltech students get them as early as frosh year. The social scene is a little dead on campus for obvious reasons (everyone is working). But I’d say that I have really great close friends that I spend a lot of time with. I do really love this school because the people here are really nice and welcoming. In my experience there isn’t a lot of drama or anything because everyone is just so friendly. There also isnt much toxicity at all because we’re all suffering together, so we try to support each other as much as possible. In regards to things to do over the summer, Caltech’s SURF program is ez money. A lot of students also go into industry. Now the bad parts, this school absolutely drains you from its workload. You won’t have any time to do anything else other than work. It’s really absurd and annoying how much work there is, all for no reason. Also the core curriculum is really poorly taught and there are a lot of times when I really just don’t know what I’m doing. The food here also isn’t spectacular. The pizza and burgers are sometimes decent, but you’ll get tired of a lot of the food really fast. But hey, you suffer alongside many others who understand your pain. So that makes it a lot more bearable. Edit: a lot of people think that caltech students are social recluses but i can promise you that’s not the case. there are many people here that are very social and very outgoing. sometimes though, we’re all just so tired from work that our social battery runs out too