The California Institute of Technology

Date: Sep 17 2002
Major: Physics (This Major's Salary over time)
The work here is hard. Real hard. I mean really really hard. All the time.

Despite that, we have an amazing bunch of people here, most of whom you could never meet anywhere else (although, in many cases, you might prefer not to), and some rather interesting (nerdy) stuff is always happening on campus. Caltech does have a way of beating the science out of people, but I think it makes us better scientists in the end (I hope grad schools will think so!). If you're a planned science/math/engineering major who loves it—I mean really loves math and science, wants to do it all the time—then I think this is the place to be. If, however, you'd still like some variety in your class schedule—maybe some painting or good writing classes here or there, then avoid Caltech. Despite the nice small humanities classes (15 students or less), and some decent profs and class variety, the courseload simply doesn't permit the time to dedicate to pursuits outside math and science. Finally, I think there are some great opportunities for undergraduate research that you'd be hard-pressed to find elsewhere (though I should mention that undergrads from other schools sometimes do summer research here).