CalTech Aerospace

[rieuk]

I'm curious as I haven't already got my letter from the dean, and the letter from the option representative seems to be different from yours. Instead of candidacy it uses the equally ambiguous word "nomination" like the one tricky got. Somebody else has already got the letter from the dean?

Yeah I got the Dean's letter yesterday. I think nomination means recommended to graduate studies who then make it official. You'd probably be getting the letter soon

[tricky]

-the school is really small, there's only 15-20 people per year. I still haven't decided if that's a pro or a con

Hey jbur1, first of all congrats! Second, just wondering if you could clarify what you mean by 'only 15-20 people per year'.

[meche]

Oh hey, I just signed up here and ran into this. I'm an undergrad at Caltech taking some aero grad classes.

I'll give you guys my impression if you haven't visited yet and I'd love to hear everyone else's opinions:

-all the current students made it sound like the first year (which is purely classes and no research) is very very hard.

-the profs said that the focus of the school and the research is more on the fundamentals behind aerospace as opposed to specific applications (like they said MIT does)

-the connection with JPL may be a bit exaggerated. They don't really work hand in hand like I thought before, they seem to share projects every now and then but always with separate funding

-the current students are wimps.

-pretty much, although you can direct it as you want to a certain extent.

-they aren't hand in hand, but I know some grad students doing research at/with JPL for their thesis. They're as close as you could expect a NASA site an a university to be.

Hey jbur1, first of all congrats! Second, just wondering if you could clarify what you mean by 'only 15-20 people per year'.

each department (Aero, materials, mech-e) only takes about 15-20 new students per year. The campus is ~1000 undergrads, ~1000 grads.

[j21french]

I'd call up Christine for an answer though - there aren't many admits reported on the results page so they might be still deliberating...

Yeah, well, I'm sure they'll tell me, along with the other rejects, when they figure out their unofficial wait list. I'm definitely not losing sleep over it, so..

[jbur1]

Has anyone figured anything out the quality of the social life at CalTech? I really wasn't able to get a sense of it from my visit and I know I'll go insane if I never have time to hit the bars and have parties with the other students (or if no one else wants to go with me). Does anyone know if there's ever time for fun or if work is too intense? They seem to have a good time at MIT, but I didn't get enough time at CalTech. Does the intensity of the work and the small size of the program kill the fun?

[Niko256]

Has anyone figured anything out the quality of the social life at CalTech? I really wasn't able to get a sense of it from my visit and I know I'll go insane if I never have time to hit the bars and have parties with the other students (or if no one else wants to go with me). Does anyone know if there's ever time for fun or if work is too intense? They seem to have a good time at MIT, but I didn't get enough time at CalTech. Does the intensity of the work and the small size of the program kill the fun?

Hahaha. Same concerns here. We'll hit up the bars together I guess. Stanford is where the social scene is really at though, visit day ended up in a pub crawl, and that was just before finals for the locals..

[tricky]

Hahaha. Same concerns here. We'll hit up the bars together I guess. Stanford is where the social scene is really at though, visit day ended up in a pub crawl, and that was just before finals for the locals..

Count me in! Work hard, play hard.

[Niko256]

Count me in! Work hard, play hard.

Hey tricky, do you play hockey? apparently there is an arena pretty close to campus (full gear only). I'm debating whether to bring my stuff down.. also there appears to be a defunct caltech club team, which I would love to see revived

[Manifestin2010]

I emailed Caltech to ask when they would be sending out rejects/waitlist. Reply was: by April 15th. Am I the only one who has not heard from then apart from the admits earlier on?

[ionomix]

Anyone accepted his offer?

[yumengze]

Actually me too.

I emailed Caltech to ask when they would be sending out rejects/waitlist. Reply was: by April 15th. Am I the only one who has not heard from then apart from the admits earlier on?