 | California Institute of Technology: Encyclopedia II - California Institute of Technology - Academics
California Institute of Technology - Academics
Academics at Caltech are famously hard, and the analogy of drinking water from a firehose is often applied. Life is sometimes described by the aphorism, "Work, sleep, social life: pick two," pointing to the great amount of academic work. While Caltech is most famous for its physics department, under the leadership of David Baltimore, it has strived particularly to improve its facilities in the life sciences. Caltech is also known for interdisciplinary programs such as the Computation and Neural Systems (CNS) program.
California Institute of Technology - Academic departments
Caltech is divided into six divisions, each of which offer several degree programs, as well as a number of interdisciplinary programs.
- Division of Biology
- Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
- Chemistry
- Chemical Engineering
- Division of Engineering and Applied Science
- Aeronautics (GALCIT)
- Applied & Computational Mathematics
- Applied Mechanics
- Civil Engineering
- Computer Science
- Electrical Engineering
- Materials Science
- Mechanical Engineering
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences
- Humanities
- History
- English language
- History and Philosophy of Science
- Social Sciences
- Economics
- Business Economics and Management
- Social science
- Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy
- Physics
- Mathematics
- Astronomy
- Applied Physics
- Biochemistry
- Bioengineering
- Biophysics
- Computation & Neural Systems
- Control & Dynamical Systems
- Environmental Science & Engineering
- Geobiology & Astrobiology
- Geochemistry
- Planetary science
Not all of these are offered for both undergraduate and graduate students.
California Institute of Technology - Undergraduate program
Caltech is on the quarter system, meaning that students have one quarter before winter break and two quarters after. Thus, the college starts relatively late, in late September, and ends in early June rather than May like most colleges. Also, Caltech is unusual in that students normally take five classes every term rather than four as at most colleges. Finally, rather than majors and minors, Caltech has "options"; a particular option may be a minor or a major, but there cannot be a minor and major in the same subject. Students are allowed to take two options, but only in different divisions. While this technically rules out double-majoring in math and physics, such a combination is considered so exceptionally hard that those who can manage it are generally given an exception.
Caltech is known for a rigorous math and science core curriculum. Students are expected to take five quarters of core math, including differential equations and probability and statistics, five quarters of core physics including quantum mechanics, special relativity, and statistical physics, two quarters of chemistry, and a quarter of biology, as well as two quarters of laboratory classes.
Despite the high pressure of academics, few students fail classes or fail out of the school as a whole, although the option of transferring out is a running joke. This is due to several cushions that help students survive. First of all, the first two quarters during freshman year are on a pass/fail grading scheme, easing the transition to college. During the second quarter, "shadow grades" are given, but during the first, there are no grades at all. Second, there is little competition and collaboration on homework is encouraged in almost every class. This allows even students who are not doing as well as others to learn the material and not get behind in their studies.
Undergraduates at Caltech are also encouraged to participate in research. Most students do research through the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program at least once during their stay, and many continue it during the school year. Students come up with SURF proposals in collaboration with professors, and usually most of the SURF grant requests are awarded.
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 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Academics", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
