California Institute of Technology

Academics

The academic experience here is unlike that of any other university in the world. Every student has to learn the fundamentals of each major aspect of science while staying well rounded with a required number of humanities courses. Homework is done in collaborative groups and tests are almost all take-home. Participation in scientific research is easily accessible to every undergraduate and world-renowned faculty members interact with students on a daily basis. With big-time scientific research happening in an intimate small-school environment, the academic environment at Caltech is like no other.

When freshmen arrive, they are all enrolled in math, physics, and chemistry courses. This is the beginning of the core curriculum, which is the heart of a Caltech education. Every undergraduate, whether majoring in biology, economics, literature, or chemical engineering, has to take five terms of physics, two terms of chemistry, one term of biology, two terms of introductory laboratory, two terms of science writing, twelve terms of humanities and social sciences, three terms of physical education, and one term of freshman “menu” course.

Options

At the end of the freshman year, students must declare an option, the school’s version of the major. There are options in every aspect of science and engineering, with the most popular being physics, engineering and applied science (which includes computer science), biology, chemistry, mechanical engineering, mathematics, and electrical engineering. A few students each year graduate with degrees in history, economics, or literature, but they are very different from their peers at other universities—through the core curriculum, all humanities and social science majors will have taken differential equations and quantum mechanics. Changing options is generally very easy, and double options are pursued by a few students each year. Every few years, a student designs his or her own curriculum and graduates under the Independent Studies Program.

Classes

Often unnoticed is the fact that students here tend to take more classes than their peers at other universities. Caltech operates on a trimester system, with three terms a year that are each eleven weeks long. In addition, students take an average of five classes each term, while students at other universities generally take only four classes. After four years, students almost always find themselves well ahead of their peers in the first year of graduate school.

The Honor System

The fast pace of of this Institute is more than almost any student can handle on his or her own, but fortunately, nobody is expected to study without help. Collaboration with peers is strongly encouraged under the more than eighty-year-old Honor Code. Instead of strict rules handed down from the administration, students are held responsible for their own actions and are on their honor not to cheat, plagiarize, or steal.

The greatest benefit of the Honor System is the fact that no tests are proctored. In fact, almost all quizzes, tests, and exams are take-home. The professor will set some ground rules for each test, and each student is responsible for respecting the given time limit and whether the test is open- or closed-book. Students are allowed to take tests wherever and whenever they want; some students sit in the privacy of their own rooms with their favorite CD or album playing, some prefer the quiet desks in the library, and some even take their tests out on the lawn or at the beach. Rather than having to wake up at 9:00 A.M., students can take their tests after dinner or even late at night; the professor won’t care as long as it is turned in by the stated deadline.

The Honor System also applies to homework, where students are generally free to share their answers with each other. As long as each student understands everything written on his or her own paper, the professor will give full credit. This atmosphere of collaboration virtually eliminates competition between students for grades. Every student is happy to help a friend with a lab or homework assignment because some day, he or she may need the favor returned.

Scientific Research

This training in the Honor System is part of a strong focus toward scientific research. In the scientific community, researchers share their results openly and are held on their honor to conduct experiments with integrity. Undergraduates can experience this firsthand in numerous research opportunities on campus. The most popular way to do research at here is through the SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships) program. SURF provides grants of over $5,000 to students who want to do research with a faculty member over the summer. Each “SURFer” must write his or her own proposal, submit progress reports through the summer, write a final paper, and present his or her research on SURF Seminar Day.

Laboratories

Some of the most advanced laboratories in the world are run by Caltech. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is the largest of these facilities. Located about fifteen minutes northwest of campus, JPL is NASA’s center for robotic exploration of the solar system. It has been run by the school since the 1930s and is the place where Voyager I and II, now heading toward the edge of our solar system, were designed and built. JPL also produced Galileo, which orbited Jupiter and its moons, and the highly successful Cassini, which is now orbiting Saturn, its rings and moons. JPL was also in the news for the multiple probes it has sent to Mars: Global Surveyor, the Pathfinder, Odyssey, and rovers Spirit and Opportunity. A van runs daily between the campus and JPL, and many undergraduates make the trip throughout the summer.

Telescope Facilities

Several telescope facilities are operated here, including the Palomar Observatory north of San Diego housing the 200-inch Hale Telescope, and the Keck observatory on the summit of Hawaii’s dormant Mauna Kea volcano, home of the world’s largest optical and infrared telescopes. They also operate the Owens Valley Radio Observatory, a collection of radio telescopes 250 miles north of campus. On campus, there are 0.35-meter and 0.25- meter telescopes atop the astrophysics buildings that are used for undergraduate classes. Also, plans are underway, in collaboration with the University of California, to design and build the Thirty-Meter Telescope, the world’s most powerful telescope.

LIGO

In conjunction with MIT, the school operates the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), a facility dedicated to the detection of cosmic gravitational waves. LIGO is the largest project ever funded by the National Science Foundation, and consists of two widely separated installations within the United States—one in Hanford, Washington, and the other in Livingston, Louisiana. They are each massive L-shaped structures with four-kilometer-long arms held in a vacuum, the largest high vacuum ever constructed. A one percent-scale prototype sits on campus, and a few undergraduates work there every summer, experiencing the cutting edge of experimental physics.

Other Facilities

Caltech is also home to Nobel Laureate Ahmed Zewail’s Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, the headquarters of the Southern California Seismic Network, and a new initiative to improve voting technology. A new nanotechnology center and a state-of-the-art MRI facility are two more projects that are keeping the school at the forefront of scientific research.