https://tech.caltech.edu/2024/12/03/caltech-isnt-for-everyone/

Bless the author for their bravery.

I have some old e bike batteries that I no longer need. What's the easiest and most safe way to dispose of them through Caltech? Or is there somewhere I should bring them off campus?

I wonder if there’s a specific place on campus where people can post flyers/ads. Do I need to get any kind of permission to post?

how much time do parents actually get to spend with kids on parents weekend? it appears, from past schedules, that the time is pretty limited. thank you!

I loved Caltech but it definitely does not have a great startup community. Anyone else out there founding a company? Would love to connect with some folks and even better if you live in SF / the bay. I'm on my 3rd now and it'd be awesome to have some other techers to bounce things off of or just complain about the process.

Saw a Coyote roaming around the campus this Sunday at around 4pm. Is it a common sight? I was just there on a college visit.

I’m looking to set up my hammock somewhere on or near campus. Does anyone know any chill spots with supports to mount it for a few hours? Thank you guys and have a great thanksgiving

Looks like the bootcamp fraud case is working toward a settlement (search for case CGC-23-607810 on the San Francisco Superior Courts website).

"The parties engaged in mediation on October 9, 2024. The parties continue to engage in settlement discussions."

Note that the NY TImes article came out on September 29. Great job, Alan Blinder and the Times!

I wonder how much this is going to cost the Institute. Current students, remember this next time the administration cries poor about some student life thing. Alumni and donors, remember this next time the administration wants a donation. Ask them what steps they're taking to not get involved in such high risk endeavors in the future before you open your wallet. Why give money when they're just going to blow it defending and settlement suits?

I really liked the essay where I expressed my thoughts about Caltech's mission: *"*The mission of the California Institute of Technology is to expand human knowledge and benefit society through research integrated with education. We investigate the most challenging, fundamental problems in science and technology in a singularly collegial, interdisciplinary atmosphere, while educating outstanding students to become creative members of society."

It was such an inspiring statement. Why has it been removed from this year’s graduate school admissions process? Sad...

Hey everyone!

I wanted to ask about the Materials Science program at caltech--obviously I've been through the website for MS but I still had a few questions. It seems like there's almost no faculty and a very small selection of courses in the catalog. Is MS not really a thing at caltech? Or is the program small but strong? If anyone out there is an MS major or knows an MS major I would love to hear your experience!

I'm not dead-set on studying MS--I would also love to study chemistry, and I know caltech is wonderful in that area, so I know I would be incredibly happy at caltech no matter what. Rather, I'm worried I'll look stupid if I apply for MS because I might look like I didn't do my research if MS really is that tiny (I'm envisioning them scoffing and saying "that's like applying for engineering at Juilliard! She obviously just wants the prestige and doesn't even care about science and just chose a cop-out major."). I know they don't admit by major but I don't want them to think I didn't put a lot of thought into my proposed field because I have. I know y'all don't know about any of that admissions stuff but I want to find out if MS is taken seriously / properly resourced and what people think about it!

Thanks so much!

Heads up, everyone! I almost got tricked by a scam letter claiming to be from Anthem Blue Cross, targeting students on Student Health Insurance Plans (SHIPs). There is a post from about 5 months on r/scams discussing something super similar: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/1dty8dc/headsup_mail_from_anthem_blue_cross_blue_shield/

The Scam:

• Arrives in an “IMPORTANT TAX INFORMATION ENCLOSED” envelope.
• Claims your info doesn’t match IRS records and asks for your Social Security Number (SSN) on a pre-filled form.
• Return address: P.O. Box 629, Woodland Hills, CA 91365-0629 (not valid anymore).

Red Flags:

1. Pressure tactics: Says it’s overdue and demands a quick reply.

2. Weird tone/typos: Looks official but has subtle errors.

3. Old address: The PO box was once used by Anthem but isn’t anymore.

4. Accurate details: Uses your name, DOB, and Member ID to seem legit.

My question to you all: where can I report this at Caltech? I want to let more people know about it so they can spread the word to more students. Thanks!

I recently got a parking violation in one of the Caltech parking garages for parking without a valid permit(the one for $56). However, when I go to the website listed on the ticket and enter my info to pay the fine, I get the error: "No matching citations have been located. Please check the information provided and try again. If you have entered the citation number with a dash, prefix, or spaces, please try entering without."

I think I've tried every iteration of the numbers listed on the ticket (I've tried entering my license plate to search up the ticket as well), but the website seems to not have any of this on record. Does this mean I'm off the hook for paying the fine or ...??

If anyone else has had this experience before lmk what you did (if anything). I just don't want to accidentally neglect this fine and accrue additional fees, TIA!

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the responses! I will sit tight and see if it shows up on the website (atp it's been 2 weeks and still nothing...)

Hello hello! Apologies if this isn’t the best place to ask this. I am interested in applying for the SURF program, and have noticed Dr. Preskill has previously worked with a number of students in qc-related projects.

Would anyone be aware whether he is accepting students from outside Caltech this coming summer? Or how working on a SURF project with him/one of his graduate students might look like?

I feel quite terrible after already bothering him with follow-up emails, and I wouldn’t want to press if he is not planning on taking on external SURF students. Thank you for considering my question!

The California Tech today has a recap of an office hours session with the Chair of the Faculty Board, Dean of Undergraduate Students, and Chair of the First Year Admissions committee, on the topic of athletics in admissions (notably absent, it seems, was the Athletics Director). This session is following the faculty's recent realization that more than 25% of undergraduates are recruited athletes, and their subsequent decision to reduce athletic recruiting's role in admissions. That series of events was covered by The Tech here and in this subreddit.

Some key things from the article:

• Professor Tamuz stated "we did give preferential treatment to those who were pushed forward by the coaches. So, if you were somebody that was needed on a team because they needed more people, and you have the role of the pitcher, for example, which is very specialized, this was something that was actively pushed forward in the admissions process." This process was not implemented by any discussion among the faculty and it was only last year that “the faculty discovered this.”
• A key factor driving the change was the fact that the wider faculty and Faculty Board “had no idea [increased involvement of athletics in admissions] was happening.” The increased involvement “sort of happened organically through the bureaucratic creep” and was not decided by the faculty.
• When Professor Refael became Chair of the Faculty Board, he sought to better understand the admissions process, as it is one of the main responsibilities of the faculty. Upon reviewing admissions data, it became clear that Caltech’s admissions were unbalanced. This revelation sparked discussions about admissions priorities, with the goal of realigning the process “to what the faculty believes it should be, which is an admission process that’s based on academic merit and potential.”
• Regarding NCAA eligibility, a school of Caltech’s size requires 10 teams. 
• The Dean of Undergraduate Students said some words about how current student-athletes shouldn't feel bad.

So there we have it. My read on this is the faculty is ultra, ultra mad about this situation. Faculty are generally pretty apathetic, but there is no better way to be the target of their ire than to do something behind their backs. One should note that Professor Refael has taught Ph 1 for many years, so he's not some aloof administrator type; he's at the pointy end of undergraduate education. I'd predict the number of NCAA teams to go from the current 16 to the minimum 10, and be populated by walk ons, as they have since time immemorial.

This should leave no doubt that recruited athletes have had a huge advantage in admissions. The composition of the Caltech undergraduate student body was "actively pushed" to fill out sports teams. It cannot be overstated how preposterous the previous sentence sounds to older alumni, and now, finally, faculty. I hope the faculty board continues to keep a close eye on this and oversee a fair and balanced admissions process, "in the sense that all applicants were considered based on academics."

There’s been a lot of low quality admissions posts lately, so I’ve added a new rule (rule 5). The idea is basically: if your question should be 1) googled, 2) emailed to admissions, or 3) posted to r/ApplyingToCollege / r/GradAdmissions, it shouldn’t be posted here.

Let me know if y’all (and by y’all I mean the actual Caltech students/alumni/affiliates on this subreddit) think this rule should be tweaked or removed.

I went to Caltech a few years ago.. came back to visit. Wanted to go to Rounds. Is it closed? I saw a new place called Smash Burger or something close to that.. What happened to Rounds?

When my husband was at Caltech back in the early 80s, Ricketts had an extensive SciFi library.

Looking online, it seems to have morphed into SPECTRE and changed locations, and an article from 2019 said the Science Fiction and Fantasy Club was trying to revamp it.

The reason this matters is that my husband has several boxes of SciFi paperbacks that he'd like to donate, but he can't figure out who to contact.

He's tried going through admin for student clubs, and through the alum office, but hasn't gotten anywhere.

Can anyone suggest a direct contact at the SciFi library?

I'm trying to help the process along, as we could use the garage space!

Hello,

I’m planning to apply for a PhD at caltech and would love to have a chat with someone that is already doing or did their PhD there (preferrably in engineering)

I have some questions on the topic so if you feel like helping me please feel free to dm Thanks

I want to instacart my freshman a bunch of snacks. Can I send this to the mailroom at the Keith Spalding building or should I arrange pickup with my student at his dorm or elsewhere on campus?

When is the next one? Thx!

https://www.caltech.edu/campus-life-events/calendar/caltech-up-close-1

With what Caltech charges for housing, the least they could do is not supply us with useless 1-ply toilet paper. My butt deserves to be wiped with nothing but the finest cellulose.

Hi! I'm a visiting student for Caltech Up Close, and I'm delighted to be at this school! The people here are so friendly, and everyone I've met is so excited about being CUCed! However, I think that I've been slightly misinformed about some of the fun activities that are possible at Caltech. When talking to the upperclassmen, many suggested that I "jerk it" in Kerkhoff (one upperclassman even even talked about his "peanuts"). However, isn't Jerk the third derivative of position, thus being a physics concept? If so, we should all clearly "jerk it" in Downs and Lauritsen. Furthermore, I don't think that any establishments on campus serve "peanuts", and I wanted to clarify this.

I love being a CUC on campus, thanks for the great experiences :)

I am looking for masters in Aerospace engineering programs, and naturally Caltech has come up.

I notice it is a one year program instead of the traditional two-year program. They also don’t mention any research requirements.

It seems like one year is short to fit in all coursework and also try to make use of CalTech’s great research opportunities. Am I missing something as far as how the program usually works? Do most people stick around after their year of courses to do more research, etc.?

Some excellent reporting from The Tech here. Like all bureaucracies, the athletics department grew from recruiting "very few" students to over 25%, while the faculty, who are ultimately responsible for admissions, slept on it: "Professor Tamuz [faculty admissions chair] stated that this shift towards athletics happened slowly through changes made organically within the system, and the faculty were not really aware of it." Translated from academic administration-ese, that sounds like "Athletics behaved like a rogue organization for a decade and purposely hid from faculty oversight."

There is a lot of copium from the AD about how athletes do just fine academically, etc., but isn't it a little weird that a dozen or so coaches, hired with little to no faculty or board oversight, selected over a quarter of the student body of the most selective school in the country?

I'd be interested in hearing from current undergraduates about what it's like to have this large proportion of recruited athletes in the student body. 25% is approaching places like Amherst, which exist mainly to populate the LAX bro to investment banking pipeline. Is that what we want? Would current students and alumni agree that "The positive school spirit that emerges from the 25% of the student body who represent the Institute in competition is a joy to be associated with."? Is it really the best use of resources for a school that's so cash-strapped it needs to whore itself out in scam bootcamps (see the recent NY Times article and coverage in the same issue of The Tech).

I'll also draw parallels to the CTME fiasco here: a rogue group of non-faculty build a little empire within the institute, until one day someone (the faculty, newspapers) wakes up and says "WTF is going on here?" The board needs to step up and demand better governance in every dimension. These situations are the ones we outsiders see because they're too big to cover up. Who knows how many petty emperors are making life miserable for students or piling on risks that we can't see?

Hi guys, I would be interested in applying for the SURF program at CalTech this summer as an international student. I didn't get from the "Contact mentor tips" page if I should contact a potential mentor with a precise research topic in mind, or I can just contact a professor whose research is in a field that interests me, and he will suggest potential topics. Maybe someone that has done it in the past knows what's the most appropriate way to go? Thanks

I am a TA. If I want to go vent in the vents (venting as in entering the vents like the impostor characters do in the hit social deduction game Among Us) during my office hours, can I do so? I hold office hours in the Kerckhoff sub basement, near the E-Waste room. I just don’t want to get in trouble for not being accessible for 10-15 minutes during office hours while I'm venting all over the place.

I am a TA. If I want to go poop during my office hours, can I do so? I hold office hours in the Kerckhoff sub basement, near the E-Waste room. I just don’t want to get in trouble for not being accessible for 10-15 minutes during office hours.

What's going on with the turtle ponds? I hadn't been by for awhile because of all the fences and I heard a rumor from several people that the construction project accidentally drained the ponds and killed the turtles? But yesterday I walked over some of the fences were down, and I could see the ponds, and at least some of the turtles looked fine. I couldn't find the softshell though....does anyone know what really happened?