Being a well-known STEM school, there’s a lot of different ideas of what it’s like to be a student here. While some stereotypes are true, there’s a lot of Caltech life that people don’t expect — I certainly didn’t when I came here. “I didn’t expect to be doing this here” was a statement I said quite often during my first year, usually when I was off side-questing with my friends (and I promise there’s lots of them to do when at Caltech!)

Stereotype #1: Everyone here is a massive nerd.

This one is a little true, but people here are not your typical nerds. Everyone here is super passionate about whatever their interest is, and there’s a lot: AI, rocketry, and climate change are all normal interests, but there’s also lots of niche ones like speedcubing, watercolor, and origami. More importantly (at least to me), everyone loves talking about their interests and I love hearing about them! The “social awkwardness” you see a lot in teenage movie nerds isn’t the nerdiness we have here.

We’re also a surprisingly athletic school! About 25% of students are on one of our D3 teams, and it’s super fun to watch them play! We also have lots of intramural sports, ranging from an ultimate frisbee team to a triathlon club to interhouse games, which is when houses plays each other in several sports throughout the year.

So while we are definitely nerdy about the things we love (and we’re proud of it!), I can confidently say we’re multifaceted nerds, with lots of interests, passion, and curiosity to try new things.

Stereotype #2: Caltech is so hard, everyone is locked in all the time.

This is what I expected to do when I entered Caltech — constant studying with not much fun. I was ready to put my head down and study in the library all day, every day, but I can say gladly that this isn’t something I, nor most of the people I know, tend to do! For me, this statement is really only true during midterms and finals week, and even then, there’s a lot of events and outlets for destressing during it. It’s definitely true that Caltech is hard, and it’s true that we need to do a lot of studying — but there’s a lot of studying you can do with friends, and there’s also lots of ways to get help for classes when you need it to make learning just a bit easier. Professors are often very accessible, and there’s always TAs and tutors for a class ready for when you need help.

Part of the reason it’s pretty uncommon for people to be permanently locked in is because there’s always so many fun things to do! Many offices and clubs host frequent events, and as part of the house system, there’s always a ton of events going on: house dinners every day, weekly fun events, and even the occasional trip to the beach or mountains! It’s also fun to just go out into Pasadena with friends and explore.

I’m definitely busy all the time (mostly by my own choices), but I’m busy doing a lot of things I enjoy.

Stereotype #3: People at Caltech are too focused on themselves & their career goals.

This was a worry of mine when choosing a college; I wanted a place where people wouldn’t put their peers down to help themselves, and I’m very happy to say that Caltech fits that description. Here at Caltech, we have a very collaborative community; professors purposefully structure their classes around students’ ability to collaborate. Ever first year student goes through our Core curriculum, giving basic knowledge in math, physics, chemistry, and more. The first classes are very hard (your very first math class is real analysis, which at other schools is usually taken in the junior year for math majors, and here everyone takes it their very first term!), but this difficulty is intentional to encourage you to become collaborators with your peers and to know when to seek help.

As a scientist, I’m really grateful that my peers aren’t looking to get into the best grad school — rather, they simply just love researching the things they do, just like me. The whole Caltech community as a whole is working to solve the world’s problems, together.

Stereotype #4: Caltech is only STEM – there’s no place for other interests to flourish.

Caltech actually places a lot of emphasis on non-STEM education — we’re required to take one humanities or social science class a term, and for good reason! We need to be knowledgeable about the world and the impact we can make on it in the work that we do, so while our main interests lie in STEM, you can’t ever ignore other parts of life. Within this humanities requirement, we can take language-learning or performing and visual arts classes, ranging from music theory to silk painting! We’re also required to take 3 PEs in our time here. Some examples include rock climbing, karate, and intro to power walking!

Caltech also has many clubs for nearly everything, from outdoor adventures to TV shows to affinity groups! It’s also quite easy to found a club as well, so long as you have a few interested people and can get a club advisor. Clubs are very understanding of students’ workloads, so it’s usually not super time-intensive when you join a club.

Finally, STEM surprisingly isn’t what people always go into! While lots of graduates go into grad school or industry, many also take unique routes after Caltech — we have many alumni working for the government in Washington D.C. (whom you can meet through a trip with the Caltech Y!) as well as alumni who are writers, directors, and more!

A Caltech education gives someone the breadth of knowledge they need and the tenacity for problem-solving to go on and do wonderfully creative and world-shaking things.