Cal Tech has a small, very select undergraduate student body passionate about the physical sciences. They collaborate with the larger graduate student body so much so that in the second year of course work, undergraduate students are in some classes with graduate students. These undergraduates are expected to step up their effort and perform at [...]

The scientific facilities are exceptional from electron particle accelerators to the Hale telescope that supports the planetary sciences. Students at the top of their high school class are drawn to Cal Tech’s off campus research facilities in Hawaii and Peru for astrophysics and planetary sciences. The cannon in front of Fleming house has a history [...]

Cal Tech has an urban campus surrounded by the city-streets of Pasadena. The adjacent neighborhoods pose in a small town way, without high-rises, and with shopping and ethnic restaurants nearby. Buildings are designed along the style of Oxford University in England. There are eight residences, called Houses, for example Avery House. The students in each [...]

They are future oriented students who prepare for grad school and then for working in the national labs. They socialize around research and solving problems, eating late night pizza while tackling scientific hypotheses. Collaboration with team members who are very different from one another is the norm.