Timothy Black
The student life comparison trip is following in the footsteps of two similar trips that resulted in major changes to Caltech. The first resulted in the creation of the house system, the second gave the south houses major renovations and shaped the north houses, and this trip also has the opportunity to have a big effect on our life here. So selecting appropriate people to go on the trip is very important.
There are a number of effects I would like to see this trip have, many of which are outlined in the MHF proposal. One important effect it will have is on our upcoming Student Center. I know many other colleges have very successful student centers that are a big part of students' lives, and a student center done right could be good for all of us. Also, especially at a small school like Caltech, we have a unique opportunity to interact with the faculty more personally than at larger schools. But to take full advantage of that, we need to make sure there are faculty members who are accessible and who we can go to and who will help us out and take our side – we already have that to a good extent here, but it would be good to see if we can make it better. The trip is a great opportunity to reaffirm and follow up on the recommendations of the Student Experience Report and Student Experience Conference. The report provides some good concrete recommendations for the school, and I think this trip can build upon those suggestions. The trip should especially be interested in the non-academic side of student life.
I think this trip will be a lot of fun. It will be cool to meet students from other colleges, and it will be interesting to see how their experience compares with ours, and how their faculty and administrators thoughts compare to the students.
More than that, I think I'm well suited to go on this trip. Working with ASCIT through the ASCIT President's Staff, I have experience working with administrators and helping students get the things that make their experience here better. I was there with ASCIT pres staff for that last week before the MHF proposal for this trip was due to help put the final details into the proposal, and I read through the entire proposal the day it was submitted to help Craig with a final edit. So, I've gotten familiar with the proposal and with the goals of the trip, and I think that will help me be an effective member of the trip. At the same time, I think I can keep an open mind to new good ideas while knowing that there are things that shouldn't be messed with.
Anthony Chong
Like many of my peers, I feel that Caltech has a golden opportunity for implementing change. A new, young president spearheads an active administration that is constantly looking for ways to help undergrads (the new impetus for this trip is evidence enough of that). I want to go on this trip not only because it sounds like a lot of fun, but also because we are in critical need of concrete ideas for change that are grounded in functioning systems.
But if you're reading this, you're probably more interested in who I am than the merits of the trip:
As a sophomore, I've gone through core with my idealism undiminished. I still see commencement as an occasion to mark the end of the four most exciting years of my life, not the four most miserable. But this is a view that I am constantly reminded that not all of us share. I, like I believe most Caltech students, love the close knit community of my house, but at the same time believe the house system can be stifling for developing inter-house relationships.
In short, I have loved my time here, but cannot help but notice it is not without fault. While techers "love to complain", our love for miserable conversation cannot possibly explain all the frustrations I have seen, experienced, and shared over my last two years.
It is obvious that many improvements can be made to Caltech. By a strange coincidence, I write this statement from a Harvard office, and already—just from brief conversation with the new graduates outside my room—I can see suggestions for change.
I believe I bring the personal ambition to make my suggestions helpful and impactful, and the zeal to follow through with it.
I've been an active member of the Caltech community throughout my tenure here. Outside of personal recreational activities and volunteering around campus, I have also had my share of experience with Caltech government. My freshman year I was elected to an active role in (Ruddock) house government, and I currently serve on the ASCIT Excomm (who's stated goals are overlap quite nicely with those of this trip).
I'm not one to shy away from talking to faculty or students I have never met. In fact, one of the aspects of the trip that appeals to me most is the chance to talk to stop and talk to random students on their way to and from class. I think this personal communication—at the risk of regarding Caltech students as uncomfortably forward—offers a unique perspective of student life that I could readily supply.
If you have questions or would like to chat (looking for a good time), email me at anthonyc@caltech
Tina Ding
Committed, avid, friendly, reliable
Despite the workload and other negative factors, I can truthfully say that I appreciate and value my Caltech experience. However, I know that Caltech has higher stress and unhappiness level than other colleges. Some factors that contribute to this prevalent feeling are heavy workloads and robotic lifestyle due to this heavy workload. However, these factors, which should exist at any prestigious university, seem to affect our students to a greater extent. Thus, I would like to partake in this opportunity to interact and compare other institutions to Caltech to gain a better understanding of what makes a student body happy with college life. I sincerely believe in making the experience here more enjoyable or just simply more tolerable for the student body.
Visiting 11 colleges means three weeks of new interactions with students of new environments and thus successful communication is essential. I have a friendly and outgoing personality, and can easily start comfortable conversations. I also have basic knowledge of the atmospheres of large universities because I have visited and stayed in various large public schools in the past. I love traveling to new places and meeting new people; I adapt easily to new surroundings. Now most importantly, I am passionate and dedicated to doing things of my interest, and I now direct that energy to learning about other schools to improving Caltech through this trip. Thus, I will give full commitment and seriousness to the work to be done because I understand the influential purpose it serves. I will be responsible and reliable in carrying out the work. I can be entrusted to be levelheaded and professional. However, I am also a fun and bubbly person with lots of positive energy. I hope this can brighten the atmosphere of the trip but more importantly the atmosphere of interactions with the colleges. That is my character and contribution in a nutshell.
I see the potential for this school to develop into an outstanding institution, not just by its academic excellence but by its student dynamics. We are constantly trying to correct negative factors step by step. Recently for example, to encourage more passion for science, students have organized a lecture series for professors to discuss interesting research to undergraduates at a small group atmosphere. This trip will mean even larger steps. I see the burden of being on this trip is: that if chosen, the other seven students and I will represent the whole university. Yet it is a burden I welcome, including all its work and endurance because the end result of polishing up our school will be worthwhile!
Paul Fleiner
Over the past eight months, I have gotten to know quite a bit about college life. Well, college life as we here at Caltech know it. I knew from the beginning that I was coming to a pretty unique school, but I had no idea how different student life here actually is from life at other schools. As my time here progressed, so did my understanding of what makes Caltech so different. Of course, as many would argue, these differences are not entirely bad, nor are they entirely good. There are many factors that determine how we live our lives here, for better or worse.
I am interested on accompanying my fellow students on the Student Life Comparison Trip because I believe that change here at Caltech is possible, and I also believe that other schools around the country could be used as templates. I would like to be a part of that change, and I feel that my knowledge of certain aspects of our lives here would be very useful on the trip. I already know quite a bit about student life at other schools, and I would love to see what these schools have to offer. I think it would be a really fun trip, and that it could really benefit the students of Caltech.
If next year rolls around, and the trip proves that no change is needed here, that would be fine. But I honestly don’t think that will be the case. I think we have a lot to learn from the other schools around the country, and I think that I could present an honest method to bring attention to our deficiencies.
Ryan Lanman
It’s arguable whether Caltech is a great place to live and learn, but I think everyone can agree on one thing: This place is weird. We simply operate a lot differently than almost any other college in the country. In my time here, I’ve come to the personal conclusion that most things here work well. We have innumerable freedoms here to become involved in whatever positions and activities we please. We have, for the most part, very open relations with administration and faculty, and enough of their trust to govern ourselves, socially and academically. Some claim school keeps us too busy to be social or involved, but I think you can make the time to do anything here if you really care about it. I just finished junior year of chemical engineering, and at one point was Page House’s Vice President and the whole men’s diving team, all while staying social and happy. I even passed all of my classes! I don’t think myself particularly intellectually gifted by standards we have here, so if accomplishing this is possible, why don’t we have better morale as a school? It might be that we’re too small, or that our studies keep us locked down. It might be that our gender ratio is too uneven to foster a healthy social scene. I think these are real problems at our school, but that it would be a mistake to think that they’re the only problems here, or that we can’t find better ways to solve or at least cope with them. It’s possible that we’re doing the very best we can to make Caltech a happy and productive place, and that other schools have it just as “bad” or worse, but finding this out would be almost as useful as any other result, and might finally let us bolster some pride in the school environment that so many have worked to establish. This trip could do the school a great service in finding answers to these questions, if we’re thorough and organized in finding them.
It seems that while one of the benefits of this trip is to establish future leaders at the school, it’s just as important to send students who’ve been here long enough to have an extensive understanding of the social and academic culture here, especially the ways it changes from freshman to junior year. At least as important is selecting members of the group for their strengths in communication and perception, and ease with which they can approach and interact with faculty and our peers at schools more in tune with the “real world,” outside of Caltech’s bubble. I think I personally exemplify these traits and that I would be an asset to any group that sets out to explore life at other schools. I look forward to a chance to bring some of the best of other places back, to make a good place even better.
Abdul Ahad Tariq
Why would you like to go on this trip?
To me the most important question about student life is here why we have such low student morale. I think that this is a pressing issue not just because I want to wish well for my friends and colleagues, but because it affects the future of the Institute, its reputation and the level of talent that we can draw in. I want to go on this trip to glean how other schools deal with and address this problem.
What personal characteristics or experience would you bring to this trip?
I've been a part of a number of student government committees. Most notably I've been heavily involved with the Caltech Y, introducing such programs as the DC Science Policy trip, and the Caltech Y ACT Fellowship program and helped run big community service projects such as Make-a-Difference Day and Alternative Spring Break. And though the nature of these programs is not especially relevant to something like the SLC trip, on my part it indicates a familiarity with tremendous organizational tasks. This should be helpful in the planning and execution of the SLC trip. I've also been involved with Freshman Admissions, UASH, and ARC so I am familiar with the academic/policy issues that are of concern and I would be happy to share some of my views on it in person.
Sarvesh Garimella
The student life comparison trip will give us the opportunity to make our school a better place. I love Caltech and all its idiosyncrasies but there is still a great opportunity to make it even better by visiting other schools and borrowing some of their positive elements. By going on this trip, I hope to observe policies that, if implemented at Tech, would allow this school both to continue to retain its identity but also to improve upon certain aspects that could use some attention. Having been at Tech for a year, I have become well enough acquainted with this school to identify possible places for improvement (e.g. interhouse cohesion, campus facilities, campus dining, etc.). In addition, the fact that I have been at the school only one year prevents me from overlooking potential problems here because "that's how they've always been." Personally, I am open to change and look forward to helping change this school for the better.
In addition to learning how other schools operate, I will bear in mind that there are many aspects of Caltech that make it distinctive. By participating in this trip I will help separate the characteristics that are worth adopting from those that will make Tech less unique: mainly, I will help ensure that any changes brought about by this trip serve to enhance the Caltech experience without changing it too drastically.
Finally, the most important reason I wish to go on this trip is to help Tech be the best place it can be for its students. I care immensely about this school and the people here and want nothing less than for the Caltech experience to be a great one for all of its students.
Abhishek Gulati
Why do I want to do this?
I see the potential for the Caltech undergraduate experience to be much better than it is now. It hurts me to see how much people resent their time here. It's a great thing to have so many talented students come together with the goal of learning science, but somewhere (fairly early) along the line, things fall apart. I want to see my peers happier; they will learn more that way.
I think that I empathize well with the people around me, and that I am in tune with the Caltech syndrome. Often when people fail here, it is not because they are dumb or lazy; they become psychologically broken. And even the people who do succeed are broken, a little bit. And everyone comes out bitter. This school is very demanding in terms of the pace at which you work. It's not really feasible to keep up when there are psychological issues, but often it was that fast pace which caused the issues. Having been through some of this myself, I know it sucks, and it's hard to watch others go through it.
Why am I your man?
Because I'm a math major =D. Thinking long and hard about things is my line of work, and I have plenty of experience. Also, I strive to find objective truth. I want to see what is really there, what is really happening. When it comes to this school, that isn't a simple task. I spend a lot of time thinking about it, and I have much more to say than I could possibly express in this statement.
I think the house system serves two related functions for the students. Firstly, it puts freshman among similar students, providing natural friendships and easing the transition. Second, the bonding gets them acquainted with others in their classes who they can work with. But the system also leaves us with a contrived social structure. Not many people try to be involved with a house other than their own, and even then it can be difficult. And very quickly we form all these judgments of other houses, many which come from our wise elders, who want us to think our new house is best.
One way we attempt to deal with the segregation is the interhouse parties. We put tons of effort into elaborate constructions. But every time I go to one, I hear terrible music played really loud, and I see a near-empty dance floor; I don't enjoy myself much. Yeah, some people like to dance, but it doesn't need to be the focal point of the party. Shouldn't interhouse mingling be in the form of words, not grinding? Why do we waste the opportunity with a futile attempt at being "normal"? We aren't normal, we're Caltech.
So with these select examples in mind, we can formulate some of the questions we might want to take the other schools. How do freshmen make friends with freshmen? With upperclassmen? How much do people rely on collaboration, and what form does it take? What is the social structure like? Are there similar segregation effects, and in what ways are they positive or negative? What are the parties like, and is there more variety?
The initial work will be to discuss and reflect on what the experience here is like for different people. Once we isolate problems, we can begin to formulate questions. Some issues will be best addressed at particular schools. All this must be planned. Then, whatever solutions we find must be adapted to our (very) special situation. Things which serve some function at other schools may not translate naturally for us, but we can still learn from them. And we will, because learning is what we do best.
Liuyi Pei
Having experienced one summer, two Rotations, and six terms at Caltech, I have often wondered about the people and processes that make changes at this school. At first I thought the administrators had the majority of power over the student body. I realized that this is not true when I discovered that the student governments are trying to get more students involved in making improvements around the school. With that in mind, I am applying for a position on the Student Life Comparison Trip team for the coming summer.
Every year around Pre-Frosh weekend, I hear stories about amazing kids turning down Caltech for other schools because of the housing conditions, the gender ratio, the lack of student-organized activities, and other issues. It’s very disconcerting to know that our school has so many problems turning away applicants, and I want to do what I can in my years here as an undergraduate to improve these conditions. The SLC Trip provides the perfect opportunity for me to make some positive changes. I realize that changes take time, but I am willing to work as hard as I can for the hope that, by Pre-Frosh weekend my senior year, I will hear less disappointing stories about the accepted freshman class.
The tasks set out for the SLC Trip are very challenging, but I am both qualified and prepared to undertake them. I am a very strong team player, which is an important personal trait that will help the team smoothly complete its mission. I am also a thorough researcher with many organizational and compositional skills and experience, which is highly valuable to the team when doing research on the visited schools. Organization and attention to details are also imperative in asking the right questions and documenting all the information for the interviews. When producing the report of findings and recommendations, these factors, along with good writing skills, will be even more essential. As a member of the team, I will be able to conduct effective interviews as well as help produce a structured and informative report. Furthermore, I was extremely active in the Page House Rotation process this past year, and I met more prefrosh in that week than most upperclassmen in my house with Rotation experience. If I am selected for the trip, I can talk easily with many students and administrators at the visited schools and I can help make the interviews even more efficient.
For a trip carrying such weight, I hope ASCIT and the IHC will send a team with as much skills and enthusiasm as the appointers themselves, and I present myself to you as a highly qualified candidate to become a member of that team.
Maral Mazrooei
My name is Maral Mazrooei, and I am a Freshman.
Here is my statement.
Why do I want to go on this trip? Most importantly, I am planning to get involved in ASCIT social next year either by joining the group or ultimately running for the Social Director, and have few ideas how it can be improved.
Thus, it is very important to me to go on this trio and come back with better ideas how to improve the social scene at caltech.
Also, I came to the united states 3 years ago, and I have never been to the east coast, therefore I would love to go to the schools on the other side of the country, and get a sense of the culture there. However, I have traveled to northern california multiple times and have visited UC Berkeley and Stanford and have friends studying in those schools. I have heard a lot about what they are like, but I would love to talk to the administrations, and see the student life, experience and interactions, and come up with a more accurate report of what they are actually about.
Why am I a good candidate?
I am very social and outgoing, and I am usually present at all the social events in my house, and on campus. If it is an interhouse event or an organized ASCIT event, you can probably find me there. Thus, I have a relatively valid knowledge of how social events work at caltech, and I will be able to compare it to other schools. Being a very outgoing person, I know a lot of people in my house, and most of the other houses, and can provide a good network to ask them how much of what we saw in other schools, is appealing to them.
Additionally, I am very outspoken about my ideas and opinions. Over the course of past year, if people where not happy with a course, I was usually the one who voiced up and talked to the professor. Therefore, I would be up to talk to the administration and figures of authority to change things for the better.
What should the trip be focused on?
I am aware that we are going to try to asses both academic and social experience at other schools, and that those two go hand in hand. But personally, I would love to focus on the social scene of the schools such as cafeterias, clubs, student centers, dorm dynamics, size of school, and such!