Cal (Berkeley) + Cal Tech

   We skipped the admissions tour at Cal. We could not get there in time from our lodgings without making our teens grumpy from the get-up-and-go. We took a tour with a senior nearing the finish line on his triple major of European History, French, and Russian.He was good at discussing the history of the campus and the history of the university, now a 151 years old. We wished for more engineering discussions.

   Our guide noted the competitive nature of Berkeley, but also noted that students choose and create whatever environment they want at Cal. There are 27 libraries on campus, but you must be a student or staff in order to access. Shucks! The bell tower on campus is the 3rd largest/tallest in the world.

   The Cal system of schools has their own application process + FAFSA. They do not use the Common App or CSS. Freshman are guaranteed housing, but after freshman year it's not guaranteed, a turn off for our students. Acceptance rate for instate students is about 15-17%. We did not get access to dorms or the engineering school.

   The chemical engineering and chemistry programs are the smallest at the school with about 900 students and faculty total. We have now seen MIT, Standford, and Berkeley. Of the three, we liked engineering at Stanford best. We clearly appreciate a low key vibe. There does seem to be a lot of opportunities at Cal, but professor relationships seem to be pivotal. They are on a semester system with 13 credits per semester required as a minimum. 40k students on campus.

    The next day we wandered onto the Cal Tech campus albeit rather intentionally since we were in the area to see the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and had down time. The funky campus has its own vibe. I sat in the coffee shop for awhile, while some wandered around hoping to check out their ham radio tower. Watching social interactions was really interesting. We also ate lunch in their cafeteria and curiously eavesdropped on a variety of wide ranging discussions from Star Wars to space podcasts.

   The incoming class each year is small. Cal Tech clearly accepts a special kind of student and students must embrace 3-4 all nighters each week. The labs are amazing. The vibe warm. The food delicious. The smiles genuine. It felt less intense than Berkeley. No one seemed to be scurrying to and fro, but rather soaking in long discussions or lingering over lab tables. Little known fact: Cal Tech is the NASA contract employer for roughly 6,000 Jet Propulsion Lab employees. Their reach truly touches the stars.