Paper Stars

“The admissions team didn’t make a mistake—you did.” — Caltech students

Rotation Rulez

I’m not sure how I can write about the last three weeks without breaking any rotation rules, but here we go.

At Caltech, the year begins with rotation, a two-week long event in which new students experience all of the houses (dorms/frats) at the school. Each house has a unique culture with various traditions, and since it’s where students will be spending a lot of their time, it’s a crucial part of the Caltech experience.

It’s pretty interesting because there is a certain fraction of students that don’t get to go to their house(s) of choice because the less popular houses have a very strong picking power so they basically get whoever they want. There was actually one person who cried because they got into a house they put last on their list. An overreaction? Probably.

However, the culture of the houses died after COVID, so people don’t do crazy stuff anymore. Even though frosh might see unusual behavior during rotation, the houses are really just playing it up for the first two weeks.

The only constant in the houses is the quality of the people, which is almost always very high. It seems strange to describe a thousand people this way, but everyone at the school is very nice, and I know I’ll enjoy spending four years getting to know them.

Randomly Rotated Ricketts Roommates

I rotated into Ricketts Hovse (v because it is a south house and letter v is a downward arrow shape), which evenly splits freshmen into singles and doubles. However, the pick order is based on a card draw. I drew a 20th percentile card (3 of diamonds), so it was basically guaranteed that I would live in a double. I was open to either, but I did want a single for privacy. Behind me there were 3 people who all had to live in doubles, two of which were girls.

The guy behind me, P, didn’t really want to be in a double either. We didn’t know each other’s names until we got into the room, but we actually got along very well. We are actually pretty different people; he is more extroverted and had house [REDACTED] as his first choice, while I am more introverted and had house [REDACTED] as my first choice.

Ricketts was 4th on my list because I enjoyed open mic night and the music culture, but I think I might have been picked because I had pretty good conversations with a few upperclassmen from the house at lunch.

Some people completely avoided talking to people from the houses they didn’t want to go to just so they wouldn’t be selected. This is a mistake because the house isn’t the traditions or culture as much as it is the quality of the people, which can only be revealed after conversation. So, by disengaging, individuals lose the ability to gain this crucial information.

Engitom: An Introspective

I still don’t know who is reading this blog but a surprising number of people have come up to me and said that they read it.

This blog didn’t turn out to be data science or research-oriented like I originally planned, but I think that it was worthwhile to have a place I can ramble.

New Friends

Most of my new friends are international students. It might be because Americans are a bit boring. JK.

I think it’s just that I enjoy learning about people with different experiences. To anyone who hasn’t been to many places in America, the entire country is quite homogenous. Every city has the same stuff as the other cities, the only difference between suburbs is whether people drive pickups, SUVs, or CRVs, and the staple crop grown for rural areas.

People from other countries also seem to have more grounded (but maybe not realistic) concerns. For instance, I was crossing the street on a red light because I’ve been to Manhattan a few too many times (there were no cars so it was safe), but my two friends from Korea and Rwanda were afraid of “getting deported” for jaywalking.

There were no police around to catch them and I don’t think police even care, but it was interesting to see their perspective on that. Perhaps they have heard too many stories of people getting deported or it is one of their irrational fears, or maybe it actually happens often. I’m not sure.

The Persistence of Time

I’m actually not that busy, though it is only the second week and things might ramp up soon. I have a lot of free time. If I actually spent all my time doing problem sets (psets), I would be pretty miserable and I would be less productive because of it. So, I prefer to do things slowly, maybe write a blog post or read a webtoon between/during problems.

I actually was watching a Historia Civilis video on the history of work in Medieval Europe and how it differs from modern work after the invention of the clock. It’s interesting how people today work way more than people from the past, yet there has definitely always been some juvenoia around how the young people are getting lazier.

Blogger not Vlogger

It’s very hard to vlog here because a lot of cool stuff either breaks rotation rules or is too private to record. For example, yesterday everyone was just sitting around in one room in the Ricketts president’s room talking about random stuff Also, I don’t necessarily know when something vlog-worthy will appear.

A day-in-the-life type of video would make sense, but it’s awkward to record when there are other people around.

Jammin’

R, a super cool junior in Ricketts, is managing the basement jam room with guitars, drums, keyboards, and mics which is pretty cool. He actually DJ’s and has performed at New York Fashion Week. He actually got started when he was at a small fashion show in LA and the DJ blew up the speakers because he didn’t know what he was doing, so he walked up to the manager after and said that he could do it. He can also play electric guitar really well

Pretty interesting story but anyway, I might as well live in the jam room with how much I go there. The electric guitar is actually very nice even though the strings are very rusty. I’ve also been learning drums, and I can do one pattern at a typical speed so far: Hi-hat on 16th notes, snare on beat 2 and 4, and kick on 1, 3, 3.5. So, that was fun.

My friend J from Kenya is actually super good at a lot of instruments and can play a song after listening to it for like a minute. We have considered starting a band along with T from Korea.