I was invited to be a guest to a Caltech Board of Trustees Meeting this past Monday morning. The meeting itself was for the Student Experience Committee focusing on undergraduate admissions. Since I’ve been involved in almost everything there is to Caltech Admissions…I guess my presence at the meeting was to field questions and speak about the roles of students and involvement with admissions. So I joined the Admissions Office, Financial Aid Office and Center for Diversity representatives in their presentation to the Trustees. The meeting was 2 hours in the morning, and had a ton of people on the Board of Trustees and other important people from our campus such as President Chameau, Vice Provost Melany Hunt (also my advisor), Dean Hall, VP of Student Affairs Annelia Sargent, etc etc. It was a definitely a VIP crowd gathered in the Millikan Board Room.

Hi All! Hope you all had a fantastic weekend–I know I did :) We had GORGEOUS weather this weekend (hello spring!) and I had a fun event on my calendar I’ve been looking forward to: the Wine and Food Pairing course hosted by the MOSH. The Wine and Food Pairing course is offered to seniors (that are of age, of course) throughout the year to teach them how to observe, pick, and enjoy wines with/without food. The class is only one day, but takes several hours, since several wines are chosen to sample and at the same time along with a multi-course meal.

So I did this weird thing the other night...I went to sleep early, because I was feeling a little tired. I was asleep before midnight (gasp!), and my alarm was set for 9 (because if I sleep infinity hours on a school night my sleep schedule gets very messed up).

Turns out that I didn't need to bother with the alarm because at 8 am on the dot I was woken by the cries of the seniors yelling, "WAKE UP FROSH IT'S DITCH DAY!"

For anyone who isn't aware, Ditch Day is the hallowed Caltech version of Senior Skip Day. Back in the days of yore, seniors would skip class. This would make the underclassmen very upset, because they were still in class. So, to take their revenge, underclassmen would break into the seniors' rooms and prank them in some way. Seniors, then, to avoid having to clean up 400 small paper cups of water senior spring, started blockading their doors. The more common technique would be to stack an obstacle--like bricks--in front of your door. Underclassmen responded with pickaxes.

Ditch Day has evolved today to a less destructive, more creative form. Seniors spend varying amounts of time (i.e. all of spring term, of all of senior year, or random day dreams from the day they receive their admissions packet) setting up these elaborate treasure hunt/scavenger hunt/puzzle-type things. On Ditch Day (which is always tomorrow), underclassmen sign up for one of these 'stacks' and spend the day (an Institute Holiday!) completing their puzzle. It's always a lot of fun--you see students wandering around all day in matching shirts, overcoming bizarre obstacles, and just enjoying what the seniors have put together.

But it was Ditch Day! So I ran around the house and found a perfect stack:

**Hi!I apologize for the massive delay between the last post and this - I’ve been making my final trips to help me make the decision that will define the next 8 years of my life! My first foray was to Seattle to revisit the University of Washington! It was another busy couple days both meeting more professors and students, while also getting some extra time to see the city! Though, again, I didn’t go UP the Space Needle, I got to see it. And then I ate some delicious salmon at Ivar’s (a famous small chain in the city). I also met some AWESOME people from other schools who are deciding where to go, and some others who had already committed! Enjoy the pictures from my time up there!

Each house is subdivided into alleys. An alley is roughly one hallway and houses a UCC (upperclassman counselor). These UCC’s are like parents - especially for Frosh - for the inhabitants of their alley. At least in my house (Page House), one of the UCCs’ responsibilities is to organize an alley event every term. The House puts out $10 for each person towards the alley event. Recently, we changed the rules so that people can go to as many alley events as they want and with any alley that they want but the House only covers the first $10. Alley events can range from getting Jamba Juice to going out to dinner to going bowling to going to the horse races. Yes, the horse races! A few weeks ago I got an e-mail announcing the next alley event. Participants would have admission to the Turf Club of the Santa Anita Race Track for the final race of the track’s season! I couldn’t believe my eyes at first! This is where Seabiscuit won so many of his races! Before moving to Caltech I’d Google-earth the whole Pasadena area to know what would be nearby and one day I noticed that the Santa Anita Race Track was just East of Pasadena. I promised myself that I’d go there one day but I never thought that I’d be going there Freshman Year in an alley event! Well, some personal connections existed that made this alley event possible but this was by far the greatest alley event ever! The follow-up e-mails included details about behavior and about the dress code. The notices were along the line of “if you’re not wearing this and this, you will be asked to leave”. On the day before the event, Noah (the awesome UCC who organized this) sent out a clarification just to make sure that everyone understood the dress code. He attached the following two photos and said that girls should look like the first one and guys like the second one:

During dinner we had live music and later that night more houses hosted more events. Blacker Hovse had a Quidditch game and Page House (my house) had Midnight Wieners (actually at 10pm). There were many things going on that day but you could tell that Prefrosh Weekend was coming to a close as suitcases were heard rolling around campus. It was somewhat melancholy because the weekend worked out so well and now it was obviously finishing during the weekend it seemed that the Prefrosh were enjoying themselves. It was a bit strange being on the other side of things being a Frosh and remembering that one year ago I was going through the same things as the current Prefrosh. I’m not saying that I didn’t enjoy Prefrosh Weekend this year. In fact, I had a great time being on campus and meeting the Prefrosh and their parents. Finally being a Techer only helped me connect more to some of the Prefrosh more because I could understand what their concerns were and I could also see what the answers to most of these concerns were. I must conclude that the Class of 2014 seems to be a fun and bright class so all of us here are waiting for you guys next year! I wish you the best of luck in you college decisions and I wish that you are happy with your final choice. Once Prefrosh Weekend ended the campus seemed especially quiet. First, the roaming Prefrosh were gone. Second, there was no more music or other sounds that are necessary to entertain Prefrosh. Finally, all the Techers buckled down to work. During the weekend earplugs sometimes did the job but then again, it was Prefrosh Weekend and I felt that since I enjoyed it so much last year, I should participate in it this year to make sure that other Prefrosh enjoy it too. So, the beginning of the week was especially busy so I had no time to mope about the end of a fun three days. However, tomorrow (Friday) will be a type of make-up Prefrosh Weekend and I think I’ll be having lunch with more pre-parents tomorrow! Cheers and good luck with upcoming AP/IB exams if you’re taking them! (If you’re nervous about starting college, at least keep in mind that you won’t have any AP/IB Exams to stress about. Of course, you’ll have Caltech exams if you come here but that’s a whole other story.) Nina.

This past week, I had the wonderful honor of being asked to act as a judge for the science fair at the Gooden Middle School (a small private middle school in Sierra Madre close to Caltech). I went along with Richard, a grad student at Tech studying Physics (black holes!) who was the other judge.

Hey guys! I’ve been a bit preoccupied this past week and weekend—and consequently was not enjoying all the Prefrosh Weekend events at Caltech…

So Prefrosh Weekend is winding down now, which is very sad. I’ve enjoyed meeting you guys over the past few days! On Friday I was in charge of the Concert Band’s booth at the ASCIT Club Fair. ASCIT–the Associated Students of Caltech–is our student government, and they help fund a large number of the clubs on campus. Therefore, for the prefrosh, they organized the fair so that all the interesting organizations on campus had an opportunity to present themselves to a new generations of impressionable Techers.

A year ago I was having the best time of my life yet! In all those senior questionnaires asking about my best High School experience, I always gave two replies: getting the early decision acceptance letter from Caltech and going to Caltech’s Prefrosh Weekend. This time, I’m on the other side of things doing what I can to make sure that other Prefrosh are having a blast. I never thought that such a fun and memorable event like Prefrosh Weekend could be so tiring (for reasons other than eating donuts at midnight and running around the campus in the single digits of the morning for various entertaining reasons). Hanna and I hosted three Prefrosh this week - one stayed in our room for one night before the other two arrived and then she moved to a neighboring room. At the beginning of the school year Hanna and I already decided that we wanted to host Prefrosh this year so I had a good reason to get a couch. The couch looks deceptively small but it folds out into a sizable bed that can perfectly fit two Prefrosh!

Before last Thursday’s rehearsal I received a very sad email:

*Hi There,As Zhaoying can't be there for both Bandorama concerts, Mythili, would you please play piccolo on both concerts, and the two of you can both play the pic parts on the first concert.Thanks.Bill*

Aside from being slightly confusing, the main point–WARNING WARNING MORE DEAFNESS AHEAD–was not lost on me. Ergo I went into rehearsal slightly anxious…to discover Zhaoying very confused, because she wasn’t aware that she was unable to make both of our Bandorama concerts; it was only the Disnleyland concert for which she was busy. With much pomp and circumstance, I returned her music to her and gave the school piccolo back to Bill. Adieu! So before rehearsal started, we had a special masterclass hosted by a member of the band, Lynne Snyder. For those who have never had the pleasure, a masterclass is when you take a class under a guest instructor, but it’s meant as sort of a ‘everyone learns together’ sort of thing. Whereas in a normal class you just have you and and your teacher, in a masterclass there’s generally more people observing.

Yesterday (Thursday) was the official beginning of Prefrosh Weekend! In the past few weeks we have been seeing more and more Prefrosh wandering around campus but on Thursday several hundred of them swarmed in to check out Caltech - their prospective home for the next few years. I believe that the longer you stay here, the better you get at spotting the Prefrosh in crowds. To simplify tings, Caltech gives them orange lanyards to wear but things can still get confusing sometimes. Try to see i you can spot the true Prefrosh as they explore the amazing world of Caltech! This is a genuine Prefrosh but he has decided to not wear his tell-tale lanyard.

So yesterday was pretty exciting…not that I could have known that when I first woke up or anything. Tuesdays, in general, are pretty empty part of my week. I have very few classes…except that every Wednesday I have a difficult applied math set.

Today we had the Grad Fair in front of the bookstore for all the soon-to-be graduates.

Sorry I didn’t post until now—I have been so busy with the show and resting after the show…I haven’t gotten a chance to show all the wonderful pictures that were taken backstage and onstage Friday and Saturday night.

If you were in Disneyland on Saturday, you might have passed the Carnations Plaza Gardens. There, you might have seen the sign above. And you might have witnessed the fabled Caltech Oxy Concert Band as they made a triumphant return to Disneyland (last having played there a little over 10 years ago).

I am on an absolute war path to learn all this music in time for Saturday’s concert at Disneyland. It’s a battle: me vs. my ears, which are filled with this low buzzing for a few hours after I practice, even though I wear special industrial earplugs. Homework, studying…it’s all fallen to the wayside, because this music MUST BE LEARNED (I even missed this rather vital review session for an orgo quiz, but my lovely TA spent time after it had finished helping me learn Heck reactions and the ‘dance of olefin metathesis’).

Well, if last week seemed busy, then I don’t know what to call this week! Last week we had the Caltech Dance Show and you can’t have any show without many stage rehearsals! Since most people involved in the performance are either working or studying at Caltech, the rehearsal schedule had to be fit to all our working schedules which is why there were some rehearsals that started at 8am and others at 9pm. I was also sick for most of last week so by the end of the week I started wondering how this could ever be done. By the way, Caltech has an amazing Health Center with very nice people who do a good job of helping you get better. I lost my voice for two days so I went over there and croaked out what my problem was and I got medicines and instructions that helped a lot! I great thing about the Caltech Dance Show is that everyone in it is doing it mostly for fun and not for some private semi-professional ambitions. This relieves the atmosphere and makes the process all the more enjoyable. I haven’t performed since sophomore year of High School and honestly I thought that I’d never perform again! I was wrong! I got to get back on stage and even do a solo! Also, I got to wear fake eyelashes again! Here are some photos.

Last night was the Dress Rehearsal for the Dance Show. Though it ran smoothly, and we ended pretty early (went out to relax and grab boba at TeaSpots)—it was still pretty hectic backstage. We did some last minute staging for our formations and fixed details with lighting and sound.

So, we’re already done with 10% of the Spring Term! It’s hard to believe but I know time will slow down as we get deeper into the Term. The last few days have been quite interesting. For instance, last Saturday my house had the formal Party in a very nice hall on campus (Dabney Hall - it has hardwood floors, beautiful walls and fancy curtains and lamps). The party was meant to celebrate the beginning of Spring Term. It was surprisingly fancy! Everyone in the house got invitation cards, we had live music (or own guys playing guitars) and all the guys wearing suits and ties (well, there was a formal attire and date requirement). It was a nice change of atmosphere and I

****Hello!So I’m back from break, and now in addition to my light courseload (see below), I am faced with a very important choice - where do I go for my MD/PhD training this upcoming year? I’ll be straight with you guys, it’s a three-way decision between University of Michigan, University of Washington, and Tufts University. Currently, that’s my approximate preference order, but it ALL could change upon revisiting the schools (my revisit to Caltech’s Prefrosh Weekend was actually what made me want to come here over other schools, such as MIT and Princeton).

Yep—you read right! The Caltech Team totally DOMINATED at the Rose Bowl in the Pasadena College Field Tournament. It was probably one of the most exciting things I have been a part of during my entire 4 years at Caltech. :D The 20 person team met Saturday morning at the Rose Bowl to compete against 5 other colleges in multiple events: including the Uniform Challenge, Cheeseburger Challenge, Monster Croquet, Blind Faith, Frisbee Golf, Meteor Catch, Pasadena Puzzle. We either placed in first or second place in all the events :). We had the most fans show up for us in the stands (students, faculty, professors, etc), wearing matching orange t-shirts to support the team.

Hey Everyone, Just wanted to touch base before my crazy weekend started…It’s going to be soo exciting with lots of events (see below!) and rehearsals.

Well, we’re all back on campus now and we’re all back to studying! For Frosh, this Term is a pretty special one because it is our first Term on official letter grades. Also, this Term promises some long-awaited events such as Ditch Day! We also have two more Interhouse parties to look forward to, Prefrosh Weekend, Graduation for seniors and beautiful sunny weather. We are also starting the housing process for next year right now. While all Frosh are required to live on campus, upperclassmen may try to live off campus. Now off campus sometimes means closer to campus that some of the on-campus houses such as Avery. Caltech owns a number of apartment buildings near the campus but some students rent their own apartments too. It really varied by house how easy it is to stay on campus but I believe that in general people are happy with where they end up. This morning Hanna and I officially decided to stay together next year! Yes, at Caltech since there are so few undergraduates compared to some other schools, the roommate situation is very nice. Each house has its own tradition of assigning roommates. In my house (Page House), the night that rotation ended and everyone found out what house they got into, Page upperclassmen took all us new Page frosh out to dinner. By the end of the dinner we were expected to each find ourselves a roommate. Since I didn’t know many of the Frosh yet, I just indulged in my food and milkshake. At the end of the dinner, a blond Frosh girl comes up to me and more or less says: “Hi, my name is Hanna and I need a roommate. A senior [no names] said that we’d be a good match. Would you like us to be roommates?”. Now Hanna and I keep saying “thank you” to that senior because he turned out to be a great match-maker! For example, are on the same sleep schedule (which is very important because we like to go to bed before midnight and get up between 7 and 8am). Of course, that is not the one and only reason why at least I enjoy rooming with Hanna. To summarize, I think we’re really lucky to have a small enough campus to allow for such housing opportunities.

Already, prefrosh and their parents are stumbling around Caltech’s campus, eating lunch and dinner with current undergraduates, touring the Houses, even visiting classes. (I think I saw one of the prefrosh in the Bi1x class this morning!) Here’s a list of nice, nearby places to visit, for the parents and prefrosh with extra time.

Back from my very relaxing break….

Last time I wrote about Finals Week. Well, everything comes to an end sometime and so did Final Exams. By the end of the week, I sure was tired but I also got a bit nostalgic that another Term was over. However, right now as I’m packing my bags to return to Pasadena I realize that it makes no sense to get nostalgic about finishing a Term because there is always a new Term waiting to start (unless you’re a Spring Term senior but by then you’ve probably got other things to worry about)! The best you can do is make the most of your time during the breaks so that you come back o campus fresh and happy. So the next question is, what can a Techer do on break? Read? Study? I can’t vouch for everyone on campus so I’ll only speak for myself but I think that the other blogs have made it clear that Techers can find good ways to enjoy themselves. As for myself, I spent the break with my parents in Berkeley where I live. I flew home which is a very weird feeling: before coming to Caltech going on an airplane always meant at least a six hour flight. However, the flight from Caltech to the Bay Area was only an hour long! The flight was too short to allow for a good mental transition from LA to home so when I stepped outside, it seemed so cold! Southern California weather can really spoil anyone, even other Californians.

**I can’t believe I just am wrapping up my LAST spring break as a Techer!It feels like yesterday that I was coming home for my first spring break three years ago, after just finishing up pass/fail and preparing to begin a life on grades. Well, let’s just say it really sets in the fact that you have to enjoy each and every day cause it goes by so quickly! Anyway, enough musing and philosophizing - let me tell you what I did on my Spring Vacation (like those middle school projects you used to do but the spring edition). So it started off, as Dannah said, with her visit to my quaint part of NJ. We had a packed itinerary, going to Atlantic City (to eat some good food and try our luck on the slots), New York City (to eat some good food and go see a show), Sunday Dinner (prepared by my mother, for some GREAT food), and then around to “where I grew up.” Do you see the common denominator in all those activities?? All in all, a fun (and filling!) trip for her.

Early last week my roommate and I woke up at 7am to the sound of Wagner’s “The Ride of the Valkyries” blasting on the Olive Walk. The Olive Walk is a walkway separating the North Houses from the South Houses. I live in a North House but one particular South House, namely Blacker House, has tradition of blasting this piece at 7am during Finals Week. Perhaps they do this to get the campus in the mood for conquering their Exams. In any case, I sure got a jump start for that day! That week, my House Seniors decided to get us on our toes as well. Hanna and I were up at around 7am brushing our teeth and getting dressed (we’re usually the only ones up this early unless other people are up from pulling all-nighters) when we heard the House Seniors running through the hallways banging pots and pans and yelling for all the underclassmen to wake up for Ditch Day. This was the first fake ditch day our House has had this year. Ditch Day is a day during Third Term when the whole (undergraduate) campus is out of class working through stacks built by the Seniors (the professors cancel lectures that day). This is a very fun day but no one knows when the Seniors decide to have it. This gives the seniors the luxury of playing around with underclassmen by doing things such as the Fake Ditch Day. We were “fooled” into breaking up into teams and fighting each other with water balloons when most of us were still quite asleep. However, the unhappy ones were later compensated with a ton of donuts. (Speaking of donuts, Caltech seems to love them because that week we also had midnight donuts where a truck delivered boxes and boxes of those treats onto the Olive Walk and it was your challenge to make it to the truck, get the donut that you wanted and make it back to your House without causing or being caused much damage.)

As Nelly Furtado says in one of my favorite songs, “All Good Things Come to an End.”That’s what I had to say last Sunday when we took our cooking final. It was a LONG day of prepping and cooking, and it almost felt like I was on Iron Chef! They told us a couple of the “secret ingredients” beforehand, but one was a complete surprise! In the end, we had to use: fava beans, “designer” chickens (such as Jidori and Red-Necked), and bok choy. Each ingredient needed to be used in at least one of our five courses. When we arrived at 11 AM, we had one hour to plan what we would cook, and we also got to see the spread of ingredients we would have to work with!

Hey, y’all!So I’ve been really slow to update lately, mostly because of Finals’ Week and Spring Break (which, if you read Dannah’s blog, has been busy, too!). Our final class was about southern cooking, which was something I’ve never actually cooked before! It’s so delicious, though, that I was really excited to learn some tricks of the trade. We had some guests explain how they make traditional southern fare, like biscuits and pulled pork. I never realized how much work went into barbecue (and BBQ is NOT the same as a grill), and that made the final product taste even better! We actually did not have the chance to cook a lot of meat (because it takes so many hours, so they made it for us).

Hey Everyone! Finals week ended—and since then, I have been enjoying the first part of my Spring Break in New Jersey (spending time with Andrew’s family).

Because I’m not waiting ontenterhooksfor my college decisions to be released/come in the mail! I know Caltech sent things out last week, but as for the rest the best I can say is try to relax? Que sera, sera.

We are nearing the end of finals week for winter term. Only a few more days until SPRING BREAK! In terms of finals, I have three presentations, two written reports and a one-hour final. Pretty chill, if you ask me…

Hi everyone! My name is Mythili Iyer, and I’m a new blogger for the rest of the academic year! As is written in my bio, I’m a sophomore Chemical Engineering (ChemE) major from New Jersey (near Princeton) who currently resides in Fleming House. My major extracurricular activity is music–I’ve been playing the flute since I was 5 (so…15 years now), and while I no longer take regular lessons I still play as part of ensembles. Here on campus, I am principle flute in the Caltech Occidental Concert Bandand currently in a piano-cello-flute trio for Chamber Music. I’m also on the band council, helping to put together social events, find touring opportunities, and encourage general band cohesiveness.

Last Wednesday was the last day of classes for the Winter Term but that doesn’t mean we can all relax! On the contrary, it means that stress levels are about to reach a climax! Of course, if you’re wise and if you’ve been working hard all of term, Finals Week should not be a nightmare for you. However, just the idea of Finals and of finally finishing another Caltech Term is already pretty exciting. At Caltech, almost all of our exams and quizzes are take home. This means that when you are handed your assessment, the first thing you see on the cover is a due time, due date, location of the drop box and how much time is allowed for the exam. Fresh out of high school, this system was quite new to me but now I really appreciate it.

Good morning, chefs!I apologize for the delay since my last post, even though I’m a senior I still have had a lot to do leading up to Finals’ Week! So I want to take this time to update you on what we were up to in class last week - as you may be able to guess from the title, we were cooking fare from the subcontinent - India, that is. Let’s just say I learned about spices I never had actually used before - we definitely don’t use too much turmeric in Italian cooking! Now one complication from this day was that Indian food is something that usually takes a while to cook, which meant we didn’t get to let our dishes stew for hours and hours on the stove (we didn’t want to get out that late!). However, I will say that our results got approval from my Indian friend, Mallika - she’s from Mumbai, so I think that’s a pretty big deal. :) To expedite matters, we each made a different combination of a meat and vegetable. My group made Rajasthani-style beef (the formal name escapes me) and saag. The beef was delicious, with an amazing amount of spices! The saag was a bit different from vegetables I usually had (there were mustard greens in it, and I’m honestly going to say I’m not a fan), but at least I got my vitamin K! Other groups made Chicken Korma (something that comes to mind easier when I’m thinking of Indian food) and Daal (a more creamy side dish). Oh, and of course we prepared some Naan! We decided to spice things up and put garlic in it. Like I said for Italian week… you can NEVER have too much garlic! :D Well, below are the pictures from this week - I’m excited for this last week because it’s Southern Night! And I hear it’s the best one - so we’ll see how it is!**

The Fleming Cannon is fired a few key times during the year: end of rotation, end of classes every term, end of ditch day and when the Fleming House President walks the stage during commencement. The Fleming Cannon is cherished by the members of Fleming House (including myself) as it has been in our possession since 1972 when we took it from Southwestern Academy in San Marino. The cannon itself was originally cast in the 1870s for the Franco-Prussian War prior to its time at Southwestern Academy. It has been the object of many pranks….stolen by Harvey Mudd 1986, and MIT in 2006 (but promptly retrieved by Fleming House! see this site). It makes sense that everyone wants to steal the cannon, cause its AWESOME!! So today, being the end of winter term classes, the cannon fired at 5pm. At the same time as it signals the end of classes, it also signals the beginning of finals week here at Tech. So for the next week, the campus will be pretty quiet…people concentrating on getting through finals week and preparing for spring break.

Last Friday a big group of us went to Pomona College for a Lupe Fiasco concert. It was an awesome experience because it was my first time on another California college campus and because we got to mingle with students outside of Tech. B.o.B opened for Mr. Fiasco, and had the crowd roaring from the very beginning (you might know him for his currently #1 song in LA, “Nothin’ on You”). After the concert we stayed to tour the large campus and hung out at their student center for a little bit before heading back to Tech.

Hi Everyone! March 9 was a big day for our campus; we had two very important and exciting events that occurred: The 25th annual ME 72 Design Competition and the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony of the new Schlinger Laboratory.

DONE! We are done with regular decision committee!! Phew! After all the reading over the past 5 months, we have successfully processed all the undergraduate applications through committee. (The admissions officers still need to process transfers, international, etc.) It was a relatively easy morning, and we finished by lunchtime.

You have probably already heard that Techers do have a heavy work load and that we are constantly surrounded by amazing real-time research. What I still find hard to believe is that since the campus is so tight, everything is very close by. For example, I can almost see the Aeronautics building from my room, the main Chemical Engineering building is 30 seconds away walking, and a few hundred feet away you can find temperatures extremely close to 0 K! We are literally immersed in a huge variety of world-class scientific and engineering work and we just need to choose what we love best and devote ourselves to it! Sometimes I’m scared by how many choices there are. If you really care for what you do, the workload should seem quite humane since you’re doing what you like to do!