TeChPW

 I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to be in the position where I was choosing between Caltech and MIT. Two phenomenal schools in their own ways: an impossible decision. In chronicling my jam-packed, transformational week at DiscoTech and Campus Preview Weekend I hope to highlight some of my insights for anyone in the same position in the future...or maybe you're just curious about the TeChPW week (pronounced Tech P W, or Tellurium, Carbon-Hydrogen, Phosphorus, Tungsten, if you're feeling fancy). Read on to find out which school I chose!

Before I get into my day-by-day journal, here's just some background info on me (every experience is seen through a lens that's a product of a person's history, so hopefully you can see the rest of my stories from my perspective after understanding my history):

• I'm pretty ambitious. I want to solve challenging, meaningful problems.
• I have a vision of space exploration: it's always been my core belief that advancing space science and engineering is the frontier of human progress.
• I'm really curious about anything!
• I enjoy adventure, especially outdoor adventure.
• I liked to be surrounded by equally driven, curious people.

Now onto the fun stuff!

Day 1: Meeting some cool people @ Discotech
Caltech-o-meter: 5/10
MIT-o-meter: 5/10

I walked on campus feeling inspired. The scent of citronella in the air, orange and purple flowers, turtle ponds---what's not to love?

It was pretty funny that we could fit a quarter of all the admitted students in the dining hall in a massive circle as we introduced ourselves. Everyone was super friendly. Before event programming started, we made a spontaneous trip to a nearby Boba shop---already going on adventures as a troop. I met some cool and very chill people who would go on to be some of the people I talked to regularly while at Discotech.

The keynote address resonated with me so much. Kevin Noertker explained his guiding principles: challenging, visible, and meaningful, the very same values I carry when finding problems to solve. It helped that he was involved with an aerospace startup, which is definitely a career path I can see myself following.

He also described finding your "superpower" at Caltech: when people are pushed to their limits, they find their strengths that make them unique (out of the charcoal comes a diamond). For him, it was in unifying a group and leading them to reach goals (aka, being a people person). These ideas really resonated and would help structure my compass for the rest of the week.

I met many cool aero people during speed friending, lots of people equally as passionate about space exploration. Also walked around at night, star gazed a little, tried to find the natural resonance of a tree branch through forced oscillation to pick an orange, and played some poker.

Day 2: JPL and Houses @ Discotech
Caltech-o-meter: 7/10
MIT-o-meter: 3/10

JPL FIELD TRIP!!! Truly a highlight. As a perk of being a Caltech admit, we got to see JPL mission control that had 24/7 coverage of every extraterrestrial probe for 60 years?!?! Also learned about the lucky peanuts (scientists don't believe in superstition, of course), and engaged in some fun engineering talk.

Another huge highlight was a sneak preview of House Rotation, where we were able to view Caltech's super unique house culture. I can't say too much without violating house rotation rules, but I valued my time spent getting to know all the various dimensions Caltech students represent: spontaneous and adventurous, wild and committed, athletic and driven, and everything in between. I picked some locks, enjoyed some karaoke, roasted some s'mores, and made an orange bracelet :) I was also encouraged to walk on to the water polo team...very cool to experience the sports side of Caltech as well.

Day 3: Academics and Griffiths Observatory @ Discotech
Caltech-o-meter: 8/10
MIT-o-meter: 2/10

This morning began with a breakfast hosted by Women in STEM at Caltech, where I learned just how supportive the Caltech faculty are. Speaking with a chemistry professor about her journey, I began to truly feel at home.

That Caltech-o-meter was only creeping up. Attending some department presentations and a mock lecture, I started to feel even more comfortable. Caltech is unique in how they teach: building intuition and problem-solving skills from the ground up.

Then there was Griffiths Observatory in the evening, a mind-boggling experience to meet Mike Brown and hear his talk on Ninth Planets, then watch a SpaceX launch. It's hard not to fall in love with Pasadena's location. It was even better to spend the evening through intellectual discussions with my friends on everything from moon phases to Desmos cube animations.

Day 4: Egg Drop @ Discotech
Caltech-o-meter: 9/10
MIT-o-meter: 1/10

Engineering! Collaboration! Challenge! These are a few of my favorite things. It was very refreshing to work with people who are all detail-oriented, excited, and very capable (even if they were all theorists). Our little helicopter was named False Adam and was a combination of tilted blades (for angle of attack that generates lift + torque) and a small parachute. It didn't matter that our egg broke upon landing, everyone just celebrated the design process.

It was truly a one-of-a-kind experience to sit beneath the 9 stories of Caltech Hall and count down all 24 teams' egg drop designs, then laugh as the MC interviewed admits while we waited for results. Everyone cheered for each other: friendly competition and infinite support---truly a great way to end DiscoTech.

Day 5: Learning communities @ CPW
Caltech-o-meter: 9/10
MIT-o-meter: 1/10

I can't lie...I really did not like MIT campus the first day I was there. I was tired, jet lagged, and overwhelmed by the plethora of activities. It was interesting, though to accidentally get pulled onto a tour of MIT's learning communities. I was particularly attracted by ESG (Experimental Study Group), which is MIT's way of providing small learning spaces for general requirement classes (classes of just 12 people!). MIT creates layers of abstraction; communities within communities so you can engage with whichever layer of complexity you desire. I also learned about MITs MASSIVE access to makerspaces across campus, as well as their hard-core makers culture. Creativity is in every corner: from student-made fish sculptures to liquid nitrogen cheese balls.

A highlight of this day: MIT's plasma nuclear fusion lab. Incredible science at the intersection of extreme environment materials, superconductor physics, and plasma physics.

Day 6: Aero and Astro @ CPW
Caltech-o-meter: 6/10
MIT-o-meter: 4/10

The oscilloscopes for college began oscillating the other way.

This day was a lot of fun. I immersed myself in the aero & astro department (Course 16) and really go to know the community at MIT. I got several tours of the rocket team lab and learned how collaborative the department is. It was quite heartwarming to learn that the solid prop subteam was fully girls, showing how much female representation there was in Aero Astro at MIT.

I spoke to a few grad students who emphasized the diverse opportunities available in aerospace at MIT, including one grad doing numerical flow analysis of hypersonic regimes, comparable to the wind tunnel test done in collaboration with a Tennessee school. From extreme environment materials and metallurgy to these aerospace opportunities and nuclear engineering, MIT certainly felt limitless.

Day 7: Social Scene @ CPW
Caltech-o-meter: 5/10
MIT-o-meter: 5/10

After sleeping at 1 AM I woke up again at 6 AM to try to catch the sunrise...except that it was all fogged out :( Still worth it to wake up though, because I met some like-minded early risers with whom I explored one of the houses, finding board games and puzzles to tackle. We played some card games and started on a jigsaw puzzle before grabbing breakfast 2x : pancakes and pop-up bagels!

Next, onto the MIT museum, which was a really interesting collection of astrophysics projects (shout out to starshade and LIGO), circadian rhythm sculptures, and AI models. Fun fact: a lot of these projects were collaborations with Caltech.

There were many fun moments during this day that I want to give a rundown of:

• Generally exploring MIT, finding niche study spots
• Seeing Bollywood dancing and Lion dancing at the club fair and closing ceremony
• Accidentally stumbling into a holi festival when I got lost on the way to my dorm
• Biking out into Boston over the bridge and seeing some cool city night lights
• Getting so hungry that we ordered smoothies from a terrible vending machine and had to use a pen to get the straw out
• Watching flame throwing performances
• Going INTO THE TETRIS!!!
• Late night pancakes and sharing life stories with two very cool people until 2 AM

Final Decision
By the end of the week, I was so 50-50. In the end, it came down to thinking about my value systems. Caltech offers unparalleled opportunities to challenge myself and grow with people who have a similar vision of space exploration. I also couldn't pass up the immense flexible opportunities that a small school provides. There were also some small things: like being able to bring the telescope that I'm making to join the Astronomy Club arsenal; maybe starting a Capture the Flags tradition for my house.

Maybe I'll see MIT again during a SURF or grad school, but for now it's farewell...and thanks for all the fish.