employer cover photo
employer logo
employer logo

Caltech (California)

Is this your company?

Caltech can be ideal if you have a good advisor. - Graduate Research Assistant Caltech (California) Employee Review

4.0
Apr 21, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The people at Caltech are amazing. The other graduate students are not stereotypical nerds, but simply very smart and interested in the world around them. The campus is beautiful and the weather is great, if you like constant sunshine. :) Caltech has a very small student population, and so pretty much every face on campus is familiar, which can be a good or bad thing. The research opportunities are top noch and unbeatable. Did I mention that everyone is really, really nice? I have never encountered such a concentration of intelligent and kind people anywhere else. But what Caltech is know for most of all is its reserach.

Cons

All of the budget cuts are annoying and bad for morale. Advisors seem to be very self-absorbed and very few are good mentors. Caltech is so small that if you're not interested in working on one of the very few topics that are the specialties of the professors there, you're sort of screwed. (This is particularly troublesome if you *think* you know what you want to work on, and then change your mind after the first year. The possibilities for a new advisor are very limited.) They also keep reducing the health insurance benefits for grad students.

Explore other reviews about Caltech (California)

5.0
Jul 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You get to interact with many smart people

Cons

Dining halls should be better

5.0
Jun 30, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I really like the people I work with. Managers promote psychological safety and follow through with their commitments . My direct managers are interested in my growth and professional development. There are a lot of affinity groups to connect with. Overall a great community to be a part of. Caltech has good benefits and even mental health counseling available for staff.

Cons

Because the campus is lightly administered/decentralized, policies can vary a lot by department, which can make things really confusing for the initial period. However, if you’re open to talking to others and making connections, it can go a long way in helping you figure out how things work on campus. Another negative is that departmental culture can vary. Working as an admin in one department may be much more difficult than in another department.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All