When Christina Kondos receives her bachelor’s degree at Caltech’s commencement Friday, she will represent a tiny and little-known minority at the prestigious science and engineering campus in Pasadena.
Kondos is the only one in her graduating class of 247 to have majored in humanities or social sciences — economics and history in her case — without double-majoring in science, math or engineering.
Since 2008, only a dozen Caltech students have done the same, and they received bachelor of science degrees because Caltech doesn’t offer a bachelor of arts, campus officials said.
Science, of course, rules at Caltech, but it doesn’t eliminate the likes of James Joyce or Immanuel Kant.
2 Comments
So Caltech is being dumbed down too? So, soon, a Caltech grad will be just as dumb as the rest of us.
No, Larry. Math-based economics is highly quantitative at Caltech. These students know lots of mathematics. They are just applying it to economics instead of physics, computer science, etc. The general education requirement at Caltech includes 5 quarters of mathematics beginning with calculus, several quarters of calc-based physics, etc. along with 12 quarters of courses in humanities and social sciences.
Janet