Off-Campus Report: SURF at MIT and Study Abroad at the University of Edinburgh
Few Caltech students will take advantage of the opportunity to study abroad during their undergraduate time here. Understandably, undergrads are some of the busiest people you will meet here: classes throughout the day, sports and house activities through the afternoon, problem sets throughout the night and well into the morning, sleep if you can afford it, rinse and repeat. Our four-year plans are often packed; graduating on time is important when your tuition is, to say the least, exorbitant. We are lucky if we have the sheer time management to fit in downtime, much less plan opportunities to exit the Caltech bubble, the boundaries of which are fortified by mediocre public transport and the expense of a car. Throughout my freshman to junior years, I struggled intensely with work-life balance, gradually setting goals to leave campus once a week to control the stress associated with this place.
