Caltech Slang

Know the slang, know the school. The following is a list of things you really need to know before coming to Caltech. The more of these words you know, the better off you'll be.

ACM 95

Applied and
Computational Mathematics
95, a class that most students
here have to take which is
extremely difficult.

ASCIT

The student
government association
which most students are
members of. The ASCIT
officers are sort of the
student body government
of the campus.

The Coffeehouse

The student-run coffeehouse
in the SAC.

The C-Store

The Caltech
convenience store next to
Chandler Dining Hall in the
center of campus.

Darbs

Members of
Dabney House.

Ditch Day

A day in third
term when seniors set up
activities for underclassmen
as a sort of odd tradition.
There are no classes on Ditch
Day; it's a Caltech holiday.

Flems

Members of
Fleming House.

Frosh

Freshmen.

IHC

The Interhouse Council
which consists of elected
offices and the presidents of
the seven houses.

Llyodies

Members of
Lloyd House.

Midnight Donuts

ASCIT
periodically has donuts at
midnight on the Olive Walk
for all ASCIT members.

Moles

Members of
Blacker House.

OPI

Ruddock's
interhouse party.

RF Courtyard

The
courtyard between
Ricketts and Fleming.

Rotation

The weeklong
process where new students
visit all seven houses and
pick/get picked into one of
the houses.

Rudds

Members of
Ruddock House.

S'mores

Sophomores.

The SaC

The Student
Activities Center in the
basement of the South
houses.

Scurves

Members of
Ricketts House.

Tech/Techers

Students
here refer to Caltech as just
“Tech.” Likewise the students
here are Techers.

The Tech

The Caltech
student-run newspaper.

Tommy, Marsden, etc.

Students generally refer to
texts by their authors since so
many of the books have titles
like, “Intoduction to …”

The Wedding Cake

Students sometime refer to
Beckmann Auditorium as the
wedding cake, because it is
big, white, and circular.