This California university is the hardest school to get into in America

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Caltech undergrad is also tiny. It's smaller than a typical high school. It may be there are so few Caltech grads they don't register much, especially on the opposite side of the country.

And I don't think Harvard generally comes to mind for science/tech. Very strong for math and biology, but Harvard is traditionally usually strongest in social sciences.

True, that sounds about right.

Though I think Harvard ranks pretty high up there for chemistry and physics too.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by austlar1

Little Caltech comes in at #7 with 76 Nobel laureates lodged between #6 Stanford and #8 Princeton. I'd say Caltech has a pretty secure perch in terms of prestige among US universities.

https://www.bestmastersprograms.org/...prize-winners/

People in other countries even know about Caltech.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by austlar1

Little Caltech comes in tied with Princeton in the #8 spot between #7 Stanford and #10 Yale in terms of number of Nobel laureates. Considering how small Caltech is in terms of faculty and student body, that is a truly remarkable showing. I'd say Caltech has a pretty secure perch in terms of prestige among US universities.

I certainly wasn't disputing Caltech's actual prestige.

I was just stating that it seems to be lesser known for that science and technology prestige, with less general name recognition (at least in the northeast US), than Stanford and Berkeley are. Like Crawford said, it's likely due to its small size when compared to the much larger Stanford and Berkeley.

[homebucket]

Not just small size but also not really known for their athletics program, whereas with Stanford and Cal you have a lot of student athletes that make it to the professional level and Olympians to help boost its national profile beyond just academics.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by homebucket

Not just small size but also not really known for their athletics program, whereas with Stanford and Cal you have a lot of student athletes that make it to the professional level and Olympians to help boost its national profile beyond just academics.

Exactly.

Cal-tech is an incredibly well-respected institution within academia, but it's brand recognition among the general population is diminished quite a bit because it's very small and no sports.

If it was the size of an MIT, with its same academic reputation, it would no doubt be better known.

[ocman]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Exactly.

Cal-tech is an incredibly well-respected institution within academia,

This. My sense of the reputation of Caltech is that going there impresses your colleagues and your professors the most. Whereas the famous institutions is the opposite, it impresses your family and friends. The obscurity of Caltech is kind of part of genius of its marketing. Like wearing Schiaparelli instead of Louis Vuitton. The name goes far for the people that should “know” rather than the general public who wouldn’t know this school from ITT Tech.

[Shawn]

Also, I don't believe Caltech has the institutional research-to-commercial market pipeline MIT and Stanford have. Where's Caltech's Kendall Square/incubation zone?

I'd guess more than half of the country's contemporary big tech was founded at least in part by an MIT or Stanford alum (often both as co-founders). You don't hear about Caltech founders.

[Docere]

Caltech has a higher proportion of its graduates get PhD's than any other university.

https://www.collegetransitions.com/d...s-phd-programs

[craigs]

Originally Posted by Shawn

Also, I don't believe Caltech has the institutional research-to-commercial market pipeline MIT and Stanford have. Where's Caltech's Kendall Square/incubation zone?

Caltech doesn't have an incubation zone, but it does manage NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which was founded by Caltech graduate students in 1936. Per Wikipedia, JPL employs some 6,000 Caltech employees as well as some students.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by craigs

Caltech doesn't have an incubation zone, but it does manage NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which was founded by Caltech graduate students in 1936. Per Wikipedia, JPL employs some 6,000 Caltech employees as well as some students.

My astronomy prof in college worked at JPL and constantly referenced Caltech. That's basically my only real-life Caltech reference.

[austlar1]

Not sure when this Quora thread got started. Info might be dated and inaccurate. https://www.quora.com/What-startups-...Caltech-alumni

[ocman]

Originally Posted by Shawn

Also, I don't believe Caltech has the institutional research-to-commercial market pipeline MIT and Stanford have. Where's Caltech's Kendall Square/incubation zone?

I'd guess more than half of the country's contemporary big tech was founded at least in part by an MIT or Stanford alum (often both as co-founders). You don't hear about Caltech founders.

Caltech’s reputation bends more towards scientific theory/inquiry rather than commercial application. So it’s more known for producing the thinkers rather than the industry titans. So, basically the characters in Big Bang Theory rather than HBO’s Silicon Valley is a good stereotype of their strengths.

[Docere]

About a quarter of their graduates get PhD's.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by craigs

Caltech doesn't have an incubation zone, but it does manage NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which was founded by Caltech graduate students in 1936. Per Wikipedia, JPL employs some 6,000 Caltech employees as well as some students.

Indeed. One cannot overstate the importance of JPL.

Caltech students were/are experts at rocketry. The forebearers to getting the first USA satellite into Space, and their work contributing to NASA getting a man on the moon

Anyone that doesn't understand the legacy of this institution and its importance to America and the aerospace industry needs to read up.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_...ion_Laboratory

[Docere]

Number of PhD's over the past 5 years as a percentage of number of undergraduates.

Caltech 418 42.5%
MIT 1070 23.8%
Harvard 1068 20.4%
Princeton 854 15.2%
Chicago 1000 13.2%
Yale 815 12.1%
Brown 881 11.5%
Johns Hopkins 695 11.5%
Cornell 1685 11.1%
Duke 729 11%
Dartmouth 482 10.8%
Stanford 809 10.6%
Columbia 823 10%
Pennsylvania 839 8.6%
Berkeley 2,571 7.9%
Northwestern 683 7.7%
Michigan 1,913 5.9%
Virginia 582 5.7%
UCLA 1,567 4.9%

I said one quarter of Caltech grads upthread, it's much higher than that.

[sopas ej]

I guess too because I grew up in the Los Angeles area, but Caltech is often being mentioned. Ever since I was a kid, whenever there's an earthquake, locally, or anywhere in the world, the local media always descends on Caltech and does live shots from there, and they always interview the seismologists.

So, subjectively for me, Caltech was always talked about/mentioned, and it's always been regarded in SoCal as a very prestigious school.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

I guess too because I grew up in the Los Angeles area, but Caltech is often being mentioned. Ever since I was a kid, whenever there's an earthquake, locally, or anywhere in the world, the local media always descends on Caltech and does live shots from there, and they always interview the seismologists.

So, subjectively for me, Caltech was always talked about/mentioned, and it's always been regarded in SoCal as a very prestigious school.

People in the Bay Area are also aware of Caltech, for the same reasons. Their experts get media interviews for various types of stories, but especially so for earthquakes.

[sopas ej]

Oh mah gah craigs I was just reading your post and I literally started feeling an earthquake. I'm at work right now, I heard someone's phone do an earthquake alert, and sure enough, everything started shaking.

[sopas ej]

Ah, sure enough:

Magnitude-5.1 Malibu earthquake shakes Southern California

Edit: Downgraded to a 4.7: Magnitude-4.7 Malibu earthquake shakes Southern California



I'm sure those mountains near Malibu helped absorb the shock waves that otherwise would've made it feel stronger in the LA basin, plus I'm in the SGV. It didn't feel like too much of a strong shaking, but I felt a little dizzy during the thing.

[homebucket]

Yup there was a 4.7er that just hit 7 klicks north of Malibu.