<p>Ok, sorry about the disappearing act. While I was home for break I didn't reply to anything, and it seems that there were a couple of questions that were directed at me, and didn't get responses. I'm back at Caltech now with a non-dialup connection, and will do my best to address them. For reference, I have sat on the Scholarships and Financial Aid Committee for two years and have thus reviewed applications for the upper-class merit awards, and helped work with the three directors of admissions that we've had over the last three years to have students review for who gets the Axline offers (an upcoming feature). </p>
<p>With respect to the upperclass merit awards (and affiliated Carnation awards), it is largely rising juniors/seniors, however there certainly are sophomores as well. The reason for this is that the application deadline is near the end of second term, and the first two terms for freshman are on pass/fail, so it's hard to distinguish yourself. Most people haven't done research yet (SURFs are the easiest venue for this, and they happen over the summer), nor have they gotten deeply involved in the community, or developed relationships with the professors that would help get compelling recommendations written. So not too many rising soph's get them. </p>
<p>You know an Axline applicant when you see them. They have an amazing application in all ways. They just are absolutely stunning and blow your socks off. They make you wonder how you got in. They remind you why you aren't a math major. If you can empathize with normal people at all, you probably aren't an Axline. If you can't understand why professors at first tier universities are so dense, you might be. And, by the way, hi to the folks I had lunch with and saw you at SURF; glad to hear that you got in! </p>
<p>I don't know the financial aid formula. However, I have it on good source (David Levy, director of financial aid; a man that I have a lot of faith in. We've served on three committees together) that, somehow, we have a more generous formula. I'll ask him next time I see him how it is. </p>
<p>That said, Caltech has a wide cross section of people. The average income of a Caltech family, while substantially above that of the median for the country as a whole (not surprising, family income is correlated with academic acheivment fairly strongly) is substantially below that of other first-tier schools. I heard that our median income is something like 40% of that of Harvard's. </p>
<p>We do have people from all classes. I would say that probably the "average" student here is upper-middle class, but there are folks from lower-middle class (like yours truly), people who are paying $200 a year to come here (I know more than a few), and people who have crashed their dad's porsche, and not had to worry at all about the financial impact. </p>
<p>While I've seen a number of arguments why it would be that Caltech's family income would be so far below those of peer schools (ranging from the fact that they don't feel the need to "keep up their parents' doctor/lawyer income" to "science and engineering are base and upperclass people aren't interested in them), none of them seem especially satisfactory. I think it probably ends up coming down to how admissions works, and how we look for merit. I think we do a pretty good job of "seeing through the application" and seeing if someone is going to be able to swing the very, very rigorous academics of Caltech. While we do not practice affirmative action, if someone has gone through non-academic trials and tribulations and done well, you can be fairly sure that they'll be able to make it through both the academic and non-academic horrors (for want of a better word) that college in general, and Caltech in particular, throw at you. </p>
<p>Lastly, the reason that people end up in so little debt when they graduate is due to a policy change that occurred about six years ago. Instead of giving huge loans, as we used to and a number of schools still do, we now give grants. This was made possible by a campaign goal which raised millions of dollars for financial aid (bear in mind, tuition makes up only 4% of Caltech's revenue in any given year), and happened at the same time that the Axline scholarships were established (What I hear is that apparently Mr. & Mrs. Axline felt if we were going to give so much need based aid, we should also have some merit based aid). This means that no Caltech student will be offered more than $1650 in loans, and $1650 in work-study per year. These can be interconverted, so if you wanted to take it all in work study (and work in the housing office for $20/hour or the libraries for $12 an hour doing almost nothing) you could. If you wanted to take it all in loans, you could. But no matter what, you won't accrue more than $3300/year in loans, or $13200 during your entire stay here (assuming the 4-year plan). So that's why people graduate with so little money in loans. Not because everyone is super-rich or super-poor. </p>
<p>End long post.</p>
<p>Galen</p>