<p>"Hey, so how has your semester been?"
"Great, I got into Caltech!"
"Ooh, neat, my son got into Tulane. Now he's building bridges..."
...
...
...
"So...is Caltech hard to get into?"</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>Why does NOBODY KNOW that Caltech exists?</p>
<p>I've heard about Caltech somewhere.....I think</p>
<p>I think that's because Caltech produced very few celebrity..(like..in terms of entertainers, political figure, sports stars, or super star scientists like Einstein..) I know that there were many great scientists and engineers graduated Caltech, and that's why Caltech has been acknowledged by scientists and engineers, but I don't think any "super star" is related to Caltech..(Other than Feynman..and Feynman is still not the super star..)</p>
<p>But who cares? And one who knows Caltech thinks Caltech is one of the best colleges in the world.</p>
<p>Hah. </p>
<p>Teacher: So, where are you planning to study?
Me: Well, Caltech, if they take me...
Teacher: Where is that? Surely you could try for Haahvaaahd?</p>
<p>Because in India, only Harvard and MIT exist. Apparently. :/</p>
<p>If that kind of thing bothers you, don't come to Caltech. For some people, it's important to have the degree admired far and wide; Caltech yields a higher degree of respect in a smaller circle.</p>
<p>(But talk to some Harvard kids and you'll find out that the effect of the name is a double-edged sword.)</p>
<p>I personally enjoy going to an ITT Tech ripoff.</p>
<p>aheeeeeem.</p>
<p>Feynman IS in fact THE superstar. Who is more super than him?</p>
<p>Nobody? That's what I thought.</p>
<p>The father of the Chinese Atomic Bomb, Space Program, and Missile Program was a graduate of Caltech.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Caltech yields a higher degree of respect in a smaller circle.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well said.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Feynman IS in fact THE superstar. Who is more super than him?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I agree. I like Feynman. But objectively, I would guess that more than half of the people in US don't know Feynman, while more than half of the people know Einstein and Britney Spears. And even if one knows Feynman, many of them don't know if Feynman was professor of Caltech.</p>
<p>But again, who cares.</p>
<p>And most people in California confuse Caltech with Cal Poly (California Polytechnic State University), a state university in San Luis Obispo.</p>
<p>And outside of California! Multiple people in Boston congratulated me, with a certain degree of bewilderment, on my decision to go to Cal Poly. The only problem I had with this was that it seemed a bit of an insult to my parents that the optimization there in terms of distance would seem reasonable. (And also that I wasn't sure where Cal Poly was, which gave the choice of college the outward flavor of a globe-spinning Dolittle trip.)</p>
<p>When I told one kid at school I wanted to go to Caltech he asked me if it was a tech school.</p>
<p>that's sad to hear cuz in So. Cal, everybody in my school knows the academic rigor that Caltech possesses (and that it's up there (ahem... beyond) the ivies)</p>
<p>People in Florida think I go to Cal Poly. Except the smart ones.</p>
<p>Never Mind ........</p>
<p>cal poly better well known than caltech?</p>
<p>Well, Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly SLO both have about 18,000 students each while Caltech has about 850... They are also two of the most prestigious non-UC public schools in California. At my southern California high school they were both very well-known and very popular (even for students who got into "higher ranked" colleges.) I am kind of surprised they're so well-known in the Northeast though.</p>
<p>Isn't caltech a tech school though?
Or does a tech school refer to a 2-year vocational school?
I've said to people numerous times, "I'm interested in tech schools, like Caltech and MIT......"...</p>
<p>Btw, what does caltech stand for?
haha.</p>
<p>Caltech is an Institute of Technology. Specifically, the California Institute of Technology.</p>
<p>Tech school often seems to refer to vocational schools, such as ITT Tech. UndulyLlamarific will probably tell you that Caltech is a ripoff of ITT Tech ;-) (jokingly, of course).</p>
<p>UL- people confuse Caltech and Cal Poly in my area because of Cal Poly's sports team.</p>