<p>I think Kamikazewave’s explanation makes a lot of sense. As I have mentioned in MIT forum also, it is time for everyone to move on, especially those who got into Caltech. To me, Caltech is the school to be in for a certain type of student and it is the school that I want my S to go to.</p>
<p>Both I and a friend were accepted EA at Caltech and deferred -> rejected at MIT.</p>
<p>We both applied for Financial Aid, I think this is a heavy factor because when comparing my Caltech FA estimate to MIT’s online estimator, MIT’s would have given me $10K more in scholarship with about equal loan/work study. I remember reading that MIT’s FA resources were significantly down this year, and they have 5X as much students. So with all the URM and poor minorities added in because of MIT’s AA policy, MIT has barely any money to supply the rest of the student body and therefore discriminates against middle class.</p>
<p>I was pretty sad at being rejected at first, but now I kinda think Caltech may be a better “investment” than that other institute of technology.</p>
<p>Screw MIT!</p>
<p>@HYPhopper: Caltech is 37% and MIT is ~60%</p>
<p>I don’t think financial aid was a factor at all unless you are an international. I actually didn’t apply fin aid for caltech because it was last minute and did apply for financial aid for mit</p>
<p>caltech >>>> MIT</p>
<p>you can’t beat socal weather</p>
<p>My son was admitted to MIT and wait listed at Caltech. His SAT scores are above the 50% norm for Caltech, mostly 800s. Other stats great too, plus some serious activities. Many people expressed surprise at this but he was not quite as surprised. He says his Caltech essays were not up to his usual caliber. I haven’t seen what he sent to Caltech but did sneak a peak at his MIT ones and they were quite good answers (if I am even objective ;-). Was he slackin that day or do the questions asked strongly affect the outcome for some applicants? Who knows. Pretty much all colleges say they do pay a lot of attention to what you write in your essays.</p>
<p>Accepted EA Caltech. Deferred EA MIT, THEN FINALLY REJECTED MIT.</p>
<p>this same thing happened to one of my friends. I have a hunch: I think most of you are asian, because the asian population % at Caltech is far greater than that of MIT, and MIT always accepts less asians (they also accept guys less for the sake of evening the diversity, so if you’re an asian guy, getting into MIT is almost impossible).</p>
<p>although Caltech has far fewer undergrads than MIT, MIT has like…< 2% asians, which is probably less than Caltech’s asians percentage of about 50-60%</p>
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<p>Then how are there so many Asian males at MIT? In fact, they are hugely over-represented.</p>
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<p>Actually, your data are way off. MIT is 26% Asian; Caltech is 38% Asian. Keep in mind that Asians are about 3.6% of the US population.</p>
<p>yeah it’s late at night here, sorry about those numbers. But I was right, just overly exaggerated. And 38% for Caltech? That really does seem too low since it’s CA</p>
<p>But asians are considered to be a minority at MIT. Also nowadays, it is much easier for girls to get into MIT than guys (this could’ve been another reason). Or it could be just a new admissions process used this year, and you all happen to the first unfortunate victims :P</p>
<p>bottom line: college admissions were extremely weird this year, so don’t be so surprised at anything unusual occurring. For now, just enjoy the summer and gaze at that Caltech admission letter (only about 900 across the world) that some of you have probably already hung on your refridgerator, in an shiny, glossy frame</p>
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<p>Well there is no majority race at MIT. Even Whites make up only 37% I believe. So despite having about 19 times the representation in the US population, Whites have only about 1.4 times the representation at MIT – that doesn’t suggest that is it significantly harder for Asians.</p>
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No, this isn’t new. The 5 people I know at Caltech (in class years 2010 thru 2013) are all there because they were not accepted to MIT.</p>
<p>Can you share with us what you think got you into caltech? One hears so much about superman like efforts- original research, winner of science fairs, etc. is that urban legend, or are the caltech students really such high achievers? Thanks</p>
<p>My school’s valedictorian from 2 years ago got accepted to CalTech (he’s currently a sophomore there) and several other Ivy Leagues, but got waitlisted by MIT.</p>
<p>Interesting thread. My S was also among those who was accepted by Caltech but rejected at MIT after being deferred. It is hard to tell what is going on here. If you look at SAT scores, Caltech admittees are distinctly higher than those of MIT. MIT 2175 mean, Caltech 2240. My son had a 2350. This would seem to suggest that MIT is rejecting higher SAT score students (who are admitted by Caltech) in favor of those with less formidable test scores. This suggests that MIT is looking for a somewhat different mix of students than Caltech. As is well known, Caltech does not really look at diversity and extracurriculars (other than scientific and math ones), while MIT increasingly does. MIT is becoming more and more similar to schools like Harvard and Stanford, who not only look at academic achievement and potential but leadership qualities (Mr and Ms Student Council) as well as diversity. The high school my S attended sends more students to both MIT and Caltech than any other public high school in the country. Some of those who ended up at MIT were among the best and brightest at the school, but overall, the corridor talk at school was that they were not the smartest cohort in the senior class. Caltech and Stanford probably carried off the honors here. Although the data is hardly overwhelming, the bottom line could be that Caltech is looking only for the best and brightest science and math students, while MIT casts its net somewhat wider. Neither is better or worse for it, just different.</p>
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<p>Did your kid go to Thomas Jefferson High? Or a math/science academy?<br>
Just curious as an MIT alum. It would be more useful to relay this info to admissions people if I knew which high school it was. If you care to disclose it, you can pm me.
BTW, admissions has only been this way for about a decade.</p>
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<p>I agree with most of your post, everything except that Stanford admissions is more academics-driven than MIT’s.</p>
<p>Collegealum, the high school is indeed TJ. I think the Stanford spike this year I referred to did not reflect a more Caltech-like approach toward admissions, but was simply the result of the fact that a particularly impressive group of TJ kids got into and decided to attend Stanford this year. However, only one TJ student, a good friend of S’s, got into both Caltech and Stanford and she ended up going to Stanford. The other TJ kids who got into Stanford did not apply to Caltech, so they were looking for something a bit different to begin with. The overlap between Caltech and MIT was much greater, but TJ being an East Coast school, MIT still got lots more applicants. Interestingly, there was a big spike in overall Caltech applications worldwide this year, possibly stemming from the publicity attracted by its ranking as the number one school in the Times Higher Education ranking of world universities. But it is a STEM school through and through and not even MIT can make that claim or would want to.</p>
<p>Our experience was different, jm.</p>
<p>I can’t speak about how many of these students applied to, and were accepted to Caltech other than my son, but seven students from the local math circle were accepted to MIT and are attending. All were Asian or white except my son who is half Caucasian and half Puerto Rican. His scores were over 2300. All seven students including my son were national math and physics competitors. They are all considered top math/physics students here in So. Cal.</p>
<p>I don’t know how many applied to Caltech or Stanford, but I can safely say that MIT has some stunningly brilliant students (including several IMO winners in my son’s dorm). But yes, MIT and Caltech are very different and both are amazing schools.</p>
<p>I do know one student who was accepted to MIT, Caltech, and Stanford and chose Stanford. It was definitely the right fit for this student.</p>
<p>None of the students that I know personally who were accepted to Caltech class of 2012 chose it over MIT. Maybe the So Cal kids wanted to go farther from home; I’m not sure. For my son, he simply didn’t like Caltech after visiting. He was deciding between Mudd, MIT, and Princeton. (Didn’t apply to Stanford or Harvard)</p>
<p>I read about this guy who got flat out rejected by Caltech… his name is James Watson, and he was the co-discovered of the structure of DNA, and subsequently a Nobel prize winner… so don’t lose hope even if Caltech won’t have you :-)</p>
<p>Well, looking at the Caltech and MIT thread, there are many who were accepted to Caltech but deferred by MIT (like me). They’re just looking for different people I guess.</p>