<p>What I mean by this is: Would it be more likely for someone rejected from Stanford to get into Caltech, or vice versa? And approximately how much more likely would one scenario be than the other?</p>
<p>They pick from two totally different pools of applicants, but if you go by admit rate, Stanford is harder. Also, I think stanford does affirmative action/athlete recruiting so those may affect you positively or negatively.</p>
<p>As you know, all the top schools are very hard to get into. You can distinguish the selectivity between a top school and a good school. For example, Harvard is harder to get into than UCLA. But You can’t necessarily say that Stanford is harder to get into than Caltech, or vice versa. They are looking for completely different people. The reason Stanford’s admit rate is lower is because Caltech’s applicant pool is more selective. Many applicants applying to Caltech are competitive while many applying to Stanford are not. I know people who got into MIT but rejected by Caltech. I was accepted to Caltech but deferred by MIT (yesterday). So you can clearly see the top schools are looking for different people. For some, Stanford is easier. For others, Caltech is easier.</p>