<p>why don't u see princetonreview's rankings to answer this question.</p>
<p>My opinion is..they're pretty much the same when it comes to competitiveness...</p>
<p>Kids at my school tend to have much better luck getting into Caltech- the last guy that got in at MIT won silver at international chem olympiad. As the other posters hinted at, it seems that MIT is a little bit more interested in diversity and personal qualities than Caltech. The distinction is not huge (admits at both schools are undeniably brilliant) but I think its there.</p>
<p>MIT - rejected
Caltech - admitted</p>
<p>And I wrote one of my caltech essays at 3am on january 1st (I'm in europe so the deadline didn't pass yet)</p>
<p>Just goes to show you you never know. (I'm a US citizen so I wasn't in international pool if that's what ur thinking)</p>
<p>On a side note, a friend of mine with far better credentials than me (I think he had gold at an international math thing) also got rejected from MIT. To me it appears that it's never certain if u'll get in or not.</p>
<p>Now I just have to see if Harvard, Stanford or Princeton accept me... but I'm just glad I got to at least one of my reach schools.</p>