<p>I'm going off a lot on anecdotal evidence but I'm wondering if other people have seen this.
I've heard that MIT/Cal Tech being "technology" schools where STEM is the major focus, they look at the super academic kids more favorably than Stanford or Yale. For example, a kid with 2400 4.0 gpa and 15+ APs that does academic decatholon, science Olympiad, and research at a lab may have a much better chance at MIT than at Stanford. Anecdotally, at least at my own school, this seems to be true to an extent. This year we had 9 MIT admits and 11 Cal Tech admits, most of them very sciency or academic and many Asian, while there were only 3 Harvard and 4 Stanford, who were more well rounded and were about half white. So do you think a more number heavy kid would have a better shot at MIT than at Harvard?</p>
<p>Bump?</p>
<p>CalTech is very much numbers-focused. They march to the beat of their own drum. Unlike pretty much any other private elite, they state that they admit solely based on what they define as “merit” (that is, race, legacy, and athletic ability have zero influence). The only other schools that may be close may be the U of Chicago and WashU (which, unlike the Ivies and many other elite privates, give very little consideration to athletes).</p>
<p>MIT certainly likes techy, nerdy types (especially if you’re a girl, though that’s true for CalTech as well) more than the Ivies, though they aren’t as extreme as CalTech.</p>
<p>BTW, which HS? One of the public magnets or a private?</p>
<p>I go to a generic public school (not magnet) but we seem to send a good number of kids to top schools. This year was a record high (we usually don’t get 9 MITs or 4 Stanfords, around 5 and 2 respectively most of the time)</p>
<p>How big’s the graduating class, and what state is it in?</p>
<p>California, around 480</p>
<p>That’s an impressive admission rate, then. Presumably with the same rate of other Ivies/Ivy-equivalents scattered in there as well (or do Cal and UCLA suck up all the bright kids who don’t go to HYPSM/Caltech?)</p>
<p>Well this year we had 53 Cal admits, 19 enrolled, 47 UCLA admits 8 enrolled, 3 Harvard 3 enrolled, 7 Yale 1 enrolled (I know right), 4 Princeton 1 enrolled, 5 Stanford 3 enrolled, 12 Cal tech 3 enrolled, and 9 MIT 6 enrolled. It seems the kids that get into HYPSM get into multiple of the 5 so there are overlaps. Everyone else (the ivy rejects) a lot of them end up at Cal and UCLA.</p>
<p>For Cal Tech, the class size is so small that they are probably not looking for diversity and focus more on academic achievement.</p>
<p>@billcsho:</p>
<p>For CalTech, it’s because, unlike any other private elite, they explicitly state that race, legacy, and athletic ability do not factor in to admissions decisions at all. Willliams is small too, and over half their student body are athletes, legacies, or URM.</p>