@dsi411 Will things be OK for you in years when your FA is not based on a money-losing year for your mom’s business?
based on your first post, I am a little surprised Cal Tech is so close to the top of the list. It seems to be the weakest outside the STEM classes. It seems like the strongest choices are the Mudd/Pomona combo or MIT. Much of the reputation of these schools is based on their grad schools. That is not the case with the Claremont schools.
Sounds like your costs may go up quite a bit in future years. Could you ask the schools to give you a sense of what your FA package will look like for future years? Make sure that the cost in future years is going to be affordable for your family.
OK, if you’ve done that and everything is still affordable:
As much as I have a warm and fuzzy place in my heart for Caltech, this quote from you says to me that you should look elsewhere. Every school on your list will give you this to some extent, but the two that stand out to me as having the happiest students who love learning across a variety of disciplines are Rice and Pomona. Pomona will give you access to Mudd classes via the consortium.
That said–these are all wonderful schools (as you know). There are no horrible choices in terms of academics.
Even if you can’t visit, contact the math departments at each school. See if you can talk to some undergrads, either phone or email. Female students if possible (black female even better). Get a sense of their experience.
As a parent, yes, prestige is nice. Having a happy, successful child is in my opinion even better. 
Caltech Prefrosh Weekend is very welcoming. It may make it harder for you to give up Caltech.
Weather and long flights are the only weak points of MIT coming from Southern California. They have a storm with rain and winds today but it will be 77F in Boston next week if you plan to stay that long.
i went to mudd for chemistry, now i make $170k a year in total compensation at 40yrs old. my story is not uncommon. there’s a very high hit rate if you can survive mudd to become very successful because they train you to look beyond the science and help you focus on how you can be a successful person. most the other places don’t have such a success rate, though they are all great schools.
Thanks everyone, I think MIT is my top choice now (after a couple days at CPW). If I were to assign percentages I’d say there’s a 60% chance I’ll go to MIT, 25% chance I’ll go to Caltech, and 15% chance I’ll go somewhere else at this moment. However I haven’t gone to Caltech Prefrosh Weekend yet. I’ll probably be able to make my decision after that. Thanks.
I’m sorry your parents are not in favor of Mudd. Most Mudders KNOW they’ve found their tribe there, and you sound like one of them.
Congrats on your awesome acceptances!
I think a parent on this thread mentioned this, but the flameout at Caltech is real. It’s a small % of the class, but it’s a recurring theme because of the intensity of the curriculum there. One of my good friends was a MOPer (tippy top ranked math student in US) and won a gold medal in the International Physics Olympiad, and flamed out hard at Caltech. He didn’t take a semester off, but his love for math and physics got burnt out.
It is a minority of the class for sure who burns out, but the minimum required academic intensity at Caltech is more rigorous than at MIT, where there’s a bit more breathing room to pull back or to be as intense as you want to be (just as intense as at Caltech). MIT also has more diversity if you’re interested in the humanities and you can cross-register at Harvard.
Also, as someone who’s helped organize admit weekends, they’re a great preview, but do keep in mind that they’re a bit self-selecting; i.e., it’s usually the more happy/sociable students who are volunteering to lead events and interact w students.
Congrats on all the great choices. I think Caltech is just as prestigious for STEM as MIT/Stanford. Although my first choice would be MIT or Stanford, I think you should at least visit the University of Chicago. The University of Chicago is very strong in math. Ngo Chau teaches there. It may be more balanced than Caltech/MIT, since the humanities are important to you.
As @Arwen1 mentioned, universities present their best image during admitted student events.
Something that the OP could do to get numerous, unfiltered accounts of student experience is look online for student reviews (e.g., the website Niche). While it’s conceded that these websites don’t have a verification process (i.e., anyone can post anonymously, which of course is true for CC too), one does get a general sense about how content the study body is.
Regarding Caltech, one review that I read stuck with me. The reviewer said that for 1/3 of the students, it’s the absolute best place in the world; these kids flourish in a way that they couldn’t anywhere else. Another 1/3 struggle mightily, but emerge with a world-class STEM education and fearsome analytical skills. The final 1/3 are absolutely miserable and regret that they chose to attend… I’m curious if @Arwen1 agrees with this assessment.
Regarding HMC, many students in reviews that I read loved the camaraderie, but grumbled about how difficult it is to graduate with a GPA that employers respect, unless they were familiar with how tough the grading is at HMC… I attended a talk by Maria Klawe (HMC President) in which she said that there had only been five students to graduate with a 4.0 during her tenure (since 2006).
And, of course, MIT famously has IHTFP. Some students may chose the positive definition, while others the negative. And still others vacillate.
I believe Mudd is up to something like 8 4.0s in their history now. :). My kid wishes her GPA was higher, but thinks her education could not be better.
@intparent : Regarding GPA at Mudd: How do you compare it with MIT, Caltech, Stanford in terms of relative difficulty of maintaining 3.5 or 3.75. Based on cc posts and my personal conversations with others, my conclusion is it will be easier at Stanford. The order of difficulty appears to be Caltech, Mudd, MIT, Stanford for Engineering, Science majors. Stanford being the easiest by a good measure. Please feel free to disabuse me of any false notions. I am just trying to assess things as we have grad/med school in plan after undergrad. GPA plays a role in top tier grad admissions along with other factors.
Anyone in the know, please chime in.
If by “grad school” you are possibly thinking of PhD programs , then know that LOR’s from professors, the “reputation” of the college, GRE scores AND GPA in ones major are ALL very important the admission committees, which are made up of Professors.
Any one applying to a PhD program from ANY of those colleges will get a serious read- not college has an advantage one way or another- profs KNOW how hard it is to get top grades in STEM subjects at the top colleges.
I can’t compare, only know that Mudd’s average graduate GPA is in the 3.3-3.4 range. I would NOT attend there if med school is the goal. Other types of grad schools seem to understand and make some accomodations for the Mudd grade deflation. Not med schools.
Just FYI, MIT uses a 5.0 scale.
@whatisyourquest I can’t say I know enough about Caltech to talk about the 1/3 1/3 1/3 split, but I do think there is some…minimum required academic intensity that can be extremely tough and not easy to predict as a high school student who’s used to gliding through his/her coursework.
I just recently returned home from my visit to Caltech and I really enjoyed it. I think i’m leaning slightly towards Caltech but it could still go either way. At this point I’ve decided to decide between just MIT and Caltech. I really like the community and atmosphere at Caltech, more so than MIT, but I wonder if i’ll be missing any opportunities by going to Caltech over MIT. I also wonder if the small size might feel limiting after a while. I also went to a presentation about the humanities and social sciences at Caltech and their offerings seem good, or at least adequate, so I’m not too worried about that. Also the weather at Caltech’s prefrosh weekend was much better than the weather at MIT’s campus preview weekend, I’m not sure if I could survive MIT’s weather. And yet, I feel as if I’ll be missing out on things if I choose Caltech over MIT. Any advice?
Sorry that Mudd/Pomona fell off the list because the combination sounds like it checks a lot of your boxes. What was the cost at Mudd (minus the loans)?
Curious, why did your parents veto Chicago?
Congrats on your many acceptances!
My son is still at Caltech’s PFW, so I haven’t heard from him directly about his thoughts. My husband is there and was impressed by how they talked in the family-only sessions about using the small size very intentionally to make sure that everyone is supported by multiple layers of advisors, so that students don’t get left behind despite the workload.
He doesn’t have MIT as an option, so his is a different choice. He did go to admitted students events for CMU SCS, and they didn’t say much at all about support services for CS majors or ways they make sure students do social things, despite that school also being known for a fairly heavy workload.
Would you get equivalent social support at MIT? Or might you get lost in the crowd?
Remember that you only have time to take advantage of a limited number of opportunities–that is, you can only do one internship or summer research project at a time, even if you have more opportunities at one place than the other. So, the question may be whether there are opportunities in areas that interest you at Caltech.
Are there specific opportunities at MIT that you’d miss having at Caltech? Or is it more a general worry about the size?