<p>I have been accepted to both and am wondering which one to attend. My main focus is on math and sciences and I want to choose purely based on which one is more academically rigorous.</p>
<p>Then you might as well flip a coin. They are both highly rigorous to a degree that differentiating between them broadly on this axis is meaningless. Give some thought to other criteria that might be important to you.</p>
<p>Both are top world class Universities. MIT is 168 acres and CalTech is 124 acres. CalTech’s student body is much smaller though. Do you want to live in California or North-east after gradutation ? I would choose CalTech just because its cheaper and its in California.</p>
<p>If you were smart enough to get into both, you should know that they’re both extremely rigorous and excellent in STEM fields. Go visit both schools and decide which one you like better (assuming both are affordable). You can’t go wrong with either choice.</p>
<p>^^^I agree with the others that you need to add other criteria, as they are equally rigorous and respected. The obvious difference to me is East Coast vs West Coast. </p>
<p>Remember that you will make connections wherever you go. As XtremePower noted, you might think about where you want to wind up after graduation, as those connections may be useful when you enter your career.</p>
<p>Academically – You’re probably into the top two schools in the US for what you want to study. We could argue all day as to which is better – but really, you won’t go wrong with either.</p>
<p>Is one materially cheaper than the other (after financial aid)? Are there other intangibles?</p>
<p>My D was also accepted to both Caltech and MIT. D got involved in the MITES program last summer and took kindly to the Cambridge area. D has also visited Caltech and being from the northeast really appreciated the weather; sunny and warm So-Cal.
From what I’ve read on blogs and various media outlets, Caltech appears to be the top choice institution for those wanting to be submerged into science and research whereas the strength for choosing MIT APPEARS (just what ive read) to be heavy on the name recognition. </p>
<p>If it were my decision…well its not so I’ll leave her to figure out that problem. But boy what an absolutely awesome problem to have!! </p>
<p>congratulations on your hard work</p>
<p>Also in terms of ranking, both MIT and Caltech have been dubbed the #1 university in the world, in the same year, by two different publications HOWEVER a more objective measure was used to assess Caltech’s #1 ranking (Times Higher Education) while a MIT #1 ranking (USNews) was measured using a more subjective method . </p>
<p>…just food for thought</p>
<p>IMHO the adcoms of the school where you don’t go would be pleased to learn of your decision, delighted that someone unable or unwilling to focus on more than one factor in making a complex decision has chosen not to enroll.</p>
<p>Common dude! If I were you, I’d choose MIT because of many reasons and priorities I have.</p>
<p>Ask yourself: What do I want? Weather preference? diversity? size of student body? Well I definitely want to date a girl (atleast one). Do you?</p>
<p>There are many such factors! Good Luck and Congrats! I wish I were you:)</p>
<p>I think MIT is a more well rounded school especially if you decide you might not want to do STEM after all.</p>
<p>You should cross-post in the both the MIT and Caltech forums to get more perspectives from current students and alums who might not visit this forum…
Caltech wins on the weather (November through March), but otherwise I prefer the MIT location with all that Cambridge/Boston have to offer and for the abundance of college students from all the nearby schools.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your acceptances, both are the very best and you will get a superb education wherever you go. Though both are small compared to a school like, say, Berkeley that has 26,000 undergrads, MIT has 4500 undergrads while Cal Tech has 900 which makes the education experience quite different. Consider how it feels to you to be on a campus with lots of students or fewer. I chose Cal Tech and have found that I know everyone in my major but at MIT you can be more anonymous if that’s you thing. With more students, MIT has a wider range of clubs, though. No real competitive sprots team at Cal Tech, but this wan’t my thing.
Cal Tech and MIT are funded exceptionally well and with small student numbers classes don’t fill up which allows students to take any class or major they want. (Though Berkeley is excellent, they only take so many students in classes and majors so you may not be able to take all the classes or the major you want come second year. You compete to get into popular classes and poplar majors. Stress!) But the curriculums are different- Cal Tech starts all undergrads students with their core curriculum which differs from MIT’s significantly. Look at the courses to see which you prefer. Both are intense schools with demanding and sophisticated classes, but both schools try to help students manage stress. Cal Tech has take-home tests as part of an Honor System while MIT doesn’t count first year grades (I find it less stress than high school and I’m still at the top of my class.)
You will be able to take any major you like at either school, but they offer different majors. MIT has more and has biomed engineering. Cal Tech has fewer, but offers some MIT doesn’t. JPL is, of course, unique.
East vs. West Coast- Boston is a glorious city and has more colleges and students than any other city in the US. It is a gorgeous city filled with history, and on weekends there are beautiful places to drive to within an hour up and down the coast. Pasadena is pretty quiet but is 30-45 minutes to LA and the beaches. LA has a good music scene. Sunshine is pretty heavenly.
As an undergrad, your emphasis is not really research, but I wanted to do undergrad research to find what I really liked. Everyone I know who has wanted to do undergrad research has been able to have paid jobs doing this as an undergrad. (Maybe MIT is the same?) I’m sure both have extraordinary labs. All external evaluations of research find Caltech and MIT doing the best in the world, but Caltech publishes more and it cited more often even though it has fewer professors. This impressed me, but as an undergrad you will get superb access to research at either college. Cal Tech has a 1:3 prof to student ratio, and I felt this low ratio was an advantage. I was interested in computational neuroscience and Cal Tech’s research was a better fit for me. (Some of my house mates are in Applied Physics-Materials Sciecne, and Aerospace and they tell me that these are areas Cal Tech excels at. They had the MIT-CalTech choice 3 years ago, too.) I felt that MIT had a wider range of research and has some research in areas Cal Tech doesn’t, so consider where you might like to work or do research. MIT has biomed, Cal Tech doesn’t really. Though MIT has the superb Sloan business school and some people feel they have a more entrepreneurial spirit, I wanted to be in CA where I was closer to a larger range of tech businesses and would meet people who worked in them. (By the way, if business is your thing, University of Pennsylvania has an outstanding engineering-tech-business program with their engineering school and Wharton.)
CalTech has a house system for undergrads which is modelled after the UK select colleges. Some people like this sense of social community and support.
Students are friendly; if you see a research or study area you are interested in, email some students. Grad students’ emails are online. MIT has great student blogs for prospective students to read and contact, too. I chose Caltech and love, love, love it- supremely interesting classes, great profs, friendly, generous students, sunshine, compelling research, but you will love either school passionately. It’s all about fit.</p>
<p>^^^itsallforgotten, I totally enjoyed reading your review and DS isn’t even considering these schools.</p>
<p>Well, MIT is first for maths in [World’s</a> Best Universities in Mathematics; Top Mathematics Universities | US News](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/worlds-best-universities-rankings/best-universities-mathematics]World’s”>http://www.usnews.com/education/worlds-best-universities-rankings/best-universities-mathematics) ,with CalTech in the 12th spot.</p>
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<p>MIT is larger, has more resources. Has an established UROP program that allows Freshman to work on cutting edge research projects starting Freshman year. Doesn’t force you to choose a major right away (I couldn’t decide so they allowed me to do two degrees simultaneously). Even after declaring a major you can still take classes and work on projects in other disciplines - or just immerse in your own department.</p>
<p>First semester is pass fail to encourage exploration not grade chasing.</p>
<p>A lot of research you’ll be exposed to isn’t written about because of the leading edge or secretive nature. </p>
<p>You can take classes at Harvard for free.</p>
<p>You can take classes at Wellesley for free.</p>
<p>I could go on - but these are completely different colleges - both are the best in the world. If you can’t tell the difference between the two - then honestly - why did you apply? You might as well go to state college.</p>
<p>The philosophy at both is not what the college can do for YOU - but what will YOU do with the available resources once on campus.</p>
<p>The first test of an engineer is not to use data from unreliable sources and opinions - but find your own primary resources, synthesize the data and form a conclusion on your own.</p>
<p>Both schools are extremely good at math and science. Either will be fine - but as someone above posted - i would hope that you would have stronger reasons for choosing one over another. This is your first true test as a scientist.</p>
<p>Thank-you all. I did the RSI summer program and found it amazing. I have decided to go to MIT simply because of the financial aid for international students.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your choice – MIT is a great school!!!</p>