@thumper1 You seem to have the idea that I really want to go to either Caltech or Berkeley. Although I want to visit Caltech and Berkeley, they are not my first choices and a reason that I want to visit them is to decide whether to apply to them at all (I don’t think I could survive at Berkeley with my personality and I get the impression that Caltech isn’t very welcoming to people who aren’t intensely into STEM before they get there). I pretty much only suggested visiting Caltech so that I could also suggest visiting Harvey Mudd since it’s “in the area”, and Berkeley because I want to see what a big public school is like just in case I end up there. My real first choices right now are Harvey Mudd and UChicago because I think they’d both be a good fit. Then of course I’ll apply to a bunch of UCs as matches and safeties.