<p>I was accepted into Caltech yesterday, but rejected from MIT. Don't get me wrong, I feel blessed, but also cannot help but wonder what could have been. MIT has been my dream school for so long and for so many reasons, it's difficult for me to imagine myself anywhere else. </p>
<p>So what is the point of this thread? After all, MIT is obviously not an option for me anymore.</p>
<p>I appologize in advance if I sound vain or ungrateful for my acceptance. But simply, I would like reasons to feel better about the hand I've been dealt. Can any current Caltechers, or prefrosh describe their reasons for choosing Caltech? What is life and classes there like compared to larger schools? Are there any unique Caltech opportunities not available anywhere else?</p>
<p>There are SURFs (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships) that give you a stipend and valuable research experience. Plus, the house system is pretty cool. Yeah, and it's pretty much the most challenging college in the world in terms of core requirements, so you will definitely know the material. You get much more interaction with the professors thanks to the size of the school as well.</p>
<p>I would think someone with the handle JohnGalt would appreciate being at a school whose adcoms do not play many games with "balance." As Ben Golub has emphasized in many posts over the last year, Caltech is the closest of the big research institutes in the US to a pure meritocracy. All adcoms are imperfect, but only at Caltech is an applicant who is felt to be ex ante stronger academically almost always going to be accepted over the weaker candidate. NOT, so-and-so has a low (for Tech) SAT and a Math 2 of 680 but we should let them in cause they're "interesting." It is politically incorrect to say so and Caltech is in the minority. But I maintain we are right and the rest of the US is wrong.</p>
<p>As a professor for many years, I cannot tell you how many times I wished my current institution, or any of the top institutions I've visited had had such a similar principle. It would also make selecting students for grad school much easier if I felt that all graduates of a given university had met a certain minimum training standard. You can be certain that when it comes time to apply for a Phd, that doing well in Band or winning a song-writing contest isn't going to count for beans.</p>
<p>Be happy and proud to get in. Congratulations and enjoy the moment. [Cause you'll not always feel so positive about Tech when doing Math or Physics homework! Hah.]</p>
<p>Caltech students are academically more hardcore coming in and then they're subjected to a tougher academic boot camp. You get to be in a small, academically elite group. The campus is more beautiful and the student life is more close knit.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, don't come to Caltech if you just want the next best thing to an MIT experience. We don't offer that here and people who come from that perspective often end up quite unhappy -- just a warning. We offer something better than MIT to people who are looking for it, but you have to know what it is first without anybody telling you.</p>
<p>Sorry if that wasn't what you wanted to hear. Do some soul-searching (after all your letters come in) and decide what you want out of college. Then decide who comes closest to offering it.</p>
<p>I think one has to experience Caltech to get a feel for how its different than MIT or other larger colleges. The house system and the honor code, as examples, as well as labs at 11 pm, are unique. Socializing with professors, jumping into research, playing sports or music--being accepted into any EC--the feeling of cooperation rather than competition for such activities...I'm sure a student can speak with far more depth than a parent.
Still, anyone can sit back and wonder why they got rejected from Caltech and into MIT, and vice versa. They can wonder why they were so special to one school and not the other. Until they matriculate, they cannot know that they were accepted because their personality and interests truly were seen as a good fit by the admissions committee.
I hope both of you visit and sense how special the UG program is.
(Ben, if I'm stepping out of line as a parent, let me know)</p>