<p>I know it's a good school, but compared to other elite schools...like harvard, S, P, Yale, Berkeley, Columbia, or even Cornell/UCLA, I don't think people know of Caltech that much.</p>
<p>The talk generally goes like this.
Student:Did you go to college/ where did you graduate from?
Teacher:Caltech
Student:Oh...where is it at?
Teacher:It's Calif Ins. of Tech. in CA
Student:CA...You mean Cal Poly?
Teacher:No, it's a private school.
Student:Oh I see. Is it something like ITT Tech?</p>
<p>The general population will probably not be as aware of Caltech as some other elite institutions. However, its reputation is quite well known by academia, employers, and researchers. On the other other hand, Caltech seems to have a greater presence internationally with many foreigners not knowing Yale or Princeton but being finely aware of Caltech.</p>
<p>I would say responses in the US boil down to the following scenarios:</p>
<ol>
<li>Complete Lack of Knowledge</li>
<li>Something along the lines of “Oh, like the big bang theory?” or “Didn’t Feynman teach there?”</li>
<li>Oh, that’s quite impressive.</li>
</ol>
<p>How is the fact that realizing what general public thinks translates to not bright enough to get into a school? I got into Caltech. I just chose different school. Many gets into Caltech, acceptance rate is about 30% each year…They just opt to go somewhere else.</p>
<p>A. Who cares what the general public thinks? These are the same people who think evolution and global warming are crazy conspiracies conceived by scientists to steal our jobs and ruin America’s position as the greatest country in the world.</p>
<p>B. How does admissions rate affect academic prestige/quality of faculty/etc.?</p>
<p>It depends on why you want the recognition, I suppose. If you’re going into a science or engineering field, I think Caltech will absolutely be recognized by employers. If you want recognition by the general public as well, you might be better off at one of the more “big name” schools. It just depends on what YOU prefer. :)</p>
<p>This year the RD admission rate is expected to be 8.5% for caltech and 24.4% for UC Berkeley. OP, caltech will accept less than one out of ten applicants; but berkeley will admit one out of every four applicants. Your school Berkeley is much less selective that caltech is. Your ignorance about caltech’s academic reputation is telling. Check out this table for the admission rate data – caltech is much more selective than you think.
<a href=“http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17525393/Admission%20Data.xls[/url]”>http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17525393/Admission%20Data.xls</a></p>
<p>Caltech’s renown extends north to I-210, west to South Arroyo Parkway, south to Huntington Drive, and east to South Sierra Madre Boulevard. This is why most students choose not to live off campus, as they would risk forgetting Caltech over the weekend.</p>
<p>^Couple of thoughts on this. I think everyone realizes Caltech is very selective. What may or may not be troubling to Caltech however is their yield - of every 3 students accepted only 1 or fewer choose to attend. Harvard/Stanford are pushing 70-80% yield (and I don’t think they’re satisfied with that).</p>
<p>And while Caltech is a great institution, it’s overall impact on our society has over the last hundred years been much less than UC Berkeley.</p>
<p>^ But what about per capita impact? UC Berkeley is also much larger than Caltech.</p>
<p>In other words, the average prof/undergrad/grad student at Caltech will make a bigger impact than the average prof/undergrad/grad student at Berkeley.</p>
<p>re: Caltech’s yield. I think Caltech attracts a much more specific type of student than Harvard/Yale/MIT/whatever. Many people will apply to Caltech without really understanding this, and then realize after visiting that it is not a great fit. </p>
<p>However, there is certainly a contingent that is accepted to both Caltech and Harvard/Yale/MIT/whatever and decide to go to one of these other schools because they have better name recognition to the general public. I don’t find this particularly troubling. Annoying, maybe, but we want the kind of students who will see and appreciate the differences between Caltech and other schools, so I’m not sure the students chasing name recognition are any great loss.</p>
<p>I think Caltech is alright with this since they’re not trying to attract every type of student out there. The only want people who would really fit in at Caltech to attend. It’s really not a large enough school where every type of person can find somewhere to fit in.</p>
<p>My son got into Caltech, UChi and Harvard. It was a very very hard decision for him. He chose Harvard not because of prestige but bc of Math 55 and when he was at Caltech he had the clear feeling that the math department wanted to discourage people from majoring–that they should do applied–and he is a number theory/abstract algebra person. When he was at Harvard, he didn’t have as much fun as he did at Caltech’s prefrosh, but the math people were excited at his wanting to try to take 55 and welcome pure math guys. My son sees math as an art, not a science and he was turned off, in the end, that Caltech math people didn’t see the beauty for beauty’s sake of a math proof. So people decide on Harvard, not because of prestige always (there are some, to be sure) but for substantive reasons. Frankly, I had hoped Caltech’s approach to math was more art oriented–in the end I think he would have enjoyed Caltech more if it was.</p>
<p>I’m horrible at giving analogies (at least I recognize it), but here’s a shot. Say there’s an expert surgeon who cures a very specific class of patients with illnesses that few people have heard of. Now say there’s a very reputed group of several medical professionals who cure illnesses the public knows a lot about.</p>
<p>Caltech’s impact on undergraduate education is to serve a very special class of people and provide them with a special atmosphere to develop in for 4 years. Its faculty in many fields is ridiculously elite, and has a great impact on the research in respective fields.</p>
<p>UC Berkeley (and I should know) has impact in many ways too, but it’s gigantic and supports high class education in various areas, as well as proably a much more diverse set of opportunities. That’s not the point of Caltech though. For a scholar of the appropriate mindset, Caltech is everything.</p>
<p>As much as I personally despise hate Fernando Torres (the Spanish player I mean, and his “hype”), CalTech is reputed, but it just has a different feel compared to other campuses, it’s small and a close-knit community.
And those who still don’t know CalTech, well spend some time to check university rankings and CalTech is ranked 2nd according to THE.</p>