Student Profile for Caltech vs MIT

I’ve heard that most people either get into Caltech or MIT, because they look for very two different types of people/students. What your guys’ thoughts on this?

I’d really be interested in hearing about this as well. Got accepted into Caltech on Saturday. Nervous about MIT on Thursday.

@2017589 Same, that’s the reason I’m asking LOL

@ah16044 Nice! Congrats! If you find anything that’ll ease my stress feel free to let me know. What are you interested in attending for?

Not true. My DD got into both last year.

Cal Tech is a much smaller institution, somewhat more narrowly focused on math, science and engineering. MIT offers math, science, engineering as well as some subjects Cal Tech may not be strong or even offer like : economics, business, urban planning, architecture, science policy, finance, political science, linguistics, and humanities subjects . They both recruit similar students. Cal Tech used to focus more on test scores and MIT was more holistic in admissions but that can change over time. For that reason, I think Cal Tech’s average SAT/ACT scores are a bit higher, or they were in years past. Both schools admit many Math Olympians, Science Olympians and National Science Fair winners. MIT may admit more athlete scholars, but no hard data on that.

Also diversity. Look up Caltech’s diversity stats and they are completely whack, to avoid flowery language. Compare to MIT’s diversity statistics.

@fmasroor that’s because Caltech doen’t have affirmative action

I was told that often the same people “with diversity” who are admitted to Caltech, also gain acceptances to many other places, like HYPSMit

Caltech has a diversity fly-in. So, they are recruiting diverse candidates.