<p>Kelowna, I largely agree with colorado_mom.
I have the impression from other posts of yours that your son has exceptional talent in science/math.
If you have been reading the other college forums here, then you have probably already spotted a key difference between Caltech on the one hand and MIT, Stanford, and most other “top” colleges on the other hand: It appears to be possible for a student to earn his/her way into Caltech on the strength of academic qualifications. Of course, Caltech admissions people look for the signs of the creativity that is needed for significant work later on in science and math; and they also look for extra-curricular pursuits that are science/math related. It would be a mistake for a student who does not have an intense interest in science and/or math to go there. But their admissions decisions seem a good deal less random.</p>
<p>MIT admissions people are looking for something different, on top of the academic qualifications. They have the philosophy that no one is entitled to admission to MIT, and they seem to be going out of their way to prove it, with a few instances each year of USAMO qualifiers (with many other strong aspects of the application) whom they have declined to admit. I think the same holds of Siemens or Intel winners.</p>
<p>If a student is really incredible–on the order of Terence Tao–then I think the student can assume that he/she can pick the college. Otherwise, for an exceptionally strong student, but one who is still bound by the law of gravity, the student can often pick Caltech, but can’t count on the others.</p>
<p>So, (going along with a lot of the advice on the thread), I’d really advise visiting Caltech, and maybe more than once, for your son to see whether he thinks he would like it there. It would be good to visit it while classes are in session, if possible. The environment at Caltech is unique. It works well for some, but not for others, who may be equally gifted.</p>
<p>Incidentally, it looks as though Terence Tao is on the faculty at UCLA. Your son might not want to rule out a college that is not at the <em>very</em> top of the rankings, if they have a top professor in his area of interest. For a while, University of Texas grads have played a major role in topology in the U.S., due to the inspired teaching and mathematical insight of R. L. Moore, a mathematician there. Now gone, unfortunately–they’ve named a building after him. His teaching methods were legendary among mathematicians, though, and for a while, an unusually large fraction of the really good topologists happened to have Texas accents.</p>