<p>I still can't figure out why people rank caltech so high. Only a small fraction of students who apply to MIT also apply to caltech, and the latter has an extremely high acceptance rate for a top school, not to mention the fact that the school seems less focused on well-rounded students than MIT</p>
<p>...and Caltech is not as famous as its east-coast counterpart</p>
<p>Except that the school is very selective and extremely self selective, resulting in crazy GPA/test scores. </p>
<p>Also, its not like as if it is just a high ranked school that sucks at every undergraduate major (cough cough)</p>
<p>Caltech has produced some awesome scientists and engineers over the years, and it manages to hire many world-famous professors. One author </p>
<p>claims that Caltech has the most merit-based admission system of any college in the United States, although not everyone agrees with him.</p>
<p>Because Caltech has arguably the strongest student body and the strongest faculty in the nation. Only for a limited variety, but nonetheless - Caltech deserves its position.</p>
<p>Probably they produce more Nobel Prize winners per alumni population. Very well known in hard sciences like Physics, Chemistry, etc.. You need to be crazy smart to go there.</p>