<p>From what I know, CalTech is in a different league all together. First and foremost, they are not dedicated to cranking out engineers for industry. They are much more oriented to basic research and exploration. Plus they run the Jet Propulsion Lab for NASA and are behind all the major space missions. It is a very small school compared to others but the students there are on a huge, beautiful campus, brushing elbows with some of the great science minds of the time. Lots of Nobel prize winners, all in the hard sciences. If you want the best education in pure sciences, and you want to be on the edge of the discovery process, it's pretty hard to beat CalTech.</p>
<p>the best thing about caltech is that they don't give a damn about affirmative action. so the admissions process is actually a meritocracy. they don't really care about your extra curriculars much either, if u got a 4.0, valedictorian and 1600/800/800/800 u'll get into caltech for sure.</p>
<p>Princeton has the best engineering program among the ivies. I am currently a senior in the Princeton engineering department and I can say that, although it is extremely rigorous, you cannot find a better engineering education anywhere, period (not MIT, not Caltech, and certainly not Cornell, whose engineering program is second rate to the above schools). That being said, its emphasis is on research and theoretical branches of engineering. While it is certainly easy to get your hands dirty, the program does not have as practical an emphasis as some other schools like MIT. However, this prepares you well for graduate school and gives an unsurpassed understanding of the fundamentals that you will find invaluable in the work place should you decide to work as an engineer. Feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions.</p>
<p>What is the acceptance rate of Princeton Engineering for 2010 ? Is admission to Princeton Engineering more competitive than Caltech ?</p>