CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY - PASADENA - CALIFORNIA

Small private residential research university
Mission: “to expand human knowledge and benefit society through research integrated with education”
Extremely selective – under 5%
Graduation rate 94%
Retention rate 99%
3:1 staff to student ratio – one of the lowest in that nation
Around 1,000 undergraduates / 1,400 graduates
Around 48% female / 52% male

Suburban location in Southern California
124 acre campus in Pasadena – around 18 kms from downtown LA
100 miles to Santa barbara / 130 miles to Joshua Tree National Park / 30 miles to the ocean / 15 miles to the mountains
Faculty take advantage of the location and take students to ‘do science’ in the ocean, mountains and desert

4 year undergraduate degrees
38 majors (including quite a few in the Humanities and Social Sciences, such as: English, History, Economics and Political Science). Majors take 3 full years to complete after the Core Curriculum. Students can double major or take a minor.
Highly interdisciplinary – holistic core programme that promotes breadth and depth of knowledge
Very small classes – 20 students or fewer
Very collaborative academic community – students have to collaborate because homework is so difficult if they don’t support each other they will fail
Core Curriculum – covers the entire first year for ALL students. Very intensive. Meant to break students and then rebuild them. All students take classes in Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Humanities and Social Sciences, PE, Labs, and Menu (sample classes to explore the curriculum)
Quarter system with three academic terms – many students take internships or engage in research over the summer
90% of undergraduates participate in research – CalTech is very much a research institute. Each faculty member is given their own lab space and research is the backbone of everything
SURF – Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship: students receive a stipend to fund research activities over their vacation
Many internship opportunities over the summer
Only university in the USA to manage a NASA facility
Very few students go on to grad school at CalTech – they are actively encourage to go elsewhere and learn more

Accepts Common App, Coalition and QuestBridge
Restrictive Early Action – Nov 1st (less than 50% of total class)
Regular Decision – Jan 3rd
Application fee $75
2 recommendations are required – one from a STEM teacher and one from a humanities/social science teacher
CalTech Specific Questions – these change each year. Lean into writing in a very STEMy way. Faculty read applications so you can write in a scientific way and it will be understood
Academic requirements: 4 years of HS Maths (A level / Higher Level IB), 1 year of Physics, 1 year of Chemistry, 3-4 years of English
Accepts: IELTS, TOEFL, Duolingo if not a native speaker or high school programme not taught in English
Optional: research, maker portfolio, visual art, internship
Faculty review applications
Test blind – they will not look at test scores.

Need-aware for international students
Meet full demonstrated need for all admitted students – financial need could be a factor in admissions for international students
Approximately 50% of international students admitted each year have some form of financial need
Estimated total cost of attendance = $83,598 (2022-23)
Tuition = $58,479 (2022-23)

Highly residential university – most students live on campus for all 4 years
New students are guaranteed housing and will live in one of the 8 undergraduate houses or the Bechtel Residence
Students have at least one residential community to call home – they are given temporary housing on arrival and then go through a Rotation process to decide where they want to live until the beginning of the Fall term
Single, double and triple rooms are available
Houses are deeply important to students and provide a vital support system

CalTech wants students who are comfortable with failing – a crucial part of the scientific process and students have to embrace the art of failure and have a deeply ingrained resilience and fortitude. If you don’t like failing, this is not the place for you.
CalTech is ultimately looking for the very best and brightest STEM students from around the world – Do you live, sleep and breathe science?
Students could be described as: innovative, curious, resilient, tenacious, community minded, diverse, interdisciplinary thinkers

CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY – PASADENA – CALIFORNIA