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Rank: 25

California Institute of Technology

Even by the demanding standards of elite schools, California Institute of Technology is tough. Freshmen take their first-year courses pass/fail to ease into the school, but after that, professors are notoriously hard graders. There are no easy A's here, and certainly not in the popular engineering and physical sciences programs. Along with the challenging workload comes great research opportunities, a hallmark of the school. Internships at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, located near Caltech's Pasadena campus, are a prime example. The school boasts dozens of Nobel laureates among its alumni and faculty members. Techies tend to go on to great jobs, reporting salaries to PayScale that average about $81,600 within a few years of getting their degree (which is high even by elite tech school standards). Caltech isn't known for its athletics or social life. The men's Division III basketball team, for instance, had a 310-game losing streak from 1985 through 2011. There are only about 2,200 students total, and men outnumber women. But the school's residential houses pick up the social slack: One fires cannons, one drops pumpkins off of the library, and they all throw parties.
CORONAVIRUS UPDATE
FALL 2020 PLAN: Caltech's undergraduate program will be fully remote this fall in accordance with local public health guidelines.
costs
Est. Full Price 2020-2021
$74,000
% of students who get any grants
59%
Est. price for students who receive aid
$27,500
Average price for low-income students
$2,800
admissions
Acceptance rate
7%
Median SAT/ACT Score
1560/36
SAT/ACT Required for Fall 2021?
no
Enrollment
950
Financial Aid
% of students with need who get grants
100%
% of need met
100%
% of students who get merit* grants
N/A
Average merit grant
$5,000
student success
Graduation rate
92%
Average time to a degree
4.2 years
Average student debt
$8,700
Average salary within 5 years
$81,600
% earning more than $28,000
88%
key deadlines
Early decision application
Nov 1
Regular application
Jan 3

* Share of full-time undergraduates who had no financial need and were awarded grants.

* Full price of attendance includes on-campus room & board fees, which may not be applicable to all colleges' reopening plans this year.

Sources: U.S. Department of Education, Peterson's, PayScale.com, Money/American Institutes for Research calculations, Opportunity Insights.

coronavirus update

FALL 2020 PLAN: Caltech's undergraduate program will be fully remote this fall in accordance with local public health guidelines.

* Share of full-time undergraduates who had no financial need and were awarded grants.

* Full price of attendance includes on-campus room & board fees, which may not be applicable to all colleges' reopening plans this year.

Sources: U.S. Department of Education, Peterson's, PayScale.com, Money/American Institutes for Research calculations, Opportunity Insights.

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