he California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech)[4] is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with a strong emphasis on sciences and engineering. Its primary 124-acre (50 ha) campus is located approximately 11 miles (18 km) northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
Although founded as a preparatory and vocational school by Amos G. Throop in 1891, the eponymous college attracted influential scientists such as George Ellery Hale, Arthur Amos Noyes, and Robert Andrews Millikan in the early 20th century. The vocational and preparatory schools were disbanded and spun off in 1910 and college assumed its present name in 1921. In 1934, Caltech was elected to the Association of American Universities and the antecedents of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which Caltech continues to manage and operate, were established between 1936 and 1943 under Theodore von Karman.[5][6]
Caltech enrolled 951 undergraduate and 1179 graduate students and employed 299 professorial faculty in 2009.[3] The university granted 215 undergraduate degrees, 117 masters degrees, and 193 doctoral degrees in 2009.[2] Despite its historically small size, 66 alumni and faculty have won the National Medal of Science or Technology, and 110 have been elected to the National Academies. 32 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to Caltech alumni and faculty, making it the university with the highest proportion of Nobel Prizes awarded to affiliates. Caltech managed $357 million in sponsored research in 2009 and a $1.4 billion endowment.[1][7]
Undergraduates live in a house system and although student life is governed by a honor code, Caltech has a strong tradition of practical jokes and pranks.[8] The Caltech Beavers compete in 13 intercollegiate sports in the NCAA Division III's Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The men's basketball and soccer teams have had notable streaks losing more than 200 games in a row but Caltech has also fielded competitive women's table tennis and Ultimate club teams.
History
Throop College
Caltech began as a vocational school founded in Pasadena in 1891 by local businessman and politician Amos G. Throop. The school was known successively as Throop University, Throop Polytechnic Institute, and Throop College of Technology, before acquiring its current name in 1921.[9][10]
At a time when scientific research in the United States was still in its infancy, George Ellery Hale, a solar astronomer from the University of Chicago, founded the Mount Wilson Observatory in 1904. He joined Throop's board of trustees the same year, and soon began developing it and the whole of Pasadena into a major scientific and cultural destination. He engineered the appointment of James A. B. Scherer, a literary scholar untutored in science but a capable administrator and fund raiser, to Throop's presidency in 1908. Scherer persuaded retired businessman and trustee Charles W. Gates to donate $25,000 in seed money to build Gates Laboratory, the first science building on campus.[11] The promise of the lab attracted physical chemist Arthur Amos Noyes to commit to developing the institution. Arther Fleming, Caltech's primary benefactor, who had donated the land for the permanent campus site at California and Wilson, later donated $100,000 to establish a physics facility, the Norman Bridge Laboratory, which succeeded in attracting experimental physicist Robert Andrews Millikan to join the faculty and assist in establishing the college as a center for science and technology.[12]
World Wars
The vocational school was disbanded, and the preparatory program was split off into an independent Polytechnic School in 1910. In 1911, a bill was introduced in the California Legislature calling for the establishment of a publicly funded "California Institute of Technology," with an initial budget of a million dollars, ten times the budget of Throop at the time. The board of trustees offered to turn Throop over to the state, but the presidents of Stanford and the University of California successfully lobbied to defeat the bill, which allowed Throop to develop as the only scientific research-oriented education institute in Southern California, public or private, until the onset of the Second World War necessitated the broader development of research-based science education.[13]
With the onset of World War I, Hale organized the National Research Council to coordinate and support scientific work on military problems. While he supported the idea of federal appropriations for science, he took exception to a federal bill that would have funded engineering research at land-grant colleges, and instead sought to raise a $1 million national research fund entirely from private sources. To that end, as Hale wrote in the New York Times:
Throop College of Technology, in Pasadena California has recently afforded a striking illustration of one way in which the Research Council can secure co-operation and advance scientific investigation. This institution, with its able investigators and excellent research laboratories, could be of great service in any broad scheme of cooperation. President Scherer, hearing of the formation of the council, immediately offered to take part in its work, and with this object, he secured within three days an additional research endowment of one hundred thousand dollars.[14]
Through the National Research Council, Hale simultaneously lobbied for science to play a larger role in national affairs, and for Throop to play a national role in science. The new funds were designated for physics research, and ultimately lead to the establishment of the Norman Bridge Laboratory, which attracted Millikan from the University of Chicago. During the course of the war, Hale, Noyes and Millikan worked together in Washington on the NRC. Subsequently, they continued their partnership in developing Caltech.[14]
Under the leadership of Hale, Noyes and Millikan (aided by the booming economy of Southern California), Caltech grew to national prominence in the 1920s. In 1923, Millikan was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. In 1925, the school established a department of geology and hired William Bennett Munro, then chairman of the division of History, Government, and Economics at Harvard University, to create a division of humanities and social sciences at Caltech. In 1928, a division of biology was established under the leadership of Thomas Hunt Morgan, the most distinguished biologist in the United States at the time, and discoverer of the role of genes and the chromosome in heredity. In 1930, Kerckhoff marine laboratory was established in Corona del Mar under the care of Professor George MacGinitie. In 1926, a graduate school of aeronautics was created, which eventually attracted Theodore von Kármán. Kármán later helped create the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and played an integral part in establishing Caltech as one of the world's centers for rocket science. In 1928, construction of the Palomar Observatory began.
Millikan served as "Chairman of the Executive Council" (effectively Caltech's president) from 1921 to 1945, and his influence was such that the Institute was occasionally referred to as "Millikan's School." Millikan initiated a visiting-scholars program soon after joining Caltech. Scientists who accepted his invitation include luminaries such as Paul Dirac, Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg, Hendrik Lorentz and Niels Bohr.[15] Albert Einstein arrived on the Caltech campus for the first time in 1930 to polish up his Theory of General Relativity, and he returned to Caltech subsequently in 1931 and 1932.[16] In the 1950s-1970s, Caltech was the home of Murray Gell-Mann and Richard Feynman, whose work was central to the establishment of the so-called "Standard Model" of particle physics. Feynman was also widely known outside the physics community as an exceptional teacher and colorful, unconventional character.
Campus
Caltech's 124-acre (50 ha) primary campus is located in Pasadena, California, approximately 11 miles (18 km) northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is within walking distance of Old Town Pasadena and the Pasadena Playhouse District and therefore the two locations are frequent getaways for Caltech students.
In 1917 Hale hired architect Bertram Goodhue to produce a master plan for the 22 acres (9 ha) campus. Goodhue conceived the overall layout of the campus and designed the physics building, Dabney Hall, and several other structures, in which he sought to be consistent with the local climate, the character of the school, and Hale's educational philosophy. Goodhue's designs for Caltech were also influenced by the traditional Spanish mission architecture of Southern California.
In 1971 a magnitude-6.5 earthquake in San Fernando caused some damage to the Caltech campus. Engineers who evaluated the damage found that two historic buildings dating from the early days of the Institute — Throop Hall and the Goodhue-designed Culbertson Auditorium — had cracked. These were some of the first reinforced concrete buildings, and their plans did not contain enough details (such as how much reinforcing bar had been embedded in the concrete) to be sure they were safe, so the engineers recommended demolition. However, demolishing these historic structures required considerably more effort than would have been necessary had they been in real danger of collapse. A large wrecking ball was used to demolish Throop Hall, and smashing the concrete revealed massive amounts of rebar, far in excess of safety requirements. The rebar had to be cut up before the pieces could be hauled away, and the process took much longer than expected.
In 2008 Caltech completed a 238 kW solar array projected to produce approximately 320,000 kWh in 2009.[17] The Cahill Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics and the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Center for Information Science and Technology were opened in 2009,[18][19] and the Warren and Katherine Schlinger Laboratory for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering followed in March 2010.[20] The Institute also concluded an upgrading of the south houses in 2006.
Organization and administration
Caltech is incorporated as a non-profit corporation and is governed by a privately appointed 46-member board of trustees who serve five year terms of office and retire at the age of 72.[10][21] The current board is chaired by Kent Kresa, former chairman and CEO of Northrup Grumman and former chairman of General Motors.[22] The Trustees elect a President to serve as the chief executive officer of the Institute and administer the affairs on the Institute on behalf of the board, a Provost who serves as the chief academic officer of the Institute below the President, and ten other vice presidential and other senior positions.[21] Former Georgia Tech provost Jean-Lou Chameau became the eight president of Caltech on September 1, 2006, replacing David Baltimore who had served since 1997.[23] Dr. Chameau's compensation for 2008–2009 totaled $765,260.[24] Edward M. Stolper is the Institute's ninth provost and is responsible for academic budget, faculty appointments and promotions, and coordinates curriculum.[25] Caltech's $1.4 billion endowment is governed by a permanent Trustee committee and administered by an Investment Office.[1]
The Institute is organized into six primary academic divisions: Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Engineering and Applied Science, Geological and Planetary Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Physics, Mathematics, & Astronomy. The voting faculty of Caltech include all professors, instructors, research associates and fellows, and librarians. Faculty are responsible for establishing admission requirements, academic standards, and curricula. The Faculty Board is the faculty's representative body and consists of 18 elected faculty representatives as well as other senior administration officials. Full-time professors are expected to teach classes, conduct research, advise students, and perform administrative work such as serving on committees.[26]
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) owned by NASA and operated as a division of Caltech thorough a contract between NASA and Caltech. In 2008, JPL spend over $1.6 billion on research and development and employed over 5,000 project-related and support employees.[27] The JPL Director also serves as a Caltech Vice President and is responsible to the President of the Institute for the management of the Laboratory.[22]
Academics
| University rankings (overall) | |
|---|---|
| ARWU World[28] | 6 |
| ARWU National[29] | 4 |
| Forbes[30] | 3 |
| Times Higher Education[31] | 10 |
| USNWR National University[32] | 4 |
| WM National University[33] | 29 |
Caltech is a small four-year, highly residential research university with a majority of enrollments in graduate programs.[34] The Institute has been accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges since 1949.[35][36] The Institute granted 208 bachelor's degrees, 128 master's degrees, and 185 doctoral degrees in 2007–2008. Caltech is on the quarter system:[37] the fall term starts in late September and ends before Christmas, the second term starts after New Years Day and ends in mid-March, and the third term starts in late March or early April and ends in early June.[38]
Undergraduate program
The full time, four year undergraduate program emphasizes instruction in the arts & sciences and has high graduate coexistence.[34] Caltech offers 24 majors (called "options") and six minors across all six academic divisions.[39] Caltech also offers interdisciplinary programs in Applied Physics, Biochemistry, Bioengineering, Computation & Neural Systems, Control & Dynamical Systems, Environmental Science & Engineering, Geobiology & Astrobiology, Geochemistry, and Planetary Astronomy. The most popular options are mechanical engineering, physics, biology, chemical engineering, and computer & information sciences.[40]
Caltech requires students to take a core curriculum of 30 classes: five terms of mathematics, five terms of physics, two terms of chemistry, one term of biology, a freshman elective "menu" course, two terms of introductory lab courses, two terms of science writing, and twelve terms of humanities.[41] A typical class is worth 9 academic units and given the extensive core curriculum requirements in addition to individual options' degree requirements, students need to take an average of 40.5 units per term (more than four classes) in order to graduate in four years. 36 units is the minimum full-time load, 48 units is considered a heavy load, and registrations above 51 units require an overload petition.[42] Approximately 20 percent of students double-major.[43] This is achievable since the humanities and social sciences majors have been designed to be done in conjunction with a science major. Although choosing two options in the same division is discouraged, it is still possible.
First year students are enrolled in first-term classes based upon results of placement exams in math, physics, chemistry, and writing and take all classes in their first two terms on a Pass/Fail basis.[42] There is little competition; collaboration on homework is encouraged and the Honor System encourages take-home tests and flexible homework schedules.[44] Caltech offers co-operative programs with other schools, such as the Pasadena Art Center College of Design and Occidental College.
Undergraduate tuition for the 2010–2011 school year was $34,989 and total annual costs were estimated to be $52,389.[45] In 2007–2008, Caltech awarded $12.9 million in need-based aid, $2.73 million in non-need-based aid, and $1.50 million in self-help support to every enrolled undergraduate student. The average financial aid package of all students was $31,611 and students graduated with an average debt of $9,871.[37]
Caltech offers Army and Air Force ROTC in cooperation with the University of Southern California.[37]
Graduate program
The graduate instructional programs emphasize doctoral studies and are dominated by science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.[34] The Institute offers graduate degree programs for the Master of Science, Engineer's Degree, Doctor of Philosophy, B.S./M.S. and M.D./Ph.D, with the majority of students in the Ph.D. program.[34] Applicants for graduate studies are required to take the GRE. GRE Subject scores are either required or strongly recommended.[46]
The research facilities at Caltech are available to graduate students, but there are opportunities for students to work in facilities of other universities, research centers as well as private industries.[47] The graduate student to faculty ratio is 4:1.[48]
Approximately 99% of doctoral students have full financial support. Financial support for graduate students comes in the form of fellowships, research assistantships, teaching assistantships or a combination of fellowship and assistantship support.[49]
Graduate students are bound by the Honor Code, as do the undergraduates, and the Graduate Review Board oversees any violations of the code.
Research
Caltech was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1934 and remains a research university with "very high" research activity, primarily in STEM fields.[5][34] Caltech manages research expenditures of $270 million annually, 66th among all universities in the U.S. and 17th among private institutions without medical schools.[50][51] The largest federal agencies contributing to research are NASA, National Science Foundation, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Defense, and Department of Energy.[52] Caltech received $144 million in funding for the physical sciences, $40.8 million for the life sciences, $33.5 million for engineering, $14.4 million for environmental sciences, $7.16 million for computer sciences, and $1.97 million for mathematical sciences.[53] The Institute was awarded an all-time high of $357 million for FY2009.[7]
In 2005, Caltech had 739,000 square feet (68,700 m2) dedicated to research: 330,000 square feet (30,700 m2) to physical sciences, 163,000 square feet (15,100 m2) to engineering, and 160,000 square feet (14,900 m2) to biological sciences.[54]
In addition to managing JPL, Caltech also operates the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, the Owens Valley Radio Observatory in Bishop, California, the Submillimeter Observatory and W. M. Keck Observatory at the Mauna Kea Observatory, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory at Livingston, Louisiana and Richland, Washington, and Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory in Corona del Mar, California.[26] The Institute launched the Keck Institute for Space Studies in 2008 and is also the current home for the Einstein Papers Project. The Spitzer Science Center (SSC), part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center located on the Caltech campus, is the data analysis and community support center for NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Undergraduates at Caltech are also encouraged to participate in research. About half of students do research through the annual Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) program at least once during their stay, and many continue it during the school year. Students write and submit SURF proposals for research projects in collaboration with professors, and about 70 percent of applicants are awarded SURFs. The program is open to both Caltech and non-Caltech undergraduate students. It serves as preparation for graduate school and helps to explain why Caltech has the highest percentage of alumni who go on to receive a Ph.D. of all the major universities.[55]
Student life
House system
During the early 20th century, a Caltech committee visited several universities and decided to transform the undergraduate housing system from regular fraternities to a house system. Four south houses (or hovses) were built: Blacker House, Dabney House, Fleming House and Ricketts House. In the 1960s, three north houses were built: Lloyd House, Page House, and Ruddock House, and during the 1990s, Avery House. The four south houses closed for renovation in 2005 and reopened in 2006. All first year students live in the house system and 95% of undergraduates remain in it.[37][56]
Athletics
Caltech has athletic teams in baseball, men's & women's basketball, cross country, fencing, men's soccer, swimming & diving, men's & women's tennis, track & field, women's volleyball, and men's & women's water polo.[57] Caltech's mascot is the Beaver, and its teams (with the exception of the fencing team) play in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, which Caltech co-founded in 1915.[58] The fencing team[59] competes in the NCAA's Division I, facing teams from USC, UCLA, UCSD, and Stanford, among others.
On January 6, 2007, the Beavers' men's basketball team snapped a 207-game losing streak to Division III schools, beating Bard College 81-52. It was their first Division III victory since 1996. They still carry a 259 game losing streak in conference play.[60][61] The documentary film Quantum Hoops concerns the events of the Beavers' 2005-6 season.
On January 13, 2007, the Caltech women's basketball team snapped a 50-game losing streak, defeating the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens 55-53. The women's program, which entered the SCIAC in 2002, garnered their first conference win. On the bench as honorary coach for the evening was Dr. Robert Grubbs, 2005 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.[62] The team went on to beat Whittier College on February 10, for its second SCIAC win, and placed its first member on the All Conference team.[63] The 2006-2007 season is the most successful season in the history of the program.
On March 5, 2009, the Soccer team snapped a 201-game losing streak to Pomona-Pitzer 1-0.
In 2007, 2008, and 2009, the women's table tennis team (a club team) competed in nationals. The women's Ultimate club team, known as "Snatch", has also been very successful in recent years, ranking 44 of over 200 college teams in the Ultimate Player's Association.[64]
Student life traditions
Annual events
Every Halloween, Dabney House conducts the infamous "Millikan pumpkin-drop experiment" from the top of Millikan Library, the highest point on campus. According to tradition, a claim was once made that the shattering of a pumpkin frozen in liquid nitrogen and dropped from a sufficient height would produce a triboluminescent spark. This yearly event involves a crowd of observers, who try to spot the elusive spark. The title of the event is an oblique reference to the famous Millikan oil-drop experiment which measured e, the elemental unit of electrical charge.
On Ditch Day the seniors ditch school, leaving behind elaborately designed tasks and traps at the doors of their rooms to prevent underclassmen from entering. Over the years this has evolved to the point where many seniors spend months designing mechanical, electrical, and software obstacles to confound the underclassmen. Each group of seniors designs a "stack" to be solved by a handful of underclassmen. The faculty have been drawn into the event as well, and cancel all classes on Ditch Day so the underclassmen can participate in what has become a highlight of the academic year. In 2010, Ditch Day fell on May 21.
Another long-standing tradition is the playing of Wagner's ominous Ride of the Valkyries at 7:00 each morning during finals week with the largest, loudest speakers available. The playing of that piece is not allowed at any other time (except if one happens to be listening to the entire fifteen hours of The Ring Cycle), and any offender is dragged into the showers to be drenched in cold water fully dressed. The playing of the Ride is such a strong tradition that the music was used during Apollo 17 to awaken Astronaut Harrison Schmitt, a Caltech alumnus. Unfortunately, the tradition arose at different times in different Houses, so Schmitt did not react as expected. Instead, he just became confused.
Pranks
Caltech students have been known for the many pranks (also known as RFs).
The two most famous in recent history are the changing of the Hollywood Sign to read "Caltech", by judiciously covering up certain parts of the letters, and the changing of the Rose Bowl scoreboard to an imaginary game where Caltech beat MIT 99-0. But the most famous of all occurred during the 1961 Rose Bowl Game, where Caltech students altered the flip-cards that were raised by the stadium attendees to display "Caltech", and several other "unintended" messages. This event is now referred to as the Great Rose Bowl Hoax.
In 2005, a group of Caltech students pulled a string of pranks during MIT's Campus Preview Weekend for admitted students. These include covering up the word Massachusetts in the "Massachusetts Institute of Technology" engraving on the main building façade with a banner so that it read "That Other Institute of Technology". A group of MIT hackers responded by altering the banner so that the inscription read "The Only Institute of Technology." Caltech students also passed out T-shirts to MIT's incoming freshman class, with MIT on the front and "... because not everyone can go to Caltech" along with an image of a palm tree on the back.
MIT retaliated in April 2006, when students posing as the Howe & Ser Moving Company stole the 130-year-old, 1.7-ton Fleming House cannon and moved it to their campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts for their 2006 Campus Preview Weekend, repeating a similar prank performed by nearby Harvey Mudd College in 1986. (The name "Howe & Ser", if said rapidly, and if read recognizing that the & symbol is a ligature of the Latin word "et", sounds like howitzer; it could also mean "how we answer", since the latest prank was an answer to the 2005 prank on MIT.) Thirty members of Fleming House traveled to MIT and reclaimed their cannon on April 10, 2006.
On April 13, 2007 (Friday the 13th), a group of students from The California Tech, Caltech's campus newspaper, arrived and distributed fake copies of The Tech, MIT's campus newspaper, while prospective students were visiting for their Campus Preview Weekend. Articles included "MIT Invents the Interweb," "Architects Deem Campus 'Unfortunate'," and "Infinite Corridor Not Actually Infinite."
In recent years, pranking has been officially encouraged by Tom Mannion, Caltech's Assistant VP for Student Affairs and Campus Life. "The grand old days of pranking have gone away at Caltech, and that's what we are trying to bring back," reported the Boston Globe, which noted that "security has orders not to intervene in a prank unless officers get Mannion's approval beforehand."[65]
Caltech pranks have been documented in three Legends of Caltech books, the most recent of which was edited by alumni Autumn Looijen '99 and Mason A. Porter '98 and published in May 2007.
In December 2009, some Caltech students declared that MIT had been sold and had become the Caltech East campus. A "sold" banner was hung on front of the MIT humanities building and a "Caltech East" banner inside.[66][67]
Honor Code
Life in the Caltech community is governed by the Honor Code, which simply states: "No member of the Caltech community shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community." This is enforced by a Board of Control, which consists of undergraduate students,[68] and by a similar body at the graduate level, called the Graduate Review Board.[69]
The Honor Code aims at promoting an atmosphere of respect and trust that allows Caltech students to enjoy privileges that make for a more relaxed atmosphere. For example, the Honor Code allows professors to make the majority of exams as take-home, allowing students to take them on their own schedule and in their preferred environment.
Through the late 1990s, the only exception to the Honor Code, implemented earlier in the decade in response to changes in federal regulations, concerned the sexual harassment policy. Today, there are myriad exceptions to the Honor Code in the form of new institute policies such as the Fire Policy, and Alcohol Policy. Though both policies are presented in the Honor Code Handbook given to new members of the Caltech Community, large portions of the undergraduate population regard them as a slight against the Honor Code and the implicit trust and respect it represents within the community.[70]
In media and popular culture
Caltech has appeared in several works of popular culture, both as itself and in disguised form. As with MIT, a Caltech reference is often used to establish a character's high level of intelligence or a technical background. For example, on television, the four lead characters of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory are all employed at the Institute. Caltech is also the inspiration, and frequent film location, for the California Institute of Science of Numb3rs.[71] On film, the Pacific Tech of The War of the Worlds[72] and Real Genius[71] is based on Caltech. In nonfiction, two 2007 documentaries examine aspects of Caltech; Curious, its researchers,[73][74] and Quantum Hoops, its men's basketball team.
Given its Los Angeles-area location, the grounds of the Institute are often host to short scenes in movies and television. The Athenaeum dining club appears in the Beverly Hills Cop series, The X-Files, and True Romance.[75] Other examples include Legally Blonde, The Wedding Planner, Greek, The O.C., Entourage and Mission Impossible.
People
As of 2009, Caltech has 31 Nobel laureates to its name. This figure includes 17 alumni, 14 non-alumni professors, and 4 professors who are also alumni (Carl D. Anderson, Linus Pauling, William A. Fowler, and Edward B. Lewis). The number of awards is 32, because Pauling received prizes in both Chemistry and Peace. With fewer than 25,000 alumni in total, more than one in 1,400 have received the Nobel Prize — a ratio unmatched by any other university. 6 faculty and alumni have received a Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, while 54 have been awarded the U.S. National Medal of Science, and 12 have received the National Medal of Technology.[2] Other distinguished researchers have been affiliated with Caltech as postdoctoral scholars (e.g., Barbara McClintock, James D. Watson, and Sheldon Glashow) or visiting professors (e.g., Albert Einstein and Edward Witten).
Students
| Undergraduate | Graduate | |
|---|---|---|
| Caucasian American | 39% | 45% |
| Asian American | 40% | 13% |
| Underrepresented minority | 8% | 5% |
| Other/International | 14% | 37% |
Caltech enrolled 951 undergraduate students and 1179 graduate students for the 2009–2010 school year. Women made up 38% of the undergraduate and 30% of the graduate student body.[3] 67% of non-international undergraduate students are from out of state. Caltech received 3,957 applications for the class of 2012: 687 were admitted (17%), 236 enrolled (34%), and 98% rematriculated as sophomores. The interquartile range for first year students' SAT scores on critical reading was 700–760, math 770–800, and writing 690–770. 97% of students were ranked in the top tenth of their high school graduating class.[37]
The four-year graduation rate is 80.6% and the six-year rate is 88%,[37] which is low compared to most leading US universities,[76] but is substantially higher than the 1960s and 70s.[77] Students majoring in STEM fields traditionally have graduation rates below 70%.[78]
Faculty and staff
The average salary for assistant professors at Caltech is $105,800, associate professors $126,000, and full professors $171,900.[79] Caltech faculty are highly productive in the fields of biology, biochemistry, biological engineering, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, applied physics, astronomy and astrophysics, computer science, geology, and physics.[80]
Alumni
17 alumni and 14 non-alumni faculty have won the Nobel Prize. The Turing Award, the "Nobel Prize of Computer Science", has been awarded to six alumni.
Alumni have participated in scientific research. Some have concentrated their studies on the very small universe of atoms and molecules. Nobel laureate Carl D. Anderson (BS 1927, PhD 1930) proved the existence of positrons and muons, Nobel laureate Edwin McMillan (BS 1928, MS 1929) synthesized the first transuranium element, Nobel laureate Leo James Rainwater (BS 1939) investigated the non-spherical shapes of atomic nuclei, and Nobel laureate Douglas D. Osheroff (BS 1967) studied the superfluid nature of helium-3.
Other alumni have turned their gaze to the galactic universe. C. Gordon Fullerton (BS 1957, MS 1958) piloted the third space shuttle mission and orbited the earth in Skylab. Astronaut (and later, United States Senator) Harrison Schmitt (BS 1957) was the only geologist to have ever walked on the surface of the moon.[81] Astronomer Eugene Merle Shoemaker (BS 1947, MS 1948) co-discovered Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (a comet which crashed into the planet Jupiter) and was the first person buried on the moon (by having his ashes crashed into the moon).[82]
Undergraduate alumni founded, or co-founded, companies such as LCD manufacturer Varitronix[83] Hotmail,[84] Compaq,[85] and MathWorks (which created Matlab),[86] while graduate students founded, or co-founded, companies such as Intel,[87] TRW,[88] and the Exploratorium.[89]
Arnold Beckman (PhD 1928) invented the pH meter and commecialized it with the founding of Beckman Instruments. His success with that company enabled him to provide seed funding for William Shockley (BS 1932), who had co-invented semiconductor transistors and wanted to commercialize them. Because his aging mother was living in Palo Alto, California at the time, Shockley decided to establish his laboratory near her[90] in 1955, in neighboring Mountain View, California,[91] and thus, Shockley became the founding Director of the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory division of Beckman Instruments.[91] Shockely was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1956, but his aggressive management style and odd personality[92] at the Shockley Lab became unbearable.[93] In late 1957, eight of his researchers, known now as the "Traitorous Eight" (or "Fairchildren"), resigned and joined Fairchild Camera and Instruments nearby to form a semiconductor division. Among the "Traitorous Eight" was Gordon E. Moore (PhD 1954), who left Fairchild to co-found Intel. Other offspring companies of Fairchild Semicondutor include National Semiconductor and Advanced Micro Devices, which in turn spawned more technology companies in the area. Shockley's decision to use silicon -- instead of germanium -- as the semiconductor material, coupled with the abundance of silicon semiconductor related companies in the area, gave rise to the term "Silicon Valley"[94] to describe that geographic region surrounding Palo Alto.
 Nobel laureate Carl David Anderson, BS 1927, PhD 1930, discoverer of the positron and the muon |  Nobel laureate Douglas D. Osheroff, BS 1967 |  Nobel laureate James Rainwater, BS 1939 |  Nobel laureate William Shockley, BS 1932, co-inventor of the solid state transistor, father of Silicon Valley |
 Nobel laureate Edwin McMillan, BS 1928, MS 1929 |  Nobel laureate Vernon Smith, BS 1949 |  Turing Award laureate Fernando J. Corbató, BS 1950 |  Turing Award laurate John McCarthy, BS 1948, inventor of the Lisp programming language |
 Astronaut C. Gordon Fullerton, BS 1957, MS 1958 |  Astronaut and United States Senator Harrison Schmitt, BS 1957; the only geologist to have walked on the moon. |  Gordon Moore, PhD 1954, co-founder of Intel |  National Medal of Technology laureate Carver Mead, BS 1956, MS 1957, PhD 1960 |
 Benoît Mandelbrot, MS 1948, Engineering 1949, father of fractal geometry, namesake of the Mandelbrot set |  Frank Capra, BS Chemical Engineering 1918 (when Caltech was known as the "Throop Institute"[95]); winner of six Academy Awards in directing and producing; producer and director of It's a Wonderful Life |  Sandra Tsing Loh, BS 1983, performance artist, broadcaster, and writer |
Presidents
- James Augustin Brown Scherer (1908–1920) (president of Throop College of Technology before the name change)
- Robert A. Millikan (1921–1945), experimental physicist, Nobel laureate in physics for 1923 (his official title was "Chairman of the Executive Council")
- Lee A. DuBridge (1946–1969), experimental physicist (first to officially hold the title of President)
- Harold Brown (1969–1977), physicist and public servant (left Caltech to serve as United States Secretary of Defense in the administration of Jimmy Carter)
- Robert F. Christy (1977–1978), astrophysicist (acting President)
- Marvin L. Goldberger (1978–1987), theoretical physicist
- Thomas E. Everhart (1987–1997), experimental physicist
- David Baltimore (1997–2006), molecular biologist, Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine for 1975
- Jean-Lou Chameau (2006–present), civil engineer and educational administrator
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