<p>Guys, I actually think there is a very good reason for the Pentagon to prefer MIT over Caltech today, and it has nothing to do with population bias or marketing or whatnot. Whatever you might think of the quality of the science at MIT vs. the sciences at Caltech, I think one thing is quite clear - MIT’s engineering programs, particularly its graduate-level engineering programs are, overall, better and more extensive than Caltech’s. That’s not to say that Caltech’s engineering program is bad - on the contrary, it’s one of the elite. However, I think even most Caltech people would concede that MIT’s engineering is probably better. And the DoD tends to be at least as interested in engineering than in science, if not more so. Let’s face it. MIT is more of an engineering school than a science school, whereas the opposite is true of Caltech. </p>
<p>However, it is an open question as to whether MIT became a strong engineering school because of the DoD, or whether MIT was already a strong engineering school, and that’s why the DoD preferred MIT. I suspect it’s a bit of both.</p>