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I don’t think there are any undergrads on this forum who have transferred from one school to the other, so I doubt if anyone can really know the answer to your question. From my research, though, it seems that both schools will give you all the really good research you want, but Caltech’s may be a little more cutting-edge and/or well-funded, and Mudd’s may let you do a little more responsible stuff because you aren’t competing with grad students.</p>
<p>Bottom line, both will give you great research. If you REALLY want to know the difference between the two, you could check out the public pages of the various profs and see if anyone is working on the thing that is most interesting to you, and then contact that prof.</p>