Caltech vs Stanford for Grad School in Materials

materialsmonkey
Sat, 22 Mar 2014 06:59:29 +0000

Hey everyone,

I’ve recently found myself in a “happy problem” where I’ve been accepted into both Caltech and Stanford for a graduate program in Materials Science. I’m an international student doing my undergraduate degree in London, so I don’t really have an opportunity to head down to California and do a campus visit, so I was wondering if anyone had any opinion on anything about graduate life at both universities.

I think academically, trying to distinguish between both universities is like splitting hairs - both are really good at what they do. Although that much said, I have heard that Caltech is more geared towards academia and Stanford more towards developing start-ups for applied engineering. Anyone care to comment on that?

tldr: How does Caltech and Stanford compare, from a non-academic point of view.