<p>I think Caltech sets a higher bar, so to speak, for academic performance/potential in admissions than HYPS, where it is easy to graduate in certain majors if you can’t hack it in your original major. Being an athlete or legacy or URM will do you no good if you can’t handle the work at Tech. The reason why Caltech’s acceptance rate may be a little high (15% isn’t that high though) is because the pool is more self-selecting.</p>