<p>I think you have discerned a pattern that people have discussed on CC for some time. MIT has been trying to follow the “ivy model” of emphasizing diversity. But Dauntless is right that you should probably still apply since you have such a small sample size, and MIT is still MIT. To be fair, you might also find Caltech alums that don’t really impress you (ie, are mainly at Caltech since it was their most prestigious choice and aren’t really hardcore about math/science/engineering). Once again, I recommend Golden’s book The Price of Admission, if you’re really interested in how admissions committees work.</p>