<p>If Caltech considers race at all that would be a change from its previous policies. The Price of Admission, which was written a number of years ago features a chapter on Caltech which presented Caltech’s admission policies as strictly meritocratic with no consideration of race or gender whatsoever. Since then Caltech’s demographics have significantly changed [one year Caltech had zero black Freshmen] which I suspect is probably due to affirmative action being implemented to some degree [although considerably less than many other top schools].</p>