<p>First of all, ranking is biased. Let’s not even count USNEWS b/c it’s a junk. Depending on who researched the ranking, the rank may be different. For example, ARWU lists Harvard #1 Berkeley #2 Stanford #3 MIT #4. Times lists differently. Both are respected ranking.
All are fine schools, but in terms of academic and social all together, I don’t think Caltech is for everyone. It’s true it’s up there with all the schools I’ve mentioned, but you are probably end up doing core classes all year long til you gradaute. I would say only engineers would be attracted toward Caltech, but one can go different route going to S, C, M. Besides from ranking wise, general public doesn’t know what Caltech is…</p>