In this article let’s take a look at all the pros and cons of going to California institute of Technology also known as caltech to understand whether it is worth it or not for studying engineering like computer science and aerospace branches in this college or not.
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So without further ado let’s dive right in.
Table of Contents
Is Caltech a good school for CS, engineering, & is it still worth it?
Yes, Caltech is a good school for computer science engineering and it is definitely worth it, this institute is best because it provides a lot of research opportunities, variety of courses, lots of scholarships and financial aid, lots of job opportunities, etc.
There are some disadvantages as well with this institute like not many engineering courses and lower acceptance rate.
Now let’s take a look at all the pros and cons of joining and studying in caltech to understand whether you should join this institute or not.
Pros and cons of California institute of Technology (Caltech)
Pros of Caltech
Variety of courses
One of the main advantages is that you can study various courses for both majors and minors in undergraduate and postgraduate education in this college.
This institute is divided into six academic divisions such as division of biological engineering division of chemical engineering division of engineering division of humanities division of planetary science and division of physics Maths etc.
And you can study courses like engineering, biology, law, anthropology, history mathematics physics philosophy, etc and there are also interdisciplinary courses available which is great.
Great alumni & networking opportunities
Another advantage is that this institute has great alumni.
Popular alumni of this institute include Nobel laureates scientists business CEOs authors athletes politicians and many more.
Marc Aaronson, George O. Abell, Carl D. Anderson, James M. Bardeen, Donald D. Clayton are popular alumni of this institute to name a few.
And you should also know that hundreds of people from various different countries visit this institute to study various subjects like engineering and humanities
so people from different ideologies and thinking process stay together which will help you grow your network a lot on top of that you can also join many student clubs and societies to grow your network.
Amazing faculty
Another advantage is the institute has excellent faculty.
And this institute ranks one of the best in the country and world so you can imagine the faculty and professors quality will also be very good at the same time the student faculty ratio is 3:1
and more than 60% of the classes in the college have less than 20 students so there is ample amount of time for students to spend with the professors and faculty apart from classroom.
Not only the faculty has masters and doctorate degree with themselves but they also have been graduated from top universities like Stanford and Harvard before working as a professor in this institute, At the same time most of the faculty members are research scientists, and even a few faculty are noble laureate.
History & reputation
Another advantage is that the institute has big history and high reputation.
As a matter of fact the institute was founded back in 23 September 1891, and it is listed as one of the top oldest universities in America, according to US news, this institute has got 9th spot for most American universities overall, 4 year graduation rate is around 85% in this institute which is really great.
So if you graduate from this institute with any degree, you not only get a lot of respect and confidence yourself but also able to crack any job in the world and help you stand out in the competition because it is not easy to get admission into this institute on the other hand the college has huge reputation in the world.
Scholarships & aid
Another advantage is that you can get scholarships and financial aid.
All the scholarships and grants you receive are like gifts which you do not have to repay back and these scholarships are need based which means you get scholarship amount depending upon your family household income assets and other factors.
Apart from the scholarships, You can also apply for student loan and also get employment opportunities during work like work study program to complete your student share.
This is a big advantage for both national and international students who want to study in this institute but cannot afford the education and fees.
You can check all the FAQs of scholarships in caltech here
Research opportunities
Another advantage is that the institute has excellent research opportunities for students and faculty members.
It is because there are many research centres and institutes in the college for example you can find NASA’s jet propulsion lab to do research about solar system and find out new planets and galaxies similarly
you can find many other research centres which you can check it out here for various subjects of study like biology, health humanities social science physics computing engineering energy neuroscience, etc.
Similarly there are lots of research programs that are present in the institute which undergraduate students can participate in to do research along with the faculty like SURF, MMUF, etc.
Because of lots of research programs and facilities, and also obviously a lot of funding of state, there was many discoveries and inventions in the university like antimatter, super-bright pulsars, a new class of supernovae, and ancient galaxies, as well as helped take the first ever image of a black hole, etc which are truly remarkable.
Lots of clubs and fests
Another advantage is that you can find more than 100 different types of clubs and societies of students in this university like You can find clubs for various topics like anime chess basketball cricket fishing etc
And apart from the clubs you can also participate in various sports and athletics events, competitions that are conducted in the institute like basketball football etc.
The main advantage is by joining clubs and societies you can find new passion and also meet new people grow your connections and network at the same time
it can also give you some relaxation during the stress of academics along with it you can also learn new skills like teamwork leadership communication interpersonal skills and other soft skills.
Great location
Another advantage is the location of the university is also great.
As you can understand by the name itself that this institute is located in California and California is one of the best places to study in America because
apart from the University there are lots of tourist places you can visit like San Francisco golden gate bridge, Yosemite National park, Disneyland Lake Tahoe Joshua tree National park and others.
Apart from that you can also visit silicon valley which is a great place to start your career as an engineer because you can get many employment opportunities, also start your own startup there after getting your graduation from this university.
And obviously the institute it is also very good, there are many gardens lakes and museums you can visit and also you can enjoy many infrastructure and facilities in the university like libraries, research centres etc.
Entrepreneurship culture
Another advantage is the entrepreneurship culture is also very good in this institute.
To make things more simple and awesome here are some interesting facts,
- More than 300 startups were founded since 1990 in this institute
- $9 billion is the total money invested in the status of the institute graduates
- And more than 630 million dollars amount has been raised for funding in 2021 alone
This is possible because first of all there is a entrepreneurship club in the institute which will help students connect and increase their knowledge of entrepreneurship and meet
new people who are like-minded, similarly there is something called entrepreneurs in residence in Caltech which will support and help students start their own business and also get some funding meanwhile.
So because of all these reasons entrepreneurship and business culture is very good in Caltech.
Placements and salary
And the last minute advantage is the placements and job opportunities are also very good.
According to pay scale the average salary of a software engineer from this college is around 120 thousand dollars similarly $90,000 is the average salary for mechanical and aerospace engineer and $100000 is for research scientist.
Forbes magazine has named Caltech as one of America’s best employers, listing it first in the education subcategory and in seventh place out of 500 employers on the 2022 midsize employer ranking.
So you can clearly see that the salaries are quite high for students who graduate from this institute and even this institute is popular for engineering and technology related courses as you can clearly understand by the name of the institute which says that it is institute of technology.
These are all the advantages of Caltech now see the disadvantages.
Cons of Caltech
Small university
One of the main disadvantages is that the university is not very big in terms of the students who can study and the courses.
First of all there are not many engineering courses you can study in this university like apart from mainstream engineering courses like computer science and mechanical civil electrical biotechnology etc you cannot study other engineering branches like petroleum or agriculture
similarly there are only 1000 undergraduate students and 1200 postgraduate students who can study, and the total land of this institute is around 120 acres which is quite small as compared to its counterparts like Harvard and Stanford University.
So in that case the institute is relatively smaller,
Low Acceptance rate
Another disadvantage is that the acceptance rate is also quite smaller with only 7%.
The acceptance rate for most popular universities in America is so low because they don’t just give admission to the students who have good academics and exam scores in SAT but they have certain criteria and characteristics which they look for in student application before deciding whether they should give him
the admission or not like whether the student has good communication research creativity hard working and other skills apart from studies because
there are limited number of seats available in the University and the University wants the students to utilise all the resources and facilities present to the fullest potential and also contribute to the University as well so they try to give admission to best students only.
Expensive education
another disadvantage is that it is very expensive to get education in this institute.
83500 dollars is the total attendance fee including the tuition fees and other expenses like meals housing books you will have to pay for one year of education in Caltech, You can clearly see that it is very expensive and the other reason is that California is also very expensive location to live and study.
But thankfully as I mentioned earlier there are several scholarships you can get which are need based and you can also apply for grants like Pell grant, student loan and also get any employment and job opportunities to make some money for education.
With that said let’s end the article.
Conclusion
These are all the pros and cons of California institute of technology.
Do let me know what are your thoughts about this school in the comment section below, share the article with your friends and subscribe to my blog to receive notifications as whenever I publish any article in future.