Anyway You Analyze Caltech, It Comes in as One of the World’s Top Universities

Despite being ranked the best university in the world (repeatedly) by The London Times, Pasadena’s California Institute of Technology has tied for 12th place with Northwestern University as best college in the United States in the annual US News and World Report survey.

The Best College Rankings in the United States was once again headed by Princeton University, but saw Caltech atop the charts in Southern California.

Its stellar reputation comes as no surprise to most Pasadenans.

Caltech, a private institution founded in 1891, is a leader in STEM fields and offers top graduate programs in engineering, biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics and physics, according to the US News rankings. Caltech also has one of the nation’s lowest student-to-faculty ratios as it has 300 faculty members and just 2,300 overall students.

The school is known for having students participate in research funded by prestigious institutions, such as NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Health and Human Services. Furthermore, Caltech owns or manages an array of large-scale research facilities, such as Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Seismological Laboratory and the W.M. Keck Observatory.

Because of their focus on scientific advancement and innovation, the Caltech community is known for creating startups. According to information provided by the school, Caltech faculty members are granted 140 patents on a yearly basis while 130 companies have been founded by Caltech alumni and faculty since 1995.

Other nearby universities also found their way on the national list. The University of Southern California ranked 23rd while UCLA ranked 24th, tied with both Carnegie Mellon and the University of Virginia.

As of this year, Caltech’s tuition and fees are just about $47,000, but according to the US News report, the school offers generous financial aid packages and more than half of Caltech students have received assistance. Currently, Caltech only has a 9 percent acceptance ratio and 98 percent of its accepted students placed in the top tenth of their senior classes.