“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” 

  -Michelangelo

Caltech is a world-renowned science and engineering institute that marshals some of the world’s brightest minds and most innovative tools to address fundamental scientific questions and pressing societal challenges. Caltech’s extraordinary faculty and students are expanding our understanding of the universe and inventing the technologies of the future, with research interests from quantum science and engineering to bioinformatics and the nature of life itself, from human behavior and economics to energy and sustainability.

Caltech is small, but prizes excellence and ambition. The contributions of Caltech’s faculty and alumni have earned national and international recognition, including 35 Nobel Prizes. The Institute manages the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for NASA, sending probes to explore the planets of our solar system and quantify changes on our home planet.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Founded in 1861 in response to the increasing industrialization of the United States, MIT adopted a European polytechnic university model stressing laboratory instruction in applied science and engineering. Researchers worked on computers, radar and inertial guidance during World War ll and the Cold War. Post-war defense research contributed to the rapid expansion of the faculty and campus. The current 168-acre campus opened in 1916 and extends over 1 mile (1.6 km) along the northern bank of the Charles River. 

The Institute is traditionally known for its research and education in the physical sciences and engineering, but more recently in biology, economics, physics and management as well. MIT is often cited among the world’s best universities.

As of 2017, 88 Nobel Laureates, 52 National Medal of Science recipients, 65 Marshal Scholars, 45 Rhodes Scholars, 38 MacArthur Fellows, 34 astronauts, and 6 Field Medalists have been affiliated with MIT. The school has a strong entrepreneurial culture and the aggregated revenues of companies founded by MIT alumni would rank as the eleventh-largest economy in the world.

Located outside Boston in Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT focuses on scientific and technological research and is divided into five schools and one college. University research expenditures have typically exceeded $650 million each year, with funding from government agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense. MIT’s highly ranked graduate schools include the School of Engineering and Sloan School of Management, in addition to strong programs in economics, psychology, biology, chemistry, earth sciences, physics and mathematics. Freshmen are required to live on campus.