California Institute of Technology
Founded 1891. Tiny by design, about 1,000 undergraduates, runs JPL and wins Nobels at unmatched density.
Overview
Caltech began as Throop University and was rebuilt by George Ellery Hale into a science powerhouse deliberately kept small. With roughly 1,000 undergraduates and 1,300 graduate students, it has accumulated over 40 Nobel laureates, possibly the highest ratio in the world. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed for NASA since 1958, sent America's first satellite aloft and every Mars rover since. Millikan, Feynman, and Murray Gell-Mann built its physics legend. House traditions and famous pranks against MIT color campus life. Seismo Lab gave the Richter scale to the world.
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