California Institute of Technology College

Summary

The California Institute of Technology, known as Caltech, was founded in 1891 as Throop University and received its current name in 1920. The science and engineering-focused school is located in Pasadena, California, roughly 11 miles northeast of Los Angeles. There are roughly 2,200 students at Caltech, with around 55 percent of them studying at the graduate level. The student-faculty ratio is very low, at 3:1. More than one-fourth of Caltech's total enrollment is international.​ The school’s academic calendar is based on the quarter system and English is the language of instruction.

Caltech has six academic divisions, many of which have highly ranked graduate programs: biology and biological engineering; chemistry and chemical engineering; engineering and applied science; geology and planetary sciences; humanities and social sciences; and physics, mathematics and astronomy. The university guarantees housing for all first-year undergraduate and graduate students. Instead of typical undergraduate residence halls like those found at many U.S. universities, there are eight undergraduate houses, each with its own government and special traditions. Newly admitted graduate students are given priority for housing in the on-campus Catalina Apartments. 

Around 80 percent of undergraduates participate in research during their time at Caltech. The university offers a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships program where students write research proposals, collaborate with mentors and give presentations on their projects. Caltech has around 50 research institutes and centers, such as the Resnick Sustainability Institute and the Tectonics Observatory. Additionally, the university operates NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a center for robotic exploration of the solar system that engages both faculty and students.

2,209
Total number of students
603
Number of international students
342
Total number of academic staff
10
Number of international staff
228
Number of undergraduate degrees awarded
123
Number of master's degrees awarded
182
Number of doctoral degrees awarded
604
Number of research only staff
226
Number of new undergraduate students
19
Number of new master's students
231
Number of new doctoral students

2018 Indicator Rankings

Thirteen indicators were used to calculate this institution's overall Best Global Universities rank. Here is a breakdown of how this institution ranked relative to other schools for each indicator. See the methodology »
85.7
Global score
#10
Global research reputation
#13
Regional research reputation
#134
Publications
#295
Books
#86
Conferences
#7
Normalized citation impact
#69
Total citations
#61
Number of publications that are among the 10 percent most cited
#3
Percentage of total publications that are among the 10 percent most cited
#8
International collaboration
#144
Percentage of total publications with international collaboration
#36
Number of highly cited papers that are among the top 1 percent most cited
#6
Percentage of highly cited papers that are among the top 1 percent most cited