QS World University ranking
Ranked in at four in the QS world university ranking California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is well recognized as a science and technology institute which has been the parent of some of the world’s brightest minds and most innovative tools to cater to the fundamental scientific questions and social challenges.
It was established in 1891 as a vocational school by a local businessman and politician Amos G. Throop. The school was famously known as Throop University, Throop Polytechnic Institute and Throop College of Technology before acquiring its current name California Institute of Technology in 1920. Caltech is a 124-acre campus based within walking distance of Old Town Pasadena and the Pasadena Playhouse District, California, around 11 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
The motto of the university is “The truth shall make you free” While the mission of the California Institute of Technology is to “expand human knowledge and benefit society through research integrated with education”. The most challenging, fundamental problems in science and technology are investigated in a singularly collegial, interdisciplinary atmosphere, while educating outstanding students to become a creative outcome of the society. In the early 20th century it became a major hub of US scientific research and was instrumental to the United States’ war effort during World War II. A student’s life on campus is rich with social activities, clubs, associations and recreational facilities. Intercollegiate sport activities are taken very seriously, with the Caltech Beavers competing in 13 intercollegiate sports. The beaver is the college mascot which is known as the nature’s engineer.
Of the six ranking criteria used to assess universities, Caltech scored high for its ratio of students to faculty members, for which it is ranked third in the world. The university faculty includes approximately 300 professorial faculty and more than 600 research scholars and the 3:1 student-faculty ratio is maintained by the university, while the present alumni of the university consist of 948 undergraduate students, 1,285 graduate students.
It is not just a campus but a community of curious and passionate individuals who collaborate to understand and solve complex scientific and societal challenges. The subjects of biological sciences, chemistry, chemical engineering, earth & marine sciences and physics & astronomy are mostly ranked as the best to be studied in Caltech. To cater to the needs of the students the university provides world class facilities. The university’s global facilities include a Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech Seismological Laboratory and an International Observatory Network.
At present it provides home to the Einstein Papers Project, an initiative seeking to preserve, translate and publish selected papers from the estate of Albert Einstein. It has also established an energy innovation hub that aims to discover revolutionary methods of generating fuels directly from sunlight.
Caltech also offers excellent opportunities not only for the study but also for the performance of music, theater, and the visual arts. Each activity plays a vital role in realizing and accomplishing the Caltech’s mission. The completeness of a Caltech is the balance between a diligent academic curriculum and activities that promote personal development, to ensure the students both developmental and an invaluable staging post to a successful career during the time spent in the campus.
Although small in size and lacking the massive brandings of the first few campuses it does not fail to prove its ability as one of the best universities in technology and engineering, which is also the key academic strengths of the university.
Its living alumni include Over 24,000 members in the U.S. and around the world. And these also include 39 Nobel Prize winners, one Fields Medal, six Turing Awards and 71 United States National Medal of Science or Technology and four chief scientists of the US Air Force.
-Madhusha Dep-