the california institute of technology caltech is a private research university in pasadena california u.s the university is known for its strength in science and engineering and is one among a small group of institutes of technology in the united states which is primarily devoted to the instruction of pure and applied sciences caltech was founded as a preparatory in vocational school by amos g troupe in 1891 and began attracting influential scientists such as george ellery hale arthur amos noyes and robert andrews milliken in the early 20th century the vocational and preparatory schools were disbanded and spun off in 1910 and the college assumed its present name in 1920. in 1934 caltech was elected to the association of american universities and the antecedents of nasa's jet propulsion laboratory which caltech continues to manage and operate were established between 1936 and 1943 under theodore von carmen caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphasis on science and engineering managing 332 million dollars in 2011 in sponsored research its 124 acre 50 hectares primary campus is located approximately 11 miles 18 kilometers northeast of downtown los angeles first year students are required to live on campus and 95 of undergraduates remain in the on-campus house system at caltech although cal tech has a strong tradition of practical jokes and pranks student life is governed by an honor code which allows faculty to assign take-home examinations the cal tech beavers compete in 13 intercollegiate sports in the ncaa division three's southern california intercollegiate athletic conference syack of october 2020 there are 76 nobel laureates who have been affiliated with including 40 alumni faculty members 41 prizes in addition four fields medalists and six touring award winners have been affiliated with caltech there are eight craft ford laureates and 56 non-emeritus faculty members as well as many emeritus faculty members who have been elected to one of the united states national academies four chief scientists of the u.s air force and 71 have won the united states national medal of science or technology numerous faculty members are associated with the howard hughes medical institute as well as nasa according to a 2015 pomona college study caltech ranked number one in the u.s for the percentage of its graduates who go on to earn a phd caltech began as a vocational school founded in present-day old pasadena on fair oaks avenue and chestnut street on september 23 1891 by local businessman and politician amos g troop the school was known successively as troop university troop polytechnic institute and manual training school and troop college of technology before acquiring its current name in 1920 the vocational school was dissolved in the preparatory program was dissolved to form an independent polytechnic school in 1907 at a time when scientific research in the united states was still in its infancy george ellery hale a solar astronomer at the university of chicago founded the mount wilson observatory in 1904. he joined troops board of trustees in 1907 and soon began to expand it and the whole of pasadena became a major destination science and culture he designed the appointment of james a b shearer a literary scholar who did not study science but was a proficient administrator and fundraiser to become president of troop in 1908.
shearer persuaded retired entrepreneur and trustee charles w gates to donate 25 000 in start-up money to build the gates laboratory the first science building on campus in 1910 troop moved to its current site arthur fleming donated land for a permanent campus site theodore roosevelt gave a speech at the troop institute on march 21 1911 and he stated i would like to see an institution like troop become perhaps 99 out of every 100 students as men who have to do certain industry jobs better than others can i'd like to see those people do the kind of work that's now being done on the panama canal and major irrigation projects in the interior of this country and the hundredth person i'd like to see with the kind of cultural scientific training that will make him and his colleagues the matrix from which to go you can sometimes develop a man like your great astronomer george ellery hale that same year a bill was introduced in the california legislature calling for the creation of a publicly funded california institute of technology the board of trustees offered to hand troop over to the state but the presidents of stanford university and the university of california successfully lobbied to defeat the bill which allowed troop to thrive as southern california's only scientific research oriented educational institution publicly are private until the beginning of world war ii necessitated the broader development of research-based science education troops promise attracted physical chemist arthur amos noyes of mit to develop the institution and help make it a center for science and technology with the start of world war one hale organized a national research council to coordinate and support scientific work on military matters while he supported the idea of a federal allocation to science he took exception to a federal law that would fund engineering research at land grant colleges and instead sought to raise 1 million dollars in national research funding entirely from private sources to that end as hale wrote in the new york times the troop college of technology in pasadena california recently provided a striking illustration of one way in which the research council can secure collaboration and advance scientific inquiry this institute with its capable investigators and excellent research laboratories can provide good service in a broad scheme of cooperation president shearer hearing of the formation of the council immediately offered to take part in its work and with this aim he secured within three days an additional research fund of one hundred thousand dollars through the national research council hale is simultaneously lobbying for science to play a greater role in national affairs and for troop to play a national role in science new funds were devoted to physics research and eventually led to the founding of the norman bridge laboratory which attracted experimental physicist robert andrews milliken from the university of chicago in 1917 during the war hale noyes and milliken worked together in washington in the nrc subsequently they continued their partnership in developing caltech under the leadership of hail noise and milliken aided by southern california's booming economy caltech grew to national prominence in the 1920s and concentrated on developing roosevelt's hundredth man on november 29 1921 the trustees declared that it was the institute's firm policy to pursue the most important scientific research and at the same time to continue to conduct thorough courses in engineering and pure science basing the work of these courses on very strong teaching in the basic sciences of mathematics physics and chemistry broaden and enrich the curriculum with a large number of teaching in subjects such as english history and economics and bring to life all the work of the institute by incorporating generous measures of research spirit in 1923 milliken was awarded the nobel prize in physics in 1925 the school founded the geology department and hired william bennett monroe then chairman of the history government and economics division at harvard university to create the humanities and social sciences division at caltech in 1928 a division of biology was founded under the leadership of thomas hunt morgan the most prominent biologist in the united states at the time and discoverer of the role of genes and chromosomes in heredity in 1930 the kirkhof marine laboratory was founded in corona del mar under the supervision of professor george mcginniti in 1926 the graduate school of aeronautics was created which eventually attracted theodore von carmen carmen later helped create the jet propulsion laboratory and played an integral role in establishing caltech as one of the world's centers of rocket science in 1928 construction of the palomar observatory began milliken served as chairman of the executive board effectively president of caltech from 1921 to 1945 and his influence was such that the institute is sometimes referred to as the milliken school milliken started a guest scholarship program soon after joining caltech notable scientists who accepted his invitation included paul dyrac erwin schrodinger werner heisenberg hendrick lorenz and niels bohr albert einstein arrived at the caltech campus for the first time in 1931 to polish his general theory of relativity and he returned to cal tech later as a visiting professor in 1932 and 1933. during world war ii cal tech was one of 131 colleges and universities nationwide to take part in the v12 naval college training program which offers students a path to naval commission the united states navy also has a naval training school for aeronautical engineering a permanent inspector of naval regulations and materials and a national defense research committee liaison officer on campus vista project editing from april to december 1951 caltech conducted a classified federal study project vista caltech's selection is the host for the project was based on the university's expertise in rocketry and nuclear physics in response to the war in korea and pressure from the soviet union this project was caltech's way of assisting the federal government in its efforts to improve national security this project was created to study new ways to improve the relationship between tactical air support and ground forces the army air force and navy sponsored the project however it was under contract with the army the research is named after the hotel vista del arroyo hotel which is the research site the study was operated under a committee with the oversight of president lee de bridge william a fowler a professor at caltech was selected as research director more than a quarter of caltech's faculty and a group of outside scientists staffed the project what's more the numbers increase when we take into account visiting scientists military liaisons secretaries and security staff as compensation for participation the university receives approximately 750 thousand dollars from the 1950s to the 1980s caltech was home to murray gel man and richard feynman whose work was central to the formation of the standard model of particle physics feynman is also widely known outside the physics community as an outstanding and colorful teacher during lee a dubridge's tenure as president of caltech 1946-1969 caltech's faculty doubled in campuses tripled de bridge unlike its predecessors welcomes federal funding for science new research areas are developing including chemical biology planetary science nuclear astrophysics and geochemistry a 200-inch telescope was dedicated near mount palomar in 1948 and has remained the most powerful optical telescope in the world for over 40 years caltech opened its doors to female students during harold brown's presidency in 1970 and they make up 14 of the incoming class the share of female students has been steadily increasing since then protests by caltech students are rare the earliest was the 1968 protest outside nbc's burbank studios in response to rumors that nbc would cancel star trek in 1973 students from dabney house protested the president's visit with a sign in the library bearing the simple phrase impeach nixon the following week ross mccallum president of the national oil company wrote an open letter to dabney house stating that in light of their actions he had decided not to donate a million dollars to caltech the dabney family as republicans disowned dabney house upon hearing of the protests 21st century since 2000 the einstein papers project has been located at caltech this project was founded in 1986 to collect preserve translate and publish selected papers from albert einstein's literary area and from other collections in the fall of 2008 the freshman class was 42 female a record for caltech undergraduate enrollment that same year the institute ended a six-year fundraising campaign the campaign raised more than 1.4 billion dollars from approximately 16 000 donors nearly half of the funds are used to support cal tech programs and projects in 2010 caltech partnered with lawrence berkeley national laboratory and led by professor nathan lewis founded the doze center for energy innovation to develop a revolutionary method for producing fuel directly from sunlight this hub the joint center for artificial photosynthesis will receive up to 122 million dollars in federal funding over five years since 2012 caltech started offering classes through massively open online courses moocs under coursera and from 2013 edx jean lucimo the eighth president announced on the 19th of february 2013 that he would be stepping down to accept the presidency of the king abdullah university of science and technology thomas f rosenbaum was announced as caltech's ninth president on october 24 2013 and his term began on july 1st 2014. in 2019 caltech received a 750 million dollars prize for sustainability research from the resnick family of the wonderful company the prize is the largest ever for environmental sustainability research in the second largest private donation to a us academic institution after the 1.8 billion dollars bloomberg gift to johns hopkins university in 2018
due to president robert a milliken's affiliation with the human improvement foundation in january 2021 the caltech board of trustees authorized the removal of millikin's name and the names of five other historical figures affiliated with the foundation from the campus building caltech's 124 acre 50 hectares main campus is located in pasadena california about 18 kilometers northeast of downtown los angeles it is within walking distance of pasadena's old town in pasadena's playhouse district and therefore both locations are frequent getaways for caltech students in 1917 hale hired architect bertram goodhue to produce a master plan for the 22 acre 8.9 hectares campus goodhue laid out the overall campus layout and designed the physics building dabney hall and several other structures where he sought to be consistent with the local climate the character of the school and hails educational philosophy goodhue's design for caltech was also influenced by the traditional spanish mission architecture in southern california during the 1960s caltech experienced considerable expansion in part due to the philanthropy of alumni arnold obechmann in 1953 beckman was asked to join the caltech board of trustees in 1964 he became its chairman over the next few years as cal tech president emeritus david baltimore explains arnold beckman and his wife mabel shaped caltech's destiny in 1971 a magnitude 6.6 earthquake in san fernando caused some damage to the caltech campus engineers evaluating the damage found that two historic buildings dating to the institute's early days troophole and the goodhue designed culbertson auditorium had cracked new additions to the campus include the cahill center for astronomy and astrophysics in the walter and leonor annenberg center for information science and technology which opened in 2009 and are followed by the warren and catherine schlinger laboratories for chemistry and chemical engineering in march one point six 2010 in 2011. calc was founded as an after-profit corporation and his government
46 members appointed supervisors that serves a five-year term the board is currently chaired by david l lee co-founder of global crossing limited the trustee elects a president to serve as the institute's chief executive officer and manages affairs at the institute on behalf of the board a provost who serves as the institute's academic head under the president and 10 other vice presidents and other senior positions former georgia tech president jean-luc shamow became caltech's eighth president on september 1st 2006 succeeding david baltimore who has served since 1997. shamow's compensation for 2008-2009 amounted to 799 472 dollars shimo served until june 30th 2013. thomas f rosenbaum was announced as caltech's ninth president on october 24 2013 and his term began on july 1 2014 caltech contributions are governed by a committee of permanent trustees and administered by an investment office the institute is organized into six main academic divisions biological and biological engineering chemical and chemical engineering engineering and applied science geological and planetary sciences humanities and social sciences physics mathematics and astronomy caltech's voting faculty includes all professors instructors research associates and associates and university librarians the faculty is responsible for setting admission requirements academic standards and curriculum the faculty council is the representative body of the faculty and consists of 18 elected faculty representatives as well as other senior administrative officers full-time professors are expected to teach classes conduct research advise students and perform administrative work such as serving on committees founded in the 1930s the jet propulsion laboratory jpl is a federally funded research and development center ffrdc owned by nasa and operated as a division of caltech through a contract between nasa and caltech in 2008 jpl spent more than 1.6 billion dollars on research and development and employed more than 5 000 project related and support employees the director of jpl also serves as vice president of caltech and reports to the president of the institute for laboratory management caltech is a small very residential four-year research university with slightly more students in graduate than undergraduate programs this institution has been accredited by the western association of schools and colleges since 1949 caltech uses a quarterly system the fall semester begins in late september and ends before christmas the second semester begins after new year's day and ends in mid-march and the third semester begins in late march or early april and ends in early june for 2020 u.s news and world report ranks caltech 12th in the united states among national universities overall eighth for most innovative and 11th for best value u.s news and world report
also ranks graduate programs in chemistry and earth science first among national universities caltech was ranked first internationally between 2011 and 2016 by the times higher education world university rankings 70 caltech is ranked as the best university in the world in two categories engineering and technology and physical sciences it was also found to have the highest faculty citation rate in the world edit reception for the class of 2023 enrolled fall 2019 caltech received 8 367 applications and accepted 6.4 of applicants 235 registered the class includes 44 women and 56 percent men 32 percent are of underrepresented descent including students who identify as american indian alaskan native hispanic latino black african-american and or native hawaiian pacific and six percent are foreign students admission to caltech is very strict and requires the highest test scores in the country the middle 50 range of sat scores for freshmen enrolled for class 2023 is 740 to 780 for evidence-based reading and writing in 790-800 for mathematics for a total of 1530-1570 the act composite score in the middle of the 50 range as 35 to 36 the middle 50 range of sat math level 2 is 800 to 800. the middle 50 range for the sat physics subject test is 760 to 800 the sat chemistry subject test is 760-800 sat biology subject test is 760-800 tuition and financial aid edit the undergraduate tuition fee for the 2013-2014 school year is 39 990 and the total annual fee is estimated at 58 755 in 2012 2013 caltech was awarded 17.1 million dollars in need-based assistance
438 000 in unnecessary assistance and 2.51 million dollars in self-help for enrolled undergraduate students the average financial aid package of all students eligible for aid is thirty eight thousand seven hundred fifty six dollars and students graduate with an average debt of fifteen thousand ninety dollars degree program the four year full-time undergraduate program emphasizes teaching in the arts and sciences and has a high degree of graduate coexistence caltech offers 28 majors called electives and 12 majors across six academic divisions caltech also offers interdisciplinary programs in applied physics biochemistry biotechnology computing and nervous systems control and dynamic systems environmental science and engineering astrobiology geochemistry and planetary astronomy the most popular electives are chemical engineering computer science electrical engineering mechanical engineering and physics prior to entering the 2013 class caltech requires students to take a core curriculum of five math terms five physics terms two chemistry terms one biology term two lab terms one scientific communication term three physical education terms and twelve humanities terms and social sciences since 2013 only three terms each of mathematics and physics are required by the institute with the remaining two terms each required by certain options a typical class is worth nine academic units and given the extensive core curriculum requirements in addition to individual elective degree requirements students need to take an average of 40.5 units per semester over four classes to graduate in four years 36 units is the minimum full-time load 48 units are considered heavy loads and registration above 51 units requires an overlay petition roughly 20 of the students are double majors this is achievable because the humanities and social sciences majors have been designed to be done in conjunction with the science majors while choosing two options in the same division is not recommended it is still possible first year students are enrolled in first semester classes based on placement exam results in math physics chemistry and writing and take all classes in their first two semesters on a pass fail basis there is little competition collaboration in homework is encouraged in the honor system encourages takeaway tests in a flexible homework schedule caltech offers collaborative programs with other schools such as pasadena arts center college of design and occidental college according to a 2018 pay scale study caltech graduates are in a median early career salary of eighty three thousand four hundred dollars in mid-career one hundred forty three thousand one hundred dollars placing them in the top five among us college and university graduates 85 the median net return on investment over a 20-year period is 887 000 the 10th highest among u.s colleges
caltech offers army and air force rotc in collaboration with the university of southern california the post-graduate instructional program emphasizes doctoral studies and is dominated by the fields of science technology engineering and mathematics the institute offers postgraduate degree programs for masters of science engineering degrees doctor of philosophy bs per mega siemens and md phd with the majority of students in phd programs the most popular electives are chemistry physics biology electrical engineering and chemical engineering applicants for postgraduate study are required to take the gre gre subject scores are required or highly recommended by some options a joint program between caltech and the university of southern california's keck school of medicine and ucla's david geffen school of medicine awards and md phd students in this program do their pre-clinical and clinical work at usc or ucla and their phd work with members of the caltech faculty including the divisions of biology chemistry and engineering and applied sciences the md degree will be from usc or ucla and the phd will be awarded from caltech research facilities at caltech are available to graduate students but there are opportunities for students to work in other university facilities research centers as well as private industry the graduate student to faculty ratio is four to one about ninety nine percent of doctoral students have full financial support financial support for graduate students comes in the form of scholarships research assistantships teaching assistantships or a combination of scholarship and assistantship support graduate students are bound by a code of honor as are students and the graduate honors board oversees any breaches of the code cal tech is classified among r1 doctoral universities very high research activity caltech was elected to the association of american universities in 1934 and remains a research university with very high research activity particularly in the stem field caltech manages research expenditures of 270 million dollars per year ranking 66th among all u.s universities and 17th among private institutions without medical school for 2008 95 96 the largest federal agencies contributing to research or nasa the national science foundation the department of health and human services the department of defense and the department of energy caltech received 144 million dollars in federal funding for the physical sciences 40.8 million dollars for life sciences 33.5 million dollars for engineering 14.4 million dollars for environmental sciences 7.16 million dollars for computer science and 1.97 million dollars for maths in 2008 the institution was awarded an all-time high of 357 million dollars in 2009 active funding from the national science foundation directorate of mathematics and physical sciences mps for caltech reached 343 million dollars in 2011 the highest for any educational institution in the nation and higher than the total funding allocated to any state except california and new york york in 2005 caltech had 739 000 square feet 68 700 square meters dedicated to research 330 000 square feet 30 700 square meters for the physical sciences 163 000 square feet 15 100 square meters for engineering and 160 000 square feet 14 900 square meters for the biological sciences a glimpse of the california institute of technology thank you for watching see you next time
2021-12-05