California Institute of Technology

Early developments

The California Institute of Technology known as Caltech is a private university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Although founded as a preparatory and vocational school by Mr. Amos G. Throop in 1891, the college attracted influential scientists such as Mr. Grorge Ellery Hale, Mr.Arthur Amos Noyes, and Mr. Robert Andrews Milikan 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 1921.Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphasis on science and engineering, managing $332 million in 2011 in sponsored research. Its 124-acre (50 ha) primary campus is located approximately 11 mi (18 km) 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 Caltech has a strong tradition of practical jokes and pranks student life is governed by an honour code which allows faculty to assign take exam at home. Caltech is frequently cited as one of the world's best universities. Despite its small size, 33 Caltech alumni and faculty have won a total of 34 Noble Prizes, 5 Field Medalists,6 Turning Award winners have been affiliated with the university, and 71 have won the United States National Medal of Science of technology.Under the leadership of Hale, Noyes and Millikan, Caltech grew to national prominence in the 1920s and concentrated on the development of Roosevelt's "Hundredth Man". On November 29, 1921, the trustees declared it to be the express policy of the Institute to pursue scientific research of the greatest importance and at the same time "to continue to conduct thorough courses in engineering and pure science, basing the work of these courses on exceptionally strong instruction in the fundamental sciences of mathematics, physics, and chemistry; broadening and enriching the curriculum by a liberal amount of instruction in such subjects as English, history, and economics; and vitalizing all the work of the Institute by the infusion in generous measure of the spirit of research.

21st century

Since 2000, the Einstein Papers Projects has been located at Caltech. The project was established in 1986 to assemble, preserve, translate, and publish papers selected from the literary estate of Albert Einstein and from other collections.In fall 2008, the freshman class was 42% female, a record for Caltech's undergraduate enrolment. In the same year, the Institute concluded a six-year-long fund-raising campaign. The campaign raised more than $1.4  billion from about 16,000 donors. Nearly half of the funds went into the support of Caltech programs and projects.

Campus

Caltech's 124-acre (50 ha) primary campus is located in Pasadena California, approximately 11 miles (18 km) northeast of downtown Las Angeles. It is within walking distance of old town Pasadena and the Pasadena Playhouse districts and therefore the two locations are frequent getaways for Caltech students.In 1917 Hale hired architect Bertram Goodhue  to produce a master plan for the 22 acres (8.9 ha) campus. Goodhue conceived the overall layout of the campus and designed the physics building, Dabney Hall, and several other structures, in which he sought to be consistent with the local climate, the character of the school, and Hale's educational philosophy. Goodhue's designs for Caltech were also influenced by the traditional Spanish mission architecture of Southern California.In 1971 a 6.6 earthquake in san Fernando caused some damage to the Caltech campus. Engineers who evaluated the damage found that two historic buildings dating from the early days of the Institute—Throop Hall and the Goodhue-designed Culbertson Auditorium—had cracked. These were some of the first  reinforce concrete buildings, and their plans did not contain enough details to be sure they were safe, so the engineers recommended demolition. However, demolishing these historic structures required considerably more effort than would have been necessary had they been in real danger of collapse. A large wrecking ball was used to demolish Throop Hall, and smashing the concrete revealed massive  amounts of rebar, far in excess of safety requirements. The rebar had to be cut up before the pieces could be hauled away, and the process took much longer than expected.

Organization and administration

Caltech is incorporated as a non-profit corporation and is governed by a privately appointed 46-member board of trustees who serve five-year terms of office and retire at the age of 72. The Trustees elect a President to serve as the chief executive officer of the Institute and administer the affairs on the Institute on behalf of the board, a Provost who serves as the chief academic officer of the Institute below the President, and ten other vice presidential and other senior positions. Mr.Thomas F Rosenbaum  was announced  to be the ninth president of Caltech on October 24, 2013, and his term began on July 1, 2014. Caltech's endowment is governed by a permanent Trustee committee and administered by an Investment Office.The Institute is organized into six primary academic divisions: Biology and Biological Engineering, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Engineering and Applied Science, Geological and Planetary Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy. The voting faculty of Caltech include all professors, instructors, research associates and fellows, and the University Librarian. Faculty are responsible for establishing admission requirements,  academic standards, and curricula. The Faculty Board is the faculty's representative body and consists of 18 elected faculty representatives as well as other senior administration officials. Full-time professors are expected to teach classes, conduct research, advise students,  and perform administrative work such as serving on committees.

Academics

Caltech is a small four-year, highly residential research university with a slight majority in graduate programs. The Institute has been accredited by the Western Association of School and Colleges since 1949. Caltech is on the quarter system, the fall term starts in late September and ends before Christmas, the second term starts after New Year’s Day and ends in mid-March, and the third term starts in late March or early April and ends in early June. Caltech is ranked 1st internationally since 2011 by the Times Higher Education World University ranking. Caltech was ranked as the best university in the world in two categories:

 Engineering & Technology and Physical Sciences. It was also found to have the highest faculty citation rate in the world. 

 The United states national research Council released its latest Assessment of Research Doctorate Programs in 2010, and 23 of the 24 graduate programs of Caltech were ranked within the top four programs in the nation in their size quartile as determined by  both the R95 and S95 rankings. Of particular note, programs that were placed within the top 10% of all size programs in that  field based on an average of the R95 and S95 rank order include Aeronautics, Astrophysics, Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics,  Bioengineering, Biology, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, Environmental Science and Engineering, Geology,  Geophysics, Materials Science, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Planetary Science, and Economics.In 2013 a paper published in the  Quarterly Journal of Economics ranked Caltech 2nd in the U.S. for revealed preference. The sample of the study was 3240 high achieving  students .Rankings were based on number of students who accepted offered admission.

Undergraduate program

The full-time, four-year undergraduate program emphasizes instruction in the arts and sciences and has high graduate coexistence.Caltech offers 24 majors (called "options") and six minors across all six academic divisions.[68] Caltech also offers interdisciplinary 

programs in Applied Physics, Biochemistry, Bioengineering, Computation and Neural Systems, Control and Dynamical Systems, Environmental Science and Engineering, Geobiology and Astrobiology, Geochemistry, and Planetary Astronomy. The most popular options are Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Physics Prior to the entering class of 2017, Caltech requires students 

 to take a core curriculum of 30 classes: five terms of mathematics, five terms of physics, two terms of chemistry, one term of biology,  a freshman elective "menu" course, two terms of introductory lab courses, 2 terms of science writing, and 12 terms of humanities. 

 The new core curriculum effective from the 2013-2014 academic year reduces the math and physics requirements to three terms each, but most option requirements still require about five terms of math and physics.A typical class is worth 9 academic units and given the extensive  core curriculum requirements in addition to individual options' degree requirements, students need to take an average of 40.5 units per term more than four classes in order to graduate in four years. 36 units is the minimum full-time load, 48 units is considered a heavy load,  and registrations above 54 units require an overload petition.[71] Approximately 20 percent of student’s double-major. This is achievable  since the humanities and social sciences majors have been designed to be done in conjunction with a science major. Although choosing  two options in the same division is discouraged, it is still possible.

Graduate program

The graduate instructional programs emphasize doctoral studies and are dominated by science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. The Institute offers graduate degree programs for the Master of Science, Engineer's Degree, Doctor of Philosophy, BS/MS and MD/PhD, with  the majority of students in the PhD program. The most popular options are Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Electrical Engineering and  Chemical Engineering. Applicants for graduate studies are required to take the GRE. GRE Subject scores are either required or strongly  recommended by several options. A joint program between Caltech and the UCLA David Geffen School of medicine grants MD/PhD degrees. 

 Students in this program do their preclinical and clinical work at UCLA, and their PhD work with any member of the Caltech faculty,  including the Biology, Chemistry, and Engineering and Applied Sciences Divisions. The MD degree would be from UCLA and the PhD would 

 be awarded from Caltech.The research facilities at Caltech are available to graduate students, but there are opportunities for students to work in facilities of other universities, research centers as well as private industries. The graduate student to faculty ratio is 4:1.

Approximately 99 percent of doctoral students have full financial support. Financial support for graduate students comes in the form of fellowships, research assistantships, teaching assistantships or a combination of fellowship and assistantship support.Graduate students 

 are bound by the Honor Code, as are the undergraduates, and the Graduate Honor Council oversees any violations of the code.

People

Students

Caltech enrolled 983 undergraduate students and 1,226 graduate students for the 2014–2015 school year. Women made up 36% of the undergraduate and 26% of the graduate student body.The four-year graduation rate is 79% and the six-year rate is 92%, which is low compared to most leading U.S. universities, but substantially higher than it was in the 1960s and 1970s. Students majoring in Stem field traditionally have graduation rates below 70%.

   

Faculty and staff

 

33% of the faculty are members of the National Academy Of Science or Engineering and/or fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Science. This is the highest percentage of any faculty in the country with the exception of the graduate institution.Rockefeller University.The average salary for assistant  professors at Caltech is $111,300, associate professors  $121,300, and full professors $172,800. Caltech faculty are highly productive in the fields of applied physics, astronomy and astrophysics, biology, biochemistry,biological engineering,chemical engineering, computer science, geology,mechanical engineering and   physics.