This, and the fact that they're a technical school by nature. Politics and business garners more news cycles than hard science, and hence skews peoples percepti

This, and the fact that they're a technical school by nature. Politics and business garners more news cycles than hard science, and hence skews peoples perception of the prestige of a university or success of their alumni. Look at the number of Nobel prizes per capita and Caltech blows Harvard out of the water. 17 Nobel prizes over 22k living alum for Caltech, versus 48 over 371k for Harvard. Even if you only look at financial success, CalTech still comes out ahead in both early and mid-career (https://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/bachelors https://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/bachelors). They should try comparing to a state school with similar academic focus and ratings. TL;DR: Small school focusing on low-visibility fields is a poor comparison.