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You can show fairly quickly that the success of Caltech alumni in sciences, as measured by awards, is comparable only to the École Normale Supérieure (and possi

You can show fairly quickly that the success of Caltech alumni in sciences, as measured by awards, is comparable only to the École Normale Supérieure (and possibly Phystech in Russia depending on how you count). Check out http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/ARWU2008_A http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/ARWU2008_A(EN).htm The column 'Alumni' compares the number of Nobel prizes or Fields Medals won by Alumni to the number won by Harvard (in percent). Caltech scores 52.8 on this, and ENS 53.4. But Caltech and ENS are by far the smallest of the universities on the top 100 list (unless I am mistaken). Both Caltech and ENS enroll about 200 undergraduates a year, with ENS enrolling only about 100 of those in science and engineering. Caltech has a population of another 1200 graduate students. One thing to note about Caltech, ENS, and Phystech, they are extremely small, extremely selective, have no legacy admissions, limited or no affirmative action, and pay heavy attention to competitive exams, in the case of ENS and Phystech, administrating them.

daniel-cussen 18y ago
Caltech admissions struck me as particularly clean. I think part of this is that they're very much into maths and sciences, fields in which SAT score do a great job of determining proficiency. You either know the answer or you don't. On top of that, they give back to their alumni in other ways; one couple that donated 200M to the university had their kid denied, but the university named a star system after them.
jedc 18y ago
Even more successful would be Cambridge University. 83 Nobel Prize winners in total. (31 Nobels from Trinity College, Cambridge alone!) http://www.cam.ac.uk/univ/nobelprize.html http://www.cam.ac.uk/univ/nobelprize.html That said, Cambridge is a far bigger University than Caltech and others, but a large proportion of those degrees are awarded in non-science fields.
- DaniFong 18y ago
  Ah, one issue from the SHJT list is that they weight more recent awards more heavily. Cambridge was a preeminent force in science and engineering in the earliest half of the century, but seems now to have diminished somewhat relative to others.
  - bd 18y ago
    Here is a list of the Nobel Laureates per university straight from the source (based on affiliation at the time of the Nobel Prize announcement): http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/universities.html http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/universities.html Wikipedia has another list based on what universities claim themselves: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_Laureates_by_university_affiliation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_Laureates_by_univ... So while Caltech is doing very well indeed, there are 15 universities with more affiliated awardees.
    - stephant 18y ago
      The first list is the list of the Nobel Laureates they OWN not they EDUCATED! Richer is the University more N.L it can hire and pay. :) The Wiki is the one.

daniel-cussen 18y ago

Caltech admissions struck me as particularly clean. I think part of this is that they're very much into maths and sciences, fields in which SAT score do a great job of determining proficiency. You either know the answer or you don't. On top of that, they give back to their alumni in other ways; one couple that donated 200M to the university had their kid denied, but the university named a star system after them.

jedc 18y ago

Even more successful would be Cambridge University. 83 Nobel Prize winners in total. (31 Nobels from Trinity College, Cambridge alone!) http://www.cam.ac.uk/univ/nobelprize.html http://www.cam.ac.uk/univ/nobelprize.html That said, Cambridge is a far bigger University than Caltech and others, but a large proportion of those degrees are awarded in non-science fields.

DaniFong 18y ago
Ah, one issue from the SHJT list is that they weight more recent awards more heavily. Cambridge was a preeminent force in science and engineering in the earliest half of the century, but seems now to have diminished somewhat relative to others.
- bd 18y ago
  Here is a list of the Nobel Laureates per university straight from the source (based on affiliation at the time of the Nobel Prize announcement): http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/universities.html http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/universities.html Wikipedia has another list based on what universities claim themselves: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_Laureates_by_university_affiliation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_Laureates_by_univ... So while Caltech is doing very well indeed, there are 15 universities with more affiliated awardees.
  - stephant 18y ago
    The first list is the list of the Nobel Laureates they OWN not they EDUCATED! Richer is the University more N.L it can hire and pay. :) The Wiki is the one.