Caltech acceptance rate
Pasadena, CA · Last updated 2026-05-21
At a glance
Caltech's acceptance rate is 2.9% for the Class of 2029 — the most recent officially reported figure.
Caltech is small, brutal, and the one top school where the median admit can actually do the math homework.
What is Caltech's acceptance rate?
Caltech's most recently reported acceptance rate is approximately 2.9% for the Class of 2029. Caltech admits one of the smallest absolute classes in the top-10 — roughly 230 students — which makes its rate hypersensitive to small application shifts.
Five-year history
| Class | Acceptance rate |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 6.39% |
| 2026 | 2.74% |
| 2027 | ~2.7% |
| 2028 | ~2.9% |
| 2029 | ~2.9% |
The 2025 outlier reflects a smaller pre-pandemic applicant pool. The 2022 collapse was driven by a test-blind policy that briefly expanded applications well beyond Caltech's steady-state pool.
What's driving the trend
Caltech reinstated standardized testing for the Class of 2030 cycle, joining MIT as the only top-10 STEM-heavy schools to do so. The reinstatement should re-tighten the pool and put modest upward pressure on the headline rate.
Prediction markets on Caltech
Watchlist: does Caltech's Class of 2031 rate move up as the testing requirement filters the pool — an unusual direction-of-bet given the broader trend.
Related
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