I don't necessarily agree 100%. I applied to Caltech. I did not have great grades, but I did have published research papers and a few open source projects. If this isn't "love of science and technology" I don't know what is. I got the thin envelope.
I do not really care anymore, but it would have been a cool experience to go to a good school.
This may not make you feel better but here goes. An admissions officer at an Ivy League school once said that for every non-qualified candidate they must admit (son or daughter of wealthy alumni, or maybe legacy) - if the admission rate was 12%, they would have to reject 8 otherwise qualified applicants.
In the case of Caltech, they may have looked at your major and decided that they wanted less Foo majors and more Bar majors. All about recruitment. Either way, I'm sure someone argued your case, as brandnewlow commented.[1]
I get the point you're trying to make but that's not exactly true. For every legacy candidate they admit, they must reject exactly 1 qualified candidate as a result.
For every candidate they accept in general, they must reject 8 others.
I do not really care anymore, but it would have been a cool experience to go to a good school.
Not necessarily. Would you be okay with being the dumbest person in the room, not just for one class or one semester, but for four years? A lot of smart kids go to CalTech, MIT and Harvard, but end up dropping out and finishing their degree somewhere else because they're not accustomed to failing on a regular basis. Unless you're convinced that you'll be able to handle repeated failure (because it'll happen when you're trying to achieve at that level) that sort of school may not be for you.
Then there's the fact that these schools are expensive. So not only do you have to be able to deal with failure at an emotional level, but you have to be able to deal with failure financially as well. If you don't have the budget to repeat at least two or three classes - don't bother with a top-ten university.
I'd love to be the dumbest person in the room. I've found in my life that my largest leaps in development come when I throw myself in the deep end that is outside my comfort zone. These days it's the primary thing I look for in a company. Are the people I'll be working with as good or better than may on average? If the answer is no then I'm not interested.
this of course assumes I want to be good at whatever the subject of the room is.
It was really, intensely frustrating at times. I was almost certainly a bottom 10%, if not 5%, at Caltech. It inspired me and pushed me into moving into a different, non-typical field for the average Caltech student where I could still be the best among the cohort. From another, less charitable perspective, Caltech proved to me that I couldn't be a top--or possibly even a very good--engineer, so I just gave up rather than struggling to get better.
Just to pick a nit or two on graduation rates: Harvard 97%,MIT 93%, CalTech 86%. That's not really indicative of a high drop out rate because they feel the school is too hard. Gates dropped out to become an entrepreneur, hurting the graduation rate. From personal experience at Harvard, they are really dedicated at keeping you there. If you are having trouble with a class they arrange help, tutoring, whatever is needed to get you through. If you need a year off, you can come back. If you need to take a makeup class, you can without extra tuition or extra semesters.
Wow, you've managed to pick the worst reasons not to appreciate a good school, and they really don't align with anything I've witnessed at MIT.
Kid's take time off after repeated failure, but they often come back once they're off of academic probation. Others will leave to take jobs, start companies, or transfer to a similarly ranked school that they simply like better. I've heard/seen tens of these cases, but never one where students purposely transfer to a school where they're less prone to fail.
Moreover, financial aid seems generous here. And private school prices anywhere, regardless of the caliber, are very similar.
If anything, take solace from the awkward social life, the excessive workload that makes entrepreneurial endeavors seemingly impossible, and the fact that you really don't need a good school to succeed.
I do not really care anymore, but it would have been a cool experience to go to a good school.