I know and work with a fair number of people from CalTech.
When new grad students - who come from other universities - are first prepping for doing their teaching / support of the CalTech undergrads, they’re told flat out: they aren’t nearly as smart as the kids they’re going to teach.
This breeds a lot of arrogance, of course, even if it may be true in most cases.
The other thing about CalTechers is that so many undergrads burn out by senior year. Many don’t go on to do great things in private industry or further higher-ed like they’re supposed to, and instead take a number of years off to try to recover from the experience.
Yep, the Beavers will burn you out quicker than anything else. But it is quite a school; the time I spent there is great to think back on, but was a challenging experience at the time. During orientation, they told us that unlike the rest of our lives, we are no longer the smartest in the class. And any time one thought that they were climbing the ladder successfully, some little kid would show up and blow the ego apart.
The suicide rate at CalTech was so high that now ALL students have to partita the in a varsity sport. Their baseball team is horrible, but it’s probably saved numerous lives....