Discussion
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The main Caltech competitor is MIT. MIT is situated in Cambridge Massachusetts, a college town of under 150,000 occupants. MIT probably has about 10 times more students than Caltech. Caltech is small, with a lot more individual attention. But you can get access to the world's top experts in many fields and get involved in great research at either place. But that means MIT has more variety and often has better equipment.
Generally, Caltech is a little stronger on theory, a little more rigorous, MIT is more engineering oriented, hands-on and entrepreneurial. Caltech has better weather. But MIT is more of an urban campus, Boston is a very education-oriented city, and the transit in Boston means you can get away without a car. I'd hate to try that in LA.
For applied subjects, MIT is better. For theoretical science and math, both are excellent. MIT has a huge course offering contrasted with Caltech’s much smaller catalog, plus MIT has cross-registration with Harvard and Wellesley. Caltech has cross-registration with tiny Occidental College, there’s a lot more to do in Boston than in Pasadena, California. Caltech has the advantage of smaller classes and a smaller class, but the disadvantage of fewer people, hence fewer extra-curricular activities.
MIT is located in an excellent area that is within a short walking distance to all that Boston has to offer. Boston is an amazing college town, and there are students everywhere. The city is also very compact, so you can walk or take advantage of a very good public transportation system. Caltech is located in a nice part of Pasadena, but Los Angeles is very spread out with poor public transportation system, so a car is really needed to get around. Both are world class learning institutions but I recommend Caltech due to the fact that has small population hence better services for each student.
Reference
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/use-the-data