<p>Accepted</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>]SAT: 800M, 800CR, 800W, 12E, 80MC single session
[</em>]SAT II: 800 Chemistry, 800 Mathematics II, 800 U.S. History, 800 Physics (took Physics after deadline, but sent an email about it -- not sure if it mattered)
[<em>]ACT: 36 (36M, 36E, 36R, 35S, 10W) single session, 36/36/36/36/36/10 superscored (I never do as well on the ACT essays as the SAT ones, for whatever reason)
[</em>]GPA: 4.000 unweighted (no weighted system in place)
[<em>]Rank: 1 of 196
[</em>]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): APs: US History (5), Chemistry (5), Statistics (5), Calculus BC (5), Psychology (5) (mostly self-studied -- doing a few more that way this year); AMC10: ~110; AMC12: ~105; AIME: 5 (not all that great for Caltech, I suspect -- but I'm not planning to major in math or physics and my DiffEq course is going well right now, so I think I'll be alright)
[/ul]
Subjective[ul]
[<em>]Essays: I felt pretty confident about the ones in the Caltech supplement -- I wrote them rather close to the deadline, but I generally work well under pressure. I thought that the main Common App one was fairly good, if perhaps a bit typical in subject matter (influential teacher, role in developing scientific interests), but I don't have anything to compare it to. I also wrote a brief statement about a research project at Caltech that interests me.
[</em>]Teacher Recs: I got them from teachers who regarded me very highly, so they must have been fairly good.
[<em>]Counselor Rec: My counselor was new this year, but I provided plenty of reference information to help in writing it.
[</em>]Supplementary Material: explanation of why I had AP tests for subjects my school does not offer, comments on coursework and grading system, brief listing of extracurricular involvements and summer activities, fairly detailed supplemental explanation of all extracurricular/summer activities and my roles in them, listings of awards received in extracurriculars and otherwise, statement on a Caltech research project that interested me, paper about a project that I did for my FIRST Robotics team (via the paper submission system for admissions) -- about 16 pages total, not including the robotics paper (16 pages long). I was a bit worried about sending so much information, but I kept things very organized and clearly labeled the documents as supplemental/optional. I forgot to mention that I applied on paper -- it allows more flexibility in formatting and attachments than does the online system. Caltech scans everything, anyway, but this allowed me a bit more freedom.
[<em>]Hook (recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): I doubt it.
[/ul]
Personal[ul]
[</em>]Location: Midwest
[<em>]High School Type: Public, suburban, ~1,000 students (rapidly growing, hence the disproportionately low graduating class size)
[</em>]Ethnicity: Did not report (Caucasian)
[<em>]Gender: Male
[</em>]Applied for Financial Aid: Decidedly so
[/ul]
Other
[ul]
[<em>]Extracurriculars: Strong, multi-year commitments in about half a dozen activities, less major ones in a few others (not resume fluff -- I just didn't have time to get more involved or the organization itself did not meet often), lab research at a medical school (I have only been doing this for about six months, though), a few hundred hours of community service, part-time job with local technology company.
[</em>]Awards: Siemens Award for Advanced Placement, Presidential Scholar Nominee (not reported due to timing), National Merit Finalist, Eagle Scout, AP Scholar with Distinction, and some less important stuff
[li]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: I think the test scores were probably the most helpful -- Caltech seems to place greater emphasis on them than do most schools of similarly high ranking and selectivity (Yale is the only other example that comes to mind). Other than that, my research experience, job, and math/science activities probably helped as well, and the Siemens AP award was a nice addition. I am still waiting to hear from the other schools to which I applied, but this seems to presage favorable results.[/li][/ul]
Good luck to everyone in the coming weeks!</p>