3 Questions for the Caltech Expert

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
1

<p>Hi,
I'm currently a junior from Canada :) and I think I'm slowly falling in love with Caltech...<em>wishful sigh</em>
I just had some questions regarding admissions, it would be really helpful if I got these questions answered! Thanks!</p>

<p>1) Is there a "cap" that they put on the number of Canadians/internationals they can take yearly? I know that MIT has a limit of 8 Canadians a year, making admissions really difficut for a Canuck. Is this also true for Caltech?</p>

<p>2) Are my chances of admissions increased as an international since I'm not asking for ANY aid? Would you say that the probability of my acceptance is around that of a domestic student? (~17%) if I dont ask for aid, or is it still more difficult b/c I'm an international student?</p>

<p>3) Is it "easier" for me to gain admissions because I'm a girl? Does anyone know the % accepted for males vs. females? I know that you need to be extremely well qualified no matter what your gender is, but if 2 people with very similar stats were competing for 1 spot, and one was a girl while other was a guy, would the girl be offered admission?</p>

<p>Whew, that was a long post, plz reply, and thanks for the help, i appreciate it :D</p>

2

<p>Hi there.</p>

<p>1) We do, like almost every highly selective university, have a cap on international admits. I believe we do not specify this by country, but it is some farily modest percentage (think 10-ish) of the entering class. I am not sure whether those who are not asking for any financial aid are exempt from this cap -- they might be.</p>

<p>2) Yes. I'm not sure whether they're quite up to the level of a domestic applicant, but the unfortunate truth is that since we can't use any government funding for international student financial aid, the amount is limited (to private donations) and that really is the limiting factor in how many internationals we admit. Those who can pay their own way are probably not going to be affected quite as much by this. I will ask within the week about the details of this. </p>

<p>Personally, I think it's really icky that money is a factor, but it has more to do with (in my view) uniwse U.S. government policy than the Institute. I wish we could just admit the best applicants, regardless of money or nationality; unfortunately the circumstances are beyond our control.</p>

<p>3) At Caltech, the short answer is "no" and the slightly longer answer is "almost completely, no." The applicant pool splits 76/24 and the admit pool 66/34 in terms of percentage male / percentage female. That means that women have a slight edge, but most of this is due to the fact that the girls who have the qualifications and initiative to apply to Caltech are usually VERY good and VERY interested in science/math/engineering, whereas many guys are pressured to apply by their parents because they've always wanted their son to be an engineer, irrespective of his inclinations. The less than 10% shift, I believe, can legitimately be explained in this way. It is harder to say this for MIT, where girls have twice the chance of getting in that boys have.</p>

<p>In the committee and reading processes, we are very explicit about never giving girls an edge because of their gender -- anybody who cited that as a tiebreaker in a borderline case would be pretty sharply reprimanded, I think. It has been suggested now and then over the years that we change the rubric for evaluating SAT scores to set the bar a bit lower for girls, but students involved in admissions ususally react very negatively, since quite a few girls came to Tech because they feel that this is one of the few engineering schools where they can be sure of having gotten in on merit, not as an affirmative action handout.</p>

<p>On the other hand, girls statistically tend to write more engaging essays (consistent with the general edge that women have in writing across the board, everywhere). It's possible that this would make the difference if a female had similar scores, activities, etc. to a male, but wrote more appealing essays. However, this would also make the difference in exactly the same way between two similarly qualified male candidates.</p>

<p>So there you have it -- several reasons why gender does not explicitly factor into decisions, and the reasons why women have a slightly higher chance of being admitted, statistically. The advice: no matter what your gender, show some personality in your essays!</p>

3

<p>Wow, thanks for your reply! It was extremely helpful and has cleared up quite a bit. I look forward to applying to Caltech next year :D</p>

4

<p>another question for Ben or Galen - are the Axline offers generally made at the same time as admissions offers, or later?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

5

<p>There are two rounds of Axline offers, early and regular decision. The Axline letters for each round arrive at approximately the same time as the decision letters for that round, but they are occasionally sent in different envelopes and sometimes the Axline letter trails the other by a day or so.</p>

<p><em>However</em>, it is important to note that some early applicants receive an Axline offer in the regular round, after having been accepted in the early round. I can't really discuss in detail why this is so, but, in any case, you can certainly get in early but find out that you got a scholarship when the regular action decisions go out. Only a very tiny number of early Axlines are awarded at all, in fact.</p>

<p>So there's no reason to be disappointed if you've not heard scholarship news yet. On the other hand, it is wise to realize that the level of the typical Axline (especially looking at this year's pool) involves some sort of very significant research award or international Olympiad trophy. Expecting or even thinking too much about the scholarship is statistically a pretty certain way to be disappointed. Remember also that Caltech awards a huge amount of merit money in Upperclass Merit Awards, which can completely cover fees starting from the sophomore year and are awarded once you get here.</p>

<p>So one can certainly hear about a scholarship after getting in early, and one can also get lots of merit money not being an Axline. In any case, best not to worry too much right now.</p>

6

<p>Yeah, there certainly is the ability to "pull yourself up by your boot-straps" with the upperclass merit awards. We give out over $1million/year to folks, irrespective of need. I'm only paying $600 this year for tuition due to one of those (and remember, I was wait-listed on admission, hardly an Axline!) and some need-based aid. </p>

<p>The Axlines are for truly impressive people, back when I was on admissions I remember being just <em>utterly</em> blown away by the applications of the people I recommended for Axlines. So essentially, if you can talk about your kid in polite society, you're not on track for an Axline, if you get embarassed trying to disguise their acheivments when talking to your friends, maybe there's a chance. And we're really generous with need-based aid, we use a more generous formula that most schools.</p>

<p>Galen</p>

7

<p>Ok, I'll bite. What's the generous formula, kyshatry?</p>

<p>Randy</p>

8

<p>I'm sure Galen will chime in next time he's on, but I think what he means is that the various complicated calculations Financial Aid goes through to compute how much you get typically results in higher awards to students than most colleges. The actual "formula" is some monster (or set of monsters) in an Excel spreadsheet that not many people know, but the point is that Caltech's financial aid offers are much more generous than most schools'.</p>

9

<p>Well, I guess I'll find out soon enough if that's really true. My son got his acceptance letter last week sometime. I'd like to know some specifics on this nested monster formula, though.</p>

10

<p>Hi Galen,</p>

<p>News that the Axlines for EA have already been given out is bad news for us. Although you were not sure of my son's chance, we had some hopes pinned to it. We are going to need major help in sending our son to Caltech. We can't wait for sophmore year. </p>

<p>(Without naming names-you treated my son and me to lunch, also we saw you at Surf!) :-)
Manyhats</p>

11

<p>Hi Manyhats!
Did your son end up entering Siemens and Intel? I remember he had some questions about them while he was at RSI. Good luck with Axline later. Galen's post indicates that there may be more ED applicants offered Axlines after they see the RD pool.
-Texas137</p>

12

<p>Hi Ben-and-Galen!</p>

<p>Can you tell us anything about the housing situation next year while the renovation of the underclass houses goes on?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

13

<p>Are one's chances of being admitted to Caltech (as a U.S. citizen) affected by the amount of financial aid that one asks for?</p>

14

<p>32488 - no! we who make the decisions in Admissions do not even look at that information. We are <em>completely</em> need blind. We choose the best and make sure they can come here without undue difficulty for their families; and if there is any problem with the aid offer, our financial aid office (which is <em>completely</em> separate from us) works to help you get what you actually need to attend.</p>

15

<p>"Are one's chances of being admitted to Caltech (as a U.S. citizen) affected by the amount of financial aid that one asks for?"</p>

<p>I believe it is, indeed, need-blind but you don't "ask" for financial aid, 32488. They will very graciously determine the infamous "EFC" (expected family contribution) for you and come up with a way to "fund" the difference between the actual cost of attendance and the EFC. That funding will likely be a mix of grants, loans and work-study. The big catch here is the EFC :). If Caltech's determinations are anywhere near the norm, your EFC will be 2-3 times higher than what your family can really afford without putting their lives in hock.</p>

16

<p>But do keep in mind that Caltech uses a more generous formula to compute the EFC than most schools, so your aid offer from Caltech is likely to be bigger than you would get from other schools, and the total amount you end up paying less.</p>

17

<p>Ben and/or Galen,</p>

<p>Can you explain what the admission committee looks for when awarding the Axline scholarships?</p>

18

<p>Will it make any difference if i have applie for green card and it's in the process, since the application asked the question?</p>

19

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<p>Rocketdude - I don't know anything official about this. But since you haven't gotten an answer from anyone else, I will toss out that I know of several people who were offered Axlines and all were medalists from international olympiads. I would imagine that winning Siemen's or Intel would also put one in the running. Merely having things like valedictorian, perfect grades, perfect test scores probably would not.</p>

20

<p>I agree with texas137. The short answer is that Axlines stand out on a national level. Occasionally that doesn't explicitly involve something very big like an International Olympiad or Intel or Westinghouse finals, but that's a good gauge of the level one needs. There are no explicit cutoffs or anything, but we look for people who have demonstrated extreme passion AND achievement in science, even in this applicant pool. If there is one thing that is common to almost all recipients, it is research. It is not very common to get it without some sort of demonstrated work in real science.</p>

<p>Numerically, the scholarship is offered to less than the top one percent of the applicant pool.</p>