Another admissions/chances question

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
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<p>Hey guys. I'm Tencia, I'm a senior this year. I applied to Caltech EA (just sent in my application Monday). I saw a few other posts asking about a specific person's chances, so I'll just throw mine in there. What do you guys think?</p>

<p>GPA: 3.87 unweighted, 4.53 weighted
SAT I: 800 M, 760 V
SAT II: 790 Ph, 800 W, 800 M IIC
PSAT: 77 M, 80 V, 80 W
APs: Calc BC, World, Eng. Lang, Comp. Sci, Physics C, all 5s
AMC 102, AIME 1 (last year, I don't remember my earlier scores and I didn't actually qualify for the AIME sophomore year)</p>

<p>Also I'm an Asian girl, which may or may not affect this depending on who you ask?</p>

<p>I take a lot of hard courses, I'm in AP Chem this year and I'm doing MvCalc this year, did Calc and Linear Alg last year and I'm also doing Complex Analysis next semester. The biggest doubt I have is that I come from a huge school (3,400 students) - Blair High School, if anyone here is an alum - and on top of that I'm in the math/science magnet program there, and I haven't taken the MOST rigorous classes available, though my classes are still probably a lot harder than the top level available at most high schools. So I'm not ranked at the top, I'd guess 20 or 30 out of a class of about 900 - though my school does not rank, so they'd just get the estimate.</p>

<p>In addition, I did a senior research project at the University of Maryland in theoretical physics (supersymmetry/string theory) and was lucky enough to get a novel result. I do martial arts and I train 15 hours a week, not leaving a lot of time for other activities - I have no math/science E.Cs, which is another doubt I have.</p>

<p>So what do you all think? Thanks for your help though I guess it is too late to do anything about my chances unless I get Semifinalist at Intel or something, since I already submitted my app.</p>

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<p>Those are magnificent numbers.....I only wish I had numbers like those</p>

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<p>I'd say you've got more than a fair chance of being accepted. It's pretty remarkable that a high school student can get results in an area like superstring theory. If you're still interested in string theories by the time you're in college, then you should (or might already) know Caltech has one of the prominent researchers in that field (Schwartz). You're also more advanced in math at least than most Caltech frosh if you're doing multivar in high school. Good luck in any case.</p>

<p>-Joey</p>

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<p>Well, I only got the result because the problem I chose initially was one that had a surprise at the end. Kind of like the lottery - my mentor had a whole bunch of problems that he wanted to look into and he gave us (the research group) choice of which ones to do, and I got lucky. Although the original aim was to construct a 1-D supergravity theory, which we never ended up doing...</p>

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<p>Hey tencia,</p>

<p>How did you get into the research project? Just a current sophomore who really wants to get into some decent research soon.</p>

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<p>Sophomore year is a bit soon for elementary particle physics (it helps to have at least AP physics and calculus, if not quantum as well). But I emailed a whole bunch of scientists at UMD and CMU whose current projects looked interesting, got like three responses, and went to visit their labs and got interviewed. Then I just went with one of the ones who said he'd like to have me work with him. Good luck finding a research project to join :)</p>

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<p>Oh my god! I love string theory!</p>

<p>I saw a Nova about it on PBS one time, "the elegant universe," and just fell in love with it...obviously that's not quite doing research on it, but it's a start!</p>

<p>I'd say Caltech would be lucky to have you.</p>

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<p>My mentor was on that show! Dr. Gates, the black guy with the big hair (yes, everyone remember the hair first).</p>

<p>I barely know anything about string theory, I worked with a VERY simple supersymmetric model and it was still a lot more complicated than anything in that show made it sound. You don't get cool moving dimensions, instead you get equations with 32 terms that take up half a page just to write out one step of :) Nevertheless it is worth it.</p>

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<p>Dr. Gates is a great guy - he was actually my Phys 1a TA out here at Caltech. He's quite a good guy, and as he is known out here (having been out here three years ago) a recommendation from him will carry a lot of weight. I suspect that with that (I hope you had the good sense to get him to write you a rec), combined with good scores and a decent background you'll have a solid chance at admission. However, the lack of M/S extracurriculars would be the thing that could trip you up. If you don't get in, that's why - it probably will come down to who reads your app :)</p>

<p>Galen</p>

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<p>Unfortunately, he's been so busy the whole time I've been working with him that I felt bad asking him to write my Intel and other competition recs, much less college stuff.</p>

<p>Do you figure it will help that, with 15 hours a week of wushu (martial arts), I simply don't have time for any other ECs? I hope they will be understanding about that.</p>

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<p>OMG! James Gates out of all people! I thought he would be busier than most.</p>

<p>Thanks for the info! I shouldn't feel so shy about e-mailing all of the professors at the local university then, since it doesn't hurt! (and at least you weren't walking the professor's dog). BTW, do they ever request a transcript?</p>

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<p>Yes, Dr. Gates asked me for my transcript when he was deciding whether it would be a good idea to work with him.</p>

<p>My school has a program where about 90% of rising seniors do a research project at a university or other institution (NIST, NIH) over the summer. Everyone who wanted one got a project and I think most people had a pretty good experience with it, plus no one I know got stuck walking anyone's dog or washing lab equipment or anything.</p>

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<p>Hey Tencia:</p>

<p>If you get deferred you <em>must</em> ask Dr. Gates to write you a letter of recommendation (and regardless of how busy he is, most any prof is willing to do this, especially if you got a result). That sort of letter is what makes the difference. As it is, people on admissions are going to wonder why you don't have a LoR from him. </p>

<p>Galen</p>

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<p>You mentioned that ~450 people applied EA? How many generally get accepted?</p>

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<p>Only 450?!? That's like only 3 times Caltech's freshman class (and only early). I would have expected a much larger number, maybe a couple thousand.</p>

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<p>We get a few thousand regualar decision. Remember that a few years ago HYPS and maybe MIT went to single choice early action. So almost all of those 450 have Caltech as their first choice. Probably something like 70 or 80 will get admitted. Also, a bunch of folks don't have their stuff together in time to apply (I sure didn't back when I was applying), and so even if Caltech is their first choice they don't apply early. </p>

<p>Galen</p>

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<p>Ah... I see. So other college's early decision plans do affect Caltech too. 75/450 = 16.67%. Hmm - that's even lower than Caltech's acceptance rate at 21% IIRC. </p>

<p>Also, MIT is still early action non-binding.</p>

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<p>The number I gave is a very rough number. I would have guessed that Caltech's admit rate is a fair bit lower than 21%, though I could be wrong. I would guess that EA is a higher admit percentage than RD because it's almost always a stronger pool. </p>

<p>g</p>

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<p>I read somewhere recently that CIT admitted 159 EA last year...I can't seem to find the source, but I remember the number. Of course, not all of those 159 enroll.</p>

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<p>A long time ago, maybe five- six years ago, my school had the amc 12 competitons and aime. Then it got too expensive. Anyway, when i talked to my teacher about the amc 12 (i'm bringing it to my school), he said that only one person qualified for aime out of many, and i think he had similar scores to you, tencia. This kid got a full ride scholarship into MIT, he was a genius. I dont know if the qualification for aime got him in, but i think it did help, especially at the tech scores. SAT scores seem almost perfect and you have a very solid GPA, i'd be surprised if you get rejected from Caltech.</p>