Another "chances" thread

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
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<p>Senior
Caucasian male: 17
School: Private, college prep
Rank: I suspect I am #2 out of 370, but my school doesn't report</p>

<p>GPA (W): 4.5-4.7 depending on how you count it (only one B one semester ever, and every possible honors/AP course. there is, however, a non-honors religion course every year that throws things out of order, hence the range)
GPA (U/W): virtually 4.0 (actually something like 3.98, see above)</p>

<p>SAT: 2240 out of 2400 (780 math, 710 Reading, 750 Writing)</p>

<p>SAT II: World history: 760, Math II 800, Chem 790</p>

<p>AP Scores:
World History: 5
European history: 3 (only took world history)
Chemistry: 5
American History: 5</p>

<p>Senior Courseload:
A religion course (read:ignore)
AP Bio
AP Lit
Honors band
AP Government
AP Physics
AP Calc</p>

<p>Extra Circular Activities
-3 years of a youth and government program, involving weekly meetings and 3 weekend-long conferences, including a full mock legislature and court
-4 years of mathletes (Captain this year)
- COSMOS month long UC based science camp (involved living in the dorms)
-4 years of band (3 years honors) (honestly not very good however)
-3 years of Big Brothers (mentoring program for a near-by underprivileged elementary school)
- Will probably compete in the Academic decathalon this year
-(might by N/A but...) 5 week long experience in Europe this summer, followed by 2 week long hosting of a French foreign exchange student</p>

<p>Awards
3 mathletes "top of class awards"
2 Science departmental awards
1 Math departmental award (departmental award meaning that I was named the top student of my class each year in that subject.)</p>

<p>So, based on the above, what would your guess be as to whether I can get into Caltech or not?</p>

<p>(P.S. if there are any spelling errors, it's because I didn't spell check. Sorry.)</p>

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<p>Caltech != Harvey Mudd</p>

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<p>Whoops. Caught me being lazy with my Copying and Pasting, sorry! Edited it so it's right</p>

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<p>My guess: maybe....probably not. I think it would still be worth applying, though. Heck, I didn't think I was going to get into Caltech. Believe it or not, I do have classmates here who do not have a long list of big science and math awards, they just happen to be more rare. For you, it depends more heavily on some other things not mentioned here, like how passionate you are for math/science/engineering based on your recs, essays, and stuff. That said, you don't really have many math or science EC's. However, maybe all your school had was mathletes (like mine), and the COSMOS UC science camp thing sounds cool, so it could be ok.</p>

<p>It's a big reach. But it's been done (and they're doing fine here).</p>