Applying to caltech, opinions..

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
1

<p>Just wondering what my chances are, or what areas of my application are weak and how I can make up for them.</p>

<p>Asian Male
Moderately sized suburban public school (1400 students)</p>

<p>3.80 gpa (upward trend: freshman 3.6, sophomore 3.8, junior 4.0)
SAT I - 790 Math, 690 Verbal, 740 Writing (retaking in October)
800 Math IIC
800 Physics
780 Chem</p>

<p>AP US history 3 (only AP allowed in my school before senior year)</p>

<p>Senior year schedule:
AP Macroecon
AP Physics
AP Chem
AP English</p>

<p>College courses:
10th grade spring Linear Algebra
11th grade summer Calc I & II
12th grade fall Multivariable</p>

<p>Awards:
Westchester Science & Engineering Fair
-Finalist (qualify for ISEF)
-Best in Category
-Mu Alpha Theta Award</p>

<p>ISEF
-1st Place IBM Mathematics Award
-2nd Place AVASC Foundation Award</p>

<p>JSHS Regional level finalist
JSHS State level 2nd place</p>

<p>(research awards are for project in discrete math)</p>

<p>USAMTS silver medal
AMC school winner 10th grade, 11th grade
AIME 10th & 11th, scores are low.. 2 or 3
Local Math League high scorer</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Music - Guitar, Piano
Ultimate Frisbee - Captain, 9th place eastern championships
Independant Research in discrete math
Webdesign - html/css/javascript, php/mysql
Free the Children local chapter
YOCA (youth organiz. of chinese americans) local president
Math Team captain</p>

<p>Summers:
7-10th johns hopkins cty
9-11th independant research project</p>

2

<p>Research and awards are excellent, obvious passion for math. Verbal SAT could use boosting, GPA a little troublesome (esp if B's in math/science) but probably outweighed by awards and passion.</p>

<p>Certainly apply; you have a decent shot.</p>

3

<p>I'm retaking the SAT to bring up the verbal score as I believe it was a fluke.</p>

<p>The only B's I have are B+ for English and World History freshman year, B+ in honors english sophomore year, and B+ in honors english junior year.</p>

<p>Maths and sciences are all A's or A+'s.</p>

4

<p>Then I don't think the grades are that big of a deal. As I said, there is certainly potential here. Good luck.</p>

5

<p>Did you get any Grand Award (place in your category)? It seems a bit strange that you only got special awards, which seem pretty good.</p>

6

<p>The special awards are quite common at state level, but great job nonetheless.</p>

<p>Are you entering Intel STS? If so, have a bang-up project.</p>

7

<p>Oh... so those special awards were won at a pre-ISEF competition?</p>

8

<p>NO, my mistake....Those were won for the ISEF competition....</p>