My older brother and I go to the Caltech. Happy to answer questions about getting into the world’s best research institute.
I am WL at caltech. Wht r my chances this yr as u must be knowing about admission statistics this yr.
I know this thread is a little old , but would you mind looking over my stats ? I know my chances are not great , but I would want to know how small they are . Btw , I will retake the SAT in december and I am hoping for 1500+ (with 800 on math and 700+ on ebrw) .
GENERAL+ EXAMS
-White Male (from Romania) , income <22k / year (the whole family)
-Intended Major : Geophysics (first choice) or Astrophysics or Planetary Science
-GPA ; High school doesn’t have , but I got 9.5/10 as average for 9th,10th and 11th years .
-School doesn’t rank , but I’m in the first 5 or 6 from 59 (it is a small but selective high school)
-SAT : 1450 (will retake it in december) with 800 on math and 650 on ebrw , and 6/4/6 at essay
-SAT II’s : Math II (800) , Physics (800)
-No ap’s or honor classes since we do not have such things , but did 2 years of Calculus and physics at level similiar to that of AP pysics 1 and 2.
-Toefl ibt : 111 /120 (30 Reading , 28 Listening , 24 Speaking , 29 Writing )
-My class is very competitive . I have class mates who participate at national olympics at physics , mathematics , literature , and religion .
EC’s :
Not too much volunteering . I have just helped at the construction of a church , a park , and helped at an eldery asylum .
I did swimming for about 2 years , not for competitions .
Participated in two internships in Netherlands .
National olympic at gegraphy for 3 years in a row (hoping for the fourth) . This year I got on the second place . In 2016 and 2017 I have qualifid for the eliminatory phases for the international geography olympiad .
This year I have been admitted in an excellente group for mathematics where I do undergrad level mathematics (diff. equations , multivariable calculus , advanced linear algebra , group and sets theory etc…).
I was in the curch’s orchestra (mandolin) for 2 years (I quit because I wanted more time for learning).
There are not many opportunities (like clubs) in my city . I was called by an astronomy club and an athletics club but I do not have enough time for them since I am learning 6-8 hours daily at physics , mathematics , georaphy and geophysics at college level (from books like those of Apostol , Irodov , Feynman etc).
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I don’t wanna do a full chance me but do you know how important sports recruiting is for admissions? Obviously it’s less than at other schools but I’m getting the impressions that they’re starting to care a bit more about improving the athletics so I just want to know how big of a boost it would be if I’m the top recruit for my sport with a ton of support from the coach. Could that + good enough grades/scores and an obvious passion for learning and STEM possibly be enough?
@vik0likes0cs see my post and following posts in the here: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21017494/#Comment_21017494