Caltech diversity effects on admissions

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
1

<p>Lots of top colleges- Stanford, Harvard, etc, even MIT- reject kids that are certainly bright enough to attend (for example, valedictorians with 2400s) but don't have what they're looking for, whether it is because of weak EC's (lack of well roundedness) or they're looking for URMs, etcetera. However, does Caltech do this as well to a significant extent? I understand the purpose of the essay in college admissions - it's to weed out students who have bad personalities, and for more selective colleges, give an insight on those personalities which would be best suited for the school. However, from what I've heard, Caltech mostly doesn't care much about stuff other than your abilities in math and science. So, from this I extrapolated that they would use the essay to weed out those candidates with bad personalities - arrogance, aggressiveness, laziness, etc. - but not place that much importance on it aside from that. I also extrapolated that non-math/science EC's would not be that important, and nor would service hours, URM status, gender, etc.</p>

<p>Have I made completely wrong assumptions? I am just basically trying to ascertain my chances. I am one of those academically bright students with less than stellar EC's.</p>

2

<p>Caltech uses the essay to see if an applicant can show a passion for science, engineering or math. They care much more for a students drive to contribute to the scientific world than they care if you excel at hockey, karate or marimbas. The essay can be used to show your goals, your enthusiasm for robotics, your curiosity about cloud formation and its effect on global warming, or whatever you feel needs to be explained that the application does not address. Caltech does seem to put much less emphasis on diversity and well-roundedness than most schools, and looks more to demonstrated excellence and achievement, as well as potential contribution to scientific research.</p>

3

<p>Here is an essay on this subject by Russell K Nieli</p>

<p>[Why</a> Caltech Is in a Class by Itself](<a href=“http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2010/12/why_caltech_is_in_a_class_by_i.html]Why”>http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2010/12/why_caltech_is_in_a_class_by_i.html)</p>

<p>An excerpt</p>

<p>

</p>

4

<p>lol wow that is offensive. No more “dumb jocks…” </p>

<p>My friend is an athletic recruit at Harvard and would have gotten even if he hadn’t played sports, it just so happens he did. To assume all athletes are dumb is what is actually dumb.</p>

5

<p>You can’t assume all college athletes are dumb, but I know of several recruited athletes that got into Ivy League Schools and Stanford with grades that would have eliminated non-athletes from contention. Most schools that offer big-time athletic programs do indeed relax the academic standards when admitting athletes that can help their sports program. It is just a sad fact.</p>

6

<p>Thank you for that article mazewanderer. From that, it seems as though I have much better chances at Caltech than at HYPSM, etc.</p>

7

<p>Don’t leave out that what Caltech DOES to reach out to underprivileged and underrepresented groups. Instead of lowering the bar, Caltech reaches out to middle and high school students to help them get up to Caltech standards. This is even better than preferential admission, because it benefits more than just the few admitted to Caltech; it benefits students who go elsewhere as well.</p>

8

<p>The article portrays a picture that suggests not enough hispanics or african americans make the bar which is simply not the case.</p>

<p>In reality, what seems to happen is that although more of them get admitted, the academically talented ones also get admitted to HYPS because they are all recruiting the elite minority students but the cream is so small that they get admitted everywhere. So HYPS looks lot more attractive to them prestigewise. So I suspect matriculation is a problem for the minorities.</p>

<p>On the otherhand, lot more Asians do show up at Caltech because they are not able to get into HYPS due to their admission policies that go a lot deeper than merit.</p>

9

<p>In 2010, 106 Black students applied to CalTech, 19 were accepted, and only 6 attended. …acceptance rate of @18%. </p>

<p>All other --4859 applied, 610 accepted, 12.6 acceptance rate.</p>

10

<p>Texaspg and Smitty,</p>

<p>I never thought of it the way you presented it but it makes total sense why the minority population is lower at Caltech and the Asian population is higher. Very insightful.</p>

11

<p>"The article portrays a picture that suggests not enough hispanics or african americans make the bar which is simply not the case.</p>

<p>In reality, what seems to happen is that although more of them get admitted, the academically talented ones also get admitted to HYPS because they are all recruiting the elite minority students but the cream is so small that they get admitted everywhere. So HYPS looks lot more attractive to them prestigewise. So I suspect matriculation is a problem for the minorities."</p>

<p>It appears that the second paragraph contradicts the first paragraph. Obviously, there are not many minority students qualifying for Caltech. Only 19 blacks admitted in 2010 didn’t sound a lot of students. Caltech asian student yield is around 35%, not much higher than black’s. If an applicant is genuinely interested in Engineering, and choose Yale over Caltech, it would be incredible (unless motivated by financial aid). Likely, the applicant is not that interested in Engineering after all.</p>

12

<p>One can certainly be interested in engineering and choose a different school over Caltech. I’ve been fighting for years to get my department here more engineering-oriented, and I’m really glad I didn’t go here for undergrad. There’s about six classes in total offered by my department, fewer in total than what I took each year at my undergrad school!</p>

<p>Heck, part of it could be that minority students prefer to be in an environment where there are other minority students, so that selection bias in itself makes it difficult to attract more minorities to a school such as Caltech.</p>

13

<p>^I agree with what you’ve posted, butdon’t understand the context ofthis part;</p>

<p>“I’ve been fighting for years to get my department here more engineering-oriented, and I’m really glad I didn’t go here for undergrad. There’s about six classes in total offered by my department, fewer in total than what I took each year at my undergrad school!”</p>

14

<p>underachiever - I posted it with an assumption and Smitty’s post validates it. Caltech admitted 18% of black students who applied which is a higher rate of admission than the general public. Yield seems actually lower but with such small numbers, it is negligible.</p>

<p>We are dealing with 244 final student population. Just to have higher number of black people, Caltech is not going to admit a larger pool of applicants, i.e., admit 50% The fact that only 106 applied is where the problem lies.</p>

15

<p>Shrinkrap,</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Is what I was meaning to argue against in my post. Personally, I see Caltech as way more of a math/science school than an engineering school.</p>

16

<p>

</p>

<p>I don’t think so. The difference in prestige is pretty minimal if you graduate with similar grades, and it’s probably easier to get a higher GPA at Yale. Yale offers a lot better quality of life to most students who want a broader liberal arts education and a less intensely focused school.</p>

<p>That said, Caltech is one of my two “first choices,” because I am not those “most students” - I myself would be very happy in a super focused and challenging math/science environment, but I suspect that for a lot of people this isn’t the case even if they do love math and science and are good at them.</p>