Caltech EA 2024 Discussion

Does anyone know when decisions will come out?

Tomorrow.

Good luck everyone!

what time today?

Hi - how do you know that? Most people are saying March 13th.

Thanks.

It’s today per email from Caltech to admitted students re: PFE cancellation.

Could you send a screenshot of the email?

It was a long email about the logistics of PFE cancellation, but it had this line:

“Tomorrow, we are releasing our regular decision notifications, so be ready to meet more Prefrosh!”

Since it was sent yesterday, tomorrow is today:) Good luck, everyone!

Anyone accepted their offer yet? My daughter hit accept. How soon did people get a confirmation?

Sorry, for clarity I should have specified that my D is a Grad applicant, PhD in GPS

This is EXTREMELY late, but I thought I would respond anyway. @CAEngineer and @gRw110 schools holding grudges for me pulling applications is honestly an extremely rare occurence. It Ultimately doesn’t come down to the grudges themselves that establish a bad precedent, but the kinds of students that apply. Think of it this way: I am leaving behind a successful Science Olympiad program that draws in most of our school’s brightest students, often leading them in a STEM-like direction. Because i am at a public school, a lot of student interest is created/peaking by way of Science Olympiad. If I, as a STEM student from this high school leave a bad precedent by rejecting a school I am accepted to (RD, EA, or otherwise), I am not setting a bad precedent for the school, but simply for the kind of student I am. Harvard, for example, discriminates against non-bio STEM students because so many of them pass Harvard up to attend MIT instead. Every student that I know going to Harvard in STEM is in either biology or minoring in some sort of humanities topic. As such, the college may reject students with similar activities and interests to me in future years because I passed up their offer for a more STEM-focused college, creating the illusion that they dislike my high school because I declined their offer of admission when in REALITY they reject many high-performing students from my school because they come from similar programs and, as such, have similar interests. They do not reject students from my high school because they hate my high school, they reject those students to increase yield. However, this is a very rare occurrence that only happens at extremely prestigious schools, because any school that sees a student they really want on their campus will accept them regardless of past experience. Yale, for example, accepted me with a likely letter and a personalized phone call despite being a humanities school because they want to increase their STEM presence despite knowing that I would probably pass their offer up for a school like MIT or Caltech.

TL:DR Colleges don’t hold grudges against high schools, they hold grudges against certain types of students who they fear will decline their offer of admission to minimize the amount of spots they need to fill from the wait list.

Responding again specifically to @CAEngineer, I entirely agree and within a matter of 2 weeks turned down the offers of admission from all schools I was no longer considering. The only six schools I have not turned down are MIT, Caltech, Yale, Stanford, Harvey Mudd, and Princeton (I am also on the Harvard waitlist). It is disrespectful to sit on an admission offer you know you will not take, but it will not jeopardize the admission of other students simply because they are from your high school in the future.

Dude, your misunderstood our very polite question. Sorry now I have to a little more direct. You got into MIT during EA. As a URM, you have a very nice hook in the application game. I would think since you have been admitted to MIT, you would be nice enough as to withdraw some of your RD applications to colleges that you wouldn’t have considered over MIT, to make room for other applicants in your school who may be equally or more qualified than you.

Here are the colleges you were applying RD:
Harvard, Stanford, Yale, JHU, Columbia, Princeton, Brown, UChicago, HMC, Williams, Pomona, Cornell, UPenn, Norheastern, YaleNUS, UCSD,UCLA,UCB,UCI

One would think a STEM-minded student would want to keep these colleges:
Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Cornell, UCLA and UCB, as they are good in STEM. But withdraw from all others during RD. What I wanted to tell you is that it is not nice to go trophy hunting on college admissions if you have been admitted to your dream college in EA already.

@gRw110
You are correct. And, Cruzss misunderstood. I never said a college held anything against a particular student, but a high school - exactly for the same reason Cruzss acknowledges, it impacts the college’s yield.

And it is unfortunate that people like to collect admissions, but it happens and still will. I understand if you don’t get into your top school EA or RD, but once you do, you should cut back your list - not only to help kids you don’t know, but to help the colleges and students you may know (i.e. at your high school). But, that appears to require a certain level of empathy and altruism that not all 18 year olds (or maybe their parents) possess.

Cruzss is completely off in many ways, including what you pointed out. I won’t even get into his/her comments on Harvard, MIT and Yale. What I know is that colleges hold it against schools b/c it impacts their yield, which Cruzss is actually admitting. If he/she talked to guidance counselors and others knowledgeable of the process he would know that plenty of schools, esp. many selective colleges, do change the numbers and types of students accepted based on past experience. The counselors I have spoken with at multiple schools report that they have certain colleges that react to how students respond to acceptances. They have top students who are very competitive, being told to think twice based on track record with specific college and specific high school. It is not about the quality of students. Most high schools produce the same number of quality students each year.

This changing admission strategy makes a lot sense for the schools - they do not want to keep admitting large numbers from a high school that constantly has students turn them down. There are schools that are exceptions and this pattern goes both ways (some colleges will take admit many students at a particular high school b/c in the past many of the students have attended).

@Cruzss

Well, I amend my comments and apologize for not reading the whole string. I think it is good that you narrowed down choices and withdrew your applications. Let’s hope others follow that lead.

We will have to disagree about colleges and how they look at high schools based on past acceptance.

I wish you the best of luck next year - where ever you choose to attend.

Congratulations! Can you please share your profile?