<p>I kinda feel that I lack EC a bit.. just came to the U.S. at the beginning of my freshmen year.</p>
<p>Took AMC 12 since Freshmen year, qualified for AIME this year. Darn low score on AIME though.</p>
<p>SAT I : 2170 (planning to retake)
SAT II Math IIc: 800 Physics: 800 Chem: 770 (should I retake it?)
GPA: 4.25 (weighted) Rank 1/458</p>
<p>AP Physics B, AP Calc AB & BC, AP Chem: 5's
AP Lang and Comp: 4</p>
<p>Calculus 2 and 3 at University of Alaska Anchorage, and currently enrolled in Diff. Equ and Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos.</p>
<p>Anchorage Area math competition 1st place 04-05
Alaska State Trig Star winner (waiting on the national results)
Command Performance (Alaska State #1 Soloist) 04-05
Command Performance Runner-up (Alaska State #2 Quartet 2nd violinist) 04-05
Bauch & Lomb Honorary Science Award
All-State Orchestra all 3 years</p>
<p>Model UN 04-06
Student Government Congressmen 04-06
Tutoring Club founder/president 03-04
Website Team (tutoring website for middle school students on high level subjects; provides school club websites) founder/ webmaster
Mu Alpha Theta member 02-06
National Honors Society member 04-06
Anchorage Youth Symphony member 02-06
FIRST Robotics Club 03-04
Gifted Mentorship Program in GIS and Hydrology; currently enrolled in Sturctural Engineering
Attended the National Youth Leadership Forum on Technology during the summer of my Junior year</p>
<p>2nd violinist in a local quartet composed of high school students; activities we do include going to middle schools to show how fun playing an instrument can be, playing at weddings, and playing for school district gatherings.</p>
<p>Volunteer at Imaginarium 335 hours</p>
<p>A teller at the Bank-Within-East 03-04</p>
<p>Fluent in Japanese & Korean; Intermediate Spanish; Animation experience with 3ds max</p>
<p>Don't retake chem... 770 is fine... Academically your stats are quite acceptable.</p>
<p>Your volunteer work, tutoring, and music, are above average for extracurricular involvement. You certainly have the raw "supplies" to make a good application out of this, but now you need to construct a persuasive story... make sure to honestly say how many hours you spend on each of your main activities, and then in the second essay, talk about one of those activities and how devoted you are, how it affects you, etc. Try to reveal something about your personality, and try to avoid cliches.</p>
<p>On the whole, this is a <em>little</em> typical... so your main goal is to add some spice and entertain us and distinguish you from the typical nerdy kid.</p>
<p>I know I replied in your thread on the MIT board, but seeing as how I've been looking into Caltech, I think I can safely reply here too.</p>
<p>Caltech is a wholly different environment... like Ben Golub implied, they want to stray away from the typical nerdy kid. Your grades and ECs are great, but again, you need to talk specifically about how you're different. Caltech's low yield means they accept significantly more people than they expect, which will help you, but it likely doesn't mean that they'll accept less-qualified people. You have the same problem: there are just so many qualified people. </p>
<p>For example, I've run into this problem myself. I have extensive extra curriculars, great scores, heavy classload, incredible recs, but my grades are low because I've been working concurrently with school since my freshmen year. A B in Math/Science sets off an alarm at Caltech, so I'm in it deep. If the college application process was cut and dry, with my class rank, I have no chance at Caltech. Do my grades mean I'm not qualified? Absolutely not. I just have to prove (with my essays) that I'm capable of the workload and the difficulty and committed to the education.</p>
<p>That might seem like an odd tangent, but you have the same problem in the opposite direction. Your grades/scores show that you're very, very, qualified, but you run the risk of coming off as the "typical nerd." Your job is to prove to Caltech (or any other institute, for that matter), that you're not only qualified as far as the numbers go, but as a human being, you'd be an asset and an investment to that institute.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you. I'll also be applying for the class of 2010, but likely not early. I've lightened up work this year so that I can get good grades to prove that I am actually capable of getting them. :P.</p>
<p>Your advice is right on the money, Timur. By the way, you say you've "been working concurrently with school since freshmen year." You should know that we respect that sort of thing quite a lot -- it's carrying a whole lot in addition to your schoolwork -- and it will certainly offset, to an extent, your previous less-than-perfect grades, especially if they stay strong from now on.</p>
<p>Wow, really? My chief concern with applying early is that you'll see my essays, my scores, etc, and then look at my grades and go "meh." Do you defer a significant portion of your applicants? I mean, I believe my application is strong, if nothing else I've made the most of every opportunity available to me (all things considered), but I don't want to be rejected early because of my low grades. I figure if I do regular decision, you all get the opportunity to see my grades this year, which should be better (I'm starting work later, working at most 15 hours/week instead of 15-20), so that you all can see that I do in fact have the potential in me.</p>
<p>Ideally though, I'd like to apply early and know early, if for nothing else to save me the hassle of applying to other schools. What is your advice? Should I apply early and risk rejection because of my grades? Or apply late and be forced to deal with so many other schools, yet have my improved grades show on the transcript?</p>
<p>One more question: I have a friend at Caltech, and he tells me that he doesn't know anyone in his hall who didn't have some research experience entering in their freshmen year. Is this expected of all students?</p>
<p>We do try not to give false hope in the EA round -- if something in an applicant's file makes him completely uncompetitive, we don't string him on until the end. But if there's appreciable hope of getting in, we don't penalize people who apply EA.</p>
<p>We are also cautious in EA with our admits... we don't accept anyone unless we are really sure they'll top out in our pool in the RA round - no use in using up a spot dubiously that could be better filled later.</p>
<p>So the majority of applicants -- who are neither completely hopeless nor obvious superstars -- get deferred. I think EA is not of much use to these applicants, since a deferral is somewhat disappointing and you don't get as much time to prepare your application if you apply EA as you would otherwise have gotten. So in your case, given the fact that you are planning to get some important grades by the RA round, I'd say you'd be better off working hard on your Caltech app until January, and then submiting the best package you can.</p>
<p>Here's another inside tip that I only realized after I applied everywhere. Filling out college applications well is an acquired skill. Many people fill out the application of their dream schools first, and that is a serious mistake. You are much better off finishing the apps of some of your semi-safeties as a warmup, and then really excelling on the applications you care about most. In that sense, EA injures you a little bit by making you fill out the most important applications with the least practice.</p>
<p>That's good to hear Ben. I'll go ahead and hold out until regular action then. If you get deferred though, can you still send in your mid-year grades? I know EA folks don't get that opportunity, but I'd also venture a guess and say that most EA folks don't need it.</p>
<p>
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If you get deferred though, can you still send in your mid-year grades? I know EA folks don't get that opportunity, but I'd also venture a guess and say that most EA folks don't need it.
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<p>We actually require all of our applicans, EA or not, deferred or not, to send us midyear grades. So you certainly can and should :)</p>