<p>Anybody know anybody in this program? What's a typical high school resume for somebody in this program?</p>
<p>Also, does caltech only take your highest single sitting SAT? Does it consider writing?</p>
<p>About admissions, can somebody rank these? (very important, important, considered, slightly considered, not considered):</p>
<p>GPA, SAT, research, community service, doing math/science teams/competitions, essays, letter from humanities teacher, letter from science teacher, letter from other teachers, USAPhO semifinalist, USAChO semifinalist, USABO semifinalist, out-of-state.</p>
<p>Are doing those USA olympiads in senior year too late for consideration? Are any of them seen as a "big" booster to help you get in?</p>
<p>Google the common data set for Caltech, and you should find the importances placed on each aspect of the app, but Math/science competitions and research are big.
Out of state doesn't matter b/c it's private.
Write awesome essays and get good rec's: those are the things that make you human (let your personality shine through).
You can always call them after you've submitted your app to add things; I know I did for extra awards and results at competitons.</p>
<p>But sorry, I know very little about the Med Scholar program.</p>
<p>Sounds like a great way to go to Caltech with less risk of being closed out of medical school due to gpa. UCSD is a terrific medical school and a good bargain if you are in state. If you want to go to Caltech and to medical school, little to lose by applying.</p>
<p>The most interesting part of this is the statement "(the median GPA for Caltechs Class of 2006 was 3.5". Not what all the claims of grade deflation might have predicted.</p>
<p>It's an elaborate trap to try and trick premeds into going to Caltech. Suckers. Actually, they probably just used the following [incorrect] logic:</p>
<p>"More than 40% graduate with honors... that's pretty much 50%. One way to graduate with honors is to get a 3.5... we'll assume that's the only way. Therefore, the median GPA is a 3.5!" </p>
<p>According to the registrar, 38% of undergrads have a 3.5 or higher. Still, not bad, considering the current average GPA of 3.1-3.2 is a heck of a lot better than the 2.8 average of half a century ago.</p>
<p>[Insert joke about biologists being bad at math here.]</p>
<p>If the median gpa of the graduating class was 3.5, then half of those students had gpa's at or above that level. If only 38% of all students have gpa's above 3.5, this may imply that gpa's rise as students progress through Caltech. At MIT frosh have the lowest gpa's, and A grades become more common in the later years. Perhaps Caltech follows the same pattern.</p>
<p>Can you post the source of the 38% figure? Thanks</p>
<p>I have heard that about MIT, but I have no reason to believe that it happens at Caltech. Certainly, the (third term) freshman classes aren't graded particularly harshly. Maybe a lot of the s'more ones are, and that does tend to be the most challenging year for a lot of majors. I still highly doubt that the median graduating GPA is 3.5 when the median GPA is 3.2.</p>
<p>Those numbers sound reasonable. There's a convergence towards a 3.5 GPA as students progress during their time at Caltech. For people who racked up A+'s in core, the A+'s become harder to obtain later (ie, they're very rare in the upper level courses) while people who struggled in core can start to choose courses they are stronger at. Especially by senior year, most people should have plenty of flexibility to choose courses they want to (and are better at or have more liberty to pass/fail their hard electives).</p>
<p>For people in the harder majors, junior year is more difficult than sophomore year but I don't know of any major where senior year is harder than even sophomore year.</p>