<p>Can anyone tell me the grade requirements for CALTECH and what grades International students admitted at caltech generally have.</p>
<p>Does CALTECH has any preference for International Examinations Board (Cambridge, London, Edexcel / IB, etc...)</p>
<p>What are the average SATs results of international students admitted?</p>
<p>A typical international admit is top-ranked (top 10 or so) in a national olympiad in math or one the big sciences that are precursors to the international olympiads. Top 10 is for a country like China or India or Taiwan -- for smaller countries, the standards are more stringent. Grades are commensurate with this sort of achievement, and are extremely rarely below the best available in math and science.</p>
<p>Not everybody does olympiads, but that is a good guideline of the level of achievement needed to make it in the international pool.</p>
<p>Math and science SATs (I and II) are almost always 800's across the board. For non-native English speakers, we don't care much about the verbal SAT, as long as the student is competent to speak and write English.</p>
<p>We take IB's as standard, but accept other results from accredited exams.</p>
<p>The international pool is competitive, to put it mildly.</p>
<p>Thanks Ben Golub.</p>
<p>well i just got my results from the edexcel board (GCE)
Physics -A, Mathematics -A, Chemistry -A, Biology -C, French -A, Economics - C, </p>
<p>Do you think the results are competitive enough, from CALTECH's point of view?</p>
<p>Btw is age a factor for scholarship grants?</p>
<p>Well, we certainly don't make decisions on grades alone. Far too many people have perfect grades to make this practicable. But I can tell you that if this were the extent of the science-related achievements, there is pretty much no hope. </p>
<p>If there is significant olympiad/extracurricular/research in your file, it might earn the application some consideration; I'd have to look at the exact type of achievement to have an idea of what it would mean. The C's in bio and economics are troubling but not so terrible that they completely kill your chances. It's not good, though.</p>
<p>Age is not a significant factor in determining financial aid. </p>
<p>Hope that helps.
:-)
Ben</p>
<p>Ben Golub,</p>
<p>Thanks a lot, it does help!!!</p>
<p>Ive been very active in the school community; i was co-founder of the school computer club, president of the school council and did participate in many activities.</p>
<p>The only olympiad i won(first in my country/regional basis) was the Australian Mathematics Olympiad.</p>
<p>Ive done a lot of research in my life with my uncle, a physics lecturer at the University of Mauritius, I worked as research assistant for five summer holidays. The main fiels of study I got involved with are molecular physics, Materials, Vacuum, High-Temperature and my main project was a computer software on theoretical models of space-time warps and disturbances of spectrum in nova explosions (which we could not complete due to lack of funding)</p>
<p>Can those count for CALTECH?</p>
<p>I do hope im not bugging you!</p>
<p>Thanxs anyway.</p>
<p>Btw is it necessary to submit the high school report? The fact is that i left school two years ago and since its a governmental school, I cannot have access to any data in my file.</p>
<p>N for the evaluations of school teachers, can i use my private tuition teachers as susbsitute? My previous school teachers have already been transferred to other schools (dats a commonplace in our country) and they now say the dont have the authority to do so.</p>
<p>(Kindly excuse me for my english, its not my native tongue and i started learning it only three years back... so im not really used to english conversations)</p>
<p>Well, the olympiads and research are certainly good news for you.</p>
<p>We do require a high school report, and schools are generally required to mail such things to a college if you request it. But if there are circumstances making it absolutely impossible for you to get this report, then the admissions office may be willing to work something out. Keep in mind that the absence of school grades would make life very difficult for your application.</p>
<p>Recommendations from your high school teachers would be vastly preferable to those from private tutors; if, once again, it is absolutely impossible to get the former kind of recommendation, then the private tutors' is perhaps worth something. But if your teachers wonder, it doesn't matter that they are now teaching at different schools, as long as you were their student in the past.</p>
<p>Well generally teachers would not mind, but i am a special case with a long story, and they generally are afraid/or do not want to mingle with my affairs.</p>
<p>Well anyway thanx a lot, you really helped me.</p>
<p>It certainly gave an exponential morale boost!</p>
<p>Now ill be able to tackle the SATs with more conviction! Ill mail you when i get 2400!</p>
<p>Btw, if am entitled to know, are you a techie, a staff or an alumni?</p>
<p>I am a Caltech student who sat on the Admissions Committee during the 04-05 academic year.</p>
<p>Hi Ben Golub,
I am currently a sophomore in high school, and thanks to CC I found out the YESS program in Caltech. I missed the chance to apply this year, and I will definately try it next year. But I was wondering if I can do some research in Caltech? I am not sure how high students do research in universities work, but I heard a lot of people on this board done it. So my question is, can you give me a guideline how to do a research in Caltech, or is it not allowed? I am interested in Chemistry and Computer Science, so I will ask my parent and my uncle to take me to visit Caltech campus some time during this summer.</p>
<p>Thanks in Advance.</p>
<p>ben-
sorry, but i have a question as well...do you know when the enrollment stats will be finalized? (since i'm a waitlisted intl)
thanks</p>
<p>yy0712 -- Soon. We will try our <em>very</em> best to have the waitlist stuff done by the end of this month, and will almost certainly succeed.</p>
<p>awesome, thanks</p>
<p>About summer research. Most people ask a professor. To tell the truth, Caltech profs have lots of current students, etc., doing research in their labs, and so probably don't have so much time/space. It never hurts to email people and ask, I suppose, but the probability of sucess isn't all that high. If you want to maximize it, learn a lot about the research, read a lot of papers, and come in saying you're basically willing to do anything, for free. I highly recommend applying to summer programs like RSI, YESS, etc., as a more efficient alternative. They provide an excellent way to get into research with structure. Before that, your time is best spent reading books and doing well in school. If you really want to get into a lab though, you might have a bit more luck with colleges that are slightly less hardcore like some of the CalState schools -- just email profs and they will be more likely to consider taking on a volunteer. Exactly how good the school is doesn't matter much when we evaluate research experience. We realize opportunities to work at the "top" places have more to do with connections than merit, often,</p>
<p>Hey Ben,</p>
<p>Do u happen to know any mauritian in CALTECH?</p>
<p>Ben - Oh I beg to differ!!</p>
<p>RSI is not a more efficient alternative. In fact, I had already completed one research paper and was working on another one in another field before going to RSI. It was just as well because when I got to RSI my mentor threw a forth year college text on my desk, and gave me two options of research (that I had never heard of.) I probably saw him for a total of 5 minutes after that!</p>
<p>It is not that way for some, but if I didn't have a bunch of previous experience I would have been in a very bad place.</p>
<p>and it usually requires research experience to get into RSI too.</p>
<p>You are right that research experience is important (though not crucial) for RSI. I suppose I'm just a bit leery, myself, about this business of people starting to work in labs as frosh in high school. I seriously question the long-term benefit (and, being one of those people who started almost that early, I have at least some experience to base it on). But that's not to say it's necessarily bad, either. Anyone who wants to get into a lab should be proactive as I outlined in my previous post. Knock, and the door shall be opened, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice Ben Golub!
I never thought to make a profit from the research, just want experience.
Well, I will study hard this summer, and prepare for my next year.</p>
<p>I posted this somewhere else, but I'm kinda in a panic b/c I want to apply to Caltech but I have not taken physics yet nor will I be taking it next year. I will have taken both the AP sciences offered by my school by the time I graduate and will graduate with 7 science credits, but I didn't have enough room for physics in my schedule. Is this going to hurt me in the admissions process?</p>