Chance me for Caltech/ other Tech Schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

ACT : 36
SAT II: Math2, Chem, BioM, Physics (all 800)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): N/A
AP (place score in parenthesis): 9 STEM APs : Calc BC, the 4 physics APs, Chem, Bio, Stats, APCS (all 5’s)
4 in AP Lang

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
AMC scores: 129.5 AMC 12, 9 AIME (very, very very close to USAMO cutoff, top 350 in country)
-Distinguished honor roll for AMC 12, School winner as well
Multiple USAPhO qualifications and medals (top 150 in country overall)
Regneron STS Research Report Badge Winner (not to be confused with Scholar’s/Semifinalist award)

  • given to top 400ish students based on research paper only, similar to the semifinalist award but just not quite as good
    USACO Platinum Division with a perfect score on the gold contest
    Physics Bowl: top 10 in country for multiple years in a row

Extracurriculars:
Astrophysics Club: President
Math Club, Science Club: Vice President
Science Olympiad Co-Captain
Science Bowl Veteran Member
Lots of volunteering in tutoring kids in science and math
Mathcounts coach and founder of organization to help kids learn math.

Job/Work Experience:
Interned at lab for two summers. First one paid 2000 dollars. Labs were decently prestigious.
Published two peer reviewed, professional papers based on my research. (solar cell research)

Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Materials Science and Engineering/ Applied Physics
State : Cali
School Type: SoCal public high school, pretty competitive
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male

Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None

Essays: I put quite some time on them. It’s very hard to judge the quality of your own essays.
Recs: These were definetly a strong point in my application
-STEM Teacher: Very strong, talked about my merits as a community member, club officer, science bowl member, and as a “friend” to others around me
-Humanities Teacher: Strong, I was probably the most active in his class and talked with him a lot
-Supplemental Lab Rec: Very Very strong (as with most lab recs)
-Supplemental Teacher Rec (for Caltech Deferment form): strong as well, talked about my awards, final project, and role in our school’s math community

Schools:
Caltech (deferred)
MIT (deferred)
Stanford
Princeton
Penn
Yale
UChicago
Cal
UCLA
UCSD

Caltech is my dream school cause I know that I will be destroyed by the MIT committee of rejections come 3/14/17.

2

Should be accepted for UCLA and UCSD, others are way too unpredictable.

3

Woah! Your stats are ridiculous man! I’m sure you’ll get into one of your desired schools!

4

Thanks guys. The wait for Caltech is killing me though.

5

Please chance me guys. If you want I will chance back!

6

Your achievements are exceptional, with a good essay and interview, I am pretty sure you can get into any college you want. The only thing is ‘missing’ ( not really) is either sports or fine arts, or something less academic. But yeh, you chance for me is more than 80%

7

You have done all you can, but a hook would have been the cherry on the sundae. URM? first gen? from North Dakota? inner city? multiple languages or cultures? other hardship? No need for financial aid may actually hurt you in this case. Good Luck. Caltech is one of my favorite schools. Lovely Pasadena and a great community, great weather, small college.Wow!

8

Also forgot to mention that I got NMSF with a 1520. Forgot to submit my essays for finalist in time though :frowning:

9

Super jealous of your stats! Hm, I would say that you turn either Caltech or MIT into acceptances, and then:

Stanford: Waitlist/Accept
Princeton: Waitlist/Reject
Penn: Accept, but depends on what school
Yale: Waitlist
UChicago: Waitlist, but depends on essay
Cal: Accept
UCLA: Accept
UCSD: Accept

Chance me back?

10

(By the way, I realized I forgot to post my chance link: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1966406-chance-me-upenn-ed-yale-brown-princeton-etc-will-chance-back-p1.html . Thanks!)

11

You definitely have a good chance at Cal scores are their most important factor and yours are perfect

12

Wow, this is one impressive resume.
Caltech or MIT should become an accept
Stanford: WL/Accept
Princeton: WL/Accept
Penn: Accept
Yale: WL
UChicago: WL
Cal: Accept
UCLA: Accept
UCSD: Accept

13

12ish more days until results come out for Caltech!

Good luck to all who applied.

14

My son was accepted and attends Caltech.

One of the things we noticed about the recent crops of admitted students on-campus is that they have stepped out of their comfort zones, to participate in non-STEM activities.

I think Caltech wants intelligent students who, not only can do the intense courses, but who also have lives outside of the classroom. Given their current students, and “out-of-the-box” fun day contests, I don’t think Caltech is going to work for you.

You have good chances at the UC’s; the rest are questionable if you didn’t go outside the STEM box.

15

I heard from numerous people that Caltech looks at people who have “spikes”.

i.e. “We are not looking for well rounded people. Well rounded people can go to Harvard. Techers have spikes.” - person who works at Caltech Admissions

Source: https://www.quora.com/How-does-one-get-accepted-to-Caltech-as-an-undergraduate

Any thoughts?

16

@CaliBoi4567 I read the Quora item you posted. The poster who talked about spikes mentioned that he/she was serving on the admissions committee at Caltech. That was an immediate red flag–students stopped serving on the Caltech admissions committee sometime around 2011.

One of the commenters said that the Quora post was lifted from from Yahoo Answers. I found that the original post was written 9 years ago by someone referencing his/her experience serving on Caltech admissions “a decade” prior to that, so almost 20 years ago. https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/question/index;_ylt=AwrXnCaXlbZYtSIAwQhPmolQ;_ylu=X3oDMTEya3Zpc2tkBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDQjI1NTlfMQRzZWMDc3I-?qid=20080215065854AAIMWlP

There have been some changes in institutional priorities since the current director of admissions joined six years ago. While you look to be an extremely qualified candidate, I wouldn’t discount @“aunt bea” 's observations about the different strengths of current Caltech students.

17

Out of curiosity, as a California resident interested in STEM, did you consider Harvey Mudd College?