Chance me please!

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
1

<p>Hey!
I'm an international prospective student from Israel.
I'm currently serving in the IDF and planning to study in the US when I'm discharged.
I'm a Mamram graduate (The IDF elite technological units' programming course).</p>

<p>Graduation Year: 2009
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: White
Religious Affiliation:Jewish
First Language: Hebrew</p>

<p>Class Rank: 10
Class Size: 190
Rank (%): 5.26%
Unweighted GPA: 90 out of 100
Weighted GPA: 107 out of 120
SAT: 600 R 750 M 650 W
1350/ 2000</p>

<p>Extra-curricular activities:</p>

<p>I have to mention that the typical Israeli high school
has few clubs or has no clubs at all. So I'm sure I
didn't take a part in a lot of clubs as you guys probably did.</p>

<p>I hope these activities still interest the universities since I graduated in 2009...</p>

<p>Urban Squash Team - 9th grade</p>

<p>Class President - 9th grade</p>

<p>Ness Technologies CTM-Ed Program - 10th, 11th, 12th
A student in Ness Technologies' "CTM-Ed" (Certification, Technology, and Management – Education) program. The purpose of the course is to educate future Technological Leaders and to achieve that goal the students learn and experience a wide range of topics from Leadership, Teamwork, Policies and Strategy through Singularity, Nanotechnology, Biotechnology and computer science to Knowledge management, Assertiveness and Research methods.</p>

<p>School Robotics Team - 10th, 11th, 12th
Participating in the international fire fighting robot contest at Trinity college (CT) after winning the national contest in Israel.</p>

<p>Community Service - 10th, 11th
Beit Chabad (Helping poor families with food and other basic needs).</p>

<p>Poland Delegation - 12th
Visiting the Holocaust memorial locations in Poland.</p>

<p>Staff In Training Program - 9th
Associated with Tel Aviv university's summer camp in Israel.</p>

<p>Camp Chi, Wisconsin - 11th
Spending a month at this camp as a part of the Israeli delegation.
Camp Poyntelle Lewis Village, Pennsylvania - 10th
Spending a month at this camp as a part of the Israeli delegation.
I was also water skiing and wakeboarding everyday while I was at camp.</p>

<p>I want to major in Computer Science.
I'm really into programming...</p>

<p>Universities I'm going to apply to:</p>

<p>MIT
Yale University
UC Santa Barbara
CalTech
Stanford University
UCLA
Pepperdine University
Georgetown University
Harvard University
UW Green Bay</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>You test scores are on the low end. </p>

<p>I think your GPA is ok but I’m not very familiar with that system. </p>

<p>The robotics and the Ness Technologies thing will help you, but I don’t know anything about Ness Technologies so I don’t know how impressive it is or how well it will convince the adcom that you’re passionate about math/science.</p>

<p>If you want to go to Caltech, I would focus on a convincing Feynman essay (essay in the supplement where you write about why you love math/science). You may also want to retake the SAT if you think you can do better. Bear in mind that admissions is more difficult for international students, particularly if they need financial aid.</p>

3

<p>I know I am going to sound like a broken record, but most of your questions might be answered by looking at this thread.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/california-institute-technology/442418-anyone-wanting-know-their-chances-getting-into-caltech.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/california-institute-technology/442418-anyone-wanting-know-their-chances-getting-into-caltech.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>Ive seen this thread…but my case is different I graduated in 2009…I wanna know if my army programming experience increases my chances…</p>

5

<p>I doubt so. The adcom will probably look at your high school record instead. I was in the army as well, bagged some army awards, but I don’t think that helped to increase my chances. Instead, what got me through are probably my research awards and other science awards. As for the O.P, frankly speaking, it’s extremely difficult for him to get into any of the HYMSC schools. In fact, UCLA is also quite out of reach. His best shot is at UCSB, UW Green Bay or Pepperdine.</p>

6

<p>Again the focus at CalTech is not develop programming skills but rather to understand the theory behind computer science. So any lift due to superior programming skills will be very small if not negligible. Hence do not bank on that to make up for SAT scores, reserach etc.</p>