Chances? Ben?

Colleges & Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
1

<p>Rank: 1 of 683
GPA: 4.0 (unweighted)</p>

<p>1550 SAT I May Soph year (800M 750V)
2290 SaT I March Jr year (800M 770CR 720W)
SAT IIs: 800 Math IIC, 800 Writing, 800 Chem, 800 Physics
APs: 5 Calc BC, 5 AP USH, 5 AP Chem, 5 AP Phys C (on both parts)</p>

<p>Major Awards/Important things
[First of all, my main thing and passion is research, which I do sometimes around 15-20 hours a week for a month or so, then it goes back down to just 5-10 on the "off-season"]
Siemens Westinghouse Regional Finalist (2004)
Siemens Westinghouse Semifinalist (2005)
ISEF Finalist (2005)
RSI
Top 10 Presentations at Research Science Institute
National Merit Semi
AP Scholar w/ Distinction
USAMTS Silver Award
123 AMC 12B (highest in state)
6 AIME
Taken Mathematical Structures, Number Theory, and Linear Algebra at University (all with A or A+)
Attended HOBY leadership seminar, and another similiar local leadership program
Random School awards like student of the year in calc 1-2,3-4
Accepted to conference with one of above projects</p>

<p>ECs and stuff</p>

<p>100 volunteer hours at local hospital (soph and part of jr year only though, got busy with research)
30 or so hours at library
Karate black belt (9 years of it)
Founded Science Research Club
President of Spanish Honors Society (3 years in club)
VP of NHS (2 years in club)
VP of Speech and Debate (2 years in club)
Random other positions in less prominent clubs (done 2 other clubs for 4 years now)
[I have had other positions, such as VP in all the clubs I'm Pres. in now, etc. but those are jr and soph year]</p>

<p>4 recs:
-One amazing one from Chemistry teacher,
-one from Harvard professor that I worked under (actually, I worked under his postdoc, but both will probably sign the letter) very closely and just submitted a paper for publication,
-one from English teacher,
-one from a Math Prof</p>

<p>P.S. Is it clear that I have done three projects? SWC 2004, SWC 2005, and RSI were all from different projects, but does the awards list make it look like I just submitted the same thing over and over again. They were in completely different fields (Biology, Comp. Sci, Bioinformatics, respectively).</p>

2

<p>You should note clearly that your resarch projects were in different fields when you list them. (E.g. "Siemens Westinghouse Regional finalist, research project in chemistry").</p>

<p>As I think you must know, your stats are very good. There is nothing wrong with your application from what I can see here. At places like Caltech, nothing is a sure thing, as you also know, but I probably can't tell you anything more useful than you know. Your research accomplishments, activities, summer programs, etc., are all quite good. You are competing with some people who are also good, but the two Siemens projects (even if you didn't make the final list), as opposed to one, are a bit of a novelty. So you have a good shot.</p>

<p>Try hard not to come off as self-satisfied or arrogant, etc. Write good essays -- just because you have good stats, don't assume you're entitled to write something boring or formulaic.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

3

<p>How are Caltech applications read? Is a PDF generated? For the activities, there seems to be no character limit, so my descriptions are a little long. </p>

<p>More imortantly, where should I clarify, "Siemens Westinghouse Regional finalist, research project in chemistry," since there isn't enough room on the awards line. I will be sending an extended awards list, so should I have it there?</p>

<p>And yes, I have worked very hard on my essays. The only problem with the Caltech application that I see is that there is no room to convey passion for research. My main essay for colleges aims to add some emotion to the few lines of the application that list awards, but there is no room for that on the Caltech application.</p>

<p>One last thing--I'll be submiting some papers, but how many do you suggest? I have three distinct papers, so I can send up to 70 pages of extra material. All three are good, and I don't really have any favorites. What does the adcom like? I have, again, biology, industrial engineering/compsci, and bioinformatics.</p>

4

<p>And do you prefer abstracts (w/note that full papers availible upon request) or full papers from the get-go?</p>

5

<p>
[quote]
How are Caltech applications read? Is a PDF generated?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>A form that looks like our application is generated and printed out, but the text that runs over is printed on a [continued] sheet so nothing is lost. Don't abuse this by writing things that are far too long, but descriptions that are complete are good.</p>

<p>
[quote]
More imortantly, where should I clarify, "Siemens Westinghouse Regional finalist, research project in chemistry," since there isn't enough room on the awards line. I will be sending an extended awards list, so should I have it there?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Yes, that is probably best.</p>

<p>
[quote]
The only problem with the Caltech application that I see is that there is no room to convey passion for research.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>As I see it, this is the entire purpose of the first essay! (Why did you decide that Caltech would be good for you, etc.?) I.e. presumably the reasons you like Caltech have something to do with research and your reasons for doing it.</p>

<p>Submitting three papers would be overkill. Pick one that is best (or if all three are really of equal quality, flip a three-sided coin...) and send us that one. Send abstracts for the other two.</p>

<p>sran --- sending one full paper is fine and helps the application. So send it fromt he get-go.</p>