chances @ MIT, CalTech...

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi everyone.
I am currently a junior in smalltown, usa, and am looking at colleges like
MIT and CalTech...
Here are my stats as of now, and if someone could please advise me as to
whether I have any chance or not, it would be most appreciated...</p>

<p>GPA: 4.35 weighted / 3.85 unweighted.
Courses: All AP/ Honors courses.
Grade Trend: Half A's/ Half B's
SAT: Math 800
Critical Reading 680
Writing 750
AP Exams: expecting… AP US History 5, AP Chemistry 5, AP Computer Science 4 (didn’t take the Comp Sci course, just decided to take test)
Sat II's: Same deal, expecting mid-700s on Math IIC, Chem, US History</p>

<p>Extra-Curricular:
Mock Trial (3 county champs, 2 regional champs, 1 states champ, 1
national most professional award)
Newspaper (Editor-In-Chief)
Technology Student Association (2nd place state computer engineering,
2nd place national science and tech visualization, 2nd place national tech
systems, 5th place national computer engineering)
(Junior Year: all first place in… CAD/Engineering, CAD/Animation, SciVis, and Film Technology…)
Science League
National Honors Society
Am Entering into Siemens Westinghouse Competition w/ research project called:
“Environment-Driven Reactionary Reproductive Programming Utilizing Artificial Intelligence”
Applied to State Governor's School of the Sciences, got on Wait-List
Varsity Tennis Team</p>

<p>Community Service:
Peer Leadership
School-Sponsored Days for the Developmentally Disabled
Cross Age Peer Mentoring Program
NHS
(Numerous Small, Sponsored-Community Services)
Total: about 200 hours</p>

<p>Summers:
Sophmore Summer working at School Guidance Dept. and aid to setting-up new computer network.
Since then have my own small business for computer services (fixing computer and software, website design, video commercials, computer animations, etc...)
This Junior Summer am spending 10 weeks working alongside local scientist on new research project.</p>

<p>Interests:
Computer Programming (adept in VisualBasic, HTML, Java, C++, and am
learning DirectX)
Computer Animation (have portfolio of industry-quality animations and
3d models)
Other Computer Graphics (fluent in professional graphic design
software as well as web site creation and video graphics)</p>

<p>References: Looking good, for Governor’s School they gave me great rec’s.</p>

<p>Okay, that’s pretty much it. Thanks in advance for and comments or criticism you may
give...</p>

<p>By the way, would they look at a DVD Portfolio of samples of my work if I sent it?
And could I send my research paper for my summer projects?
Just wondering…</p>

2

<p>lemme just tell you</p>

<p>caltech does not care about your EC. MIT may, i don't know.</p>

<p>you need good SAT scores, good SAT Math 2 score. 800 would be best. top heavy in science/math. good gpa. being president of Basketweaving club isn't going to help you develop and design the next atom smasher.</p>

<p>cal tech is very competitive.</p>

<p>looking at your stats, it seems like you could be in or out. leaning a little on the out. if your gpa and SAt were higher it'd help.</p>

<p>get an 780-800 on IIC. you need it for cal tech.</p>

<p>cal tech could get a freshman class of 2400's and 800 Math IIC's if they wanted to. that's how tough it is.</p>

3

<p>yah, i know my SAT's are a little low for these schools, just hoping that my technology awards would push me in.</p>

<p>why do you think they dont look at EC's too much? how do they judge then, just on scores, essays, and rec's?</p>

4

<p>your standardized scores need to be GOOD!</p>

<p>the tech awards will help. recs, yes, get good recs from teachers who like/know/love/ you on a personal level.</p>

<p>the reserach project over the summer is good. make the BEST of it. show the people around you what you know. make a good impression.</p>

<p>were you NMS?</p>

<p>all the people from my school who got into caltech were NMS.</p>

<p>they were top of their line, very smart, intelligent people.</p>

<p>this is what Caltech looks at according to the collegeboard site</p>

<p>Very important admission factors:</p>

<pre><code>* Character/Personal Qualities
* Essay
* Recommendations
* Secondary School Record
* Standardized Test Scores
</code></pre>

<p>Considered:</p>

<pre><code>* Class Rank
* Extracurricular Activities
* Minority Status
* Talent/Ability
* Volunteer Work
* Work Experience
</code></pre>

5

<p>Make sure that you get an 800 on the Math IIC. I know that it sounds silly, but I remember looking over the Caltech decisions thread for this year and finding that the admission percentages were unbelievably well-correlated with Math IIC score - like 85% of 800s were admitted, while 85% of <800s were rejected. </p>

<p>I'm sure that the situation isn't quite as extreme in general - CC isn't a very big sample. However, it's not entirely unreasonable for Caltech to care so much about the Math IIC, since a <800 score on a test with such a generous curve is an indication that someone may have serious difficulty with the level of math at Caltech.</p>

6

<p>yes, 800 would look good</p>

<p>caltech math is HARD</p>

<p>the first two days of their math classes are basically your whole Calculus BC year.</p>

7

<p>no, no NMS, for PSATs some reason thought there was no writing section on it, so that score blowed me down off the charts cause I didn't study for it. Grammar isn't my forte, and there was no essay. I think i got a 198 total, with a, like, 50 writing. Damn. Oh well.</p>

<p>My essays are good. My english teacher looked at them and said they gave a good representation of who I am, and she said it comes across like I am adamant about math/science.</p>

<p>Teacher rec's were great from Governors School Application. Bio teacher talked about me being on the Mock Trial team which he coaches and about my fervor for learning in his class. French teacher went on about how I have an excellent attitude and passion/drive/etc.... stuff like that.</p>

<p>How about my research abstract/paper. Would that or a DVD Portfolio help my chances at all?</p>

8

<p>no harm in trying it.</p>

<p>ask your College Conselour</p>

9

<p>Any thoughts about MIT?
Same as CalTech chances-wise...harder...worse?</p>

10

<p>probably the same</p>

11

<p>MIT consideres EC's more than CalTech as far as I have heard.</p>

<p>The typial MIT freshman class is larger than CalTech's, but there are probably more applicants to MIT overall.</p>

<p>MIT's SAT average was 1470. CalTech's was 1500 I think.</p>

<p>As people have already mentioned, both colleges are very very strict when it comes to grades in math and science.</p>

<p>One or two B's in a humanities course in high school could be okay, but you pretty much need straight A's for math and science. Same with the SATs. A 700 verbal score might be acceptable, but for math you pretty much have to stay right around 800.</p>

12

<p>CalTech actually had a freshman class one recent year in which everyone had an 800 on one of the math tests (I can't remember whether it was the SAT I math or SAT II math).</p>

13

<p>I think that it was the SAT II, on which Caltech's average is usually 790+. Getting an 800 on the SAT II is <em>much</em> more important than doing so on the SAT math (although I see you've already done that).</p>

14

<p>I got a 680 on my mathIIC and I'm going to MIT next year. </p>

<p>Your scores are fine as they are. Just make sure your application makes you out to be an intriguing student, at least for MIT. I don't know as much about Caltech, but MIT is definitely looking for specific character and true brilliance - not exactly test scores. Your test scores have to be competitive in their applicant pool. Yours are. They're more of a qualifier than anything that will make you stand out.</p>

15

<p>Addendum - even the SAT MathIIC is only pre-calc stuff. They're going to care a lot more about higher math competency than a perfect score in advanced algebra/memorizing trig formulas.</p>

16

<p>Is it me or does it seem like the majority of MIT's classes are preset, at least for men? eg. people who attend RSI has almost 100% chance of admission...</p>

<p>Don't let numbers fool you, both universities are extremely competitive</p>

17

<p>MIT seems to have a different approach to admissions than Caltech - it is far more interested in diversity than Caltech, and also places more weight on extracurricular activities (while Caltech barely cares about any ECs outside of science/math). As a result, it doesn't place nearly the same weight on test scores, like the SAT II math.</p>

<p>But, if you're interested in Caltech, it is critical to have high SAT II scores. Simply put, the SAT IIs test at a much lower level than Caltech will, and an admissions committee may very well wonder how someone who can't master the SAT II material can make it through Caltech (which, as you probably know, has a relatively low graduation rate - 85%, the last time I checked). This is reflected in a summary of scores of Caltech matriculants:</p>

<p>diversity.caltech.edu/dpg_reports/irvine06-04/Data.pdf</p>

<p>Here, you can see that the average Math IIC score for caltech matriculants in the Class of 2008 was about 782. Clearly, there weren't many people admitted with low Math IIC scores, and I suspect that most of those had extremely compelling other factors that worked toward their admission. The average score was just as high in past years.</p>

18

<p>the tech. awards are a hook & will definitely help you, but your GPA is pretty low for Cal/MIT - but if you have all As in math/science & your Bs are in humanities, it won't matter <em>as</em> much. I say you have a decent chance, just keep working really hard next year!</p>

19

<p>The RSI rate isn't 100%, but generally if you got accepted to RSI you're a strong candidate for MIT. </p>

<p>It's definitely better to have higher scores, but I know at least that MIT isn't as score-conscious as most of the kids on CC seem to be.</p>

20

<p>can someone tell about this DVD portfolio thing I would be interested to know if it would help..</p>

<p>thanks</p>