To be clear I’m NOT asking for someone to ‘chance’ me like I see everyone.
My question is since my dream college is Caltech what can I do to improve my chances
GPA: About 3.6 weighted I know its low but with this year’s semester 1 grades in it should be about 3.9
Rank: N/A
Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): This year I will take AP Calc BC(self-studying partially because I am in AB for scheduling reasons) AP Physics C mech (self-studying) AP Chem. Senior year I will take AP Stats and AP Physics EM Hopefully I will take Calc III and Diff Eq online this summer.
Essays: N/A
Teacher Recs: N/A
Counselor Rec: N/A
Supplementary Material: I want to research but I don’t know where to start.
Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize):
Location: Central New Jersey
High School Type: Public school large
Ethnicity: Black
Gender: Male
Extracurriculars: Biology League 1 year, physics league 1 year, chemistry league 2 years, marching band 3 years jazz band 3 years symphonic orchestra 3 years, creative writing club 3 years, drum corps 1 summer
I found this info template on a college acceptance just thought it would be easy haha. Any advice would be appreciated thanks and have a good day!
You show a sincere interest in sciences, so just keep on that path.
Good luck.
That’s how I knew Caltech was the perfect place for me haha. I said if I get accepted I would dye my hair orange for the whole summer!
3.6 weighted sounds pretty low. What is your unweighted average? What is your approximate class rank? Are you in the top 10% of your class?
That was actually a typo my bad I converted incorrectly to the 4.0 scale since my school uses a 100 point scale. Its more like around 3.8 weighted and 3.7 unweighted; I don’t know if my school differentiates though. It should be about a 3.9 or 4.0 after semester one grades of my junior year are factored in. As for class rank I dont know the exact but judging on my peers I should be easily in the top 20% at least, I can’t be certain as I come from a medium/large public school.
2020 EA admit here. I would suggest taking a couple more APs to bolster your app, especially if they’re offered at your school and you just don’t take them.
As for getting started on research, you can email professors at your local university who are doing work that you are interested in (do some research of your own into what they do). At least a few of them will probably be receptive and would be willing to let a high school kid work with them.
Other than that, do what you love and be ready to talk about why you love it.
First off congrats on your admission! Im currently applying to a summer internship kind of program at Princeton University where I would work with grad students doing research on some pretty cool stuff. Other than that Ill try and get in contact with some colleges since I live less than five minutes from Rutgers. Thanks for your advice and enjoy the weather in California!