<p>I am just curious and like to know from current or past caltech students and/or their parents, if being good at sports in high school help in the admission at caltech ( along with some basic requirement, great SAT score, good GPA and taking AP math /science courses at school )</p>
<p>Have you looked at Caltech’s sports teams records? I don’t think outstanding athletes really matter much, they are just icing on the cake :-)</p>
<p>God no. I got an opportunity to showcase my basketball skills for CalTech. An email and an invitation to meet with the coach. Too bad I haven’t picked up a basketball since 4th grade.</p>
<p>Caltech does not look for great athletes who are good students- they look for great students- with tip top SATS’ AND grades AND a passion for learning. If they happen to play sports too-so much the better. Sports are not a “hook” at Caltech- they wont get you in over better students.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it. I am looking for the reply from the current or the past caltech students or their parents . I hope, I can guess with the posting that they either belong to that category.</p>
<p>Sports will only get you in over an otherwise equally qualified individual. So, in order for sports to help at all, you would need to have the qualifications of a typical caltech student. In that case, it might just make your admission more likely. But it will not boost a subpar application to any degree nor is it a hook at all.</p>
<p>here’s a hypothetical for you guys. if you have scores that are at the typical caltech level (i.e. 780-800 on math sat and 2 subject tests), take the hardest available course load and have all A’s with 95+ in math and science courses, and you show quite a bit of interest in math/science through essays, but have, say, only peer tutoring or one or two other math/sci extracurriculars, could athletics tip you in?</p>
<p>Doubt it. If there’s not enough evidence that you’d be happy doing science basically all day every day for four years, they probably will not admit you.</p>
<p>I was admitted to Caltech early action and will be going next year to play basketball. During the whole application process, the coach made it VERY clear that she has no say in the decision. So no, sports have absolutely no weight on your application.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback.</p>
<p>There are enough anecdotes on CC on how good athletes were encouraged to apply to Caltech, but did not get in, even when they had good profile (High SAT, good grades, some science EC’s etc.).</p>
<p>Taking AP science and math classes in itself does not show a passion for math and science. Again it depends on the circumstances. If you go to a school where very few AP’s are offered and there are no other opportunities for reserach, but you can show why science excites you, then you have a chance. If you go to a school where students routinely win the Intel and all you have is a couple of science AP’s, your sports capabilities will not help. </p>
<p>Sports might help, but only on the margins. If the coach recommends a candidate and the committee is deciding between two candidates, the one with sports may get through. In other words as pointed out by hamsandwich, the coach cannnot get a student in, they cannot say that I want this candidate. They can give the admission committee a list and the admission committee alone makes the decision. The admission committee might decide none of the people on the coaches list make the cut. The coach is not even informed if their candidates made it or not (as in a previous CC posting). They know only when the student contacts them.</p>
<p>maze, coaches know the admitted students. in many case admitted students are contacted by coaches first.</p>
<p>When we attended Caltech panel discussion during summer, at that time someone ask question to the whole student panel that, what if one thing they can change at Caltech? All of them were playing varsity sports. Surprisingly, universal answer was more sports active student body. As I looked at the Caltech web site, there are around 900-1000 students with 180-200 male varsity athletes and 150-175 varsity female athletes. That means every 3rd player is playing varsity sport. This doesnt include club or intramural sports. That made me confused. If there are so many players are playing varsity sports, why the answer was like that? As per above comments I understand that being good at sports is not part of admission process, so it must be very hard or humiliating for them to compete against other division III schools . It seems to me, the panel was saying they were looking for better student body in regards to the sports.</p>
<p>In 2011 CalTech won its first mens basketball game in years. In YEARS. I think that if winning games were more important in the overall scheme of things, the admissions dept would have started to accept better athletes long ago. But sports is not what makes Cal Tech tick. They want great minds. They want the top scientists of the future, the future MacArthur Genius Award winners…Academic achievement and intellectual ability will always trump athletic ability in their admissions decisions. I don’t see that changing.</p>
<p>^ that day was the day that S visited Caltech 
Unfortunately he didn’t write about that in his essays… he’s a good luck bringer :-)</p>
<p>crazymomster,
I was at that wed nite game, i believe in 2006, as was the school president and his wife. They almost won the prior game but lost in overtime. A small but dedicated fan base. I’ve watched them with water polo and other sports. Caltech Hoops is a movie about history of sports of Caltech, but ends with the year prior to the win (tho several players became seniors for winning game). Girls BB had a small but enthusiastic following, too.</p>
<p>I cannot comment if 2 candidates equal in every way, but one had sports for his/her Ec, if that would be an advantage.</p>
<p>In all honesty, I wonder if crazymomster and son went to that game. It was a game I will never forget. The audience never sat down i fourth quarter.</p>
<p>bookworm,
they snapped a long losing streak in conference games in 2011.</p>
<p>Caltech basketball snaps 310-game conference losing streak [Updated]
February 22, 2011 | 10:14 pm
[Caltech</a> basketball snaps 310-game conference losing streak [Updated] - latimes.com](<a href=“Archive blogs”>Caltech basketball snaps 310-game conference losing streak)</p>
<p>This is the game I believe they were referring to.
and my prior post was obviously in error.</p>
<p>Thanks for link, Menlo. I’m sure you are right that the poster is referring to that season.</p>
<p>Back in 2005-7, Oxy was the team to beat. I watched them beat Williams. Too bad but I live back East now</p>
<p>@bookworm, yes, I am referring to last year’s game. However, no, I did not attend the game, nor did my son. He merely visited Caltech that day. I think that weekend was the first time snow fell in LA (area) too (in a long time).</p>
<p>this is very informative!</p>