<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>]SAT: 2390 (800M,800CR,790W - 8 essay)
[</em>]SAT II: 800 math II, 800 chem, 780 USH
[<em>]ACT: 36 (35 English, 35 Writing)
[</em>]GPA: 3.987 UW, about 4.7 Weighted
[<em>]Rank: School doesn't rank
[</em>]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): AP National Scholar (5: chem, phys C -both, bc calc, English language, US gov, US history; 4: Spanish language), AMC 10 (best: 144, state winner, school winner 2X), AIME 4X (best: 8), USAMO - 11, US chem. olympiad - honors (nat. exam), US physics team - semifinalist, state-level math tests
[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[<em>]Essays: I suppose they were alright (or at least good enough)
[</em>]Teacher Recs: o.O I don't know because they sealed them.
[<em>]Counselor Rec: See above
[</em>]Supplementary Material: Research mentor wrote a supp. rec
[<em>]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): Arr, I yet have all me limbs.
[</em>]Location: Midwest
[<em>]High School Type: Med-size public
[</em>]Ethnicity: White
[<em>]Gender: M
[</em>]Applied for Financial Aid: No, but I might later.
[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>]Extracurriculars: Baseball, youth orchestra
[</em>]Awards: See tests, Siemens Comp. Semifinalist, NCTE Writing award
[*]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: I suppose any advice would go to younger students or those applying regular. You've probably heard this many many times before, but make it absolutely clear in the essay that you are passionate about engineering, science, math, technology, or whatever it may be.[/ul]</p>
<p>[ b]Stats:[ /b][ list]
[ *]SAT: 2180
[ *]SAT II: IIC 800 Chem 770 Bio 780
[ *]ACT:
[ *]GPA: 3.9 UW 4.7 W
[ *]Rank: No rank
[ *]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): Some APs
[ /list][ b]Subjective[ /b][ list]
[ *]Essays: I'm not too sure how mine are
[ *]Teacher Recs: Very good
[ *]Counselor Rec: Very good
[ *]Supplementary Material: Research papers
[ *]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): None really.. [ /list][ b]Personal[ /b][ list]
[ *]Location: MD
[ *]High School Type: Public
[ *]Ethnicity: Asian
[ *]Gender M
[ *]Applied for Financial Aid: Y
[ *]Extracurriculars: I have a lot of extracurriculars (music mainly)
[ *]Awards: nothing special, usnco, hhmi, ap awards
[ *]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[ /list]
Write good essays.</p>
<p>Rejected
SAT: 2370 (800M/800CR/770W-11e)
SAT2: 800Math2/800Phy/800Chem
ACT:---
GPA:5.07 (6pt scale)
Rank:top 5%
APs: 5s on Calc (AB sub w/BC), Phys Mech + E&M, Bio, EngLang, USH, SpanLang, 4 on WorldHist
AMC: AMC10-132(8th)146.5(9th)/AMC12-126(10th)123(11th)AIME-6(8th)9(9th)11(10th)8(11th)USAMO-7(9th)14(10th)
IB: I've taken Bio SL but never bothered to ask what my score was, so I didn't report it.
Essays: Common app was decent and blah; supps were on the whole rather good
Teacher recs: probably pretty good but not raving
Counselor rec: probably okay to pretty good
Supplementary material: talked about college math classes i've taken; also included tidbits about my research and a link to my bioinformatics paper
Hook: See Awards section. o.O
Location: Southeast
School Type: Large Urban Magnet Public (LUMP)
Ethnicity: W
Gender: M
Financial Aid: yes
Extracurriculars: piano for 10 years, cello for 7, boy scouts - currently working on eagle project, bunch of math contests, volunteer work with Hispanic kids, state science olympiad, national science bowl, research in bioinformatics for 2.5 years, research in math for 6 months
Awards: Physics olympiad semifinalist, Siemens national team finalist (bioinformatics), Siemens semifinalist (math), RSI (math)
Advice: well darn, if this won't get you in, what will?</p>
<p>haha jk guys i got Accepted
also sorry if i caused any heart attacks
hrmmm i will not be at the prefrosh weekend because i already visited when caltech was its true self</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>]SAT: 2220 (800 M/670 CR/750 W)
[</em>]SAT II: 800 Math II/800 Physics/790 Chem
[<em>]ACT: 36
[</em>]GPA: 4.6 something on 4.83 tops?
[<em>]Rank: 1
[</em>]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 97.5 AMC 12/4 AIME/5 on CompSci AB, Physics B, US History, English Lang & Comp, Calc BC, Chemistry
[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[<em>]Essays: Talked about pencil twirling and building Theremins and computer games, rather pleased
[</em>]Teacher Recs: Pretty good, along the lines of "one of the top students in my career"
[<em>]Counselor Rec: Probably great, he's advised student council and me for 4 years, know him well
[</em>]Supplementary Material: Recommendation letter from research advisor at Fermilab
[<em>]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): nope
[</em>]Location: Illinois
[<em>]High School Type: Suburban public, rarely HYPSM
[</em>]Ethnicity: White/Polish immigrant
[<em>]Gender: M
[</em>]Applied for Financial Aid: Y
[<em>]Extracurriculars: Math Team, Scholastic Bowl, Science Olympiad, Student Council Treasurer, Newspaper, Soccer until recently, Varsity Tennis, Tutoring, NHS, Research in astrophysics at Fermilab over the summer, Stanford EPGY
[</em>]Awards: 2nd state compsci, AMC school winner, National Merit Semifinalist, Math Student of the Year (woo)
[li]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: Wow, you guys are all much more impressive than me. I really want to get to meet some of you at prefrosh weekend or whenever. I want to get a feel for what kind of atmosphere I'm getting myself into. But overall, very excited. Oh, and they put in a handwritten note saying they really needed my journalism experience at caltech. :)[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>You have no idea how badly the Tech (our newspaper) needs articles. One of the last editions was only 4 pages, and about half the space was taken by pictures. :)</p>
<p>My letter had a note saying: "Your housemates will enjoy your passion for baking."
I wrote my supplement essay on my childhood baking experiments ;P</p>
<p>[ b]Stats:[ /b][ list]
[ *]SAT: 2130
[ *]SAT II: Math 790, Physics 800
[ *]ACT: 35
[ *]GPA: 4.00
[ *]Rank: School doesn't rank.
[ *]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): Calculus BC 5, CompSci AB 5, Physics C Mechanics 5, Physics C E&M 5
[ /list][ b]Subjective[ /b][ list]
[ *]Essays: Pretty good. I wrote about peer tutoring, and how I find amusement in getting lost, and my interests in science of course.
[ *]Teacher Recs: Probably good, sinc both teachers tend to exaggerate though...
[ *]Counselor Rec: Probably amazing. She was the head counselor at our school with lots of experience at Caltech recommendations.
[ *]Supplementary Material: A research paper
[ *]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): N/A[ /list][ b]Personal[ /b][ list]
[ *]Location: Chicago
[ *]High School Type: Public magnet school
[ *]Ethnicity: Asian
[ *]Gender: Female
[ *]Applied for Financial Aid: Y/N[ /list][ b]Other[ /b][ list] Y
[ *]Extracurriculars: Orchestra, Student Newspaper, Research, Science Olympiad, Peer Tutoring, Future Problem Solving,
[ *]Awards: Nothing extraordinary... All-State Orchestra, 14th International Future Problem Solving Competition, 4th Internation Student Science Fair in Japan,
[ *]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[ /list] Essays are really important! I don't have a lot going for me, no amazing math or research awards or sparkling SAT scores, but my essays were genuine and thoughtful. =) Good luck to those of you still waiting on your decisions!</p>
<p>[li]Essays: nerdified</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Teacher Recs: good, hopefully, 1-english, physics, Northwestern prof that I researched with</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Counselor Rec: good</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Supplementary Material: Research paper</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): [ /list][ b]Personal[ /b][ list]</p>[/li]
<p>[<em>]Location: Illinois
[</em>]High School Type: public- meh</p>
<p>[li]Ethnicity: Asian</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Gender- F (I think that helped)</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Applied for Financial Aid: Y</p>[/li]
<p>[ /list][ b]Other[ /b][ list]</p>
<p>[li]Extracurriculars: Debate- captain, soccer, math, work work work and more work, band-trombone</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Awards: various</p>[/li]
<p>[*]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[ /list]</p>
<p>Degeneration- If you are seriously rethinking applying just because we may have rejected a Siemens Semifinalist, don't bother applying. While it certainly helps your case to be a Siemens Semifinalist, I'm slightly insulted by the insinuation that just by being a Siemens Semifinalist makes anyone the cream of the crop. There are many things that come together for a successful application. There is no one size fits all for Caltech, and they strive very hard to look for passion in math and science, past all the test scores and past all the competitions. </p>
<p>That's my advice to all of you guys- Congratulations to everyone who has made it in so far. But for those of you that are considering applying regular- remember that your application should exhibit your passion for math and science and how will you take advantage of all the wonderful opportunities here. Winning competition after competition only showcases that you know how to absorb material and that you like winning. Make sure to showcase that you like science too. And if you don't like science and you only do it because you're good at it. Don't apply.</p>
<p>Because you may find that you're nowhere near as good as you thought you were. </p>
<p>That's all I have to add to this discussion. I think Caltech is a phenomenal place with phenomenal opportunities- It's a place for all- as long as you have the passion to pursue math and science and the skills to survive. And that's what the applications look for. It's not an easy place, and it's up to you to prove that not only will you survive but that you will thrive in this noncompetitive, collaborative environment. </p>
<p>Good luck. And again, congratulations to those that have been admitted. I hope you all come to prefrosh weekend and give Caltech a long hard look and hopefully decide what is the right decision for you. :)</p>
<p>@ faraday: yes, but keep in mind that those of us rejected and deferred are less likely to post their stats and news than those who were accepted. Most of us were deferred or rejected. but congrats to anyone who got in EA. I hope I can get in RD round.</p>
<p>Honestly, indianInLA, I think it just reinforces the already prevalent attitude on CC that everything is about stats and chances. It's not my call, but if it were I'd avoid sticky-ing this thread. It will be around as long as people are posting, and that's long enough.</p>