<p>I've been looking around and I read a post that said you could get into Caltech without any EC's if you good SATs and a transcript with high grades and many math/science courses. Can anyone confirm or refute this?</p>
<p>Yes, me. It's pure nonsense. This past admissions cycle, I recall about 20 applicants of that description that I encountered personally and one or two of them got accepted. Our usual response is the same as that of any other top-notch school to such a student: "Boring... we have plenty of apps with those scores plus really impressive research/activities/whatever."</p>
<p>False. </p>
<p>You need something beyond just your courses. I'd guess at least half of the applicants here have (or nearly have) the 1600 (Well, 2400, i guess), 4.0, gazillion APs and so on. But they don't all get in. That's 'cause we like things like research or robotics clubs and so forth. </p>
<p>It is somewhat true that Tech doesn't care overmuch about your non-science-y extracurriculars. (That's not to say they don't matter at all, just that, say, summer research trumps band camp.) But having JUST the numbers? You're not getting in.</p>
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summer research trumps band camp
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<p>A very accurate observation! :)</p>
<p>O.K., so the message is coming across loud and clear: do research during the summer if you want a chance in hell of getting into Cal Tech or MIT. But what if your family cannot afford to finance a summer of research? What if (and, of course, I'm thinking of myself), one is expected to get a job during the summer in an effort to help save for the soaring costs of a college education?
I am a rising junior and I'm working most of this summer. Next summer, the summer before I start to apply to places like Cal Tech, I will doubtless be expected to work again. My family is very middle class: my parents make enough in a year so I probably won't qualify for aid, but they're/we're not rich, and sending me to college will be a huge financial burden.
So, Ben Golub, please give me some advice. What should I do? Will Cal Tech respect/admire my work ethic, and willingness to contribute financially to my college education -- or will my application be dismissed because I was unable to spend my summer researching in a lab?
(Incidentally, I do a lot of ex-currics -- newspaper, chess, 2 varsity sports, student council, etc. -- but apparently these aren't significant? Will I be forced to go the LAC route? I am looking for an open window now...!)</p>
<p>there are some research programs which pay you stipends. Look up Roswell Park. My friend attends Nasa Sharp, and she's being paid $8.10 an hour. Of course the best summer research program is RSI, but I'm not sure if they pay you or not.</p>
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So, Ben Golub, please give me some advice. What should I do? Will Cal Tech respect/admire my work ethic, and willingness to contribute financially to my college education -- or will my application be dismissed because I was unable to spend my summer researching in a lab?
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</p>
<p>This is the most important question, and the short answer is that we will admire your work ethic, etc. We know that some spoiled (relatively) rich kids, like me, got undeserved opportunities to laze around and do some nonsense research while people who were slightly less blessed had to work hard to help out their families. Just note in one of your essays or somewhere else that you're really excited about the prospect of doing new science, and regret that unfortunately you couldn't do research in the summers because you were busy working to help your family. We won't count it against you, at all, and in fact it will make you look good.</p>
<p>One more point:
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But what if your family cannot afford to finance a summer of research?
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As a general warning, be aware that you certainly shouldn't ever <em>pay</em> for research opportunities, since programs asking for money to let you do research are typically less prestigious ripoffs. The "worst-case" scenario is a research internship, in which you work at a lab for free. Still, I see what you're saying -- working in a lab for free means foregone wages, which is certainly an opportunity cost to you.</p>
<p>Ben -- many thanks for your response. It did help to assuage some of my anxieties! (Incidentally, I did not mean to imply that my family would "pay" directly for a research opportunity -- because, I agree, such a program would be highly questionable. Rather, that by not getting paid for work, my family would essentially be supporting me during the summer.)
I'm hoping to visit Cal Tech this summer -- will you be there? Your responses to questions on this site have been enormously helpful.
Thanks again.</p>
<p>Must we do research? </p>
<p>I am a upper middle class (family income: 110,000) person, no work experience, with loads of college math classes (4 A's, 2 A-s, and a B+), tons of local math competitions, 2310 SAT, 3 perfect SAT II's, and some alright scores in national math competitions (Mathcounts Nationals, AMC: 118.5, AIME: 4 (distracted that day), ARML individual: 6). Also, USAphO semifinalist. But research doesn't push the right buttons for me right now, and I decided to go to a local math camp instead and take a college math class for free over the summer. Thus, I never even did research (my internship also fell through). I know research is important, but I didn't do it in favor of other passions. Will this hurt my chance at Caltech?</p>
<p>Also, I was thinking about the difficulty of getting an Axline.:-).
Say a junior with stats exactly like mine (2300 SAT, 3*800 SAT II's), with a 137 AMC, 13 AIME, 10 USAMO, 3 college math classes, a summer math camp, and who wrote good essays have a great chance at the Axline? Not me, of course. I just know a few friends online witth these stats online (math olympiad groupie). So what would a person's chance for the Axline be? If they wouldn't get it, I'm dead, for I pale in comparison.</p>
<p>I got in without doing any research. Really the only thing I did was take college classes (UPenn and Harvard). I know there's at least a couple other people that got in this year having never done any research.</p>
<p>So anyways Ben, must we do research if we demonstrate apititude and interest in other areas? Do you think I have? I really am anxiously waiting for your reply.</p>
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must we do research if we demonstrate apititude and interest in other areas?
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<p>No. Especially if you do a great deal of other things (as you've done) to demonstrate math-science passion. However, unless you win the USAMO or something, no-research Axlines are pretty rare, as you probably know.</p>
<p>I answered the other question in a private message, but as I said, the odds seem decent, but the Axline is a funny thing and it's certainly happened that people with those stats have not gotten it. But the odds on those stats (with the 137 AMC, 13 AIME, etc.) are certainly way better than the average admit, so someone like that would be under consideration for the scholarship.</p>