Even a remote chance?

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
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<p>Norwegian Citizen of Indian ethnicity. Graduated from an international school in South Korea. Lived in Norway for 15 years (studied in an international school for 12 years), moved to Korea after 9th grade and skipped a grade – joined 11th. Transferred school for my senior year (int’l school) in Korea. Graduated in June 2005, taking a gap-year in Norway aged 16.</p>

<p>SAT I: 690M, 670CR, 700 Wr (10 Essay)</p>

<p>GPA: 3.8 UW Freshman year, 4.0 UW (with two Hons. Classes) Junior year, 4.3 Weighted Senior year (5.0 for A+ and A in AP course, 4.0 for A in regular subjects, took 4 APs)</p>

<p>SAT II: 750 IC, 690 Physics, 680 IIC. took World History in December expecting 750+</p>

<p>O-Levels: A in IGCSE Spanish exam in 9th grade (most students take it in the 10th)</p>

<p>APs: Physics B 5 (independent),
Calc AB, Stats, English Lit 4s.</p>

<p>ECs:
-WASC international school accreditation committee member. Represented whole student body for accreditation purposes (11th)
-Varsity Soccer (9th, 11th)
-Varsity Cross country (letter – 12th)
-Debate Team
-MUN founding member 11th, member of international team, 12th
-Creative writing (independent, sending in sample of short story)
-Varsity softball (9th)
-Publicity Manager for school plays (12th)
-Orphanage Service Club (11th, 12th)
+++ minor things</p>

<p>Gap-year:
-Taking 2 APs online (virtual high school) Calc BC and Macro and Micro Econ
-Self-studying AP Physics C (both parts)
-Internship with Political Science professor at a university in Norway on a UN Project
-Amnesty International volunteer
-In the process of patenting a traffic-regulation machine (speed-control device) Describing it briefly in my app
-Taking refresher courses in Norwegian and Spanish to be completely proficient by the end of the year
-Working with a Museum team in Stavanger for developing the city’s museum for “European Culture City 2008”</p>

<p>I know 4 Languages (Hindi, English, Spanish and Norwegian)
As an International not asking for Financial Aid, what chances do I stand?</p>

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<p>Sounds like you're an interesting person! Can't comment on chances, but who really can?</p>

3

<p>"SAT II: 750 IC, 690 Physics, 680 IIC."</p>

<p>Nothing hurts you more than these, especially the last two. The IIC average of Caltech admitted students ranges, from year to year, between 780 and 800. I doubt that there are many students with 680s admitted without extreme other qualifications.</p>

<p>The Physics average of admitted students isn't quite so high (740-750ish, I think), but 690 is still quite low. Normally, a student with below-average SATs would show his ability to perform well at Caltech with high SAT II scores.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, Caltech's deadline for taking them is usually December. Maybe you could study like never before, retake them, and see if they would still accept the results?</p>

4

<p>Chances are unfortunately not at all good. Very weak scores in Caltech's pool, with no compensating academic achievement (no prize-winning scientific research, no olympiad achievements, etc.) Standards for international students are extremely high -- most straight 800's with some Olympiad placements don't get in.</p>

<p>: ( - try mid-tier liberal arts schools -- USC, WUSTL, Vanderbilt, and maybe lower Ivies (Brown, Dartmouth, etc.) as reaches. Your achievements and interesets fit much better and I think you'd have a fighting chance.</p>

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<p>Thanks. I just wanted to know if I should spend those bucks on the app. Btw it seems Caltech is much more score-oriented than many ivies+Stanford+MIT. Am I correct in assuming that? </p>

<p>Agreed that my Physics and math SAT IIs are down the toilet, but my AP Physics B (5) with A+s in Honor's and AP Physics classes, and decent AP Calc and Stats school grades and a score of 4 are not enough to compensate? </p>

<p>Thanks for the response Ben. I do plan on applying to Dartmouth and Brown, so hopefully something will come out of those. Applying to only reach schools this year 'cause I already got an entry in u of Warwick (england) for econ for next year :)</p>

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<p>What I was told in my town by Caltech alumni at a meeting about Caltech is that the key phrase is "passion for math and science." (Or maybe it was "OR" in that phrase.) Anyway, Caltech gets a concentrated group of applicants who are excited about what it offers for the would-be science major or math major. A lot of stars send in applications, raising the overall standard of the applicants. </p>

<p>The other schools Ben mentions are good schools, and they indeed would likely find you to be an interesting diversity addition to their entering classes.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Btw it seems Caltech is much more score-oriented than many ivies+Stanford+MIT. Am I correct in assuming that?

[/quote]
Well, Caltech just has a very self-selected pool of very strong students and we admit a small fraction of them, so we can perhaps at times afford to be a bit pickier on more dimensions than many of our peers. Our ideal applicant is passionate about math/science with near-perfect scores all around to back up that interest, and we tend to succeed at admitting classes of near-ideal applicants.</p>

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<p>"Caltech just has a very self-selected pool of very strong students and we admit a small fraction of them"</p>

<p>yea.</p>

<p>i have 800 2c, 780 physics, but thats pretty much below avg compared to caltech students</p>

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<p>I just checked out the percentiles for AP. For Physics, the lowest I could have got is 86th, which on SAT II scale is a 750+ without a doubt, and Calc and Stats are between 60-70%ile minimum, so translating that to SAT II, it would be low 700s. Is this sort of conversion valid? I just SUCK at multiple choice, and on all my tests excepts Stats, it's the open-ended that gets me the score, so is that considered?</p>

10

<p>From what I've heard, CalTech focus more so on the academics than many other universities. This guy... (not from my school though...) got into CalTech with 1600(old one) and like almost perfect SAT IIs...(he obviously had 4.0)
I guess some ivies give you a little bit of break in SATs with high GPA and ECs, but I don't think Caltech really does that...</p>

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<p>I actually heard that CalTech had one year where no one got lower than an 800 on the IIC. That's intense.</p>

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<p>Yes, something like that is true. :-P</p>

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<p>"I actually heard that CalTech had one year where no one got lower than an 800 on the IIC" WOW. thats amazing...</p>

<p>btw does anyone have a response to my questions on APs?</p>

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<p>We don't really scale AP's to think what that would be equivalent to on the SAT... even though we don't do this explicitly, a bad Math IIc or Math I can often be helped with a 5 on the AP exam. However, in our pool, a 4 on the AP Calc/Phys/Chem is significantly below average, so unfortunately that score is no help.</p>

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<p>"btw does anyone have a response to my questions on APs?"</p>

<p>i heard colleges dont look at your ap scores that much. and people with high sat math scores get like 5's on most AP tests.</p>

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<p>If a college doesnt look into AP scores and puts more emphasis on SAT II that place is NOT worth attending. Come on, APs test the knowledge you gained over a full year. ie. I took World History and crammed in under 3 weeks. Does a 750+ in it show that I'm great at history? hell no...an AP 5 shows that I have learned something and not just crammed. And how can one forget that AP tests are 3 hours long and contain both MC and Free Response. I highly doubt that college finals will be 100% MC so I'd definitely say that AP scores should be considered more than SAT IIs.</p>

<p>And about AP 5 students scoring well on SAT II math, thats not all that accurate. I personally know several Calc BC students who got 5s and 5 subscore and got low 600s on IIC and IC...AP math tests completely dif. stuff compared to SAT II</p>

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<p>We look at the AP scores, and I agree with calltehcops that AP's are probably more valid than SAT II's. Unfortunately, many AP's are also pretty easy, and the cutoffs for a 5 are pretty low, so they don't convey that much information.</p>

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<p>AP cutoff is low for Calc and Stats I agree, but for lit, last year only 10% got 5s, and before that, 8%. Physics B was 14% and 10% respectively. Most students who get 5 on Physics B get 750+ on Physics - many get 800. Wouldnt this also mean that 750-800 in Physics isn't all that impressive?</p>

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<p>SAT II's have a little more resolution power at the top than AP's is all that I meant.</p>

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<p>Yes, the amount of items that one needs to get correct to obtain a score of 5 on an AP test is a remarkably low percentage of the items (usually a percentage like 65 percent or so, I am told). And I have also read stories just this week about cramming AP tests in just a week or two. </p>

<p>Moral of the story: it is a good idea to get high scores on ALL the different kinds of tests, and to have some noteworty achievement outside the context of test-taking besides. </p>

<p>Good luck in your applications.</p>