Exchange students beware

[MartinMorrison]

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I was nominated as a student from a UK university to study at Caltech for a year as part of a student exchange program between the universities. This UK university has an exchange program with Caltech that allows students to complete their 3rd year at Caltech. I had to go through a rigorous screening and application procedure at this university before I was one of the 2 students nominated to participate in the exchange to Caltech. </p>

<p>I have a first year from a South African university and second year from the UK university I currently attend. I am no longer affiliated with the South African university. I was allowed directly into 2nd year of a program at the UK university because of my previous study. </p>

<p>Caltech were informed of this prior to me filling out Caltech exchange admissions forms. They were explicitly informed of how many semesters of marks I had from each university. Caltech responded that they were completely fine with this and that it would be no problem, and that I should also just submit a transcript from the previous university (it was not revealed in this conversation that the other university was a South African one). I have this email. </p>

<p>A few weeks after this conversation, I submitted my application forms mentioning that a South African university would submit the first year transcript. </p>

<p>I was immediately informed by Caltech that I could not be accepted because South African universities are not of the same 'calibre' as Caltech nor the university I am currently at in the UK, hence my first year transcript was 'meaningless' and not a valid reflection of academic ability, hence my academic ability could not be established and there was no guarantee that I could 'handle' the work at Caltech. Before any of my transcripts reached Caltech, I was rejected.</p>

<p>When this was queried by higher authorities at my current university, the reason I was rejected from Caltech changed to 'insufficient mathematical background'. It took a month after my rejection before Caltech would give this reason, and prior to this mathematics had never been brought up.</p>

<p>The odd thing is that I was only accepted into 2nd year of the program at the UK university I am currently at because my first year transcript from the South African university was judged as equivalent to this UK universities first year. I was also given permission to skip compulsory 2nd year maths courses at this UK university because of the extensive mathematical modules I completed in first year in South Africa (since pure mathematics was my major there).</p>

<p>I also have an extra semester of studies since I live in the Southern Hemisphere and completed schooling in December. I spent this extra semester on an exchange program from my previous South African university to another UK university, so I do have a bit of a special/odd background and this would be the 2nd exchange program I participate in. </p>

<p>As a result, to date, I have 5 semesters of university results in my subject from 3 universities. This is a semester extra than other students from my university applying for this exchange to Caltech and 3 semesters more than Cambridge and Imperial students applying for their exchange to Caltech.</p>

<p>I'm not sure how to convert to GPA, but I've had an average of over 85% at every university, and came first in two modules at the South African university. </p>

<p>So a warning to students applying for exchange to Caltech, your transcripts and application will not be handled by the Caltech admissions department, and it seems the decision to admit or reject you is down to a single person at Caltech. </p>

<p>I especially warn students with high schooling or previous study from South Africa that this department at Caltech does not recognise any of our qualifications or universities and a 'low calibre' is automatically assumed without any assessment of transcripts! </p>

<p>It is also extremely strange that the reason for rejection was changed to a lack of 'mathematical background', given my math concessions at the university I am currently at.</p>

[phantasmagoric]

<p>Unfortunately, most top universities in the US will have this attitude, albeit mostly in their graduate programs. Not so much “snobbishness” toward other schools, but rather wariness toward those whose rigor they can’t verify.</p>

<p>Caltech does deserve criticism for the way they handled your case; they should have been more forthcoming from the get-go and perhaps not have offered you a position only to take it away shortly thereafter. At the same time, you yourself admitted much of the same in a previous post…</p>

<p>

I did not go to a special school, so instead I did my first year of university in South Africa at a university that isn’t known at all and has a very poor reputation.

</p>

<p>

I was told that they had just introduced a new rule that forbade direct entry 2nd year students from apply for their exchange program. After many emails and meetings I finally managed to convince them to drop the rule and let me apply just few days before applications closed

</p>

<p>

The marks they looked at were actually my first year south african uni marks which ‘looked’ quite good because marking is done differently and the standard is actually a bit lower. I am definitely the only person in the world to get accepted for study at Caltech through marks obtained at that university…

</p>

<p>

I was blown away when I was accepted. I don’t know why I was accepted. I really don’t know what to say or do. There is a chance I may fail. I am smart, but not Caltech smart.

</p>

<p>So it seemed Caltech had the same reservations as you did, because they couldn’t verify that your first university in South Africa was rigorous enough in its preparation. If I’m understanding correctly, they couldn’t verify your abilities through your work at Edinburgh either, since you circumvented the rule preventing 2nd-year students from going through the exchange program.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t write off Caltech just yet. Hopefully you can re-apply next year, which is apparently when Edinburgh students typically do the exchange program. Assuming you haven’t burned any bridges, you may even get preference from Caltech, considering you were once provisionally accepted. And by then you’ll have a stronger/more complete record from Edinburgh to clear up any reservations that Caltech may have. </p>

<p>Best of luck if you do decide to pursue this opportunity in the future :)</p>

[MartinMorrison]

<p>You cannot reapply in the final year of your degree. You can only apply for your 3rd year.
The effort was not made to verify any of my previous study at all. It was an automatic rejection.</p>

<p>The information about the first university was presented in the first email communication in which it was confirmed as okay by Caltech, but it seems the email wasn’t read properly since this email containing all transcripts from the first university, all marks etc and it was exactly the same information I presented a month later.</p>

<p>I didn’t circumvent the rule preventing 2nd year students from going on the exchange, I am already in 2nd year and the rule is no longer in effect. It has been removed completely. I am 100% within Edinburgh rules and this is the time when other students in the same year as me apply and are selected for exchanges. </p>

<p>Another note is that two other Edinburgh students were also automatically removed because Caltech could not afford to take in those two students. It is financially beneficial for Caltech to not have to take me in. I did have reservations about my first year study, but not even to the extent of not gaining acceptance on those grounds. My academic standard can and has been verified as I would not have been accepted into Edinburgh or selected without this. It is also about relationships between universities and my first university is another exchange partner of Edinburgh.</p>