<p>(I have gone through a few threads in this forum already, and will be reading many more.)</p>
<p>Somehow, the idea of Caltech has always intimidated me. I'm not someone who decided they wanted to be a physicist in Grade 7 and then worked relentlessly to produce Nobel Prize level research before the end of my high school sophomore year. Yes, I know neither did the majority of Techers, but it does seem that way sometimes! I've not won Olympiads or any of the nationwide competitions with fancy sounding acronyms that I see touted as almost necessary to get into CalTech.</p>
<p>That could have something to do with the fact that I don't even live in the US, and by default a majority of these opportunities are not open to me - I am a 'national scholar' in my country, do well at school and have the 'extra curricular activities' but somehow that doesn't feel enough.</p>
<p>I know the important thing is passion for the subject (and I do LOVE math and physics) and that the admission officers see through padded resumes and pick only the ones with genuine interest. But it isn't always easy to remember that :(</p>
<p>And rigor is something I'm not afraid of - I thrive on it, and get bored easily when there's no challenge (as is sadly often the case with high school). </p>
<p>On paper, Caltech would be a perfect fit - but in reality, although I love the idea of going there, I'm so discouraged.</p>
<p>Everyone else feels the same way. It’s a very rare person who is not intimidated by how smart everyone else would be at Caltech, and it’s an even rarer person who is actually justified in not being intimidated.</p>
<p>So go into it assuming that at Caltech, most people will be smarter and work harder than you at the difficult, rigorous material. If this happens to not be true in your case, that’s cool. But if you couldn’t honestly deal with half of the students at the school being better than you (and it doesn’t make you a bad person if you can’t!), then Caltech isn’t a good fit for you. Nobody should gamble on being one of the brightest students here.</p>
<p>Having said that, the largest reasons to be scared of being one of the worst students don’t apply here. As long as you don’t fail to graduate, you can apply to jobs saying that you have a Caltech degree, and no matter how bad your grades are that means a lot.</p>
<p>I had similar doubts when I was applying; my thoughts went back and forth from “Let’s start these essays!” to “Should I even bother applying?” until the last day. However, I really like math, and although I don’t think I’m as good at it as you are in physics (i.e., no research experience, not very great competition scores), I somehow made my passion for the subject show through the essay. If you can effectively convey about how much you love physics, how your experiences have made you better as a person and as an aspiring physicist, and how Caltech will help you develop your long-standing interest through your application, you’re going to be in a good position.</p>
<p>As a current prefrosh, I’m still a bit intimidated, since everyone seems so much smarter than I am. On the a positive note, however, I get to have discussions on differential equations over dinner (When I ate dinner at one of the houses, one of the seniors said that - 'twas probably a joke though :P) and problem set collaboration sessions with these people, so if you like that kind of interaction with others, let that motivate you! Best of luck when you apply. :D</p>
<p>@Amarkov; I can truthfully say that I can handle not topping the class/being the best as those things have never motivated me in the first place. I don’t know how to phrase this without sounding phony or cliched, but I actually love the learning a LOT more than doing well and getting good grades. I’d rather fail a hard paper and figure out how to solve those kinds of questions than ace an easy test. </p>
<p>But what worries me is if I’d be a good fit - I mean from the acceptance thread it seems that 2/3 of the accepted ones are presidents of a dozen or so clubs, and have done a lot of amazing things in high school itself. I don’t feel like I quite match up - ironically this worries me more than my being able to handle Caltech’s rigor.</p>
<p>Wow, it makes me feel better to know I’m not the only one </p>
<p>And you know what they say - no matter what the acceptance rate, it’s lower of you don’t apply and all that; your personal story reminds me of that and inspires me to keep the hope alive and not give up before I’ve even tried.</p>
<p>And call me whatever, but differential equations over dinner sounds epic!</p>
<p>Then don’t worry about it at all. My extracurricular activities in high school were… swimming. And not like #1 in the regional meet; I was basically the worst person on the worst team in the worst league. I had done basically no science or math stuff outside of school, and precious little in school (my classes were trivial, and I’m very much of the mindset that I should do precisely the minimum required to get a good grade in my classes).</p>
<p>I feel like I fit in fine here. If you are honestly passionate about learning math and sciency stuff, you can’t possibly fit in worse.</p>
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