Getting into Cal Tech

<p>Okay so I am about to finish my sophomore year in high school. I really want to go to Cal Tech after high school but today my teacher told me I won't get accepted. My freshman year I had 5 A's and one B but I had only taken one Hp class. This year I'm taking an A History class, honors chemistry, honors Algebra 2, honors English, Spanish, and AVID. Though my grades drastically dropped to A, C, C, C, C, C. I am still trying to bring them back up last second but I heard they look at sophomore and junior year the most. I plan on taking 3 ap classes next year and passing each with an A, but do you think I will even still have a chance to get in? She kinda disheartened me in tying to get in.</p>

<p>I won’t go as far as to say you won’t get in, but Cs are not good for a school like Caltech. They have their pick of 2400/4.0 students who win prestigious science competitions, and still only accept 600 kids a year. Even without the Cs you’re chances would’ve been slim. Do the best you can to bring your grades up -and work your @$$ off for the next two years, but know that the chances of admission are slim.
Also if there was any special circumstance that lead to your drastic drop in grades mention it in your application. Colleges sometimes overlook a low GPA if there are mitigating circumstances. </p>

<p>I disagree with saif235. Cal Tech admits 230 undergrads each year, not 600! You should take a look at their application, and the specific questions they ask. They particularly want to know what science related things you’ve been doing in high school. You can dig in next year and explain a fluke for this year, but you need to show specific focus and passion for science or engineering or math, with demonstrated activities.</p>

<p>My DS just got into Caltech. (They offer 600 students admission but many can’t pay the COA so about 230 undergrads commit to attending.) How did he do it? We don’t know, but he did score at an almost perfect SAT score, with a high gpa, and really good letters of rec. He also had a good cross section of EC’s and sports with good essays. No C’s on his high school transcript. So we don’t know how he got in, but we do know what he has done throughout high school.</p>

<p>Those C’s have affected your gpa and your admission status. Also you need to have a few EC’s that stand out. </p>

<p>Yeah, Caltech is probably a no. 1. Your GPA and test scores at Caltech matter more than anything else. They practically don’t even look at ECs, so if you don’t have those down pat, you might as well not even apply. As for AP your AP situation, you can’t just say you are planning on getting 3 A’s. Why would we believe that anyway if you have 5 C’s in non AP courses? Get in the course first, then you can evaluate. You haven’t given us much to work with. All you gave is a low GPA and what you plan on doing in an AP. It’s hard to accurately assess anything without you giving more than that. (Side note: I never understand why sophomores and freshman do Chance me) But if you wanna go to Caltech, make sure you take and ACE AP Calculus. Every applicant must take that and if you get less than a 5 and a 95 in the class, don’t expect to get in.</p>

<p>Caltech is among the top schools in the country. You do need great credential including good GPA and test scores to get in. Don’t put your focus on a single school right now. Just try your best at school and prepare for the SAT/ACT over the Summer. Depending on what you get on test score and cumulative GPA in Junior, find the list of schools that you should apply. You may include a few reach schools on the list as long as you have sufficient matches and at least a safety school. But you can forget some of the out of reach schools. For example, a student with GPA3.5/SAT1700 aiming at Northwestern University is really impossible.
Although there is no admission average GPA reported on CalTech’s CDS, it would be around 3.9 according to data on Cappex and other resources.
Here is a recent CDS for Caltech:
<a href=“California Institute of Technology Overview | CollegeData”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/pdf/full/California_Institute_of_Technology_College_Profile.PDF?schoolId=706&page=all&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;