<p>i have this weird question:
how much does passion help to get over mediocre grades?</p>
<p>i mean, i am passionate about astrophysics, im 100% sure that i want and i will major in this field (unless i die, of course)
i think i can express my love of it through actions, through essays, and through my teachers' recommendations (they know im crazy about the stars :) )</p>
<p>the problem arises when it comes to grades...they are not perfect (by 'not perfect' i mean that i dont have all 5's on my AP's (and i have a feeling that i'll get no more than 4 on the calc test :( ), my SAT score will be terrible, since i've been here for like 2 years, and my English really sucks, and i surely won't be a valedictorian at my school, nor will i have an over 100 GPA</p>
<p>so, as i said before, how much is passion valued over the grades, if it is at all?</p>
<p>Might be a good idea to major in physics if you want to be an astrophysicist.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure that Caltech wants students who have high grades, SAT scores, etc., in addition to passion (I got a 640 math on the SAT, which I will be retaking with 750 as the goal, although even that is in, like, the lower 25th percentile at Caltech).</p>
<p>so far:
SAT Chem 740
SAT Phys 750
SAT IIC 800
AP chem: 3 :( (although in the whole class there was only one 4, no 5's, 4 3's, and the rest were 2's and 1's (the class was about 25 ppl))</p>
<p>AP phys B: 80% 5
Calc BC: 40% 5
self-studied linear algebra, now i'm self-studying vector calc, and hopefully i'll persuade my physics teacher to help me do Physics C (our school doesnt offer it).....
damn, there are so many things i want to know, but 2 years is such a small period of time to learn all of them :( :)
i was accepted to Summer Science Program for 2006
summerscience.org
and i have a 3 AIME <em>embarrased</em> :)
ow, also i did a <em>small</em> research in nanotechnology and its medical applications over the last summer. It was cool, but that's when i finally decided what i wanted to do with my future
this is what i have so far.
I dont want to know my chances, because no one will be able to give a definite answer :), and eeeerm.... it wasn't actually what i was wondering about :)</p>
<p>your scores are decent. you didn't tell me your grades (i.e. letter grades in school) in the sciences. if they are all A's, then your AP scores don't hurt you much. If they are below A, you should worry.</p>
<p>i dont really know how to convert numerical grades to letter ones, but</p>
<p>with the exception of 75 in my freshman math class (i attended US HS for only a month in 9th grade), i dont have anything below 95 UW in any of the sci/math classes (so far)....
yeah....
but thanks for the response, Ben :)</p>
<p>Never use the word "passion" again. It's a fictitious concept as discussed on CC and very, very few people are truly passionate about anything. You may have strong interests, but it is unlikely that you have a true passion.</p>
<p>cavalier302, people with true passion may not be common in your life. But Caltech is filled with people with passion for math and science and many other things. It is a different world than the one you or I live in but it truly does exist. Often, what we don't know ourselves, we don't believe in. Maybe you could ask instead "how do you find a passion?" For some reason I think of a Collin Turnbull book "The Forest People" and he talks about people who live in the forest and have never seen an elephant. Living in the forest they have never seen things in the distance. When they fnally go out of the forest and see an elephant in the distance , they believe it is so small it would fit in the palm of their hand. What we believe is really just our perspective.</p>
<p>Very well said, oaklandmom. cavalier302, if spending 12 hours a day, every day, working to understand something deeply (when you could have gone to equally prestigious schools and worked 10% as hard) isn't passion, then I think your ideas about meanings of words are confused. if you are in high school, then i think it's perfectly natural that you don't think most people have a real passion. but before trying to apply your observations to environments you haven't observed, come visit Caltech for a little while and then see if you can say the same thing.</p>
<p>Cavalier isn't totally wrong. The p-word is overused on the CC boards. Most teens don't yet know what truly excites their passion, just as they haven't yet met their true love. Some teens do marry their high school sweethearts and stay married for their entire lives, but most do not. Likewise, over time most will find new interests which excite them much more than their current interests. They will learn what true passion is.</p>
<p>I can't answer whether each teen's passion is a true one. Each person will have to answer it for himself. However, experience tells me that, no matter what their current answer is, when current teens reach middle age most will agree that their high school interests were not true passions. </p>
<p>Having said that, I'm glad to concede Ben and Oaklandmom's statements that most Caltech students are passionate about math and science. However, I'm guessing they'd both agree that Caltech students aren't average teens. (or early 20-somethings)</p>
<p>Oh, yes, surely. It would be a scary world otherwise.</p>
<p>And I agree that the p-word is overused. On the other hand, I think at Caltech it is, nonetheless, often appropriate, especially since no grand law requires that genuine passions be immutable and permanent.</p>
<p>Many years ago, Caltech was a very tough school to get into. Not any more. I dont think you have to worry too much about it. Just bring your GPA up and you will be in a fine shape ~~~ :)</p>