<p>are you just trying to goad ben?</p>
<p>A passion may focus, mutate, or even wane, but most true passions usually don't completely disappear. </p>
<p>Here's an example of interest versus passion: Two people in my household like to solve math problems for fun, but only one spends substantial chunks of time thinking up problems to solve. One has a much greater interest in math than the average person; the other has, minimally, an incipient passion.</p>
<p>Rabban -- getting into Caltech: easy for me; still too hard for you!</p>
<p>Ben-- Thank you for the encouragement. I still think Caltech is a wonderful institution, especially for math/science type students, despite of its hell-bound academic rigor</p>
<p>hmmm..
maybe i did exaggerated a bit when i used the word 'passion'
maybe i am too young to use it...
ah well... in that case i guess i'll have to change it to "very, very, VERY strong desire"
of course i can't predict the future, and thus my future interests, but so far, after 6 years, i still want to become what i wanted to become back then....if it still is of any significance :)</p>
<p>Since we are at this level now, do you guys mind actually talking what your passion is? What is it that attracts you all most in Math/Science?</p>
<p>the money and women. no question.</p>
<p>yes, i would tend to agree with ben. the money and the women. what other passions are there?</p>
<p>Uh... free refreshments at lectures? Free food ftw!</p>
<p>Nahhh. Definitely the money and the women. ;)</p>
<p>You guys... And, wouldn't going to Caltech make this process harder?</p>
<p>We're here for the challenge. It's hard finding women and money at Tech, so it's more rewarding when you do.</p>
<p>OK...I see</p>
<p>Actually, money and guys isn't that bad of an approximation of why I chose Caltech :) Going into math, of course, is a different story.</p>
<p>Do you mind sharing that story with us, flierdeke ?</p>
<p>Haha, I guess the secret's out that all the scores of women who choose Caltech do so for the oh-so-studly engineering boys. ;)</p>
<p>On a more serious note, does Caltech even require you to report AP grades? I personally withheld a score from all my apps, and none of the schools seemed to mind. I thought AP grades were more important than AP *scores<a href="for%20instance,%20the%20score%20I%20withheld%20was%20from%20a%20class%20that%20simply%20covered%20different%20topics%20than%20the%20AP%20test">/i</a>, but I suppose I may have been wrong all along...</p>
<p>No, you can report only the scores you want. At some places (sometimes Caltech) taking an AP class before senior year but reporting no score may raise a few eyebrows, but it's usually not a big deal... you are right that good grades and a consistently good record would reduce the significance of one AP score anyway, so people wouldn't worry too much about it.</p>
<p>exploiting the ratio is a violation of the honor code!</p>
<p>(ok maybe not)</p>
<p>It's not exploiting the ratio, necessarily. There's really no way to avoid lowered standards and the like.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Do you mind sharing that story with us, flierdeke ?
[/quote]
Referring to "math is a different story?" Sure, that's because I'm crazy. It's only the choice of college that legitimately has some rather sketchy factors worked in.</p>
<p>I'm intimidated by flierdeke.</p>