<p>So does CalTech admit more hardworkers who studied hard in order to maintain their high school gpa or more people who were naturals in their studies and first found that they had to actually study when they got into college? Is it to my disadvantage that I already have to work hard in order to keep my As?</p>
<p>I would think it would be to your disadvantage in terms of admittance to Cal Tech, yes.</p>
<p>@enfield, respectfully, NO…</p>
<p>Frankly, the Techers that do best are highly motivated, worked hard in high school, and keep that drive going. The Techers that are struggling are the ones that were bright enough in high school that they skated through and never learned how to work. What seems to count most is motivation. Smarts is needed too, but not outtasight genius.</p>
<p>Working hard is rarely a disadvantage for anything…
That said, in my experience, the most successful students are genuinely interested in what they do - they do work hard, but not in the same sense that one might work hard at, say painting one’s house - there’s more reward to the work than just the end goal.</p>
<p>It’s probably hard for a Caltecher to know how well they would have done if they didn’t work hard. Generally, a Caltech admit would have worked hard, but ended up with a 99-100% in their classes. Or maybe they didn’t work hard in their high school classes, but they worked hard in a college class in the same subject or a math competition so their regular classwork was a cakewalk.</p>
<p>It was probably a mixture, OP. They were probably not always coasting (some were, of course), but they were mostly probably very much on top of things. It was probably a question of whether to mostly get everything or really nail everything.</p>
<p>By the way, be warned that you’ll always hear of people saying “No, I struggled in high school but then went on to be a top researcher in X field” - take that with a grain of salt. Sometimes things really click for people, but in my experience, usually they don’t.</p>
<p>That said, if you really want to do well at your studies, and keep trying, I think automatically things will start clicking a lot more than they used to. You should focus on that most.</p>
<p>Caltech’s the kind of place where you’ll meet people smarter than yourself and who work harder. You’ll also meet a 16-yr-old who must’ve been brilliant to get in so young but then ends up smoking pot or drinking all day. I can definitely say that no one coasted before Caltech–ie, they had to spend time building an impressive application to get in. It’s expected that you feel like you are working hard in high school with the caveat that in at least AP Physics and AP Calculus, you should feel that the subjects come faster to you than your classmates.</p>