How important are Science EC's and Awards, ben?

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
1

<p>Hey,</p>

<p>I was sort of wondering about how important science ec's and awards are, because I'm just not sure how strong mine are. I don't have very many academic awards (my school just doesn't participate in a lot of things that other schools do). My SAT scores are mediocre (760M, 620R, 660WR 1st time, not much better 2nd) 32ACT (yeah midwestern...) . strong SAT II's, 3.98 UW GPA. </p>

<p>IN terms of EC's, i've done sports (xc,track) for 5 years now, and am a captain of both teams, so that takes up a huge amount of time. I don't realy have any science awards, and we don't have a science olympiad team at our school.</p>

<p>what i have done is i've had 2 jobs/experiences (some paid work, some non paid work). I have a job administrating a database (had to build it from scratch and learn the programming), and a job at the local state university's nanotech center working for their education section. </p>

<p>I've exhausted all the physics and chem offered at my school and am now doing an indep study with my chem teacher on nanotech in cooperation with the center, and he's written me a good rec. </p>

<p>for the optinal submission, could I submit a copy of a lab I developed for a teacher's workshop the center offers? It doesn't have any references unfortunately because I gathered a lot of information straight from university professors through talkign to them.</p>

<p>I guess what i'm asking is, what are my chances with no science awards.</p>

<p>those two jobs are really all i have other than that. can i list them under both math/science activities and paid work experience?</p>

2

<p>I'm not Ben but you look pretty good to me?</p>

3

<p>Yes, you're fine. We're aware that there are many schools were people can't really participate in science oriented-activities or get awards with the same likelihood that they could at other schools. Your database design and developing a lab will certainly show initiative.</p>

<p>So the short answr is that you have a chance, certainly, and having no science awards won't make your application hopeless.</p>

4

<p>Ben, do you ever recognize some of the CC applicants during admission time?</p>

5

<p>Wouldn't that be biased?</p>

6

<p>I recall Ben answering once before that he has not yet recognized anyone and that if he does, he would set it aside for someone else to review so as not to compromise the process.</p>

7

<p>Yep, that's right : )</p>