<p>There was a board about international acceptance rates and Ben indicated for us that it's around 5%. Is this lower than national acceptance rate because of the difference in quality of the applicants or rather, because of quotas that exist for internationals?</p>
<p>The latter.</p>
<p>Ben, does Caltech look at SAT retake (during college) when one applies for transfer into sophomore year?</p>
<p>You are not required to submit SAT or ACT scores, but if you do, we would look at them, and they might help an application that was hurt by bad ones initially.</p>
<p>Ok. Thanks :D</p>
<p>is there any place where we can get a breakdown of the quota for international applicants?</p>
<p>No. It's not a quota per country. It's a maximum number of total internationals to whom Caltech can afford to offer financial aid, and that number varies by year.</p>
<p>what if we apply without financial aid? We will be..."exempt" from the quota?</p>
<p>Your chances of admission will be higher, all else equal, if you do not require financial aid. (This applies to international applicants only.) There is still a maximum total number of internationals (for complicated bureaucratic and legal reasons, among other things) but not applying for financial aid does improve your chances.</p>
<p>Incidentally, the total percentage of internationals is also capped at other top U.S. institutions (MIT, Harvard, &c.). If you want my personal opinion, I don't think this is such a great policy, but the issue is complicated.</p>
<p>since you're online ben, 1 more quick question. :)</p>
<p>Since my school does not allow/offer too any "math" "science" clubs as such, I have taken the effort to study a lot of stuff myself. There are no "gifted" programs nor any college courses that are available. As I live overseas in a less..."acedemically favorable" location, I've taken to learn stuff from text books myself (for example, multivariable calc from Calculus: A new Horizon)</p>
<p>How will I be able to show that in my app?</p>
<p>ben, i just got my 140 approved, the second stage in green card applying process. do i still be considered an international student?</p>
<p>The only thing I know about international students at caltech is that they're reaaaally sexy</p>
<p>silver-rose, yes studying on your own will be looked upon quite favorably, especially if opportunities were limited. try to find some very challenging math problems in books and/or online and write up the best solution you come up with (it should be interesting to, say, a caltech student). that will give concrete evidence of your studies.</p>
<p>youknowme -- unfortunately, this is a legal kind of issue that I have no expertise in. you would be best off calling the admissions office and you'll be transferred to someone who specializes in that kind of thing.</p>
<p>thx ben !!!!</p>
<p>The middle 50% range for Caltech is 700-780, significantly less broad than that 460-800 overall range. That means only 25% of the admits were under 700, and I'd bet that few native English speakers were below 650. If you're international, don't worry too much about the verbal and especially not about the writing, because most colleges don't even care about it for us English speakers!</p>
<p>Ben, can you please tell us exactly how many internationals have applied this year and how many have been admitted?</p>
<p>
Hands off int'l girls!!!!</p>