Might I have a shot at Caltech?

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
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<p>It's pretty close to course registration time and making decisions for the next year (and deciding in whether I want to stay in HS and gamble for Caltech or go to the local univ. early) so I'd like to have an input on my stats please - thanks! :)</p>

<p>I'm looking like the kid who's all science, all math, and absolutely nothing else. WIll this hurt me? (I don't enjoy sports, gave up music, and do not like most of the clubs at my school. And my parents won't pay for MUN - while my income is high, my parents do not like spending money)</p>

<p>Also - will B's in French and English hurt (currently have 3.98 GPA)? I'm not particularly enthusiastic in these classes and would much prefer studying for AP exams or some other competition ^_^.</p>

<p>Chinese male sophomore attending HS with IB program
3.98 GPA UW and anticipate it will fall with dying on my English and French classes</p>

<p>Applying to 8 summer programs (oh my):
NASA SHARP, SSP, SIMUW, Cornell Nanobiotech, ROckefeller, HSHSP, Caltech YESS, NIH Internship. I am not very optimistic. =/</p>

<p>PSAT: 213 (76 math, 67 reading, 70 writing)
SAT I: 1330 in 9th grade (690 verbal, 640 math)
SAT II's: Chemistry 790, Math IIC 800, Writing 690
ACT: 31 (27 English, 34 Math, 33 Reading, 29 Science)</p>

<p>APs:
Calculus BC (this year, self-study + AB course now)
European History (this year, self-study)
Chemistry (this year, self-study)
Will self-study AP Physics C, AP Computer Science AB, AP Environmental Science, AP Biology, AP Statistics next year (because I want that Siemens award.).</p>

<p>ECs:</p>

<p>AMC 12-A: 104.5 (anticipate 1 on AIME)
Participated in DuPont Science Essay Contest
Participated (and died) on USAMTS. 25 first round though
Participated (and died) on USACO
2004 Washington State Math Championships: 7th Place Team award for 9th/10th graders.
2005 Washington State Math Championships: 4th Place Team award for 9th/10th graders.
WIll take Chemistry Olympiad (anticipate passing local section)
Science Olympiad (10th-12th grades)</p>

<p>Math and science course plans:</p>

<p>WIll take IB Physics HL and IB Biology HLfor the next two years (physics is non-calc based and I will self-study Physics C next year). As for math, I'm taking the BC exam this year and then will probably try for a distance course in multivariable next year, depending on how my summer programs go since if I'm rejected everywhere, I will take multivariable this summer.</p>

<p>Other ECs:</p>

<p>I edit the encyclopedia Wikipedia (should I specify hours pr week or something?)
And frankly, nothing else. =/</p>

<p>Does Math team captain look good or bad? I'm not the most likeable person and my math team elects captains by voting - so then the person who everyone just likes for being himself wins and that person is not me.</p>

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<p>So I'm concerned about having absolutely no other non-math/science ECs. Can self-studying APs count as an EC? If Caltech wants students to be a little well-rounded, can I just self-study AP Humanities courses (I'd prefer to spend time on the AP sciences but if I cannot satisfy EC expectations in any other way, then i'll try for AP Humanities). </p>

<p>Also - what about participating in essay contests en masse next year?</p>

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<p>In a word, no. Caltech doesn't care much about that other stuff though it does make a difference in marginal cases. The general answer to your question is don't fret about well-roundnedness. We (and many other places nowadays) place a low value on it.</p>

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<p>Fix it, a bit. Get the math up to the perfect if you can (yours is close to average for our admits), and the low reading score will bother me --- truly brilliant people don't find silly word games to be difficult. Same with writing. Answering grammar questions correctly and writing a bull**** essay shouldn't be an insurpassable endeavour.</p>

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<p>These are good.</p>

<p>Don't send this:
ACT: 31 (27 English, 34 Math, 33 Reading, 29 Science)</p>

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<p>Math team sociology seems pretty boring to me. Your opinion of us must be pretty low if you think we spend time thinking about the presence/absence of stuff like that ;-)</p>

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<p>Don't be. Putting down AP study would just look desperate. How about you do me a big favor. Read some good fiction and nonfiction books (actually read them!). The Selfish Gene (Dawkins), Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevski), Fountainhead (Ayn Rand), some books by Feynman, etc. Let me know if you want a more complete reading list. Do this for three hours a week, at least, more if you can (reading is good when you're bored). Then put "excitedly reading good nonscience books that fascinate me, such as, _____" as your activity. You might spend a bit of time jogging too or something (good for your health!) and put that down. The point is, lots of good informal things that will be fun anyway will count to fill these activities (which is less true of the science boxes, but you've got that covered). Or maybe <em>gasp</em> in the next year you could actually join one non-science club that interests you at school and just enjoy yourself. Or was that not a possibility you were considering?</p>

<p>One last remark -- even by the standards of supermotivated high school kids eager to get into college, you seem a little... how shall I say... neurotic to me. While you should maintain your nicely planned schedule and work hard, it's important to relax every now and then. If you come off so disturbingly jumpy in your application that will be a strike against. Calm down, enjoy life.</p>

<p>Your application right now is right on the margin (i.e. maybe in maybe out, more out than in). With stronger scores and one or two significant awards it'll be over the hump (though obviously nothing is a sure thing). You obviously have a lot of drive and passion, which I admire. If you take my advice you'll be ideal for Caltech.</p>

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<p>"Does Math team captain look good or bad? I'm not the most likeable person and my math team elects captains by voting - so then the person who everyone just likes for being himself wins and that person is not me."</p>

<p>Just buy a couple pizzas on election day for your math team/club.</p>

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<p>Pizzas convert directly to votes.</p>

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<p>Don't necessarily anticipate this. When I was a freshman i got a 105 on the AMC 12, and a 6 on the AIME. So you might be surprised.</p>

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<p>I appreciate your thoughtful analysis on my statistics, Ben! I think I won't get B's in my English and French classes - there are just so many fill-up assignment that an A- isn't difficult at all. </p>

<p>So literature on the social sciences should be great! Among my favorite books are "The Bell Curve" and "The Nurture Assumption." Only problem is that sometimes my perfectionitism gets into the way in which I am desperate to understand every single comment made by the authors. I'll probably put jump roping on the application because my parents prefer me to do that and I don't give a particular preference to jogging.</p>

<p>I have been a bit too neurotic on the college admissions process it's true - everyone's telling me to relax. ;) Sometimes, it still hurts to be a teenager since i'm influenced by dangerous mood swings though. Hopefully, i'll most of it by next year.</p>

<p>So perhaps if I get into the Chemistry Olympiad study camp (which i'm aiming for) and some research then I should be good for Caltech. </p>

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<p>Ok - I''ll keep the pizzas in mind for the election day next year. </p>

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<p>AIME - Perhaps... Though I should just be content with any score I get for now.</p>

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<p>Right. Three hours is honestly a pretty long time, so it's definitely possible that you might not see answers right away, but you'll be able to force your way through some of them. Geometry is like that for me. I've got very little intuition, but can work my way through a lot of the problems given enough time. Also, if you qualify for the AIME while relatively young, you honestly stand a pretty good chance of doing well. Some of the problems involve intuition more than experience (although it obviously helps), so you've got a good chance. I dunno. You'll do fine, of that I'm sure. </p>

<p>Who all is taking the AIME this year? Anyone have goals for it?</p>

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<p>Me: just a 7/8</p>

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<p>Yeah, I'm shooting for a 10 myself. My goal went up by a couple of points when I saw the stupid mistakes I made on the AMC12. Prolly my top goal this year is to qualify for the USAMO, so yeah. When are you taking the AIME?</p>

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<p>Taking AIME here too, on Tuesday. I'm hoping to convert all the points I can, ie score whatever I would score were I in practice and under no pressure.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Pizzas convert directly to votes.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Sure.... but have you figured out the formula for this phenomenon yet?</p>

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<p>Good luck to everyone taking the AIME.</p>

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<p>Aiming for a 1 or a 2, honestly. Hopefully, I'll prepare substantially over the summer so that I can get a score similar to f9x9's - I've been making rapid progress and didn't even get SAT Math last year!</p>

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<p>The formula for pizza-votes correlation is currently being investigated. Our current model is that the no. of votes is proportional to the (amount of pizza)^(4/5) (a four-fifth's power law).</p>

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<p>I wholeheartedly agree with Ben, although I would go even farther and say that you need both a weekly dose of good reading AND a daily dose of horse tranquilizer. At this rate, even if you do get in, you're a sure candidate for burnout because with an attitude like that, sophomore year will break you like a Faberge egg at the business end of a bowling alley. What you're doing is trying to set out the right combination of offerings to call down the gifts from the gods. There's a word for that: "cargo cultist".</p>

<p>It doesn't work here, because there's no magic formula of "this many math competitions entered, this high a score on the AP Brockian Ultra-Calculus exam" for being admitted to Caltech. As I understand it, the General Theory of Admissions is that we're looking for smart kids who do stuff. If your test scores are earth-shatteringly amazing but you've got no research under your belt, you've probably got less of a chance than the other candidate whose scores are less earth-shatteringly amazing but spends his free time juggling Markov chains at Princeton or hacking electronics in his garage. Being able to spread your own expertise by publishing is definitely something we want (if you didn't publish it and you can't sell it, it never existed), so literacy is also a plus.</p>

<p>In conclusion, you should desist with the shotgun-coverage attempt and use the time you will gain by not worrying about competitions you will lose to find something that you're good at and do lots of that. If it's a science-ish thing, so much the better.</p>

<p>Also, you look like you're under a lot of parental pressure. Tell 'em to go to hell or they'll be working you like a puppet well into grad school.</p>

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<p>WHAT ARE MY CHANCEScat caltech?
My scores:
SAT I :1430(m=760, E=670)
SAT II : mathIIc=800
phy=800
chem=800
WRITING= 610
Essays and other stuff on my app r OK.
I got adm into Ucla, but do i stand a chance at CIT.</p>

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<p>When r the caltech adm list going to be out?
Best of Luck to all of us. At CIT we need all the luck.</p>

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<p>freebird -- dunno, your post is hugely uninformative. you think we judge based on socres alone? There are at least 1000 other kids with similar scores and 200 spots. Hmmm.....</p>

<p>The assertion that "essays and other stuff on my app r okay" is, alas, uninformative. What else you do outside of school (research, competitions, writing, etc.) will make the difference.</p>

<p>Certainly an app with nothing except the info you list (i.e. no notable activities or accomplishments) would be rejected out of hand. I doubt you're that shallow though, you just didn't give me any information by which to judge.</p>

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<p>Jeremy -- nice post. But simfish -- we're not trying to be mean; we just want to convey the message that it's important to be a little laid back so you handle the serious academic boot camp this place will throw at you. (If you're too tense, Tech will break you like a twig. Two weeks, tops.)</p>

<p>I was pretty jumpy and insane too during my junior year of high school, so I sympathize. I don't look down on you. But the kids who didn't mellow out of the superhyper and outwardly overambitious phase are really no fun to be around, which is something admissions officers know.</p>

<p>Anyway, hopefully this thread has contained useful information and advice. Best of luck in reaching your goals in the near term :)</p>