<p>Relatively speaking, is Caltech rather indifferent to well-roundedness? A friend told me that community service/non-math/science activities are less important for Caltech in the admissions process than for the ivies and MIT, is this true?</p>
<p>I think yes (my opinion).</p>
<p>i heard caltech kind of likes when you don’t do much english/history stuff, or get a B in one! (god forbid!) hahaha because it’ll show your strong dislike of english/history and love for math/science.</p>
<p>The admissions people made it clear they are looking for students that are seriously bent in the science and math direction. In one meeting they said being an athlete would give zero help to your application.</p>
<p>that was hilarious nooob</p>
<p>come on guys, stop the sarcasm, I want an honest answer.</p>
<p>Caltech is focused on math and science. So, yes, relatively speaking, Caltech’s rather indifferent to well-roundedness. Non-science stuff is not going to hurt your application, but it won’t give it a huge boost either.</p>
<p>oh snap, and I tried to go for the well-rounded approach on all my applications :o nooooo, I’m getting rejected in a few min via snail mail then lol</p>
<p>I got in with the well-rounded approach (equally strong math/science and history/english), and it certainly won’t hurt to throw in any community service and volunteer work. On my acceptance letter, Bischoff wrote, “Your volunteer work is impressive!” It’s definitely not something they’ll overlook.</p>
<p>I can’t see that being well rounded will hurt. As many people demonstrate, it’s possible to love english/history, but know that you want your career to be in math/science. I know I sent in a CD (I have no clue if they listened to it); I think all college (MIT and Caltech included) are interested in having interesting prefrosh. Their class would be really similar if they wanted only people that only like math/science. So while they want people who love these subjects (and can therefore complete the core), they also want personalities (hence why the application is soo extensive).</p>
<p>Ability in the humanities is important for scientists, so I think this does help your application significantly. Athletics and/or community service will be pretty irrelevant; if it matters at all, it’s a tiebreaker.</p>
<p>Think about this from Caltech’s perspective: They want bright, motivated people who care a lot about math and science and can handle the peculiar demands of Caltech. So of course, they value roundedness if this balance comes ON TOP of strong ability and interest in math/science. So if student A wrote a prize-winning novel or is a competitive swimmer on top of strong test scores and strong interest in math/science this is a plus. They might rather have a strong science applicant who writes well than someone who is “merely” strong in science. What they’re unlikely to do is say Student X looks <em>much</em> weaker/less dedicated to math/science than some of the other applicants but we’ll pick him or her over the others because of a Pulitzer Prize in journalism or an Olympic Medal in track. [I exaggerate only slightly.] At most of the Ivies, such accomplishments can go far to overcoming modest scores and imperfect grades. At Caltech, the adcoms are likely to think, Will this kid survive Core?</p>
<p>Just to extend my point a bit, at the bottom of my acceptance letter, an adcom wrote “Maybe you can play in our orchestras”. Really, they do care. But they also care that you survive.</p>
<p>This is a tricky question, because what well-roundedness will speak to is “fit,” which is something that is largely subjective and difficult to define. For me, well-roundedness would most likely be a negative. This is not to say that I think that well-rounded students would not be an asset to Caltech, or that they could not do well here, but I think that your average well-rounded student (and I mean well-rounded in the true sense, and not in the “I only did this to get into college but would really rather just do math/science” sense) would not be happy at Caltech. You just won’t get the kind of well-rounded education here that you could get elsewhere, and frankly, it isn’t worth it to come to Caltech if you’re not certain you want such a heavy math/science focus. Five terms of math and physics is a lot.</p>
<p>On the other hand, non-math/science activities could add to an application that already shows a passion for math/science.</p>
<p>Again, it’s a difficult thing, because it’s hard to figure out where to draw the line between someone who has other interests outside of math and science, and someone who is going to be unhappy in such a math/science focused school.</p>