Official Caltech Class of 2015 EA/RD Decisions Thread

davidi · December 12, 2010, 3:30pm

Deferred

Stats:[ul]
[]SAT: 2220 (740M 800R 680W)
[]SAT II: 800 Math II, 780 Chem
[]ACT: 35 (34M 34E 36R 36S 10W)
[]GPA: 4.0 UW/4.3 W
[]Rank: 26/466
[]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): Chem, World, AB: 5. This year: Physics C, US, Gov, BC, English Language
[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[]Essays: Great, honest and conveyed passion for science/reason for graduating early (tied the two together)
[]Teacher Recs: Excellent: 1 from AP Chem, 1 from AP Physics, and 1 from AP World.
[]Counselor Rec: Excellent, but generic
[]Supplementary Material: Transcript from CTY (taking 3 AP’s there this year). Letter from head of lab I do research at. (Do not know if they got these???)
[]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): Uhh, research?
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[]Location: Northern VA
[]High School Type: Semi competitive public
[]Ethnicity: White
[]Gender: Male
[/ul]Other[ul]
[]Extracurriculars: Honors Societies, Math club, tutoring, golf (team), tennis, 12 hours a week at a lab at top university, reading
[]Awards: Nothing much, a few debate and a few Spanish. AP Scholar
[]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[/ul] Well, I was expecting rejected or deferred, so I am pretty OK. I think graduating early probably had some effect (less APs, lower class rank), but lack of math and science awards probably hurt the most. I have a few more things to send in by Feb. 1st, so hopefully those will help! Anyway, congrats to accepted, and good luck to my fellow deferrees!

randomparent · December 12, 2010, 3:55pm

Rejected

Stats:
SAT: 2400 (Superscore, 2 sittings)
SAT II: 800’s in Math 2, Biology-Molecular, and US History
ACT: 36 (single sitting)
GPA:4.03 w
Rank: top 10%
Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 5’s Biology, Calcula AB, US History
Subjective
Essays: Thought they were very good
Teacher Recs: Excellent
Counselor Rec: Excellent
Personal
Location: Illinois
High School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White
Gender Male
Other
Extracurriculars: Lots of volunteer including week long work tour every spring break; Teen Leader of Church Youth Group; Boy Scouts, including huge Eagle project; Anti-Drug Youth Group; Engineering club
Awards: NMSF, AP Scholar
Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: Congrats to all who were accepted.

ugaboga232 · December 12, 2010, 4:02pm

Deferred. Not gonna post full stats but i had a 2310 sat, 4 Sat 2’s with 760+ on each one (most closer to 800).

No GPA or Rank at my school. Probably one of the hardest curriculums I could take. National AP Scholar and some other decent school awards. First author on paper that I presented to a conference.

School is mid-atlantic, one of the top schools there are. Sends a relatively high percentage to Ivy’s and the like. No one has gone to caltech in a long time. Somewhat disappointed, but with the caliber of students getting in, they definitely deserve the acceptance.

matlas · December 12, 2010, 4:37pm

Sorry for the vagueness, just trying to preserve my anonymity

Accepted

Stats:[ul]
[]SAT: CR770, M800, W800 (2370)
[]SAT II: 800 Math2, 800 BioM, 790 Chem, 780 USH
[]ACT: 36, 10 essay
[]GPA: 4.0UW, 4.3 W
[]Rank: no rank
[]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 5 APBio, 5 APUSH, 3 French
[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[]Essays: Bad
[]Teacher Recs: Okay
[]Counselor Rec: Don’t know
[]Supplementary Material: Research report
[]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): Siemens Semifinalist, Alumni
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[]Location: CA
[]High School Type: Public
[]Ethnicity: Left blank
[]Gender: Male
[/ul]Other[ul]
[]Extracurriculars: Research (during school year), EMT, Hospital Shadow, President of 1 club, VP of 3 clubs, International volunteer work
[]Awards: Siemens, Summer Research Internship
[]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[/ul] I think sending research helps, hope I get some financial aid

HitMan · December 12, 2010, 4:38pm

Accepted

Stats:[ul]
[]SAT: 2280 800 CR 750 M 730 W
[]SAT II: 800 Math Level 2, 800 Physics, 800 Chemistry, 800 US History, 700 French Reading only
[]ACT: 36 (36 math, 35 English, 36 Reading, 35 Science, 9 Essay)
[]GPA: 3.97 UW, 4.5 W
[]Rank: No official rank but at least top 3/113
[]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 6 5’s
5 AP Physics B
5 AP Calc BC
5 AP Chemistry
5 AP Biology
5 APUSH
5 AP Euro

[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[]Essays: I think pretty good.
[]Teacher Recs: Most likely excellent but did not look at them
[]Counselor Rec: Also amazing.
[]Supplementary Material: Research abstract from the research I did last summer.
[]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): research (abstract accepted for poster session at conference), made a very good impression on Caltech adcom when visited my school,
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[]Location: San Diego, CA
[]High School Type: Competitive private school.
[]Ethnicity: White
[]Gender: Male
[/ul]Other[ul]
[]Extracurriculars:
FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics team (11, 12): Pretty successful team.
College robotics (11, 12): A robotics team that competes at an annual robotics challenge (think DARPA Grad challenge). Really awesome.
Research (12): Did paid (I <3 the stimulus bill!!) research at local university over the summer full time. Pretty successful.
Swimming (9,10,11,12): Pretty much a fail hahaha >.<
Technical Theater (9,10,11,12): Part class part EC. Design the sets for all the school productions.
[] Volunteering: Only mentioned a community service project I run annually and being a part of an official club at my school that runs all community service on campus.
[]Awards:
NMSF (National Merit Semi Finalist for the non-CC’ers)
AP Scholar with Distinction
Cum Laude
Rensselaer Medal
Ranked in the middle at the FIRST Tech challenge nationals last year
Won an Inspire award, innovate award, and part of a winning alliance last year for FTC
Won a discretionary award for community College robotics team.
[li]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[/ul] First I am very excited to be accepted :D. Second, for any juniors or below reading this who want to get into Caltech, get involved in research. Caltech really liked research (and high scores :P). All the best for deferees! I’m sorry for those rejected but looking at your stats, I know you will get accepted somewhere great! Still can’t believe it’s true![/li]
Also 2 things:

<ol>
<li>Make sure you DELETE THE SPACES FROM THE TEMPLATE.</li>
<li>Like in the MIT forums I’ve made a discussion thread to discuss, celebrate, and commiserate decisions. Please don’t use this thread to discuss.</li>
</ol>

WongTongTong · December 12, 2010, 5:04pm

Holy #@%&!

idiosyncracy · December 12, 2010, 5:11pm

Accepted

Stats:[ul]
[]SAT: 2350 (single take) 800R, 770M, 780W
[]SAT II: 800 Chem, 790 Bio, 800 Math IIC
[]ACT:
[]GPA: 3.85UW, 4.81W
[]Rank: school doesn’t rank, probably in top 1%
[]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): AP Bio 5
[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[]Essays: literal subject matter was very unique, but conveyed cliches like believe in yourself! don’t care too much what others think!
[]Teacher Recs: neither of them knew me all that well, but hopefully very positive?
[]Counselor Rec: probably good
[]Supplementary Material: letter of recommendation from research mentor (which was excellent)
[]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): overcoming personal hardship/family problems
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[]Location: Northeast
[]High School Type: Public
[]Ethnicity: Chinese
[]Gender: Female
[/ul]Other[ul]
[]Extracurriculars: Debate, Piano, Newspaper (editor), Research, Tutoring, teacher’s assistant at local Chinese school, Science Team, Art, interned for mayoral campaign
[]Awards: National Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalist, National Spanish Exam Gold, state and national level debate awards, several piano awards, our science team placed first in local circuit and did well at the Olympiad, newspaper placed first in region for some journalism award overall
[]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[/ul] I was honestly surprised and ecstatic, seeing how I don’t have any math awards at all and no math/science leadership positions, but I guess being “well rounded” paid off.

IveJustSeenAFace · December 12, 2010, 5:20pm

Accepted

Stats:[ul]
[]SAT: 800 Math, 800 Critical Reading, 750 Writing: 2350
[]SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 Physics, 800 Chemistry
[]ACT:
[]GPA: 3.9 UW, 4.3 W
[]Rank: 11
[]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB):
AMC 12: 99.5
AIME: 5
Physics B, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, European History, Physics C Mech., Physics C E&M, United States History, English Language, Chemistry: 5
World History: 3
[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[]Essays: Quite good. I talked about my experience with computer programming and Science Bowl.
[]Teacher Recs: Fantastic. My teachers really like me.
[]Counselor Rec: Pretty good. She doesn’t know me that well.
[]Supplementary Material: A website that I created for my Science Bowl team.
[]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): White person speaking Chinese? Probably doesn’t count, though.
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[]Location: Los Angeles, California
[]High School Type: Public
[]Ethnicity: White
[]Gender: Male
[/ul]Other[ul]
[]Extracurriculars: Science Bowl Captain, Science Olympiad, Math Club, Ultimate Frisbee Club, USA Computing Olympiad, FIRST Robotics
[]Awards: SciBowl 3rd place Nationals, National Merit Semifinalist, Physics Olympiad semifinalist
[]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: Good luck to everyone!
[/ul]

aishaf · December 12, 2010, 5:33pm

Rejected

Stats:[ul]
[]SAT: 2210 M 800 W 710 R 700
[]SAT II: MII 760 Bio 750 Chem 730
[]ACT:34 M36 E34 R34 S32
[]GPA:3.98 UW (My school doesn’t weight)
[]Rank:NA
[]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): Calc AB/BC: 5, Bio 4, Chem 4, English Lang 4
[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[]Essays: I was REALLY proud of them… when my dad read them he started crying.
[]Teacher Recs: pretty great I think. my main recommender was my physics teacher who is a caltech alum
[]Counselor Rec: my school is so big she didn’t know us that well
[]Supplementary Material: none
[]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): none
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[]Location: Bay Area, CA
[]High School Type: VERY large
[]Ethnicity: Mixed (Japanese, Filipina, Italian, Iranian)
[]Gender: F
[/ul]Other[ul]
[]Extracurriculars: Violin (2 Orchestras), math team captain, chemistry club, hospital volunteering, key club, senior class treasurer, volleyball
[]Awards: National Merit Commendation
[]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[/ul] Truthfully I didn’t expect to get in so I’m not too heartbroken. Congratulations to everyone who did though! And to those deferred, good luck.

submarine · December 12, 2010, 9:07pm

Accepted

Stats:[ul]
[]SAT: 2400
[]SAT II: 800 Math II, Chem, Physics
[]ACT: n/a
[]GPA: 3.94 UW
[]Rank: n/a
[]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 5: Statistics, Calc BC, Physics B, 4: French Language
[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[]Essays: spent a lot of time on them
[]Teacher Recs: probably good
[]Counselor Rec: generic(large public school)
[]Supplementary Material: recs from research mentor and caltech coach
[]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): recruited athlete (but idk if it really matters at caltech)
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[]Location: CA
[]High School Type: Competitive Public
[]Ethnicity: Asian
[]Gender: Female
[/ul]Other[ul]
[]Extracurriculars: FIRST Robotics(major leadership), Varsity+Club Swimming, Piano, Summer Research 
[]Awards: National Merit, AP Awards, nothing amazing
[]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[/ul] I’m so excited and happy and waiting for the dream to end :] Congratulations to everyone else who was accepted!

dogfalo7 · December 12, 2010, 9:57pm

Deferred

Stats:[ul]
[]SAT: 2200 (740 M, 740 R, 720 W)
[]SAT II: 800 Math II, 760 Biology M, 720 Latin
[]ACT: N/A
[]GPA: UW: 3.92, W:4.54
[]Rank: N/A
[]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 5:Calc AB, US History, Environmental Science; 4: Latin Vergil, Biology
[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[]Essays: Pretty Good, I guess. Its subjective you know?
[]Teacher Recs: Good, I would assume
[]Counselor Rec: Not bad, but I don’t really know
[]Supplementary Material: A good Research Paper
[]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize):
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[]Location: Florida
[]High School Type: Private
[]Ethnicity: Asian, which helped alot
[]Gender: Male
[/ul]Other[ul]
[]Extracurriculars: Science Fair, Latin, Honor Council (Secretary), NHS, Tennis, Weightlifting, Mu Alpha Theta, Community Action Board
[]Awards: 3rd and 4th at Intel ISEF, Siemens Semi-Finalist, Cum Laude, National and State Latin Awards
[]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[/ul]What I’m hoping is the case is that they are deffering me because they want to see how I performed in my senior year course load, which included two University classes.

Because, they say, “Students are usually deferred to see progress in current senior year grades, or additional information is needed on interests in science. Our office generally only defers students who we feel may be competitive in the regular decision process given additional information. In no way does a defer decision equal a ‘softer deny.’”

Also, they did say that “In the past three years, we have admitted 15 to 30 percent of deferred students during our regular decision process.” So that gives me hope.

Congratulations to those good enough to get in! And hope to those who got deferred. And a condolences to those who get rejected.

Just gearing up for MIT on Thursday! I really hope that goes much better for me.

kwaldner · December 12, 2010, 10:06pm

wow intel isef? nice You should be good enough to get into Caltech or MIT or even both :)

davidi · December 12, 2010, 10:33pm

@dogfalo7

Same with me (about MIT), although my stats suck compared to yours :)

NgN33r · December 13, 2010, 2:32am

too tired to put it into the format…

Deferred

2370 SAT (800M, 800CR, 770W)
790 Math II, 760 Bio
35 ACT
3.89 GPA- but my one B was in Cal I (long story…)
School doesnt rank.

1st Place & Best in Category at Intel ISEF
2 time 1st place winner of ISWEEEP (international environmental Olympiad competition)
Volunteer hours
Founder of a Robotics Club…and more leaderships
MAO, HOSA, FBLA, Engineering Club
2 internships with various IT companies
etc, etc…

Male, Indian, attend magnet math and sci school in TX.
(TAMS)- all classes are taken at UNT (host university) so are at college level.

Good Teacher & Counselor Recs
I thought good essays…

I wasn’t expecting to get in early but idk what i did wrong…suggestions?

Also i have since started a web hosting and webdesign company (very small) which is doing fairly well- would this be a large plus for RD admittance?

BastionofTruth · December 13, 2010, 10:03am

Rejected
Stats:[ul]
[]SAT: 2380 (M 800 CR 780 E 800, Essay 12, single sitting)
[]SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 Physics, 800 US History, 770 Bio E
[]ACT: 36 (36 all subscores, 11 Essay)
[]GPA: 3.97 UW
[]Rank: 1/403
[]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): AMC 12: 135 (2010), 144 (2009), AIME: 11 (2010), 10 (2009) (2x USAMO qualifier)

5’s on BC Calc, Stats, Chem, Physics C E+M, Physics C Mech, Bio, Micro, Macro

4’s on Human Geo, English Lit

[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[]Essays: Good but not excellent
[]Teacher Recs: Probably good, both teachers liked me.
[]Counselor Rec: Didn’t really know me that well, big school
[]Supplementary Material: Research Paper (not submitted to Intel, but I was a co-author)
[]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): None
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[]Location: California
[]High School Type: Public
[]Ethnicity: Asian
[]Gender: Male
[/ul]Other[ul]
[]Extracurriculars: Math Team President (4 years), Robotics Club Captain (4 years), Recycling Club Founder (3 years), Track Team + XC (3 years, varsity), Club Rugby (3 years), Chemistry Research at UC Davis (1 paper published, currently working on second)
[]Awards: A few math awards, but nothing major (Cali is really competitive)
[]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: Feeling pretty demoralized right now. I thought I had a decent shot at getting in, but I guess I was wrong. Congratulations to all you guys who got in though! You’re all amazing.

(Oh btw, this isn’t my cc account. I don’t actually have an account so I’m posting off of a friend’s)[/ul]

itsme123 · December 13, 2010, 10:13am

^ are you for real or ■■■■■■■■?

BastionofTruth · December 13, 2010, 10:20am

I wish I was ■■■■■■■■. You have no idea.

firelight · December 13, 2010, 3:40pm

Bastionoftruth - Whoa! How’s it possible to be rejected with a two-time USAMO qualification and solid other stats? Did your school neglect to send a part of your application or something?

XRCatD · December 13, 2010, 4:53pm

Was there anything particularly disqualifying that was on your app? possibly mentioned in essays? Like maybe you used another school’s name in place of “Caltech” in an essay? for example: “And this is why Penn would be a good fit for me.”

lab1969 · December 13, 2010, 5:04pm

Deferred

Stats:
SAT: 2090 (760 M, 670 R, 660 W)
SAT II: 790 Math II, 690 Physics (October test. November retest was a 750)
ACT: N/A
GPA: UW: 4.0
Rank: N/A
Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): N/A

Subjective
Essays: Great!
Teacher Recs: Great - I’m hoping.
Counselor Rec: SUPER!
Supplementary Material: N/A
Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): National Chess Master, Business Owner (4+ years), self-motivated

Personal
Location: Texas
High School Type: Homeschool
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Other
Extracurriculars: CHESS (instructor for groups & individuals (for pay), running local tournaments, certified tournmament director, volunteering in the community (thousands of hours), lots of national tournament play, Nationally ranked); BASKETBALL (varsity athlete - 4 years); LIVE STEAM RAILROADING; other misc. community volunteering, but tried to get everything to fit into just a few categories…

Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:
No AP’s, instead 27 hours of College Coursework (4 semester of Calculus, etc.) - 4.0. Hoping that they’ll see the real me and look past the test scores.

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