<p>Correction of previous post: my GPA is 4.4 WEIGHTED. That would make more sense. Sorry.</p>
<p>Decision: Accepted</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT: 800 M, 770 V
[</em>] SAT IIs: 800 IIC, 800 Writing, 790 Chem
[<em>] GPA: 4 Unweighted
[</em>] Rank: 1/235
[<em>] Other stats: 3 5s on APs
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Essays: I wrote the intro and concluding paragraphs on deadline day, and cannabalized the rest from other essays... no better than decent, I was thinking.
[<em>] Teacher Recs: Very very good.
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Bland but quite good.
[<em>] Hook (if any): Alabama ;)
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country: Alabama
[<em>] School Type: Public
[</em>] Ethnicity: White
[li] Gender: Male[/li][/ul]Other Factors:
I have no idea. I basically won't be able to afford Caltech and I'm terribly sorry for those that didn't get in that are dying for my spot right now.</p>
<p>Got waitlisted at MIT, too.</p>
<p>ThinkDifferent: I used to have a Mac; still do (Sawtooth G4), because I never throw anything out, so it's my DVD player/stereo system/general "when everything else breaks" box. What have you written? Got a web site?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Other stats: Full IB candidate, including Further Math
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What topics does Further Math cover? And is it as comprehensive as a course in say, multivariable calculus? Do colleges even accept it for credit? (and it's sadly, SL)</p>
<p>I'm taking HL Math next year but it seems just to be an introduction to higher mathematics. I've heard it's difficult but it doesn't really seem to use any in-depth study and doesn't confer for any more credit than BC Calc. Does it simply have a few topics in linear algebra and multivariable? Of course I'm talking about non-Caltech schools.</p>
<p>Decision: WAITLISTED</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT:1600
[</em>] SAT IIs:Math II C-760, Physics- 800, Writing-800
[<em>] GPA: N/A
[</em>] Rank: school doesnt rank
[<em>] Other stats: Couple of creative writing awards at a national level, 6-7 years of Indian Classical dancing, guitar, some leadership positions but nothing of great consequence.
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Essays: I didnt like the Why Caltech essay but the other one was fine
[<em>] Teacher Recs: Appallingly brief- my teachers love me but don't really know how to write good recs.
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Uninspired and peppered with generic terms like 'sincere' and 'focused'
[<em>] Hook (if any): None
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country: India
[<em>] School Type:Private
[</em>] Ethnicity:Indian
[li] Gender:Female[/li][/ul] Other Factors: Internationa student and I applied for aid. A lot of it. So frankly I am thrilled to be waitlisted. :) It's a huge compliment coming from a place like Caltech :)</p>
<p>Decision: Waitlisted</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT: 770 M 630 V
[</em>] SAT IIs:750 Math I, 790 Math II, 780 Physics, 720 Chemistry, 720 Writing, 740 US History
[<em>] GPA: 3.96 UW, 5.17 W
[</em>] Rank: 2 or 3 of 667
[<em>] Other stats:
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Essays: The first one was REALLY good, the second one was a little less than the first, and my rectangle was ... interesting :)
[<em>] Teacher Recs: Calculus teacher says that I should be able to get into any college with his rec; assistant principal (former French teacher) detailed personal characteristics on a realistic scale (which is a good thing :))
[</em>] Counselor Rec: No clue, but she likes me
[<em>] Hook (if any): Didn't think I had one
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country: New York
[<em>] School Type: Public
[</em>] Ethnicity: Caucasian
[li] Gender: Male[/li][/ul]Other Factors: An Intel Finalist from my school who got into Harvard EA and KNEW he was going there wanted to apply to Caltech (and about 10 other top schools) to try and prevent me (and everyone else in my graduating class) from getting in. He pretty much wants the glory of graduating and being the only one going to a really good college so that all of us "lower people" look unaccomplished.</p>
<p>Decision: Accepted</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT: 1580
[</em>] SAT IIs: Chemistry 750, Math IIC 800, Literature 790, Physics 790, Writing 800
[<em>] GPA: 3.9 (on a 4 pt. scale)
[</em>] Rank: N/A
[<em>] Other stats: AP Biology 5, AP Calculus BC 5, AP Chemistry 4, AP Computer Science AB 3, AP English Language and Composition 5, AP English Literature and Composition 4, AP European History 5, AP Macroeconomics 5, AP Microeconomics 5, AP Physics B 5, AP Physics C-Electricity and Magnetism 4, AP Physics C-Mechanics 5
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Essays: one good, one fair
[<em>] Teacher Recs: one excellent, one fair
[</em>] Counselor Rec: good
[<em>] Hook (if any): Electromagnetically Propelled Boat Project
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country: Republic of Korea
[<em>] School Type: Private
[</em>] Ethnicity: Korean
[li] Gender: Male[/li][/ul]Other Factors:
Head of school debate club</p>
<p>Congratz to all the accepties, condolances to the rejectees, and don't lose hope to the waitlistees. </p>
<p>Galen</p>
<p>Decision: Accepted
Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT: 780M 700V
[</em>] SAT IIs: 800 IIC, 750 Chem, 700 Writing
[<em>] GPA: 5.08 w, 3.96 uw
[</em>] Rank: 1 in 450 at a decent school
[<em>] Other stats: Was 3rd at my old school, which was a competitive private jewish school, in 9-10 grade
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Essays: Pretty solid, my dad helped and he has a journalism degree =)
[<em>] Teacher Recs: Good, english teacher that loved me (even though she was a total idiot lol) and my calc teacher who was MIT alumnus
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Ok
[<em>] Hook (if any): Im French and Jewish..go figure..
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country: Florida
[<em>] School Type: Public
[</em>] Ethnicity: White
[li] Gender: Male[/li][/ul]Other Factors:
Took 13 AP's total (and not just math/science, pretty good spread of stuff) so far: 6 5's and 1 4 (Currently taking 6)
Captain of school's NHS Brain Brawl Team, which won states this March
President of Math Team and Chess Team (Im king of the nerds lol)
On swim and water polo team
Was active in amazing theatre program at my old school (both tech and acting, easily 10 hours a week)
Got alot of good stuff in about being bilingual, traveling, dual nationality stuff
Went to University of Florida 2 month Student Science Training Program (Good lab intro, research experience etc., submitted a paper)</p>
<p>Decision: Accepted
Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT: 780M 700V
[</em>] SAT IIs: 800 IIC, 750 Chem, 700 Writing
[<em>] GPA: 5.08 w, 3.96 uw
[</em>] Rank: 1 in 450 at a decent school
[<em>] Other stats: Was 3rd at my old school, which was a competitive private jewish school, in 9-10 grade
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Essays: Pretty solid, my dad helped and he has a journalism degree =)
[<em>] Teacher Recs: Good, english teacher that loved me (even though she was a total idiot lol) and my calc teacher who was MIT alumnus
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Ok
[<em>] Hook (if any): Im French and Jewish..go figure..
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country: Florida
[<em>] School Type: Public
[</em>] Ethnicity: White
[li] Gender: Male[/li][/ul]Other Factors:
Took 13 AP's total (and not just math/science, pretty good spread of stuff) so far: 6 5's and 1 4 (Currently taking 6)
Captain of school's NHS Brain Brawl Team, which won states this March
President of Math Team and Chess Team (Im king of the nerds lol)
On swim and water polo team
Was active in amazing theatre program at my old school (both tech and acting, easily 10 hours a week)
Got alot of good stuff in about being bilingual, traveling, dual nationality stuff
Went to University of Florida 2 month Student Science Training Program (Good lab intro, research experience etc., submitted a paper)</p>
<p>Your class ranks are scaring me - I might have one of 10 out of like...650. Because my English and French classes are killing me (that and super-advanced math courses don't raise GPA like APs do).</p>
<p>simfish: in HL math, your teacher will choose one of five options to study:
[ul]
[<em>] Statistics (going beyond what's in the HL core)
[</em>] Euclidean Geometry and Conic Sections (<em>vomit</em>)
[<em>] Discrete Mathematics (recurrence relations, modular congruences and graph theory)
[</em>] Sets, Relations and Groups (basic abstract algebra)
[li] Analysis and Approximation (infinite series, numerical integration, root-finding, Taylor series)[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>In Further, you'll study the other four. One good thing about this is that on the HL math exam, you'll be able to choose whatever option you want to answer (you don't necessarily have to answer the question about the option covered in class).</p>
<p>There's no multivar calculus in the IB, at all. HL math covers single-var calculus, probability, some basic stats, 3D vectors, matrices (nothing too in-depth), very basic first-order diff equations, sums and sequences (finite), functions and trig. Probably some other stuff I forgot to mention.</p>
<p>What kind of credit you get depends on the college. Some, like Caltech, will want you to take an exam to determine placement, in which case your IB exam grade doesn't matter directly, but instead what you learned. Some colleges offer course credit for getting a 6 or 7 on the exam (MIT does that, I think). Also, taking Further Math shows that you're really serious about math, and that you're taking the most rigorous courses available (I think IB HL math is the toughest math course available in high schools).</p>
<p>[ size=+1][ color=CD6600][ b]Decision: ACCEPTED [ /b][ /color][ /size]</p>
<p>[ b]Stats:[ /b][ list]
[ *] SAT:1600 (800 m, 800 v, two sittings)
[ *] SAT IIs:800, 800 (math writing) 780 (bioM)
[ *] GPA:3.9 uw, 4.55 w
[ *] Rank: 1%(?)/500
[ *] Other stats:
[ /list][ b]Subjective:[ /b][ list]
[ *] Essays: who knows?
[ *] Teacher Recs: my calc teacher, graduated from CalTech
[ *] Counselor Rec: ?
[ *] Hook (if any): not your typical math/sci person
[ /list][ b]Location/Person:[ /b][ list]
[ *] State or Country: CA
[ *] School Type: public, large
[ *] Ethnicity: Asian
[ *] Gender: male
[ /list][ b]Other Factors:[ /b]</p>
<p>Thanks, ThinkDifferent. :) So taking both multivar and HL Math would ensure different topics, although it would require a lot of work. And my school isn't considering offering Further math SL. :(</p>
<p>When can you take the Math HL exam? THose who take it as juniors can't take it so my school is suggesting students like me to repeat the HL class in senior year again.</p>
<p>Decision: Accepted</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT: 1570 (800M, 770V)
[</em>] SAT IIs: 800 Math2c, 800 Phys, 770 Lit, 750 Writ
[<em>] GPA: N/A
[</em>] Rank: 1/43
[<em>] Other stats: IB, projected 42 points
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Essays: Well written but uncreative, somewhat last minute
[<em>] Teacher Recs: Glowing
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Glowing
[<em>] Hook (if any):
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country: Tanzania
[<em>] School Type: Private
[</em>] Ethnicity: White
[li] Gender: Male[/li][/ul]Other Factors:</p>
<p>*Decision: ACCEPTED *</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT:1500 (800 m, 700 v)
[</em>] SAT IIs:690(Writing), 790(Chemistry), 800 (Maths IIC, Biology, Physics)
[<em>] GPA: NA
[</em>] Rank: 1/83
[<em>] Other stats:
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Essays: others were mediocre ... but i liked my fill-the-rectangle
[<em>] Teacher Recs: havent seen ... but I guess ... 1 gr8 ... 1 not so good
[</em>] Counselor Rec: no idea
[<em>] Hook (if any):
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country: Nepal
[<em>] School Type: Public
[</em>] Ethnicity: South Asian
[li] Gender: Male[/li][/ul]Other Factors:</p>
<p>Greetings from the MIT board :D CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL CALTECH ACCEPTEES :)</p>
<p>"Girls tend to do better with MIT than Caltech; boys tend to do better with Caltech than MIT. Go figure ;-)"</p>
<p>Look over this thread and say that again :P</p>
<p>Well, the proportion of girls here wasn't exactly significant... I /do/ however have some slight idea about how the numbers stack up since I call ~100 kids on behalf of admissions to discuss their plans and choices.</p>
<p>The evidence is still anecdotal, but I have a pretty strong hunch that the actual stats would bear out my suspicion.</p>
<p>Do you call the MIT admits as well?</p>
<p>Perhaps we'd offer a different view point. </p>
<p>(pr stats .com - you can even look it up yourself... cross-applicants... go.)</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong. I have the utmost respect for Caltech (hence I've been reading these boards on occasion) but you seem to feel the need to rag on MIT and its women/minority-admits (yes, I used "rag" in a sentence, so shoot me), using your position as a student working in admission to offer a pretty one-sided "comparison" of the two schools.</p>
<p>Again - not looking for an argument. It's merely a trend I noticed in your posts. Please, just in your (hopefully) atruistic efforts to offer Caltech admits the credit they (very rightfully) deserve - don't make any blanket "observations" about another, quite different, school that you may not know as much about... You can very well enjoy your acceptances without any mention of that little tech school in Massachusetts :P</p>
<p>Thanks. That will be all. Continue with your happiness, everyone :D</p>
<p>No, no, pebbles, don't get me wrong. I have the utmost respect for MIT, and as you might have noticed in some of my other posts my girlfriend who is very wonderful goes there and I'd get beat up if I said things that were mean or untrue.</p>
<p>There is one simple fact that it would be unfair to sweep under the rug: the fact that girls have nearly three times as high a chance of getting into MIT as boys have suggests the school gives girls a tacit preference in admissions. This observation, as far as I can see, is not "blanket" or "unfair." (<a href="http://web.mit.edu/ir/cds/2004/cds2004.html%5B/url%5D">http://web.mit.edu/ir/cds/2004/cds2004.html</a>)</p>
<p>I don't have a beef with MIT for doing this, but I do think it's fair to point it out, especially in comparison with our more self-consciously meritocratic process.</p>
<p>I do apologize if my job lends any unearned perceived authority to my statements. I would think that, in contrast, since I am obviously enthusiastic about Caltech (and MIT is our main competition for admits) one would take my remarks just as one would take Super Bowl predictions from a devout fan of one of the teams.</p>
<p>Anyway, I do apologize if anything I said bothered you. My general advice to people who are making these choices is, if you are deciding between Top 10 schools, you win no matter what happens. So let the celebration continue.</p>