<p>phuriku-- same here. I wish you well at U. Chicago.</p>
<p>"i'm curious about your stats, have you posted them anywhere?"</p>
<p>I briefly posted them somewhere, but they weren't in depth. Here they are:</p>
<p>[ size=+1][ color=Orange][ b]Decision: Denied[ /b][ /color][ /size]</p>
<p>[ b]Stats:[ /b][ list]
[ *] SAT: CR: 560 M: 670 W: 660
[ *] SAT IIs: Math Level II: 770, Physics: 740, Japanese: 740
[ *] ACT: 31 Composite (31 English, 35 Math, 27 Science)
[ *] GPA: 3.96 UW, 4.50 W
[ *] Rank: Unranked
[ *] AP/IB scores: Calc BC: 5, Stats: 5, Phys C Mech: 5, Phys C EM: 4
[ *] AMC12/AIME/USAMO: Didn't take.
[ *] Research: I've done independent research in Number Theory, Abstract Algebra, Probability Theory, and Real Analysis. I simply mentioned this and gave no proof of it besides mentioning some of the theorems I learned from my studies. I probably should've made a journal as was suggested before by someone.
[ *] Courseload:</p>
<p>9th and 10th - Straight As
11th: (All Honors)</p>
<p>Calc BC - A/A
Physics C - A/A
Stats - X/A
Literature: B/A
History: B+/B
Japanese I: A/A
Japanese II: A/A
Japanese III: A/A
AP Comp Sci: A/X
German: A/X
Colloquium: X/B-
There may be more, but I forget.</p>
<p>12th first semester (all honors):</p>
<p>Japanese Directed Study: A
Multivariable Calculus: A
Linear Algebra: A
Discrete Mathematics: A-
Linguistics: A-
Weight Training: A
Chemistry: A-
Civitas: B
Colloquium: B+</p>
<p>12th second semester (all honors):</p>
<p>Japanese Directed Study, Psychology, Differential Equations (Advanced), Chemistry, Art History, Freudian/Jungian Literature</p>
<p>A number of these courses were taken at Ball State University.</p>
<p>[ <em>] Other stats: *shrug</em></p>
<p>[ /list][ b]Subjective:[ /b][ list]
[ *] Essays: Extremely well-written. I wrote about the passion I had for science and my love of Caltech. I explained myself as a scientist and I used 'The Fountainhead' and objectivism many times, and the admissions committee may have been confused by words such as 'selfish', which in objectivism, has a positive connotation. Looking back, I really shouldn't've used such words, as only the people who have read Rand would know what I was referring to. However, I thought it necessary to explain myself as a scientist.</p>
<p>On the 'honor code' question, I explained how all of my family members urged me to apply for an Autism scholarship (since Asperger's is apparently related to Autism), and I refused due to the fact that I didn't feel I should put myself in a position to take money away from someone who truly needed it.</p>
<p>On another essay, I explained how I had tutored about 5 people up to this point, and 3 of them rose from being D students to A students after my tutoring, and one of them was actually in the top of their class by far after I was done with them.</p>
<p>[ *] Recommendations: I definitely thought these would get me in. My Calculus 3, Japanese, and Masterpieces of World Literature teachers wrote me recommendations, and they were extremely well-written and really showed who I am as a person. Like I said earlier, my Calculus 3 teacher has never written a recommendation for someone who got rejected from Caltech (partly because he won't write anyone a recommendation who he doesn't find qualified). When I told him I got rejected, he was pretty shocked.
[ *] Hook (if any): First-generation student? I don't think Caltech cares too much about that, though. They don't really care that I'm in a bad financial state either, apparently -- I don't remember if I mentioned this, though.</p>
<p>[ /list][ b]Location/Person:[ /b][ list]
[ *] State or Country: Indiana
[ *] School Type: Public, but you have to apply to get in, and not that many get admitted
[ *] Ethnicity: White
[ *] Gender: Male
[ *] Major strength/weakness: Contests. My school is extremely liberal-artsy and there are just so many humanities requirements. Thus, concentration in a particular subject is rather difficult, even though I think I was successful in concentrating in math, both in school and outside of school. However, I didn't participate in many contests, as I just didn't have time to prepare. Even now with only 6 classes, I get about 5 hours of homework a night, and in 11th and 12th grade, I was taking 7, 8, and 9 classes, respective to semester. I just couldn't handle it, but it was required for graduation, so I had no choice.</p>
<p>[ /list][ b]Other Factors:[ /b]
[ *] Extracurriculars listed on app:
Japanese Essay Contest top 10 in the nation, top 3 regional after 1 semester of study
Participation in Physics Olympiad and small math competitions (I'd just take the tests without much study and they were all multiple choice, which I can't handle.)
More than 100 hours of tutoring in: Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Physics B, Statistics
About 50 hours of community service
Soccer, Basketball, Track
Some more stuff that I forget about</p>
<p>[ *] Summer Activities: I come from a rather poor family (I live with my mom who makes $17,000/year) and so we really didn't have any money to do anything big, like camps or anything. So I simply stayed home and studied math. We can't afford a car so I couldn't get a job, so there really was nothing more productive I could do. What can I say? I did what I had to and could do.
[ *] Why I think I was denied: Standardized test scores. Period. I've never done well on them. In my Academy entrance exam, in 11th grade, for example, I placed 3rd lowest out of everyone placing into Calculus AB. I talked with the department chair and got up into BC, and was the best student in the class. I honestly think this has more to do with my Asperger's/ADD than anything, but I don't know. I mentioned those as possible reasons for why my test scores were low, but I think they thought I was just trying to make an excuse for myself and that I really just didn't know the material.</p>
<p>I also think it has to do with what I've done the past two years. I became pretty fluent in Japanese in half a year, and I placed in the top 10 in the nation in a Japanese essay contest, which was pretty much only open to fluent speakers of Japanese. I think places like MIT and UChicago respect this, but Caltech really doesn't, most likely preferring its students to concentrate on science only.</p>
<p>I also come off a bit arrogant sometimes in my writing (although not at all in person), so this may have steered them in the direction that I might not be someone they want at Caltech.</p>
<p>[ *] Other thoughts: I suppose I'm kind of glad that I got rejected. Although it was my dream college, it's still just so far away and paying for the transportation alone would be extremely stressful for us. I still really like Caltech, and if I'm unhappy with UChicago, I'll try to transfer, but I really don't see that happening. Although I planned on going to grad school at Cambridge University, I suppose Caltech just opened up as a possible choice as well.</p>
<p>I've also done absolutely nothing the past few weeks, concentrating only on getting into Caltech. Ironically, the first thing I'm going to do tomorrow is go to the university library and pick up the books I stopped studying about two weeks ago -- Feynman's Lectures on Physics and Apostol's books on Number Theory and Real Analysis. I look forward to getting back to my work and stop having to worry about all this.</p>
<p>In any case, I'll occasionally drop by if I have nothing to do and see what's happening around here. Don't worry though -- I'm often very busy when I'm concentrated on my work, so I'll probably be very scarce in my appearances.</p>
<p>I also congratulate everyone who got into Caltech and I wish you all well.</p>
<p>Nothing in the mail, again. Sigh...</p>
<p>no mail for me either.. i'm international.. i'm assuming i got rejected and that's why i haven't recieved it yet..</p>
<p>I'm assuming that^ as well. :)</p>
<p>I'm somewhat close by.. i live in Cairo, Egypt.. i'm assuming our mail should come around the same time.. i'm hoping for the best.. but i'm expecting a rejection.. i guess we'll find out for sure when we get the email on friday..</p>
<p>Has any international received the letter? Anyone?</p>
<p>i've read several posts of internationals recieving letters.. there was "oasis" and there was a person from belgium i think in another thread.. i think i've read others as well... oasis isn't really an international but just lives abroad, but if they recieved the letter than we should've too if we were accepted.. it's not looking good..</p>
<p>no people.. only internationals to report were oasis and people from Australia and canada. These people will know two days quicker compared to India and Central Asia. So it still is acceptable for us to hope for the DHL packages!</p>
<p>phuriku~ I'm sorry that you weren't accepted to Caltech. I am also an Objectivist, though I didn't discuss it much beyond including Atlas Shrugged in my list of influential books. </p>
<p>However, if I remember correctly, U Chicago has a good representation of Objectivists on campus. I think you'll be happy there. Here's a link to the Objectivist club:
<a href="http://objectivist.uchicago.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://objectivist.uchicago.edu/</a></p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>No decision yet. Somebody who lives nearby got his waitlist letter. I hope this doesn't indicate rejection.</p>
<p>One of my best friends Jenny got her acceptance letter from Caltech in the mail yesterday! I am so proud of her. Caltech has been her dream school since forever. She applied early but was deferred, which totally worried her. </p>
<p>It's so unreal. When she showed me the letter, I totally freaked out, and it wasn't even my letter, lol! I couldn't even read the sentence fully. I saw, "It is my honor to..." "offer you..." and I'm thinking, "What does this mean??? <em>pause</em> OMG! You got accepted!"</p>
<p>She's totally the one who got into the "coolest" school so far. :p</p>
<p>Thank you Spacepirate!</p>
<p>For Phrancness:
President Scholar is to promote diversity at Caltech. Since they almost have a 3:1 boy-girl ratio, I count as diversity...</p>
<p>
Quote: Built a working telescope from trash from NYC streets (sewer pipe, broken microscope, part of a camera, etc) Hriundeli, I can't believe you were waitlisted! I guess it goes to show how random admissions is.
Thank you very much, but I am pretty sure they had good reasons to defer and then waitlist me.</p>
<p>
Yeah, my box included the pictures of the thing, and some CCD images of our asteroid and the Ring Nebula, taken while in SSP But thanks to you, as well</p>
<p> [quote=dianal] hriundeli- you can go over the word "limit" but not over the character count. But even then they can cut you off, like for the last line of each essay the bottom half the letters were cut off.</p>
<p>You don't necessary need to write a lot. Write what you feel is necessary. if you can't fit everything you think is necessary....then make it fit. Cutting!!!
</p>
<p>I applied both via the Internet, and via regular mail - just to be sure everything I put there did not get cut. But I really wrote waay too much. I should have cut it.
I think Ben said once that if Caltech is your first choice, and you decide to apply EA, be sure to "practice" writing essays on other colleges. I did the complete opposite. It turned out to be a huge mistake, even though I spent quite some time on them. So, people, listen to what Ben says :)</p>
<p>
Thanks, Ahra, thank you very much (like Mike would say). I really hope your Caltech envelope would be larger than mine. Oh, and I really hope we'd both end up here (in case I'd get into misunderstanding with a girl ;-) )</p>
<p>However, what really shocks me is Phuriku's rejection - I really thought Caltech was the right place for him, and that he would be accepted. My sincerest condolences - and good luck at UChicago! If anything, there is still Grad school and/or Career at Caltech. Cheers!</p>
<p>Good luck at Chicago! One of my best friends at Oxford was an undergrad there and he enjoyed it (he did classics rather than math though).</p>
<p>i live in alberta, canada
i stil haven't received anything yet
do i still have hope :(</p>
<p>keep Your hope alive! ^_^</p>
<p>Accepted with 30,000 a year (international)</p>
<p>Stats:
SAT: 2380 CR:780 M:800 W:800
SAT IIs: 800 Math, 800 Chem, 800 Physics
GPA: 43/45 (International Baccalaureate)
Rank: N/A
AP/IB scores: 5-Chem, 5-BC Calc, 5-Phys:EM, 5-Phys:Mech, 5:AB Comp
AMC12/AIME/USAMO: I hate math...
Research: Organic chemistry research funded by HKUST conerning synthesis of polycyclic heteroaromatic compounds through intramolecular cycloadditions. (I did not submit a paper, because I hadn't written one at the time, and I am lazy)
Courseload: All courses senior year were beyond AP.
Other stats:</p>
<p>Subjective:
Essays: Very risky and opinionated.
Recommendations: Both were good, but my comp teacher doesnt speak english and my english teacher has 3 years of teaching experience, so...
Hook (if any): I built a railgun my Junior year, and used it in conjunction with a self-made electronic pitot tube as well as a high speed camera to examine the laminar flow on various aerofoils.</p>
<p>Location/Person:
State or Country: Hong Kong
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Major strength/weakness: Weak in math (A-). A/A+ in everything else. I hate math.</p>
<p>Other Factors:
Extracurriculars listed on app: I am OK at track.
Summer Activities: None.
Why I think I was accepted/denied: No idea. International with aid is impossible.
What's your favourite flavor of pie? I prefer muffins...and some cookies.
Other thoughts: I really like muffins. I hate math.</p>
<p>Phuriku, you seem to think that you "deserve" to have been accepted to Caltech. This is the wrong attitude, and probably the reason why you didn't get in. Your application was solid, but well below the average Caltech student as far as I am aware.</p>
<p>"I also come off a bit arrogant sometimes in my writing (although not at all in person), so this may have steered them in the direction that I might not be someone they want at Caltech."</p>
<p>You are spot on there. They would have sniffed that out, and it is your arrogance, which has come across in abundance on these boards, that is the reason for your rejection. I, for one, think that Caltech made the correct decision, and I am happy that you were not accepted. Caltech's small undergraduate population of under 1000 should not be contaminated by the pretentiousness that you have exhibited here.</p>
<p>ihatestanford --</p>
<p>On the other hand, most Techers are decent enough not to rub salt in the wound of somebody who just got very disappointing news. That is a really low and unpleasant thing to do, and I'm not sure pretentiousness is worse than that. </p>
<p>In any case, if you hate math, do yourself a favor and don't come here. Caltech's math core is harder than the required math core anywhere else and there's no reason to put yourself through it unless you have no other good options.</p>