Supplementary Materials

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
1

<p>I have emailed Caltech two of my research papers. One is in biomedicine and one is in Mathematics. I am interested in biomechanical engineering.</p>

<p>The bio one is actually accepted for publishing in an international journal and I worked on it in MD Anderson (#1 Cancer center)</p>

<p>The other one is totally independent research. I found some flaws in the cartesian system and differential equations and devised a whole new chapter for mathematics (theory of vector curvatures). I designed a whole new plane which looks at each curve uniquely by transforming complicated curves into their equivalents.</p>

<p>Along with these, I have done a lot of research in physics and am working on a paper right now.</p>

<p>Do you think these will help my application by showing them how interested I am in math and science? I also have perfect SATII scores in math II and physics and perfect grades in AP Physics, IB higher level Math, AP Calc BC. etc. 4.0 unweighted GPA. I have only been i the US for 2.5 yrs. I came from in India; I did my 9th grade there and won a lot of national awards in 9th for math and science. My class rank was messed up a little because of the discrepancy of grades between here and India, but I still am in the top 5% of my class.
I got a recommendation from my research mentor (the Bio one).</p>

<p>I really really want to get into Caltech. I am an international applicant but I am NOT applying for financial aid. Does Caltech actually evaluate those papers I send in? Because I wish they really read my Math one, since I put a lot of effort into it (and it is something profound, in my opinion at least). Do you think I have a chance?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>someone reply??</p>

3

<p>Caltech wouldn't ask for something if they were not serious about considering it with your application--don't worry, they'll read it. And yeah, I'd say that having strong research would help in admissions. Shows initiative, and with the decent focus on research here, it might help in determining if you'd thrive in the academic conditions here. Of course, I'm not involved in admissions at all, so this is just my guess.</p>

4

<p>Thank you :)</p>

5

<p>Any other opinions?</p>

6

<p>This is freaking insane! These things will of course help your app. I'm no expert on admissions (and from my understanding you can never really be sure), but I think you've got an excellent chance.</p>

7

<p>what journal?</p>

8

<p>Anticancer Research</p>

9

<p>unfortunately, the impact factor for that journal is not too high, so i don't know how much it will help you...however i agree, the math paper looks very impressive and should play a larger role than your bio paper.
I do not know how tough the competition for internationals is, however assuming your TOEFL scores are stellar I think you have a good shot.</p>

10

<p>i took SAT, not TOEFL</p>

<p>2310 (SAT I) (yeah I know not too great) but then again, english isn't my first language (800 on math section btw)</p>

<p>2400 on SAT II's (US History, Math II and Physics)</p>

11

<p>and yes, the impact factor isn't that big, but then again, i'm just 17 lol
also, i got a lot of hands-on lab experience while writing the paper (that's something i think is going to help me a lot since i want to be research oriented all my life)</p>

<p>and i think i will send the math one for the fields medal</p>

12

<p>lol fields medal is a lofty goal my friend...but its always good to have hope i guess
btw i am also 17, i have been published in Organic Letters (impact factor=4.8), submitted two more papers, one to Nature Chemistry and one to Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (impact factor=8 or so) so yes, it can be done..</p>

13

<p>Considering most of the people who are admitted to Caltech have not been published, I think it will help him regardless of the impact factor.</p>

<p>(By the way, for those of you considering attending Caltech: modesty is a trait admired here.)</p>

14

<p>omgitsover9000, thanks for making me feel bad >.<</p>

<p>and yes, i'm not saying i will get the fields medal. i will just send it in. hoping never hurts</p>

15

<p>achhabra, the topic of your paper sounds a lot like differential geometry, although it's hard to tell with only a brief summary. Could you elaborate on it a bit? </p>

<p>Are you sure this topic hasn't already been studied? For example, my roommate wrote a paper during the summer a few years ago on convex polynomials; I don't remember what exactly he was doing with convex polynomials, but it was rather novel. He was planning on publishing it, only to find out Popoviciu beat him to it about 65 years ago, in an obscure book that only exists in French. He's also gone to the IMO, is taking a graduate algebra course as a freshman, etc. (that is, he knows what he's doing)</p>

<p>I don't mean any offense by this, but have you read papers that have received the fields medal before? It's the Nobel Prize equivalent for math, perhaps even better, since they haven't given one to a politician yet. Solving a Millenium Problem or something equally as important would be worthy of this, which requires far more work than it might appear. Sometimes you can think you're doing something extraordinary in math, only to find out it's already been done or it's just a special case of something else, and doesn't carry as much weight as it may seem. (believe me when I say any decent mathematician puts in a ton of work into their research as well, but it doesn't mean that every research project is "groundbreaking")</p>

<p>Again, this wasn't intended to be rude, but it would be to your benefit to ask at least one mathematician what they think before you attempt to publish it. (on another note, I'm pretty sure fields medal recipients are nominated by peers, like the nobel prize, rather than submit a paper for consideration.)</p>

<p>In any case, the fact that you've done two research projects certainly shows a love for math and science, and your extracurriculars back that up. However, the post came off as a bit arrogant, as lizzardfire said. I'm not sure you intended for that, but especially with written words, messages can accidentally convey the wrong meaning. (just something to watch out for in the future, since this can make it VERY hard to get along with people, obtain research funding, etc.)</p>

<p>Best of luck in your college admissions.</p>