<p>Does anyone have any stats on tranfer students to Caltech? SATs/ACTs, SAT IIs, etc.?</p>
<p>Just how hard is it to transfer?</p>
<p>There have already been two threads on this. I am considering a Caltech transfer as well, as I am a HS sophomore entering a state university next year.</p>
<p>If you go to Caltech's transfer admissions website, you'll see that it's VERY HIGHLY competitive. Very few are accepted per year so you'll have to be really exemplary.</p>
<p>If I am not mistaken, the Caltech Transfer Admissions Exam is what determines if applicants are academically qualified for Caltech. If an applicant does not do well on it, it's over. If an applicant does well, then the applicant should be academically qualified for Caltech and will then be evaluated on factors such as research and motivation.</p>
<p>Hey, simfish, I have a great idea. How about you stop telling everyone how hard Caltech is and spouting off on things which you have no experience of? Are you trying to scare people off because you think it'll improve your chances, or are you just bored? I think you've invented speculative pessimistic angst: "I've never tried this, but it looks hard, so I'm going to whine about how it hasn't worked out, even though it hasn't not worked out yet." Some German philosopher could have a field day coming up with an eighteen-syllable word for the emotion you're expressing.</p>
<p>If I were you, and don't get me wrong, every day I thank God I'm not, I would take the time I use to whine about not being admitted to a school that I haven't tried to get into and spend it on the more important things in life, like a girlfriend, or computer games, or skeeball. Sweet, sweet skeeball. I can't figure you out. You're not even bitter from rejection like sakky, in fact, you've given up on being admitted before actually applying to Tech, but yet you still hang around like some delusional bird of ill omen, say a buzzard on LSD, or a crazy bum on the steps of a natural history museum telling everyone how the dinosaurs inside look like the Trix rabbit.</p>
<p>Ask yourself: if you've hooked your life thus far on the possibility of getting into Caltech, and through some crazy miracle or perhaps good old-fashioned hard work, you actually get in, what do you do with your life then? Wander around campus exclaiming how "rigorous" everything is? It's not healthy, either way. One way, you're going to be exclaiming about how rigorous the bottom of The Hole* is after someone shoves you in, the other way you're going to angst yourself to death and leave a record of it all over the Caltech board on CC.com. Just let it go, man, let it go.</p>
<p>KupMup: you can safely assume that Caltech wants to see maximum scores in all of those, but what you've done since you've gotten into college is also a factor. (Ben, Galen? Opinions on how things are weighted?) What's your situation now? 4-year, community, still in high school?</p>
<p>*We've been digging this for a while now. It's in the Ricketts courtyard and is closing on fifteen feet deep. Nifty!</p>
<p>Well I only said that it's very highly competitive because transfer acceptance rates are less than 10% which is highly competitive by anyone's standards. Caltech transfer doesn't want standarized tests in hihg school - they only want the Caltech Transfer exam. I don't know about the strength of the applicant pool. One fact is that the acceptance rate is higher for community college than for 4-year institutions.</p>
<p>While I still have some thoughts about transferring to Caltech - which is why I'm posting in these threads in the first place, I still spend most of my time on other things.</p>
<p>SteelPangolin, thanks for your post - are you posting in response to a pattern of other posts by me or just this one? I think my reply in this thread was appropriate although your post may have been suitable for my other posts and yeah - I was pretty too damn focused on getting into Tech rather than enjoying life and applying anyways, rather than not spending too much angst over it.</p>
<p>Even if I'm ultimately not going to apply as an undergrad, I'd consider Ben Golub's advice to me on the thread I posted to be very helpful advice, regardless of whether I'm applying to Caltech or not. :) But since I don't have any experience on this, I should just give out the facts I know (aka the website and the acceptance rates) and leave the rest for more experienced people to give info about.</p>
<p>Simfish, you better apply to Caltech for transfer as a junior. Even if you only have a 10% chance of getting in, just stretch that 10% out with any achievment you can pull off. Not very many people apply either so keep that in mind. Hell, you should apply there as a freshman. If you don't get in it is perfectly okay. You have to try to do the things you really want or you'll end up bitter and full of regret. </p>
<p>And pangolin, why do you have to act like you do in every thread? Everyone is incredibly civil here and all you do is make sarcastic comments. I understand that you think Simfish should stop *****ing but you don't need to insult his person. Since you have the experience other people don't, why dont you go ahead and give some information like Ben does? If you told Simfish information contrary to his view then he might have higher spirits and not be so down on himself.</p>
<p>I'll be going to Berkeley next year, but the more I look into the curriculum, the more disappointed I get. I actually graduated from High School a year early because I totally exhausted my High School curriculum, so do you think I have an advantage transferring after my first year? They may compare me with freshman applicants.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Simfish, you better apply to Caltech for transfer as a junior. Even if you only have a 10% chance of getting in, just stretch that 10% out with any achievment you can pull off. Not very many people apply either so keep that in mind. Hell, you should apply there as a freshman. If you don't get in it is perfectly okay. You have to try to do the things you really want or you'll end up bitter and full of regret.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I'm applying to Caltech next year and the year after as an undergraduate - but I think people can only apply to Caltech when they're freshmen or sophomores according to the transfer admissions website. A lot of people say that the local university's great for research though so I'm not so determined to get in because if some faculty deems me as exceptional, that will mean a lot. It's just known as applying for fun and to see if I understand Caltech-level material as well.</p>
<p>10% is for community college; acceptance rates hover around 5% for 4-year colleges. </p>
<p>
[quote]
n fact, you've given up on being admitted before actually applying to Tech
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Giving up on being admitted (which I've only done for undergrad and thus I've switched my focus to transfer) and deciding to go to college early are two different things. :) I'm going to college early because I deemed that 2 more years of high school probably aren't worth a gamble to Caltech.</p>
<p>KupMup, <a href="http://admissions.caltech.edu/admissions/%5B/url%5D">http://admissions.caltech.edu/admissions/</a> . Unfortunately, I think you'll have to try to apply as a transfer student. It's not particularly fair to HS students if they decided to leave HS early, go to college for 1 year, then apply to Caltech as freshman.</p>
<p>I hope everyone will take anything I say with a grain of salt considering that I have no experience but I don't think it reall hurts that much to give my opinions...</p>
<p>"Wander around campus exclaiming how "rigorous" everything is?"</p>
<p>Isnt that normal</p>
<p>According to your curricula, are you going to have quantum mechanics by the end of your sophy year? I can't as I won't have taken AP Physics C to skip the first year of physics .Oh well, going to college early is good enoguh</p>
<p>2bad4u: Does "OH GOD MY BRAIN HURTS" count, or are you referring to the tour groups who drift aimlessly through the sunny parts like jellyfish, oblivious of the deep dark below?</p>
<p>gryphon: Because I genuinely care about the quality of the admitted students, since I have to work and live with you people for the next few years. If you're easily offended, this is not the school for you, so I feel it is my duty to provide a viewpoint that the admissions people will not provide (although I have a great deal of respect for the Techers who are the running dog lackeys of the administration - I don't have the flexibility to bend my mind, small as it is, that far from true), namely, that most of you are barking up the wrong tree. Tech is more than just research and warm fuzzy feelings about "a community of scholars", because you can get that crap at a number of top schools that are not Tech. Tech is where you go if you know you're good, you want to hang with people with the same passion that drives you, and, most importantly, you want to have fun doing it.</p>
<p>Also because "sometimes I park / in the handicapped spaces / while handicapped people / make handicapped faces". Does that answer your question?</p>
<p>KupMup: I know a Berkeley transfer. Next time I see him, I'll ask what the transfer process was like.</p>
<p>I think what pangolin does here has some value -- there is a very strong spirit of irreverence/quirkiness/{intolerance for triviality} at Caltech, and he exemplifies it. Honestly speaking, there isn't much (at least for me) to be irreverent about-- I've never had any complaint with the administration and at my previous school I was a serious authority-hating thorn in the side of the bigwigs. But the spirit is needed, even when it's directed at the fairly small stuff. So, Pangolin has my endorsement as long as he sticks to abusing those more or less of his own (intellectual and chronological) size -- I'm available, J :-).</p>
<p>All the best,
Ben</p>