<p>Hi, I'm an International student from China and I'm now a junior in a public school in Massachusetts. Here's my stats... I have very sucky SAT.. Can you guys tell me what should I do now to gain a chance for myself to get into Caltech next year?
BTW, I'm a girl...</p>
<p>SAT (practice score) : M 800 R 510 W 630 (this is the superscore)
SAT II: Now have 800 in Math 2.. will take Physics and Chemistry this May</p>
<p>Junior classes: AP CAL BC, AP PHYSICS, AP CHEMISTRY, AP STATISTICS, ENGLISH H2, HISTORY (very low level classes for History and English, but notice I'm International student, and this is my first year in America), Business H2</p>
<p>Extracurricula: Just normal stuff. but i'm really into maths</p>
<p>Math: USAMO qualifier, PROMYS last summer (and will return this summer), then some state and regional awards
Science: State Science 5th place in Chemistry Lab, 9th place in Forensics</p>
<p>I think Math experience is my hook (and I heard that Caltech really likes USAMO qualifiers)... and my weakness is obviously my SAT (and maybe I'm Chinese)....</p>
<p>I know my SAT verbal is way too bad for Caltech.
But I will start working on it after AP test !!</p>
<p>Can you guys tell me that according to my stats. what LEAST SAT score is possible for me to get into Caltech? (or at least give me a chance to get into)</p>
<p>unfortunately no one will be able to answer that. SAT is an important factor but not the only factor or the predominant factor. The Committee looks at the package holistically.</p>
<p>Here is the middle 50% for students admitted in 2010.
</p>
<p>So if you get 700, 770, 710 (respectively) and that is the 25 percentile for each score, your chances will actually be much less than 25%. Similarly just because you get 780,800, 780 does not mean your chance is 75%.</p>
<p>The further you are away from the 25% score, your chances get exponentially lower. With a 510 and 630 you are very far away from the 25%tile score. </p>
<p>In other words, the higher the score the better you chances.</p>
<p>Your SAT scores are definitely comparatively low, so focus on writing good essays and conveying your passion for math. Also, there are enough qualified women to fill the class again and again, so being a girl doesn’t necessarily mean much.</p>
<p>Caltech cares relatively little about reading and writing SAT scores. You still have time to study, and if you can get your reading section score to at least 600+, I wouldn’t stress so much about it, especially since you’re ESL. Clearly you can read enough English to solve difficult math problems, which is much more important than being to do some worthless word associations. Regardless of that, focus on writing good essays.</p>
<p>^I don’t agree that Caltech thinks Reading scores are worthless. I think they might discount it in the OP’s cases since the OP is foreign. However, for domestic applicants verbal scores do say something about the verbal ability of the applicant, something which does impact their ability in highl-level math or science classes. For instance, I would be surprised if a lopsided math/science person who wasn’t strong in the humanities could grasp abstract algebra. </p>
<p>Most schools don’t care about the writing, since they don’t even think it measures writing ability that well.</p>