Your thoughtful insight appreciated- pardon the superlong post

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
1

<p>Hope you all had a great year! :) Even if you did not it could not
have been much worse than mine..... which brings me to the point of
this post....</p>

<p>I am beginning to chicken out of applying EA to CALTECH.</p>

<p>Indecision tearing at my gut :eek: as my Junior year in High school
winds to a slow closure......</p>

<p>Can you please tell me why I will not make it if I apply EA to
CALTECH (my #1 choice) next year...... guess the risk taker
in me got the living daylights beaten out this year.....</p>

<p>SATII's
BIO/M (taken immediately after Freshman year): 760
MATH IIC: 800
USH: 790 (hope to never study it ever ever again)
(CHEM score not in yet)</p>

<p>SATI
1510 (V+M)</p>

<p>AP's Junior year: (Probably 5's)
Calc BC, CHEM, PHY C MECH (Self studied), ENGLISH , USH
+ Independent Study: Bioinformatics</p>

<p>AP's next year:
BIO, STATISTICS, PHY C E&M (Self studied), FRENCH, ENGLISH, GOV&POL
+ Independent Study: Multivariable Calc</p>

<p>A Grade throughout HS except for USH (A- ?) this year;</p>

<p>Stanford EPGY coursework
A+ Grade: Trig & Precalc, Comp Sci Basis, Intermediate
A Grade: Physics Mechanics, Calc B
A- Grade: Calc A</p>

<p>Intel ISEF Finalist and state rep, Numerous Science Fair awards
Sophomore and Junior year; National Chess Championship- 2nd
Freshman year, Captain School Chess team, math team; Editor
Science weekly and layout editor poetry magazine. French state
and national level awards. Top Science award and nomination from
my school.</p>

<p>Suck as an athlete but do play Ultimate Frisbee (whenever) and
participate in 5Ks/10Ks and 7.5 Mile runs (~6:30/mile best time,
got it down from 9:57 yay)</p>

<p>Despite my really low AMC 12 scores for two years (105.5) I am
unbelievably the school topper but CALTECH will probably look at
the score and go huh is that a human score even the gerbils
around here can get that :( </p>

<p>Self taught Perl, BioPerl, Linux, Apache, MySQL and work as a
webmaster (Given my gender it should be webmistress but that would
be kinky)</p>

<p>Hopefully I can get my paper looked at and put up in arXiv or something
similar before Fall.</p>

<p>I am passionate about dance and had a TV show on local Cable TV
featuring dance.</p>

<p>Oh and this summer since I got rejected (long story) from the one
program I wanted to attend I decided to create a comic book on Bionformatics with my favorite cartoon creatures in English and French</p>

<p>SO.... PLEASE.... CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT AM I LOOKING AT HERE
IN TERMS OF SPENDING MY UG YEARS AT CALTECH IF I APPLY
EA</p>

2

<p>omg... im only a new admit, but you got some pretty good stats. its nothing to be ashamed of as far as i know. although i dunno to what extent my experience will be true for anyone else, i didnt think that caltech would take me since my 2nd semester junior grades were significantly lower (as in 4 Bs) and not exactly something i was proud of (admittedly i was doin alot of stuff then, and trying to overachieve). I figure some of my other characteristics helped my case. you seem to spend your time to the fullest. although you seem to have done well at most things you've done, i dont think you should expect to excel at ALL of them.
wtv, i m sure you'll do fine in the admissions system...although i wouldnt expect to be admitted to all schools.</p>

3

<p>What 'risk' are you taking by applying?</p>

4

<p>Darn, only national chess championship and isef finalist?? for shame!! :-P</p>

<p>the risk you'd be taking is if caltech is the first application you write, it might not be your best.</p>

5

<p>Can you please tell me:</p>

<p>on [0.0, 1.0] scale
{1.0= applies EA AND gets in}
{0.5 = applies EA gets deffered gets in }
{0.25 =applies EA AND gets waitlisted eventually}
{0.0=gets rejected}
...where would I be in your estimation..(assume a smooth range in between)
....if I did apply EA for 2007-2008</p>

<p>I have done my due diligence like my GC wants me to on
other schools (UCB, HYPMS and Olin) ...
but Caltech is my #1 choice</p>

<p><temp_iamawimp_mode>
EA seems realtively risky compared to RD at Caltech. Relatively recent
setbacks noted earlier (GPA dip, not being able to spend summer in
a decent program) have taken a big bite out of my confidence level.
</temp_iamawimp_mode></p>

6

<p>It's almost impossible to say <em>what</em> your chances are, only that you've got a shot and a lot will depend on your application (and luck?) - otherwise, people wouldn't need to write applications :D</p>

<p>if it makes you feel any better, I never did <em>anything</em> seriously noteworthy over my summers. what did you get rejected from, RSI? ;)</p>

7

<p>I don't usually post on chances thread, but I happened to read yours. You have a very good chance of being accepted.</p>

<p>If I had to put a mark on your scale, it'd be around 0.8. Good luck! (and let us know if you have more questions about caltech)</p>

8

<p>Hey! I'm a tech prefrosh, applied and was accepted EA. First thing I want to say is to try to relax a bit. Sort of hypocritical of me, because this time last year I was freaking out in a similar fashion, but I'm trying.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Despite my really low AMC 12 scores for two years (105.5) I am
unbelievably the school topper but CALTECH will probably look at
the score and go huh is that a human score even the gerbils
around here can get that

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Er, I got a 97 on the AMC 12 my junior year, and didn't bother to check this past year, because it wasn't over 100 either. I reported the 97 to Caltech, too, since they had a nice little slot for it on the app and everything. </p>

<p>Seriously, relax. Your stats are better than mine were. You've got as much of a chance as anyone applying to a top-tier school like Caltech does. Just show some passion and personality in your essays.</p>

<p>As for the EA thing, if Caltech is your first choice school, then it's awfully nice to have a decision back before Christmas. I'd say go for it.</p>

9

<p>:) Thank You all very much! :)</p>

<p>Definitely EA'ing!! :D</p>

<p>Good luck with your summer explorations</p>

<p>[ To avoid making it the first one I apply to,
I am planning on applying to the school that some people go to when
they cannot get into Caltech ;) first and get some practice...
and send in my Caltech app EA right after that]</p>