I am unfortunately female. And half white, half Asian. my mom has her EdD, so she is definitely educated (no sob story, whoops). I’m in student council, robotics, leadership, play piano, and do just about any volunteering I can get my hands on. Introvert. Sorry. I am middle class, and I think I would get the less than 200k family income financial aid thing. I am also American, so not going to be an international applicant. I go to a public high school… and I am DEFINITELY #1 in my grade so far (so far means one month of high school, but I think it will be forever). To be honest, my state kind of sucks for education, doesn’t let us take the PSAT 8/9 or the PSAT in sophomore year (though i’ve taken the college board practice tests and practiced with guidebooks)… my school has no stem clubs or electives… uh… I cant find any internships near me that are STEM but not computer science or biomedical related… so am I cooked…? What should I do to make my chances higher? I am thinking of just applying for every internship in the country at this point. And starting a club, maybe getting my school signed up for regional ISEF and NSB qualifications? be brutally honest please.
You’re in 9th grade ?
Stop. Do well in school. If there’s no clubs, see if you can volunteer at a museum or tutoring for boys club or walk dogs at the shelter. Join band or theater etc.
It’s too early for the PSAT.
And it’s too early to have a class rank.
Relax.
Be a kid.
Why would you be cooked ?
Do what is right for you. Participate in the ECs that are right for you. They do not need to be through your high school. They do not need to be technology related.
Whatever you do, do it well.
Try to have some fun. You are a high school student.
Do well in your classes.
Treat people well. Be kind. Be a good person.
Be the best person you can be. Be the best version of you.
Relax. Do not overload yourself. Do not worry about colleges or universities. There are lots and lots of very good colleges and universities in the US, and just as many outside the US. When you are a senior in high school, the vast majority of them and all the good ones will still be there.
And do not jump ahead too far in any classes, and particularly not in math. Be cautious about jumping ahead. Instead do very well in each class in the appropriate order.
And have some fun along the way. And trust that this will work out one way or another.
I’m curious (and tbh, a little sad) that you feel that way. Would you be comfortable sharing why?
It’s still early in your high school journey, as others have pointed out. I’d follow @DadTwoGirls’ excellent advice.
While we don’t know stats, females had a much higher acceptance rate.
204 of 3513 females were admitted (5.8%) vs 2.9% of males (224 of 7772).
Obviously we don’t know anyone’s profile and both genders have a very low acceptance rate but it does seem females have a big advantage.
I’d guess that the OP has somehow gotten the impression that demographic considerations will limit her admission chances. However, while female applicants are admitted at lower rates than male applicants at colleges generally, their odds at Caltech, as has been pointed out, are greater.
@bookgnome: Your chances of getting into a highly selective college will be very good if you continue your current trajectory and if you match yourself to colleges suitable for your profile and interests.
You indicate in your other thread that you are interested in studying chemical engineering. Caltech enrolls around 200-250 students per year with about 10-20 students graduating with a B.S. in chemical engineering per year, so at most 10% of any given class. And you are well aware that the overall admit rate in any given cycle is well under 5%. So, focusing on just one institution or your top choice is not an optimal strategy. Assuming that your intended major doesn’t change between now and senior year, you will need to construct a list of least 10 colleges that offer chemical engineering that interest you and seem to be the best fits. Caltech could very well still be at the top of your list & your #1 choice. But odds are odds & numbers are numbers so you really have no choice but to be open-minded! There is nothing unfortunate about being female or middle class or introverted or any other demographic or personality characteristic. Don’t be overly concerned about things you cannot control, like whether the PSAT or PreACT is offered, & lack of STEM activities at your school.
What does it take to thrive at Caltech?
A Portrait of an Admitted “Throop” Student:
Your goals right now as a ninth grader are:
- Do your personal best in all of your high school courses.
- Find ECs that you enjoy and want to continue doing.
- Right now…I’d suggest putting colleges, and especially reaches like CalTech, on the back burner. This will all shake out better once you have grade 11 grades.
- Certainly, you can start to research colleges. If CalTech is a favorite, make a list of reasons why this is the case. Then start to look for colleges with similar characteristics.
- When you are in grade 11…or really grade 12 early fall…you will need to run the net price calculators at every college of interest.
- At some point, you need to have a conversation regarding how much your parents will contribute to your college costs annually for undergrad school.
- ETA that MOST high school students take the PSAT fall of junior year, and nt before at all. Sure, some take the test in grade 10…but really, that’s not the norm.
Most important
Enjoy your high school years. Have a good social life. Enjoy your friends. Do things you like that are not at all related to college. You will never get these high school years back, so enjoy them while you are there.
Was just going to say the same thing. And reiterate here that if you want stem clubs at your school, start them!
First I don’t understand “unfortunately female.” If it is a general statement, that has to be the saddest comment I’ve seen on CC in years. If you are just talking college admission, I do not think being a female is a disadvantage for engineering programs/technical colleges.
In terms of CalTech, t is way too early to think about specific colleges (especially the hyper-competitive ones). CalTech has under a 5% acceptance rate so the odds are against you. The people I see get hurt by the college admission process are the ones who focus on one dream school rather than all of the wonderful possibilities out there. For example, if you indeed stick to chemical engineering, all ABET accredited programs will serve you very well.
You also need to recognize that HS should be an experience in and of itself – a time of learning and growth and not just a 4 year college application prep experience.
It is good to take school seriously and know that college will be on your horizon, but it is too early to start planning for specific colleges. I would highly recommend that you get off of CC until your junior year.
For now you should focus on:
–Working hard, learning, and doing as well as you can in the most challenging curriculum you can manage.
–When the time comes study for standardized tests.
–Continuing involvement in activities you care about and work towards making meaningful contributions to those activities.
–Enjoying spending time with your family and friends.
When the time comes honestly assess your academic stats (including GPA, standardized tests, course rigor) as well as your financial needs and apply to a wide range of reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (you will have to run a net price calculator for each school you consider) and that you would be happy to attend. You need to expand your horizons and recognize that there are many wonderful schools out there where you can have a great 4 year experience and get where you want to go in life.
The OP likely said this with respect to college admission only. I’ve no concern that she’s inherently dissatisfied with being a girl.
Is there a tech college/university anywhere in the country where being female is a disadvantage?
Didn’t think of that. I added a line to my post. TY
Certainly not at Caltech. People can look up the comparative statistics at others.
Yes, you are cooked for Caltech. Roughly 2.7 million seniors apply to college each year. Roughly 12,000 - 16,000 wildly talented seniors apply to Caltech each year. Out of those thousands, only 315 - 430 applicants are admitted to Caltech each year. So, yes, you are cooked. But not because of your demographics, or whether your school lets you take the PSAT early, or whether your school has vibrant clubs and extracurricular activities, or whether you do research outside of school, or whether you volunteer thousands of hours.
The reason you are cooked is simply because everyone is. It is nearly impossible to gain admission to Caltech, and no-one who currently attends thought Caltech was a safety or even likely for them. Despite their accomplishments, they were all cooked too… until the moment they were chosen.
You can’t try really, really, really hard with the sole intention of getting into Caltech and expect it to work. But what you can do is try really, really, really hard to have an awesome four years of high school and expect to attend a wonderful college afterwards. And that means doing as well as you possibly can in your classes, studying and achieving a very high score on the SAT/ACT, continuing to volunteer, join or start a few clubs that you are genuinely passionate about, fill your summers with activities you are passionate about (whether that is a STEM camp, volunteering, music camp, sports camp, a job, etc.), spend lots of fun time with family and friends (this is actually critical, not just a throw away line - it will make you a well-rounded, socially healthy, grounded person), and get off College Confidential and any other college sites until junior year. If you do all of this, you’ll still be cooked for Caltech, but I can guarantee you you’ll be admitted to a good number of absolutely amazing colleges where you will flourish… and who knows… one of them may indeed be Caltech!
I like being a girl but most STEM things i’ve participated in (electives in middle school, clubs, teams, etc) are mostly boys. It makes it really hard to succeed because a lot of the times they will put us in groups and I get bad teammates or people who don’t really care, because most boys don’t want to be in a team with a girl.
If you are patient, college will open new opportunities for you. Moreover, in selecting a college, you will be able to choose a school that appears to value an egalitarian educational atmosphere for both students and faculty.
You can be the leader of the group and establish yourself as someone trusted, competent and team oriented. You do you - if others want to join the ride, great.
The reality is as an engineer you will often work with the opposite sex so learning to adapt will help you through life.
But you really don’t need to put all this pressure on yourself.
There are several colleges that have programs specifically for women in engineering
My eldest was admitted to the University of Buffalo and received a full ride, but she also got into Yale, John’s Hopkins, USC, the UCs and chose Buffalo to save us money for her younger siblings tuitions. She was pre med but changed her major to electrical engineering after taking a bioengineering course.
She double majored in EE and computer software. There were exactly 4 females taking those courses. There was a female student in each year’s classes. She was a freshman when that happened, so 1 female in sophomore year, 1 female in Junior year and 1 female senior. No one wanted to partner up with her, but she was fine with that because she was very assertive and fortunately, so were the other 3 females in engineering. They studied together and also participated in other activities.
Her professors all knew of her, and after the first tests, the professors were startled by her almost perfect scores. That’s tough to do in engineering. The closest scores were C’s. Every student had a student number to attach to the tests. One professor announced her number and congratulated the student out loud in her class section. She didn’t reveal nor volunteer, at that time, that she was that student. Each professor later found out that the highest test score in the freshman class was our daughter’s. The only female in the freshman class.
One professor, put her test paper on screen and “accidentally” called out her name, at the next class, and said “Ms. ‘Taylor’, since you only missed a perfect score by 2 points, can you tell us how you applied this theorem in the equation?” She responded immediately with the whys and hows. She immediately earned the TOP student reputation and the professors assigned her to groups. If a student didn’t want to work with her, she didn’t care because she was confident enough to work by herself if need be. When no one knew how to respond to a question, they turned to our daughter and asked her, “Ms. Taylor, what’s the solution?”
She was asked to become an engineering tutor. She was asked to attend presentations for recruiting females into the departments of engineering and Computer Engineering. She didn’t attend Caltech, but she attended SUNY Buffalo and continues to rise in management.
No, she didn’t want to apply to Caltech; it wasn’t her style, although we suspect she would have been accepted. The school was not a good fit. She came from a big high school and wanted a big college. Plus she wanted to go out of state to have better chances at getting into med school.
Our youngest attended Caltech but he picked up his strong math skills from his sisters. He had a number of female dorm mates in his hall, and they felt comfortable around him because he lived with sisters and has always respected smart, strong women. Which explains why there were always young women in his room seeking advice or tutoring.
Don’t solely focus on Caltech. There are so many schools out there and if you put all of your hopes on one school, it may not happen. Then what will you do?