No, you are not “cooked”, except perhaps with an urgent case of Prestige Admissions Syndrome. Did you grow up in the Bay Area by any chance?
Jokes aside, you don’t need to take the PSAT at all, though I would recommend taking the NMSQT in 11th for national merit in the likely case you don’t get in to Caltech.
Your school has no STEM clubs? You can start one. (Isn’t robotics a STEM club?)
Can you share which state you’re in? I might be able to make some more recommendations based on that. If you’re rural, look into Rising STARS Program
Chem E is enormously dependent on thermodynamics, possibly even moreso than the type of chemistry you learn in high school. A fun book on this is “Block by Block: The Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Thermodynamics”.
If you want to do the AMC, you should check out the AoPS books, Alcumus, and the math Olympiad discord server (just use their bot, avoid the discussion channels). Don’t be discouraged if you don’t qualify for AIME even by your senior year - there’s been a ton of cheating recently and you aren’t aiming to be a math major anyways.
For chemistry competitions, get the book “Chemical Principles: the quest for insight” by Atkins (not to be confused with his physical chemistry book) and go through that, using resources like YouTube (Jeremy krug for explanations, Michael Farabaugh for problems, or maybe Richard Thornley for IB chem) for support (it’s a challenging book with challenging problems). You can also go through a standard book like Zumdahl or Tro or Brown&Burnsten before Atkins.
Lastly, I recommend you read the book “how to be a high school superstar” by Cal Newport. It’s a great book for kids in your shoes.
Hello bookgnome, I hope you listen to all the good advice on this thread.
My kid’s school district offers the PSAT 8/9 for all 9th grade students. I think that test is just an opportunity for the College Board to collect even more test fees from parents and schools. The PSAT 8/9 doesn’t matter.
I suggest that during the summer before junior year, you study for the PSAT and SAT, and then take the PSAT/NMSQT and SAT during the fall of junior year. My kid took the official College Board released tests that summer. He got a 1590 on his SAT in September of his junior year and is a NMSF (National Merit Semifinalist). No need to prepare for the PSAT before the summer before junior year.
I don’t know what state you are in, but if your state does indeed “suck for education,” then I suspect the qualifying threshold for NMSF is lower in your state, which would be a good thing for you.
In general, don’t worry about things you can’t change. You don’t need a sob story. It’s just fine to be an introvert. Please. Relax.
Okay… my brutally honest reaction is that this is all oddly overwrought. (As are most “am I cooked” posts, but this one especially.) You’re, like, 13. Nobody knows if you’ll get into Caltech in three years. And if you don’t, you’ll go somewhere else. You don’t even know, at this point, whether Caltech would be the best place for you; for many, it’s not. Why Caltech, in the first place? It isn’t the be-all and end-all for ChemE.
How about, start by learning more about some less-reachy options, so that you develop an understanding that not going to Caltech wouldn’t be the end of the world…? If you have match and safety schools that you know you could be happy with, there will be less reason to catastrophize about being “cooked.”
UDelaware is great for ChemE! UMass Lowell is famous for plastics and polymers (their well known plastics engineering degree had a 1500+ sat average a few years back when I last checked)
Here’s an idea for a meaningful, multi-year EC: you could look into making a Corsi Rosenthal box, and reading and understanding the available research that experiments with different designs, and potentially even work with your schools shop teacher to have a class make some enclosures that would then be assembled and placed in classes to improve air quality.
Another idea could be do shadow HVAC techs in your region, with an eye to firms that design layouts - you could learn what software they use and try your hand at it (cool calc, maybe even energy plus eventually)
My son (a top stats student) was interested in attending Cal Tech until we visited. He decided to not even apply. I kindof went “phew” because I knew it was a verrrrry tough admit. Also a friend who went there for undergrad shared his thoughts that he felt it is really better suited to grad students.
I do recall asking an admissions rep at one of the many engineering schools we visited (lol - can’t remember which one) if he should be seeking out robotics club because he mostly had a ton of music ECs. She said, “he should do what he loves”. (FYI - I should say this info is from almost 20 years ago.) Of course they did want to see advanced math/science coursework.
And I would advise kids similar today. You get one chance to be in high school. Why not enjoy it. There’s a good chance a 9th grade prospective engineering prospect won’t even end up in the major. Kids evolve. Experience different things - don’t focus on - I want to get into a chem engineering program. Many kids will have zero robotics. They’ll play sports, be in band, have part time jobs, take care of family at home. And many fine schools don’t look at ECs at all.
Note that Caltech did not renew ABET accreditation in 2018.
They do say that about two thirds of their chemical engineering graduates go to graduate school. What is not mentioned, but probably relevant, is that chemical engineers are not very likely to seek Professional Engineer licensing for which having an ABET accredited degree is a significant step to getting.
Fun tidbit - The musical son mentioned did attend top engineering school. Many of his courses included projects (mechanical and software)… and a lot of his projects had musical themes. One summer he had an internship with Bose. And for his humanities capstone he composed a mini symphony
Rank, etc. They’ve not even gotten a grade yet.