<p>Hello, I am a korean high school student. As a high school student, I’ve been thinking about going to Us in U.S. I am really inspired by R.Feynmann and want to be a physicist since I read his books about physics.</p>
<p>I have a gold medal at KPhO, and I will probably be the korean representative for next IPhO. So I want to ask you about applying to Caltech - do olympiad medals work? do they guarantee me that I’m gonna be a student of Caltech? or at least, do they make some advantages for me? Any chances?</p>
<p>If they do, then as a first-grade student of the high school(In korea, it takes three years to graduate a high school), I think I can spare some minutes for SAT, AP, TOEFL.</p>
<p>If they don’t, I will go to Postech, or Kaist(hope you’ve heard about them) by graduating earlier(since I won medals at KPhO). Then I’ll apply for Caltech Graduate school.</p>
<p>As far as i can tell, olympiad medals will help you quite a bit. No one’s ever guaranteed to be admitted, but you probably stand a good chance. You’ll have an even better chance if you do well at the international olympiads. Good luck and do come here if you’re admitted. We’re not running short on smart people yet, but a few extra can’t hurt.</p>
<p>Olympiad medals will help you a lot. International admissions are very tough, and having something that big is pretty much needed. That being said, nothing guarantees that you’ll be a student at caltech, but you probably have a good chance. There are a fair amount of Koreans here- my class (2010) has 10- more than many US states.</p>
<p>hmm… I think I should give it a try. How about extracurriculars? I have a friend in an international school - he always complain about clubs and sports team that he is participating in. He said that I am needed to be a chairman or leader of school clubs when I’m applying for universtities in U.S. Also he said I gotta learn some musical instruments. He called these “leadership” or “qualification for an Ivy League Student”. </p>
<p>well, how about Caltech? I know Einstein was a violinist, but you know, high school students are running out of time. do extracurriculars make a big difference? I’m not underestimating caltech, but I think olympiad medals are enough… isn’t it??</p>
<p>Since Ben hasn’t responded, I’ll take a shot; (I’m a present sophomore at Tech)</p>
<p>I think your chances are very good, should you represent Korea in the IPhO. The average international student is indeed much more qualified and capable than the average domestic student, but participation in the IPhO still places you ahead of many accepted international students, not just applicants. </p>
<p>And I strongly doubt that non-scientific extracurriculars matter at all for internationals applying to Caltech.</p>
<p>Okay. I am an international student too and I think Olympiads would help a lot. Good luck.
I did the2006 US Chemistry Olympiad and I placed first in our region. But they didn’t let me go to the national level(you know how they don;t have state-level competitions, it goes regional-national-camp-international) because I’m not a citizen. The guy who placed first in our region in 2005, whose score was actually a bit lower than mine, got in the camp, placed sixth there, missing the national representative team by 2 spots. So I was really mad…I could have got sth REALLY big. But should I make a big deal out of this in my application to CALTech?</p>
<p>Also do they think that the fact of you being international important? I mean, if an int’l has a 2000 SAT, he’s actually doing better than a domestic…</p>
<p>I would put that you did well at the regional level, but couldn’t go on because of citizenship requirements. However, I would not make a big deal of what could have happened- instead focus on what youv’e actually done.</p>