Chances for Caltech, MIT, and U Chicago?

Hello all,

I will likely be applying to some permutation of those 3 schools in the early action phase of applications this fall.

Demographics: Asian Male

School Profile: I go to a top tier school located in Houston, Texas. It generally ranks in the top 20 when Forbes, Business America, etc. does their articles on the best high schools in the nation. Since our school doesn’t rank, I’m not sure how strong I am relative to my peers, but I think I’m towards the top of the class academically.
Intended major(s): Engineering, Math, Applied Math, Computational Math… not sure at this point

Academics: ACT: 36

SAT: 2340
SAT II: 800 (Bio, Chem, Physics, Math 2, World History)
Class rank: N/A
Weighted GPA: 98.37 / 100 (We do GPA out of 100)

Coursework: 8 AP’s taken.
10th grade: AP Chem, AP BC Calc, AP World History, AP Comp Sci
11th Grade: AP Stat, AP US History, AP Latin, and AP English Language. Not AP’s, but I also took Differential Eq (H) and Multivariable Eq (H).
12th Grade: AP Physics C. Also taking Complex Analysis 1, Linear Algebra, and Complex Analysis II and Partial Differential Equations later in the year.

Various Awards:
Qualified for the AIME 3 times: (5,7,9) for Grades 9,10,11. Almost made the cut in 11th grade :(. Distinguished Honor Roll 3 times and School High Scorer twice.
Siemens Regional Semifinalist in 11th grade.
Qualified for USNCO, finalist on the national test.
Won a scholarship ($2,500) for placing first in UH’s chemistry exam.
PCA Triple Impact Athlete Houston Chapter Semifinalist
x4 National Latin Exam gold award.

Extracurriculars:

Summer Activities:

Tennis Coach at local tennis academy. (40 hr / wk)
Research at Texas Tech University in Computational Chemistry Summer of 2015 as part of the Welch Summer Scholars Probram. Wrote a paper and in the revising stage.
Interned at Chicago Bridge & Iron and worked on their Cameron LNG Project.
Research at Texas State University Summer of 2014. Siemens Semifinalist Award as a result of my work in Computer Science.

Athletics
Texas Superchamp (Highest tier of junior tennis in Texas): Remained a superchamp since Age 11. Top 50 in state for age group for U-13, U-15, and U-17. Peak sustained national rank in the top 300. 2-star national recruit on tennisrecruiting.net
Varsity Swim and Tennis teams (4 years each). Captain of both teams. All-Conference for last 3 years in tennis. MVP of Tennis year as a Junior.

Leadership and Club Participation:
As mentioned above, Captain of both Swimming and Tennis teams.
Co-chair of SJS Ping-Pong Club (for 2 years, we started the club). (Organize tournaments and bracket them, set up tables, paddles, balls, etc, and draw attention to intramural ping-pong at our school)
Vice President of East Asian Affinity Group (member of club for 4 years, Vice President as a Senior)
Member of Math and Problem Solving Club for 4 years. Member of Science and Math Club for 4 years. (Gave a lecture for both clubs in Junior year).

Comm Serve : Participate in school-wide community service projects. Presidential Service Award recipient for the last 4 years. Volunteer at the Houston Museum of Natural Science during the year as a tour guide and teacher’s assistant.

Other: One other thing I should probably note is that I’ve been in communication with the tennis coaches at MIT and Caltech and it looks like the Caltech coach is prepared to give my application “support”. I’ve visited both campuses to talk to their coaches.

I’m OP here, not really sure how to edit on this web-board. I also have two questions for anyone who replies in this thread.

a) Could you try to rank my EC’s? I want to order them based on significance and while I have my own personal ordering I want to see what they look like from a different perspective.

b) I’m planning to submit research supplements for Caltech and MIT, is it possible to submit one without a recommendation from my mentors? I am no longer in contact with one of them and cannot reach him…

To answer (b): Contact the universities to see if they can waive the reccomender requirement.
Based on your achievements and activities, you should not have much of a problem as long as you humanize yourself in the essays. The Ping-Pong Club may be a good thing to write about. I also suggest using your essays to “dial-on” on a few key moments in your life (ideally related in an intriguing way to your activities) or personality traits not only to highlight your major interests but also to give admissions officers something to remember you by other than “another Asain STEM nerd.” Regardless, you should be one of the most competitive applicants at highly selective institutions.

Thanks for the reply @1golfer1. Yes, that has been a major point of interest for me (showing how I’m different from the field).

B U M P

I only can say that you are amazing!
You can definitely get to one of the three, if not to all 3!

…Caltech loves your type!

Thank you! Yeah, I would say that Caltech is a great fit for me. I can only hope that they come to the same conclusion!

Tennis, AMC, USNCO, research (Siemens institution etc) appear to be your top EC. Tennis is a good move away from nerdiness.