Class of 2022 Caltech Discussion Thread

brazos21
Sun, 11 Mar 2018 00:04:26 +0000

I’m posting this to help future applicants. These are my son’s stats…he was accepted EA at Caltech. Bottomline it is very very difficult to predict based on stats alone. The process is subjective. All you can do is make sure your application tells YOUR story the best it can. Everyone will find a great fit.

Stats:
SAT: 1560/1600 (one time)
SAT II: 800 Math I, 800 Math II, 800 Chemistry, and 800 Physics
ACT: 35 (one time)
GPA: 4.0 (unweighted), 4.4 (weighted)
Rank: N/A
Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 5: AP World History, English, BC Calculus, Chemistry, US History, Statistics

Subjective
Essays: Very good. He spent time on campus while being recruited for soccer and that gave him a great feel for the school and the kids, which found its way into the essays.

Teacher Recs: STEM rec was probably 10/10, as it was written by physics teacher. Humanities rec was Jr english teacher. Also, submitted rec from university professor (now at JPL) who he was a research assistant for during Jr year.

Counselor Rec: I would think very good. He’s known the counselor for many years (goes to a K-12 private school)
Supplementary Material: Co-authored published paper in the field of Astrophysics with university professor
Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): Research Paper, Athlete (soccer)
Personal
Location: Texas
High School Type: Mid-Size Private
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Gender: Male

Other
Extracurriculars: Three Varsity sport athlete, captain on all teams, 1st Chair Cellist and Orchestra officer, various school groups selected by faculty and students.
Awards: Numerous school awards in academic subjects, National Merit Finalist (Semifinalist at time of admission), Cum Laude Society, Nationally ranked in football, no robotics or science fairs of any kind

Other Schools: Admitted MIT (EA), Caltech (EA), Michigan, Univ. of Texas, Columbia (Likely Ltr and Science Research Fellow), Harvard (waiting)

Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: Regarding athletics, I believe that it does give your application an edge if you are recruited by a coach at Caltech. However, at schools such as Caltech or MIT, athletes are by no means “less qualified” than other applicants; the coach’s power only extends so far as they can allow a qualified applicant with special athletic skills be noticed by admissions. I think the research work he did his junior year and the paper was critical as was his visit to the school.