<p>I want to apply to Cal Tech, but my mom thinks it isn’t worth the application fee. I want to do electrical/computer engineering. What do you think?</p>
<p>My GPA is 88.663 unweighted (the highest GPA in my class is a 94.2 - school doesn’t rank)</p>
<p>SAT (first try) reading 710 math 680 writing 680
SAT (second try) reading 690 math 730 writing 700
SAT IIs - will be taking Oct 14
AP Computer Science 4
AP Chem 4
AP US History 3
Taking this year AP Calc AB, AP Physics, AP Macro amd Micro Econ, AP Music Theory</p>
<p>White guy from upstate NY</p>
<p>Hey, thanks for using your crystal ball…</p>
<hr>
<p>Oh yeah, and is it dumb to put a photo of my water-cooled computer (that I built myself) in the box???</p>
<p>BUT you have to keep in mind that the 25-75%ile for verbal is 700-770 and for math is 750-800. Alot would depend on your recommendations and what you’ve done with computers. Your water-cooled computer sounds cool to me.</p>
<p>Huge reach, but if you don’t apply you definitely won’t get in.</p>
<p>Yeah, it’s hard to have any more ECs cause I’ve spent 1 1/2 hours/night practicing, 3 hours every Saturday morning at orchestra, and 2 hours Weds night at ensemble for the last 9 years (including summers!!!). Plus my high school doesn’t really do any robotics competitions or anything. I’ve taught myself all my comp hardware skills and most of my programming skills. I wonder if they need musicians at Cal Tech?</p>
<p>Wow. That was an important thing you left out. Teaching yourself is looked upon realllllllly well if you produce something to sum up your skills. Hardware isn’t that exciting from what I hear, but if you program something really amazing, I’d drop you within the realm of possible acceptance.</p>
I hate to be so dismissive, but if he only got a 4 on the AP Comp Sci test, he’s probably not going to be programming something “amazing” anytime soon.</p>
<p>And to elaborate a bit, my sense is that this is a huge reach. Keep in mind that the average math SAT for Caltech admits is in the neighborhood of 780; I imagine that anyone admitted with a significantly lower score must have some extremely compelling achievement or quality. Meanwhile, any AP score lower than 5 is (in the Caltech pool) wayyy below the median. And although Caltech doesn’t completely ignore things like “violinist” and “stage manager,” they’re rather marginal pieces of the application. Devotion and aptitude in math and science are by far the biggest components.</p>
<p>If you want, apply. Just know that from the information you list, it’s extremely unlikely.</p>
<p>(When you get your SAT II results, you can be more certain. Considering your other stats, you’d probably need an 800 on the Math IIC and 750+ on the others to come closer to competitiveness.)</p>
<p>I don’t want to sound rude, but I don’t think you’re in a position to drop anyone into any possible acceptance realm. </p>
<p>While some good points have been made, the only sure thing is that the OP won’t get in if he doesn’t apply, so go for it. Commentary on the likelihood of being accepted only gets you so far.</p>
<p>He asked for our opinions. I gave mine. I’m assuming that if the OP wanted to hear “you can do anything you put your mind to” he would have asked his mommy. That said, I apologize if I offended him. I know when I post I’d rather hear from someone now that something isn’t helpful to my application, than to find out when it was too late to do anything about it.</p>
<p>Absolutely no offense taken. Thanks for the honest predictions. I’ll probably apply for the hell of it. My best friend goes there, that’s why I’m interested, although he just started and he’s already wondering if he’s in the right place. (But I think he is, he’s a genius.)</p>
<p>By the way, kamikazewave, I play viola not violin (although I started on violin).</p>
<p>I guess I should have worked a little harder on school stuff in high school. Or maybe not. I’ll probably be happy almost anyplace. I can crank it up if I want to, I know that! (You should see my audition CD - it’s awesome! And I’m not even applying to any music schools.)</p>
<p>I assume that you want to go to west coast school rather than anything in Eastern Time Zones?</p>
<p>I inadvertantly hit CIT thread rather than the one just below it on “CC Top Universities”</p>
<p>You may want to also try the other “C” university. My son also plays violin with lessons but is in no way-no how close to roommate; Who was an HS allstate violinist, and first chair/concertmaster at this university and his major was in ME. This school also gave my son 3 years as research assistant to robotics prof (not in his goals), 6 months paid internship on a major project. Son was also able to work with master and ph’d candidates in his second undergrad major. He’s now in grad school at another well-known college for MSCS.</p>