I think this is a very nice post. It’s related to someone dreaming of Cal Tech. MIT has tye apply sideways blog. This is similar.
Anyway nothing is being accomplished here. Please come back after you get your decisions and let us know how you did.
Dear @bookgnome:
I’m glad that youre enthusiastic about what you’re learning in high school but you also need to have a good perspective about who you are
The reason @tsbna44 and @DadOfJerseyGirl have tagged me is because my son applied and was admitted to Caltech.
He was admitted to every school he applied to but I don’t remember him ever being in any STEM competitions.
The first thing I want to tell you is that Caltech is a research institution. I don’t know if you understand what that means right now.
Students who go to Caltech tend to have a goal of conducting research in a specific area of expertise.
It is not a regular university setting. Every year Caltech selects and admits about 200+ students and all of those students are unique in every study. area that you can imagine, but they plan on continuing their careers into their PhD’s and RESEARCH.
It is a research institution.
The professors lecture the course material and that’s it. They go back to their offices and labs and conduct research.
Your freshman classes are taught by graduate students. Your grades are scored by graduate students.
Your research is conducted in your room or your space in a library. These are focused students that are doing research nonstop.
Your weekends are spent doing homework for your courses. One math problem can take nine hours.The students order from DoorDash and Uber eats because they don’t have time to go to school eateries. They have to finish their work.
So what did our son do to get into Caltech,
besides the perfect SAT score and the perfect great point average?
He loved being a high school student.
He had fun and enjoyed his time there! He is an avid reader and writer in all genres.
Took courses that he was required to take but also took “fun” classes.
He was respectful and kind to everyone he met (per staff, student and parent feedback).
He participated in multiple sports and was selected as team captain by his teams several years in a row.
He entered Boy Scouts in first grade and became an Eagle Scout while in high school school. (He designed and built a storage shed, with advice from 3 contractor uncles, for the HS Tennis team.)
He followed his elder sisters on Saturdays to their violin lessons, and he picked up a violin, eventually, started attending classes in violin.
He helped his classmates with their “new” clubs when they needed staffing.
Bought lunch for new students, who had transferred into the school, and continued lunches with them because he didn’t want them to “feel differently” and then he introduced them to other trusted friends and students.
(Leads came from the Principal and staff)
He was never president or an officer in a club.
He worked as a busboy at the local zoo during his summers.
He volunteered at the food bank since middle school and learned how to use a pallet jack.
Liked riding a bike.
Mostly, he just followed what his sisters did and enjoyed being a kid.
Majored in CS Engineering. Works for a large corporation and is young but extremely well respected per his work group and bosses I’ve met at social functions.
My advice: please don’t burn out.
You only live once and do HS once.
You need to have non academic activities to help you balance your life when hard times happen.
Caltech is tough. What happens when you don’t get in? It is very expensive to attend.