Guaranteed Admission In Caltech?

mathboy98
Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:51:03 +0000

A near top student ( few Bs and SAT around 2300 ) with these additional qualifications that show passion - something relevant to these schools- is more desirable and sought after than a vanilla student with mere stellar scores.

A huge, huge buzz word is ** show**. Caltech does a very good job admitting students who’re committed to math/sci/engineering, but I can definitely think of cases where candidates who may have marketed themselves better were successful in admissions where candidates with more raw interest and astronomically more experience in serious science and engineering (who also had good grades and top notch test scores) weren’t. The key is the latter candidates I’m thinking of probably didn’t produce very many things that go neatly on an application.

Basically, I am making this post because having passion is not the same as showing passion, and while some of those who frequent CC may have heard this time and again, anyone looking for fresh info needs to hear this again and again - it’s probably the most valuable message I can give, aside from obvious things like doing really well in school if possible.