<p>Hi guys,
I’m an international student. I’m an incoming 5th year BS Computer Engineering. I will be awarded a bachelor’s degree next year. I’m thinking of having a second course(BS applied and computational mathematics) at Caltech. But it says in the admission guide that applicants with bachelor’s degrees(in any field) are not qualified.
Is this rule final? Are there no exceptions?</p>
<p>Any inputs will be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much and good day to everyone. =)</p>
<p>P.S.
Why did I chose Caltech?
because of the research opportunities it has. The SURF(summer undergrad research fellowship) thing and all that stuff. I want to be involved in research. We have research in my university but I think research at Caltech is a whole lot different(definitely better!)</p>
<p>Any of you guys experienced one of their SURF?was it cool? =)</p>
<p>If you want to come to Caltech and do research, you should apply for a Ph.D. or M.S. program (in fields where Caltech offers to the M.S. degree). The rule about students with previous bachelor’s degrees is final : (</p>
<p>Thanks for the input Ben. That’s one of my plans, doing research as a graduate student. Right now I feel like I need to hone my research skills for graduate school and I think only Caltech can provide me with that. Any chances that the rule will be changed in the near future? =)</p>
<p>No, unfortunately not. You might consider a master’s program at another university, before applying to Caltech for the Ph.D. Then you could get the Caltech experience after honing your research skills for a year or two.</p>
<p>Is it a standard for American Institutions not to accept undergrad applicants who has a bachelor’s degree? If not what is the reason why Caltech is having that rule? Could I still apply as a transferee? I only got one year left before I graduate. Anyway, thanks again.</p>
<p>OT: Are you always online? you seem to be fast on replying posts in this forum. =).</p>
<p>Well, I was online for a continuous span of time this morning :)</p>
<p>It is fairly standard for selective American institutions not to accept people who already have a bachelor’s (MIT, Harvard, and most of the other top schools have this policy also).</p>
<p>If you apply as a transfer before you receive the bachelor’s, you would be eligible for consideration. (You would have to put graduating on hold, i.e. essentially forego the degree from your current institution.)</p>
<p>I am not exactly sure why all the top schools have adopted this policy, but I suspect the main reason is that they don’t want undergraduates who already have a full undergraduate education from another school, because they would require different programs from the other undergrads, and they’d essentially be graduate students under a different name. The idea is that if you want to go to Caltech as (essentially) a graduate student – someone doing training after completing one undergraduate degree – then you should be qualified to enter into the normal graduate programs. It would also be very hard to compare high school students with people who already have one undergraduate degree for admissions purposes.</p>
<p>Most US colleges require that transfer students spend a full two years at that college before obtaining a diploma. If I understood your post correctly, you are beginning your senior year. Even if you put graduation on hold so you could apply as a transfer student, and if you were accepted, you would lose an entire year of credits. Many transfer students don’t fully grasp this. I’ve known several who were shocked to learn that, although they had the number of credits needed to graduated, and sometimes in the areas needed, they had to continue taking classes to meet the full two years requirement.</p>
<p>What if I apply to different major from what I earned Bachelor? (Let’s say I earned Physics Bachelor from other college, but I want to apply to math Bachelor as a freshman at this college)
I think there were an actress who earned Bachelor degrees from Princeton and Yale(I think it was Jodie Foster)</p>
<p>About the actress, I think that is an urban legend, since I am pretty sure both Yale and Princeton have this policy, and have had it for some time.</p>
<p>About your main question: major doesn’t matter. If you have any bachelor’s degree (say B.A. in French Literature) from school A, you cannot apply for the undergraduate program at school B (even for a B.S. in Applied Mathematics), at least at Caltech and the other institutions with this policy.</p>
<p>Jodie Foster did her undergrad at Yale (literature), graduated 1985, and got an honorary doctorate from Princeton in 1997. </p>
<p>Just cause you were all dying to know… :)</p>
<p>Honorary doctorate! Oh my.</p>
<p>That was a mouthful Ben. :). I just wanted to start all over again(my studies) as an undergrad,so sad to know that it wouldn’t be possible. I don’t think that I have that big chance of being accepted if I apply at an MS EE program at Caltech. Do you guys have some knowledge about the acceptance rate of MS EE at Caltech?</p>