<p>Caltech loves scores for the following reason: if one cannot get a 760+ on tests as easy as the SAT math tests, how on earth are they going to survive Core math? People fail to realize that Caltech is hard. Caltech is incredibly hard. This isn’t Stanford or Harvard where the hardest part is just getting in. If you’re under qualified in math or science, but somehow you’re admitted, this is not some great privilege or miracle. You’re just going to get your @ss kicked all over the place. </p>
<p>This is not saying you’re not smart Bluepurple, because it’s obvious you are, and incredibly hard working on top of it. But I believe what you have shown us shows not only might Caltech be a bad fit for you, but that Caltech would be an awful place for you to attend for undergrad. However, someday when you have completed your undergrad degree in neuroscience (neurophysics is probably a concentration within that degree), and are looking for grad schools, Caltech would then become a great place to attend, since grad school is a whole different world than undergrad.</p>
<p>You have an interesting life story, and certainly one of success and overcoming great challenges. Caltech is not a place to take risks on such people though, because it’s a terrible thing if such a person who has overcome so much, really just isn’t able to keep up the demanding coursework. </p>
<p>Since you want school suggestions, I would suggest looking into Stanford, Northwestern, Cornell, Rice, WashU in St. Louis, UVA, VA Tech, Georgia Tech, other large state schools such as Iowa (a graduating senior going into neuroscience seemed to think highly of their program for neuro stuff). I don’t much about neuroscience, or which schools actually have great programs, but that’s for you to research and discover. I think you’ll do great no matter where you end up going. Good luck.</p>