<p>science research/extracurriculars;
good teacher recommendations, get to know your guidance counselor… extremely well;
good grades in AP/IB classes;
great, target essay that ties everything together</p>
<p>have a common thread in your application, it really shows that you know what you want and are focused, that’s the edge</p>
<p>the big things were good letters of rec, I was in the top 150 in national chem Olympiad, and I self studied BC calc and got a 5. I also had all A’s in math and science and wrote a few letters after getting differed (one after EA and one when I was put on the waitlist). I had a few other things in there but those were the big ones.</p>
<p>I know this thread has been dead for a while…but someone previously mentioned that 1520 would be the cutoff…
Is 1490 too low?
My writing score came out bizarre…the essay was 11 but overall was in the 600…</p>
<p>There is no cutoff.</p>
<p>There is definitely no cutoff. The closest anything comes to a cutoff is if you have below 700 math, we would worry. But there is definitely no cutoff on the overall score.</p>
<p>Cutoffs like that strike me as cruel and unusual. (Well, maybe not that unusual.) But then again, Caltech’s core is pretty cruel and unusual too.</p>
<p>What type of GPA would begin to worry you guys? 3.5?
Do you factor weighted gpas? 5=A for honors and APs…I don’t think so?</p>
<p>ryn neapol1s: but isn’t caltech’s core towards the goal of making you a stronger person? means justify ends?
Whereas, SAT scores have been proven to have a great range of error (approx 60 points). There is a significant difference…no?</p>
<p>I’m quite sure neapol1s was joking… in the same sense that I’m joking when I say that forcing math and physics majors to study biology and chemistry (and vice versa) is like making construction workers learn Visual Basic. </p>
<p>Then again, similar and even more stringent requirements exist at other schools, and mostly in the form of humanities classes. (That would be like teaching construction workers origami, or interpretative dance)</p>