Official Caltech Class of 2016 EA/RD Decisions Thread

cerritoskid
Sun, 11 Mar 2012 19:57:26 +0000

I was accepted yesterday, yet I still can’t figure out why. I’m not really a super qualified applicant in my opinion.

Stats:

SAT: 2200 (680 reading/770 math/750 writing)
SAT II: 790 math, 720 chem, 750 world history
ACT: didn’t take
GPA: 3.90 UW (my school doesn’t do weighted)
Rank: 12/550ish
Other Tests: No AMC, AIME, IB, etc.
AP Calc BC/AB - 5
AP Chem - 4
AP Eng Lang - 4
APUSH - 4
AP Stats - 4
AP World Hist - 5

Subjective:

Essays: not bad, but not great in my opinion. I literally just wrote what was on my mind.
Teacher Recs: math teacher - pretty good, spanish teacher - good? i don’t know
Counselor Rec: She told me that she wrote me a really good one.
Supplementary Material: I took an intro AutoCAD design class at the local community college and got an A in it. Nothing that great.
Hook: maybe cause of my mixed ethnicity, hardship during junior year, or because I went to school in the Philippines until 7th grade. I honestly don’t know.

Personal:

Location: SoCal
High School Type: Public (small city)
Ethnicity: 1/2 filipino, 1/4 french, 1/4 peruvian
Gender: Male

Extracurriculars: key club volunteering, mu alpha theta, math and science club officer, track and field, model united nations, UCSD COSMOS summer program
Awards: Nat’l Merit Commended Student, AP Scholar with distinction, a few school awards for being the top student in certain classes

Reflection: i was in disbelief when i saw my acceptance. I was literally expecting a rejection letter because I didn’t spend a lot of time on my app, and I’m not some super math/science genius. If anybody can tell me a reason why I got in to caltech, that would be nice :)