CAMom Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 We are well into my son's jr. year in high school now and, obviously, in serious mode with regards to college searching. :) I'm curious if anyone has had a student apply to CalTech and what your experience was like? :) This school is high on his list and I'm trying to get a feel for what I need to do to have this option open for him. He is interested in earning his BA in bio and/or physics. One great thing is that we live close enough that he could be home very, very frequently. We live less than an hour from there. I admit the college process is still rather overwhelming for me! ;) Thanks for any input you can offer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
readwithem Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 We are well into my son's jr. year in high school now and, obviously, in serious mode with regards to college searching. :) I'm curious if anyone has had a student apply to CalTech and what your experience was like? :) This school is high on his list and I'm trying to get a feel for what I need to do to have this option open for him. He is interested in earning his BA in bio and/or physics. One great thing is that we live close enough that he could be home very, very frequently. We live less than an hour from there. I admit the college process is still rather overwhelming for me! ;) Thanks for any input you can offer. Are you on the hs2coll yahoo group? A very helpful lady there has a son in his 2nd year at CalTech :) She has been very free with sharing his documents - transcript, counselor letter, course descriptions, etc. She might be jealous of your living so close though - IIRC, they're in Washington state :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy in Richmond Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 My son applied and was accepted a few years ago. He attends a different school, though - we're on the East coast, and while he would have liked Caltech, it was a bit too far away for him in the end. If I remember correctly, they were one of the easier schools to deal with. They even let me write the humanities/social science letter of reccomendation, since my son had no outsourced classes in those areas. My daughter is in the process of applying to Caltech this year. They have some info on their website on how they evaluate homeschoolers. It's not too bad; they just want to understand clearly how your child was educated (I always write up course descriptions). They want standardized testing results and rigorous calculus and physics courses in high school, pretty much the same as for any applicant. If you have any specific questions, I'd be glad to try to help. ~Kathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAMom Posted October 22, 2009 Author Share Posted October 22, 2009 Are you on the hs2coll yahoo group? A very helpful lady there has a son in his 2nd year at CalTech :) She has been very free with sharing his documents - transcript, counselor letter, course descriptions, etc. She might be jealous of your living so close though - IIRC, they're in Washington state :) Thank you! I didn't even know about that group but I just signed up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAMom Posted October 22, 2009 Author Share Posted October 22, 2009 Thank you, Kathy! My son's concern is that he doesn't think he has enough in the way of extra-curricula activities to make him stand out as an applicant. His major extra is speech and debate which takes tons of his time. Was there much focus on that? I think his standardized testing will go well. He just took the PSAT and he was consistently getting in the 228-230 range on practice tests. He's also done a practice SAT (minus the essay of course) and his score was 2280. I try to keep pretty meticulous records (course descriptions, etc.) and he takes several classes through The Potter's School so I should be able to get a couple of decent teacher recommendations. CalTech would definitely be his dream!:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy in Richmond Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 No, my son didn't have tons of extracurriculars. His major activity was Boy Scouting, and that took lots of time like your son's debate. Other than that, he had some church activities. I got the idea that Caltech would rather see one or two EC's that were done well than a student who spread himself too thin with lots of smaller activities. Also, they do seem to put a major emphasis on test scores and academic rigor (especially math and science) in their admissions decisions. Good luck to your son! ~Kathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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