Caltech (2022-2023)

[meager bison]

we dont even get breaks for summer 😦

like my last summer break was before 9th grade

[amber flame]

Oh my

[tall fable]

damn

[amber flame]

Call 911

[tall fable]

thats tough

[lament dew]

y’all need a gap year that is insane

[tall fable]

BREATHE I'd say

[lament dew]

this summer i had like 0 time because of summer program and a trip after

[meager bison]

nah, ik if i dont have incredible pressure on me, i'd just flunk

[empty wagon]

same

[amber flame]

Same

[lament dew]

that’s really unhealthy 🤨

[meager bison]

lol thats why we all applied caltech

[tall fable]

tbh same
learning rate increases when there's pressure

and the ability to grasp quicker

for me

[meager bison]

well that's one way to put it

[lament dew]

I mean yeah I need SOME pressure but I learn on my own time a lot without the pressure and frankly that’s what i enjoy the best

[empty wagon]

the thing is

i don't get to learn what i want to learn

[lament dew]

having the ability to breathe and do rigorous work on my own time

[tall fable]

yeah that's a downside

[empty wagon]

i have to take classes i don't want to cause school makes it mandatory

[lament dew]

like that’s why i took discrete async because i can pop open my computer at 2am and do work

[meager bison]

fr, course selection is so cool, too bad we don't have it

[tall fable]

I leave stuff till the last moment and I hate it
atleast weekly tests encourage me to study

[meager bison]

I'm checking out that wamy vid someone sent earlier and the girl's complaining abt how she got a 35 on act and had to compensate for it

[empty wagon]

this is exactly why i won't be going to caltech

[lament dew]

idk maybe i’m just an outlier and probably not what caltech is looking for, i can handle pressure but honestly insane pressure would be something that would make me hella discouraged

insane rigor is fine

[empty wagon]

i am okay with rigor

i just hate competition

within students

it puts me off so much

[tall fable]

idts caltech puts students under pressure
they just encourage rigor

[empty wagon]

i liked caltech because of how much they focus on collaboration

[lament dew]

i just don’t want to be spat in my face and told “you have to complete this in 2 seconds or else your grade dies” all the time

[lament dew]

this ^^

[tall fable]

true

[empty wagon]

like that cuthroat culture

i don't want to be apart of that

[meager bison]

well idk, maybe its in the environment everyon's raised in and the different priorities we set for ourselves

[tall fable]

yeah like that would be harsh

pressure throughout wouldnt be fun

only when its necessary

[meager bison]

nah clatech's not cutthroat, ppl are incredibly helpful, not that they would let you get ahead but they wont pull you back either

[empty wagon]

see that's what i want

my school is insanely cutthroat

people will anonymously email universities about any bad shit you've done to get your offer rescinded

[tall fable]

I'm just super excited for stuff like ME72 at caltech

get hands dirty and build

[meager bison]

holy -ck

[empty wagon]

no idea if doing this has any effect at all

but people hate it when someone does better than them

incredibly toxic

[lament dew]

that’s awful

[tall fable]

thats ridiculous man

[meager bison]

thats horrendous

[lament dew]

i’m the only person applying to caltech from my school

[tall fable]

gl!

[empty wagon]

this is what it's like being in a selective school internationally

[empty wagon]

i think i'm the only one too

[meager bison]

I'm the only one applying to US besides my best friend who actually got me into the whole thing

[empty wagon]

maybe a couple others

over here people only really give a shit about the ivys

[amber flame]

Lmao my counselor would behead them for that

[lament dew]

thanks, i definitely know there’s ppl in the area tho who are also applying with like, insane stats and a lot of my friends have been discouraging me

[tall fable]

I'm the only one from my school but its kinda expected since its intl school focused on a different curriculum

[tall fable]

same

[amber flame]

I have some pressures to get in kinda, because id be the first ever at my school

Also caltech is the only school in the top 100 we haven't got into

[lament dew]

this one person who was in my calc 3 class had a big tech internship at his dad’s company and works on coding projects all the time and people are saying i won’t get in in lieu of him .__.

[meager bison]

omg same
I had to sit my dad down and explain ivy is only a bunch of northeastern schools, he thought caltech stanford etc werent ivies so they were local shitholes💀

[empty wagon]

literally

i don't even like

[lament dew]

i’m glad my area isn’t like that for the most part

[empty wagon]

the ivy leagues much

the only one i kinda liked was cornell and upenn

and i didn't end up applying to upenn

[tall fable]

my dad had that view for cmu until I told him its cs rank 2

[meager bison]

yea ppl claiming working with family memeber as ec is awful
this guy I talked to on reddit, his aunt is the HOD for some dept at a prestigious place and he's not even acknowledging their family ties on his app, he dead ass goes as if he did the whole thing

[lament dew]

my mom was mad that i was applying to NU because she thought it was a dinky safety 😭

[empty wagon]

as a south-asian international

[lament dew]

that’s awful dude

[empty wagon]

if you don't go to stanford harvard mit princeton yale you're going to a shit uni

[lament dew]

i mean i’m hoping the progress i’ve made so far takes precedent

and also my AO is passionate about all of the things i am aside from astrophys

like all of my smaller interests and identity that i thought wouldn’t be well received

they’re passionate about all of it

so i hope that helps me a little bit

[meager bison]

my ao's is from anthropology and her fav quote she has chosen was " these guys are smart but im bored"
I hope she wont be bored with my app💀

[lament dew]

lmaooo

mine works in educational policy , program & curriculum development

which is exactly what i do rn

[meager bison]

damn, thats lucky, gl

anyhow yall
say you get in EVERYWHERE with fulll rides
where you going to?

[upper crater]

everywhere

[lament dew]

LOL

[upper crater]

damn

[lament dew]

umm idk

caltech probably

[upper crater]

id go to jhu

but they rejected me

[lament dew]

caltech’s been my dream since i was a kiddie

[upper crater]

[meager bison]

2 Months ago I'd have said cornell but they rejected me too

[lament dew]

2 months ago i’d have said harvard

but i got deferred

[tall fable]

mine was MIT but it changed after I met jann at isef

[meager bison]

currently its a close one b/w caltech and stanny
although stanny doesnt have astrophy so prolly caltech

[unreal kettle]

She’s great

[lament dew]

jann?

[tall fable]

jann lacoss - one of the AOs

[lament dew]

she’s my regional ao

[tall fable]

wow thats so cool

[lament dew]

yeah 😳

[lament dew]

what changed ur mind about applying?

[meager bison]

my caltech AO is tessa tweet and she seems so fun
like I'm lowkey tempted to follow her on ig but it'd be weird so am not gonna do that

[lament dew]

jann is really neat from her linkedin and she’s an advocate for college access for underserved students

[tall fable]

She detailed a lot about stuff including SURF and JPL at caltech and I thought it was cool so I decided to focus more

and I liked their pen lol

[lament dew]

ahhhhhh i should’ve talked about JPL and SURF in my app

[meager bison]

CALTECH HAS JPL?

[lament dew]

I heard about that from an ao too

yea lol

[tall fable]

yess

[meager bison]

how tf did i miss that

[lament dew]

caltech FOUNDED jpl

lol

that’s why i want to go so badly

you can work at jpl freshman year

[meager bison]

Im constantly reminding myself to not simp for a school
every second Im straying further from that goal

[tall fable]

exactly

[unreal kettle]

They literally run it 🥴

[meager bison]

stoppp

really?

[lament dew]

yes

lol

ahhh should i have talked more about jpl and surf in my application

[unreal kettle]

Caltech is probably the best place to get in to NASA

[lament dew]

i completely omitted it

[meager bison]

ah screw it im simping for caltech now

[lament dew]

i talked a lot about educational access stem programs they offer

[unreal kettle]

Maybe not discussing surf and jpl is better

[tall fable]

I didnt talk abt caltech at all

[meager bison]

I just mentioned my experiences and added 1-2 sentences in every supp to link it back to caltech

[tall fable]

same

[tall fable]

wait you just changed your username

lol

[meager bison]

we also have the same ao lol

[unreal kettle]

Those are huge attractions factors for applying students, or at least you’d think they are with how large these research programs are. Focusing on other things outside of them would show deeper connections to Caltech maybe

[lament dew]

bleh this was my cringe innovator prompt i think

i was way too list-y

[tall fable]

mine is a mix idk man
im a domestic living intl
so dk which one evaluates

[meager bison]

its cool tho

here's mine
The drowsiness from the 4 hour statistics class subsided upon noticing the number plate of an interstate vehicle. Thereafter, I would eagerly jot down the states of all the interstate vehicles on my way home.
With the newfound knowledge of statistics and that of Python, I mapped the number of vehicles encountered in every trip against the state they hailed from. Based on the direction, connectivity, profile of my route, and public data available from the Governmental Road Development website, I attempted to predict the location of the 5 states with the highest contributions to traffic.
Anticlimactically, I ended up predicting an adjoining southern state to be 1000 miles off west. Undeterred by such disheartening results, I persevered, spending the majority of my so-called sleep time on my code. With kind collaboration from toll avenue employees stationed around the national highways, I managed to vastly improve upon the sample space and data collection methodology. After nearly 8 months of code manipulation, collaboration with data consultation professionals over Discord, and decisive changes in computation methods by switching from measuring central tendencies to establishing a Fourier relation of theta vs frequency by mapping the states on polar coordinates I managed to predict the directional coordinates of 11 neighboring states.
Although I was plagued with questions about my project's relevance, employing the ever intriguing knowledge of STEM to a civic forefront has paved a way for me to understand the practical applications of my studies. This experience has taught me the importance of perseverance and the value of collaboration in the pursuit of innovation. I am excited to continue pushing the boundaries of what is possible at Caltech and to see where my curiosity and determination will take me next.

like its a weird ass project and prolly my weakest caltech supp but anyways

[lament dew]

mine is so weak

it was just a brag

[meager bison]

everyone brags a lil
gotta impress those unstimulated AOs

[tall fable]

mine was just a surface level explanation T_T

[unreal kettle]

Interesting

[lament dew]

nah i don’t think it was good bruh i talked a little bit about data visualizations but i should’ve elaborated more

[meager bison]

what do you guys think of mine?

[unreal kettle]

Oooh hey this is pretty good

Uncommon and nice add on the necessity of collaboration

[lament dew]

NOOOOOOO YOU TALKED ABOUT EXACTLY WHAT I DID IN MY@WHY MAJOR

[tall fable]

looks interesting to me

[tall fable]

Really??

[meager bison]

everyone's supp is so specific, AOs better be doing some magic in there cuz there's no way they gon choose 6 percent of us

[tall fable]

damn

[lament dew]

wait no

i just read chaos theory

lol oops

[tall fable]

lmaooo same source of motivation

[lament dew]

YEAH

[tall fable]

chaos theory was my fav topic in dynamics

[lament dew]

i’ve never taken a dynamics class 😞

[meager bison]

the fireball ignited my...
riveting metaphor

[lament dew]

i have ap physics 1 and physics with calc which starts next week

[lament dew]

yeah so based ikr 🌝

[tall fable]

wait you did SSP? damn

[lament dew]

yeah

[tall fable]

I applied and got rejected

sad

[unreal kettle]

This is really well written :)

[lament dew]

thank you!

[meager bison]

I didnt even know what ssp was until last week 🙂

[meager bison]

+1

[lament dew]

i didn’t know what it was until i found it in a youtube video by chance in jan junior year

[meager bison]

tbh i really love my yale and caltech supps, the rest were bs

[tall fable]

I didnt do yale because their cs dept is meh

[lament dew]

was this in general? this looks rlly good but also way over 200

[unreal kettle]

Nah it’s 200

[meager bison]

um guys, i realllllly love my roommate essay from stanny, it has a lot of stem related quirks
any way I could sneak it into caltech portfolio?

[unreal kettle]

I took a sc on mobile so it looks longer that it is ig lol

[lament dew]

i wouldn’t upload another essay idk

[tall fable]

lmao dont upload what they dont tell you to

[meager bison]

hm fair enough
I already uploaded that cringe yt video portfolio, dont wanna overdo it

[lament dew]

my diversity one was banger

[unreal kettle]

Yeah, you’re fine dw

[tall fable]

I'd give the least rating to my diversity one

[lament dew]

like although a few were definitely listy my diversity was ambition

maybe it wasn’t the best written

i should’ve expanded more tbh but it’s in my personal statement

[tall fable]

Compared to this I'd give mine a 1/10

[meager bison]

ngl that was a good read
also I've heard colleges really like kids with varied backgrounds like yours, you're gonna be fine ig

[tall fable]

I didnt have anything diverse to write lol

[unreal kettle]

Mine was weird

[meager bison]

here's mine
As I excitedly 3-D modeled my designs for the first official meeting of our tech start-up, neither me, nor my colleagues anticipated the road ahead. We pooled in our savings and set to work.
The result? a centrifugal death machine. Out of security concerns, we were forced to disassemble the cherished contraption.
Me and my teammates have spent the last 2 years, scanning through publications and graduate journals on material science, digital-analog relationship in machine learning, and even attempted to invent an alternative to the servo motor. Surprisingly, mechanical blunders and demanding research were the least of our problems.
Pinning the blame and incessant squabbles became commonplace, the amicable atmosphere grew into a foreboding panic. It would take us months from then on to coalesce into each other’s perspectives, to hear and not merely listen.
How it came to be can’t be jotted down in words, perhaps the collective toil and determination to succeed brought us together, or maybe it was the camaraderie and mutual empathy; whatever the cause be, there was change, for the better, or even the best.
The disagreements seamlessly transitioned into mutual agreement and arguments dissolved into the buffer solution of constructive criticism. The tribulation was sufficient to tutor me the virtues of collaboration I was previously oblivious to and the benefits of diversity I had been ignorant of. At Caltech, I hope to run into inestimable new ideas and horizons, to be surrounded by those who appreciate unity in diversity the way I've learnt to.

[unreal kettle]

I wrote about the power of storytelling through food to define what culture means to me, as something that can be created

[lament dew]

^ that was in essence my personal statement

[tall fable]

some random guy's essay with a similar story and made it into MIT

[lament dew]

i don’t think it was that strong tho esp since i didn’t mention too many specifics

[meager bison]

oh shoooooot
I just realized I uploaded my first draft instead of the final version in this one
it was the same thing but the writing was so crude 😐

[lament dew]

in my ps i talked about how my mom makes experimental soups and although not all are good, they’re all lessons and in essence her identity and one of her only comforts during the Cold War’s impacts in her country, and then related it to experimentalism in my own life

[tall fable]

I mentioned abt Caltech's periodic table in the diversity one because I didnt have anything else to talk abt

you'll have such unique stories damn

[lament dew]

i talked abt my culture and my mom’s recipes and experimentalism with art, music, and astrophysics, the challenges i’ve overcome, etc

i think it was good and the diversity essay i wrote for caltech was just more context into my ps

but idk

also @tall fable my ssp essays were comparatively rlly weak

everyone says ssp kids have amazing essays but literally idk how i got in

so i’m hoping that magic works rd

[meager bison]

@tall fable just remembered, didnt you say you did jee as well?

[tall fable]

your stats and ECs and your grit might have stood out

[tall fable]

yeah still doing haha

on 24th

[meager bison]

and you're a domestic us resident?

[tall fable]

I REAd to caltech and got deferred

[tall fable]

I'm a citizen but living here

[lament dew]

oh sheesh congrats, i heard they’re rlly big on rejection

[tall fable]

I'd just hope so

[meager bison]

fr, I've seen tens of ivy defferals, this is the first caltech one

[lament dew]

anyway i’ve got smth to build ☺️

my cats fr helping me take it out of the box

my first real telescope :0

[meager bison]

omg what model is that?

[tall fable]

I saw a couple on college confidential though

[lament dew]

nexstar 6se, my parents got me it for christmas

[tall fable]

damn thats so coooool

[lament dew]

without consulting me at all lol

[lament dew]

nah you got this rd

[meager bison]

damn thats an intricate one

[tall fable]

my parents do that too
they want to surprise me but I want them to ask me first

[tall fable]

you'll too!

[lament dew]

hopefully 😭

[meager bison]

she has a Harvard deferral, she'll get in💀

[tall fable]

• ssp + 10/10 essays

[tall fable]

you did IOAA too right?

[meager bison]

I was the team finalist, didnt get to IOAA

[tall fable]

thats still huge

I wish you would've known ssp earlier

[meager bison]

eh, no one really studies for it, + actual medal winners are applying so idk

[tall fable]

rooting for you though

[meager bison]

alright its past midnight gtg

[tall fable]

same

bye

[meager bison]

we rootin for each other

[unreal kettle]

this is rly nice, great read :)

[unreal kettle]

this is pretty good, I feel like most ppl would write about their direct family/cultural background but you're writing about how you work with others and the lessons you learned, rly nice!

i hope we all get in :)

[lament dew]

thank you!

hope to see you all at caltech 👀

[unreal kettle]

Yesss

[spice sigil]

Anyone else see the FRC kickoff?

[amber flame]

this was my innovator essay

why does everyone always go silent when i post my essays 💀

[rare shadow]

it's very good. remember that specific colleges' threads are not very active to begin with lol. there are often periods of hours where no messages are sent, you only waited 12 minutes ;)

[amber flame]

😭 i didn't look at the time and realize that the last message before mine was sent 4 hours ago

[amber flame]

Your essay is horrible, we all hate you, we’re undercover Caltech AOs secretly tracking your every move online

unfortunate

[unreal kettle]

Nice insight into process

[amber flame]

tysm, didn't just want to throw it out there without good explanation

[unreal kettle]

Ahhh I can't get over how beautiful campus is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v90SkuPPm5k

I also can't stop watching Caltech vlogs 🥴

[upper crater]

if the campus was depressing on top of the depressing workload

it would be worse than cornell

LOL

but ya its super pretty

[unreal kettle]

Oh yeah they'd need to install nets everywhere then 💀

[upper crater]

my dad said when he went there it was super misty/foggy

but then

one day it rained

and he stepped outside and it was so beautiful

[unreal kettle]

Pasadena in general looks rly nice

it's cozy with awesome weather, an amazing view of the mountains, anddd it's all 11 miles away from LA

the location of Caltech is just awesome

or maybe this is just me awestruck by how nice everything is outside of the barren tundra known as the Midwest 💀

[lament dew]

i like it! i like that it’s tech-y but you also include humanities

[spice sigil]

Would I be penalized if I didn’t submit the portfolio by the 8th? Also, is there a way to submit some documents for the additional document upload section now, and some later, or is only one submission allowed?

[amber flame]

yeah i heard about their mandatory curriculum so i exploited that to also get some why caltech points in

[lament dew]

you won’t be—they’ll just start to review your application

[spice sigil]

I really like the way you described the steps you took in a technical way whilst elaborating in an easily understandable manner.

[tall fable]

Idts
They would keep it open until 15th imo

[tall fable]

If you'll know or are in contact with any deferral to accepted Caltech students do lmk - have a couple of questions

Thank you!

[jagged harness]

I know a sophomore

I applied to caltech cuz its test blind and I'm applying test optional tbh...... I'm also African..... chances are DIVERSITY!!!!

[tall fable]

would you know his discord/email by any chance? If you can DM that'd be great! Thanks!

[jagged harness]

Instagram though

[quiet orchid]

do u have to submit the caltech research recommendation letter on the portal?

or can u submit on the common app which i alr did?

this so confusing

[lament dew]

you can submit on commonapp

[quiet orchid]

thxx

[amber flame]

It's actually very easy

4-6% get rejected, not accepted

Also I'm feeling dumb rn because I didn't finish describing something in my portfolio lol, one sec

[amber flame]

Quick question

Does caltech allow counselors to submit mid year transcripts rn

It's kinda integral lmao

[unreal kettle]

They require a mid year report, right?

It’s one the items here https://www.admissions.caltech.edu/apply/first-year-applicants/application-requirements

[lament dew]

is it cool that i uploaded an internship rec in commonapp?

i talked about my internship in an essay too

but i got a rec from the director of x state department i work under

[amber flame]

Oh alr, thx

[lament dew]

and they are evaluative of my abilities & talk about what the internship is

[rare shadow]

Yea if it’s a common app “other” recommender pretty much anything is fine

[spice sigil]

For the creative portfolio, do I have to submit all the documents in one batch, or can I upload one now, and another a little later(in a day or so)?

[tall fable]

You can upload it separately

[meager bison]

caltech doesnt have interviews right?

[lament dew]

yup no interviews

[meager bison]

huh, kinda odd given its smaller applicant pool and supposedly personalized review

[lament dew]

tbh i like it

no test scores and no interviews make it more about how you portray yourself through essays and whatnot

no chance for you to get a negligent interviewer or one who writes badly about you

no chance for you to stand no chance against someone who’s retaken a standardized exam 7 times

it’s a lot more admissions counsel centric

[meager bison]

well yeah,
just speaking from 'I' perspective tho:
i kinda feel as if interview is a much better way to judge people cuz I wont say who but there was this ivy ED/REA admit I was talking to and that person was so freaking rude like, but their essays (which they shared on thread) were so damn friendly and heartwarming

[lament dew]

okay that’s totally sus

[meager bison]

so like you could just have a god awful person with the sweetest essays or a sweet person with mediocre essays (as in that case study of megan from that columbia document)

[lament dew]

there’s also a plethora of socially awkward sweet people tho and i might be mistaken but that’s what caltech’s vibe gives me

[meager bison]

yeah thats true fr

[lament dew]

i’m better on paper than speaking because i get anxious af and stumble my words

i literally said i worked for the department of defense in my harvard interview because i was talking a million miles a minute and realized i fucked up after giving the wrong perception

i meant department of education

but it’s really hard to catch urself

so idk 🤷‍♀️

not like i won’t have 8+ other interviews

[meager bison]

lol im on the other end of the spectrum
I've always been a performative speaker, hence my thought process and writing style is such that if you read my essays without hering me speak, its gonna be weird like reading a comedy script without seeing the show
like it'd still have the same jokes but it wont be funny

[lament dew]

ah idk i grew up pretty nonverbal

i read a lot and enjoy writing and always have

it’s been my strong suit but you take little me who sat in front of legos for 5-6 hours at a time forming convos with myself in my head acting out scenes and building and ask me to speak

it’d stumble like mad and the stumble is still there but i’m a lot more verbal

its just taken years to unlearn that i can’t stay in my head forever

[meager bison]

aw that sounds like such a good essay start

[lament dew]

fr maybe interview point at mit, idk

but yeah

i’ve always been kinda crafty

we never had a formal robotics team but of all of the gifted programs i’ve been a part of, in elementary school we got to skip classes and build robots and maneuver them and then i started messing with circuitry

like building little circuits that would make different noises or lights, and then i started coding arduinos and blah blah then i got into mechanics and physics

maybe i should’ve included this in my essays

[tall fable]

same haha. It eventually improves when I'm speaking often or I'm in a social environment. But otherwise while writing, I often tend to go back to words, rephrase them or rethink and while speaking I go through the same though process eventually running one word into other

[tall fable]

lmao same story

this sounds so much like my essay

[lament dew]

yeah that’s why i didn’t write about it .____.

i had like 2 other friends with very similar stories too

so i mainly just wrote about like meteor showers and building model rockets

and chess puzzles

[tall fable]

cool cool

[lament dew]

btw i think this essay is very neat tho

i like how you compare gouache to legos

that’s really creative

not many people expand on it like that

[meager bison]

thats so cool

[tall fable]

This was not my caltech essay though, but I tried to link my passion for art with robotics

Thanks tho!

[meager bison]

i just wrote about a very weird project of mine
something about noting the direction of travel for inter-state vehicles and using that to analyse geographic positions of states based on population density and automobile ownership trends

[wide axle]

yall doin the maker portfolio?

i would but i dont have anything interesting to put in... prolly gonna get rejected anyays

anyways

[meager bison]

i attached a collage abt a hobby i talk abt in CA essay

[unreal kettle]

One of my essays for mit was literally about legos 🥴

[spice sigil]

Do we have to limit a video of music performance submitted through the creative portfolio to 2 mins. I have a 40 minute performance, and while I can montage it down to 5mins, given the nature of my instrument, nothing really fits in 2 mins.

[meager bison]

well AOs dont wanna spend 30 min to watch a vid
I personally ditched half of my video to bring it to 4 mins

[spice sigil]

Yeah, that totally makes sense. I was just wondering if around 3-5 mins is okay

[meager bison]

ideal is 2 ish
5 is the most you wanna go

[floral silo]

Rude

We're not that socially awkward

[lament dew]

caltech undergrad is smaller than my hs and full of nerds

[floral silo]

Yeah it slaps

There's no need to be socially awkward bc everyone is lame as hell

[lament dew]

you’re bound to be at least somewhat socially awkward

wait fr

i thought it was a socially awkward fest 😔

applied because i’m socially awkward

</3

[floral silo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpdzsr4QxWk

It's a lot like this for the first week or two

But then everyone relaxes

[lament dew]

that is fantastic

caltech is my #1 atm 😼

[floral silo]

Gj

It's a fun place

[lament dew]

Is it really that math intensive?

I’ve heard like, first calc lesson you are being taught analysis

[floral silo]

Yeah so we don't do AB or BC in the traditional way, we do proof based calculus

After that it chills out slightly, but people get a bit shocked

[lament dew]

😳 that’s really neat

i’ve never taken a proof based calc class

[floral silo]

However, you do get to choose if you want practical or analytical tracks for the 2nd - 4th math courses, which is basically do you want your math with or without numbers

[lament dew]

what major are you if you don’t mind me asking

[unreal kettle]

Oooh

[floral silo]

Took a calc III course where one of the problems on the final turned out to be 2 * 3 * 4, which was the first time I used numbers in the course

[floral silo]

CS

[lament dew]

oooo

[unreal kettle]

I can’t add basic numbers for my life 🥴

[lament dew]

yeah I’m applying astrophysics + planetary sciences

[floral silo]

Yeah that's most caltech students and especially the math majors

[unreal kettle]

😎

[lament dew]

so I think I’d need applied (hopefully) rather than hellish pure

[unreal kettle]

Hopefully I can get a mix or at least a taste of some pure theory

Mechanical engineering will probably be very much so applied though considering it’s meche, can’t complain

[lament dew]

i like theory but I think the proof based classes are more than enough theory tbh

[unreal kettle]

Yeah

[floral silo]

Ok but the pure is way more fun if you've learned the thing

[unreal kettle]

I’m taking a proof based math analysis course this coming semester from a local uni, can’t wait to see how proof based math is like!

[floral silo]

I'm probably never gonna use calculus on manifolds (calc III analytical version), but it was a hell of a ride

[lament dew]

i’m taking discrete this sem and so far it isn’t bad, but last sem taking calc 3 at the end when the integrals were 4d

which was kind of hard to conceptualize

[floral silo]

The trick is number of dimensions don't matter

[unreal kettle]

Isn’t it all generalizable up to n dimensions

[floral silo]

It's always plus or minus one dimension when you're integrating slash differentiating

Or push forward and pull back if ur doing fancy math

[lament dew]

ah yes stokes’

[floral silo]

Yeah but generalized

It slaps so hard

[lament dew]

ohhhh okay

stokes was the last concept we covered

[floral silo]

Ye the idea of drawing a circle around a region in space basically

Or ig 2d surface around a 3d volume

[unreal kettle]

That looks pretty cool

[lament dew]

that’s really cool tbh

we were taught what the name was but not what it meant

[floral silo]

This is the book we used https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculus_on_Manifolds_(book), with this hilarious quote:

While Spivak's elementary treatment of modern mathematical tools is broadly successful—and this approach has made Calculus on Manifolds a standard introduction to the rigorous theory of multivariable calculus—the text is also well known for its laconic style, lack of motivating examples, and frequent omission of non-obvious steps and arguments.[2][3] For example, in order to state and prove the generalized Stokes' theorem on chains, a profusion of unfamiliar concepts and constructions (e.g., tensor products, differential forms, tangent spaces, pullbacks, exterior derivatives, cube and chains) are introduced in quick succession within the span of 25 pages. Moreover, careful readers have noted a number of nontrivial oversights throughout the text, including missing hypotheses in theorems, inaccurately stated theorems, and proofs that fail to handle all cases.[4][5][6]

[lament dew]

it’s interesting to hear the theory behind this stuff

[floral silo]

11/10 best math class I took here

[lament dew]

that actually looks so cool :0

[unreal kettle]

How’s the internship/company recruitment scene at Caltech? The research hands down looks amazing but I don’t think I’ve heard much specifics on how industry recruitment/company fairs are like

I’d imagine it’s great considering it’s Caltech

[floral silo]

The career fairs are p decent, but the real trick is alumni referrals

[lament dew]

YES i wanted to ask about SURF and JPL internships as well

[unreal kettle]

Is the alumni network pretty good for industry too?

[floral silo]

SURF is p easy to get as a caltech student, JPL specifically is slightly harder, but if you harass people early and often, then it's quite doable

[floral silo]

Yeah that's what I meant

[unreal kettle]

Ahhh okay

[lament dew]

I was told by an AO you can get into JPL summer of freshman year

how true is this

[floral silo]

Caltech graduates are basically guaranteed to be able to solve problems super well and learn new stuff at breakneck speed, so as long as you have some alumni in that proves your competence, it's a great boost for hiring

[unreal kettle]

That’s so wonderful to hear, the prospect of interning at JPL excites me so much

[floral silo]

I got my internship last summer by asking someone from my house who posted an ad for their company

[floral silo]

It is doable, although I don't know how easy slash hard

[lament dew]

:0

[floral silo]

It also depends a lot by field

And by project

[lament dew]

understandable understandable

[unreal kettle]

Makes sense

[floral silo]

Sometimes they want people who have more experience with the stuff they're working on, and you don't get much of a chance to do non-core classes frosh year

[lament dew]

i want to do astrodynamics and I know JPL works on a lot of related projects but most orbital mechanics research is reserved for grad generally across colleges i’ve looked into

so it’s really exciting

[floral silo]

Out of 15 frosh year course slots, 8 are strictly spoken for by core classes, probably 2-3 hums, and there's a few courses that are recommended for frosh year, so you get maybe 3 electives

[lament dew]

do all of the humanities have a stem spin on them?

[floral silo]

And a lot of the intermediate level courses for majors have no-frosh policies, so you can't get ahead that easily

[unreal kettle]

Interesting

[floral silo]

Nope, varies a lot by department and prof. We do have some that are cross listed (ie can count for hum credit or stem credit), some that are straight up stem courses disguised as humanities (like an economics course that was really just math optimization), but some are quite legit, and people do major/minor pretty often

[lament dew]

ah that’s so cool :0

[unreal kettle]

^

[floral silo]

Yeah you're not gonna get into anything that fancy frosh year, but doing some trivialish work with a group could def happen and open up the chance to come back in later years and do more real work

[lament dew]

i love caltech but i’m also really into art and i’m glad i won’t have to entirely give it up

[floral silo]

Our art classes do exist but they're kinda garbage

[lament dew]

RIP

[floral silo]

For reference, the caltech band is significantly worse than my high school band

Or wind orch rather, the jazz band is actually really good

[unreal kettle]

History and Econ are subjects I’ve always loved in addition to engineering so being able to take them along with my core courses is a big plus

[floral silo]

But most of the arts are like last priority in both who takes them and support for them, so if you want large scale arts like theater/music, kinda hard, but individual pursuits or small group (a capella, chamber groups) are more doable

[unreal kettle]

I’m guessing the humanities requirements are probably a nice break from the STEM intensive course-load

[floral silo]

Yeah we have decent if small departments for most humanities

[unreal kettle]

Nice

[floral silo]

Yes and no, I really wanted to frontload my stem stuff bc it was fun, but now I'm stuck catching up on hum courses

Pretty common here, but at least I got some courses I wanted this term

[unreal kettle]

Oh I see

[lament dew]

how big are typical class sizes?

[floral silo]

Hums are 10-15 for discussion based courses, maybe 30 for the more lecture style, STEM courses are highly variable. Core courses are 200-250 (frosh class size), but with smaller recitation sections of 20ish per TA. Most of the upper level courses will be 20-40 people depending on how popular it is

Wait let me clarify, this is for CS and broadly required courses

When you get into a smaller major like astro where there's maybe 20 people a year (prob even less than that tbh), you can have like 10 person electives, and oftentimes you get grad students in courses too once you get to upper level stuff

[unreal kettle]

That’s really nice

[floral silo]

Yeah it's also p easy to get face time with profs and TAs because most people don't use them as heavily as they should

[unreal kettle]

For sure

I think I saw somewhere that Caltech undergrads have the option of becoming undergrad TAs

Is this something that’s common or are most TAs going to be grad students? I’m guessing it’ll probably be the latter

[tall fable]

Is ME 72 and Robosub still active at Caltech?

[tall fable]

Damn

[unreal kettle]

What are those?

[tall fable]

ME 72 is a Caltech hosted aquatic robotics competition
And Robosub is an open to all challenge and Caltech has a team which participates in it every year.

I've never seriously done underwater robotics but these seem to be exciting lol

[unreal kettle]

Oooh that sounds rly cool :)

Caltech seems to have a lot of pretty neat clubs

Hopefully tech reach is still a thing since I mentioned it in my essays

[tall fable]

So true

[tall fable]

Ahh this is interesting

[unreal kettle]

Yeah it’s an interesting club

Looking at the societal impacts of tech and engineering

I also talked about OASIS in the diversity essay

[tall fable]

Damn I couldve mentioned that. Never knew about it before. All I mentioned about was the Periodic table of Caltech lol

[unreal kettle]

Oh lol

[floral silo]

Varies a lot by department. For CS, you do get mostly undergrad TAs, but they don't do as much teaching (more grading and helping debug). In the harder sciences (math, physics, etc), you get a lot more grad students, since they have to do actual teaching in recitation sections. I do know some upperclassmen who took grading TA positions (ie just grading sets, no actual teaching or office hours) in chemistry and math

[floral silo]

ME72 is doing fine, the yearly robotics competition is still going strong. I'm pretty good friends with the team that won last year. As for a robotics club, less sure. Clubs at caltech tend to be lower effort due to how much work we have to do

[floral silo]

Also ME72 isn't always aquatic, but it was a few years back

[floral silo]

We sure have a lot, but they sure are pretty dead a lot of the time

Academics take up easily 50% more time here than at peer institutions, which makes it hard to do clubs super hard

[meager bison]

thats so cooool
After a heartbreaking ed, i pledged to not simp over any school but caltech is making it damn hard to not simp over it

[floral silo]

Yeah would not recommend simping

There’s plenty of bad parts that people don’t hear as much about like terrible admin and extremely difficult academic work

Like, a lot of people glorify the suffering you undergo here, but it’s very debatably worth it

One of the common quotes is that Caltech is the single hardest experience you go through and everything after that is easier

[upper crater]

Lol my dad’s an alum and said he wouldn’t wish caltech rigor took his enemy

[tall fable]

That's pretty cool

[tall fable]

But that's not what I was hoping to hear T_T

[unreal kettle]

Oh, that’s cool

[unreal kettle]

That makes sense

[tall fable]

The deadline for submitting LOCI is Feb1. Would submitting it one week earlier compared to two days earlier have a significant difference?

[rare shadow]

probably not but I wouldn’t wait unless u have a good reason to

I’d say a two-month difference might be notable in terms of interest

[spice sigil]

I just realized I forgot to submit my research portfolio. Is it too late now?

[rare shadow]

Does it allow you to on the portal

[spice sigil]

Also, how would I know if they received the college transcripts I had sent via parchment or the optional LORs?

[upper crater]

Whys it required forbu

Also btw it leaks ur hs in that screenshot

[jagged harness]

March 15!!!!

[tall fable]

I see
Yeah I wouldn't wait either, but some progress is expected in those 4 days so I'm waiting till the end.

[spice sigil]

Yes. On the portal, it says my application is incomplete and shows the research portfolio is missing.

[unreal kettle]

Wasn’t the deadline for portfolio submissions the 8th

If you still have the option to submit on portal then that answers your question about your ability to actually submit past the deadline

I don’t know if you’d be penalized for not meeting the deadline though

[rare shadow]

then submit it if it allows you to. worst case they dont consider it, which is the same outcome as if u didnt submit anything. best case is that they still consider it

[tall fable]

just submit it as soon as possible. Also, it's good to once email the regional counselor and confirm if all the materials have been received on their end

[unreal kettle]

^^^

If you wind up being in a position where your portfolio won't be considered then that's really fine tbh

As Caltech admissions says, a portfolio is truly fully optional

[lament dew]

Yeah a lot of the portfolio stuff is simply “extra”, I was going to submit some research stuff but i don’t even know if i’m allowed and i already have a rec through commonapp

and i do a lot of art stuff but seeing we needed an art teacher rec i was like…. nope.

[unreal kettle]

I didn't submit a portfolio at all since I felt like my essays really did a good job of capturing who I am

the 100 word and 50 word optional what you do for fun essays are especially good imo for showing who you are outside of STEM

[lament dew]

totally agree

mine wasn’t too too significant but i talked about puzzling, crosswords, and chess

[meager bison]

I drilled the hobbies I had loosely mentioned in other parts of my app, focused on comedy and cooking, tried to link it with Caltech but idk if it works

[meager bison]

on a side note, I love how caltech's website is full of self aware quotes
one of their webpages read:
We know our rep. And we've seen the Reddit feeds—the ones that sound like, "You can get into Caltech only if you've cured cancer or are superhuman."

[unreal kettle]

Yeah lol

It’s amazing

[meager bison]

um just asking you guys,
whenever I get too anxious about my apps, i usually go on chatgpt, copy paste every aspect of my app and ask it to rate it out of 100 or 1000,
it doesnt mean anything but yeah, i do that out of insecurities
idk why but its giving me a 98-99/100 for every uni? could someone also check it out and confirm if its real or is it just spewing unrealistic numbers?

[lament dew]

after awhile it becomes biased but i guess it does have some sort of criteria

[tall fable]

exactly and the line which says write about the "STEMiest of STEMmy topics"

[tall fable]

ChatGPT focuses a lot on structure and style rather than the content and it could be confusing at times. If you have a good feeling about your essays, don't go to ChatGPT imo

I usually use it when I want to correct sentence fragments

[meager bison]

well yeah i do realise its meaningless to do that its just...

you know, I cant help but incessantly fret over my apps

[tall fable]

lmao ik
Don't worry about it now since you can't change anything. Trust the process and things will work out :))

[unreal kettle]

I’ve been doing the same thing lol

[empty wagon]

omg this reminds me

i saw a reddit post of someone in their masters who used chatgpt

to write their 4000 word essay

and they got caught for it and are facing 'maybe' expulsion

he had a full ride as well

[lament dew]

damnnn

me when i use chatgpt to write my doctorate thesis on some random niche astrophysics field

[meager bison]

I did ask it to write an abstract about one of my independent research, tbh it was underwhelming
it was far too generic and vague, I don't think any sane student would've done that

[unreal kettle]

Wow

[orchid quail]

4578;;$87(,:3;

[lament dew]

is this a cipher

[upper crater]

Yea if u figure it out, autoaccept

[lament dew]

bet

deciphered to 4578873
“Moffou - Salif Keïta” catalogue #4578873
Album is sung in “Malinke” which gives us these language codes:

counting the number of non-numeric characters in the cipher we get 7

kfo, Koro, or Koro Jula is our answer

someone recruit me to Palindrome fr

[orchid quail]

Omg how’d you get it right??🫢🫢🫢

[lament dew]

just that good

[orchid quail]

We’ll I wish you luck then🙌🙌🙌🙌

[lament dew]

caltech autoadmit

[unreal kettle]

Lol

[meager bison]

well its been two weeks since i submitted, got the portal within a day
but it still shows my transcript is missing? All other unis got it from the same common app
Anyone else facing this issue?

[tall fable]

When I submitted it, I didn't face the same issue but I had a few friends who didn't have their portal updated until a day before the result

[meager bison]

oh alright
cuz i did email them and all i got was a cliche "we have thousands of applicants, go touch grass"

[near finch]

Is the 250-500 word research description response on the research supplement shared with the advisor?

[rare shadow]

probably not

[near finch]

Because it kind of feels weird if my advisor is able to see everything I write in that portfolio.

[rare shadow]

i doubt they are sent that

[near finch]

Also, for the pdf upload, can I upload a slide-deck form presentation instead of an abstract/paper?

[rare shadow]

they are only sent a request to provide a letter of rec

[near finch]

Because we are working on drafting a paper to submit to a journal, but not enough is written to submit it for the portfolio.

[rare shadow]

did u explain that

if you explain that and upload the presentation i think that should be fine

[near finch]

alright; would I be able to upload a code repository(I can't provide a link since it is not yet open-source but my advisor did give me permission to upload the code) relevant to the research portfolio project?

[rare shadow]

unless the research is focused specifically on programming, i dont think its necessary to provide code. i didnt provide any code i used for my research.

if theres something really specific in your codes thats unique and creative, then id put that in the presentation you're uploading anyways

how much code is it

[near finch]

Python: Repo 1: ~3000+ lines, Repo 2(probably wouldn't include aside from a couple files as a large chunk of that is other contribution): ~15000 lines.

[rare shadow]

that’s a large repository. take important chunks that are not repetitive and put them in your presentation, and explain that other research groups are using them

[amber flame]

^

[unreal kettle]

Imo the process is wayyy more important than the final product

Try to convey your scientific mind/approach

[near finch]

Oh, I thought the research supplement was just about the research done(since it is only read by a faculty member) and that the essays are more about the approach/way of thinking. So, I was planning to just describe the 'final result'/research as opposed to the approach. Is this incorrect?

[rare shadow]

yea I think that’s a fine way to put it. I can’t remember what exactly the research supplement asked but just make sure u answer the questions they’re asking

[unreal kettle]

Definitely, just make sure you’re showing the thinking process somewhere in your app

[spice sigil]

Can I submit a music resume with the video on the external portfolio, or should I put it in the additional materials section?

[jagged harness]

True

[jagged harness]

Yes you can

[jagged harness]

I think the deadline has been passed though

[spice sigil]

Well, my portal still shows application incomplete, so maybe it isn’t too late?

[meager bison]

um its the 18th today and they still haven't updates it... something to panic about?

[spice sigil]

I wish there was a way to confirm they received college transcripts or optional LOrs

[spice sigil]

I don’t think so, but I doubt any harm could come from calling them in a day or two to inquire.

[jagged harness]

i submitted dartmouth this morning,,......hahahaa

[tall fable]

Whaaaaaaa

[lament dew]

this scared the crap outta me

jumpscare i thought they needed something from me 😭

[amber flame]

Yeah same☠ I'm like what now

My LoRs been messing up with too many unis lately and I thought caltech got messed up too

[unreal kettle]

ME TOO

[tall fable]

I'm scared by all types of email updates

[meager bison]

I'm scared of every school's mere existence👍

[primal dragon]

same!!

[wide axle]

god i still dont see one of my recs on the caltech portal

anyone else dont have a fully updated portal?

[rare shadow]

they sent an email out a few days ago saying they are still processing materials and will expect the portal to be updated by jan 25

[unreal kettle]

Didn’t it say 20th

Oh I see

[jagged harness]

same here frr

[unreal kettle]

Amazon future engineering scholarship is due tomorrow

Caltech essays are really coming in nicely for it

[tall fable]

how selective is it?

if you have any info

[unreal kettle]

They select 400 students

I think it’s only tor u.s. citizens

You can google to the scholarship to get more info on amazons website

It’s due today at 3:00 PM CST iirc

[tall fable]

Would you know if US citizens living abroad are eligible or not?
The criteria is a bit unclear

[unreal kettle]

I'm not sure

Consult here:

• https://www.amazonfutureengineer.com/scholarships
• https://scholarshipamerica.org/amazonfutureengineer/

[unreal kettle]

It says this

[tall fable]

I'm eligible under that but for school location it only shows US and Canada States. I'll probably just email them since they've extended the deadline

[jagged harness]

it is

[lament dew]

checklist is finalized

[amber flame]

Ee

[meager bison]

never have i been happier upon seeing green ticks

still not gonna change the imminent red cross besides my accepted status but still

[tall fable]

Thanks, just got an email reply. They do consider

[vapid ember]

anyone got similar kind of email?

my school did sent the transcript!

and i applied with a fee waiver!

[meager bison]

dude relax

it happened with me too, my counselor sent the transcript and school report together and caltech only showed that they received the report
just ask your school to email the transcript to them, you'll be fine

[vapid ember]

what about the app fee?

[meager bison]

well i'm not familiar with that, maybe ask your counselor to send them an email saying you are eligible for fee waiver
but idk how useful it'd be
I'd say if its possible, submit the fee, (atleast thats what i had to do for stanford)

but caltech's pretty chill tho, if they do reply affirmatively (which they usually do within a day), i dont think you'd have to worry about it
but yeah, get that email sent asap

[rare shadow]

I got an email but there’s nothing they listed

Did anyone have a similar issue?

[vapid ember]

why are they doing this ugh

[jagged harness]

it's weird exatly

[vapid ember]

they haven't replied to any of my mails so far, to which mail id are you sending things?

[meager bison]

dont email your AO, since you're from india, i'll assume its tessa
she's prolly very busy rn
just email the admissions dept

[email protected]

[jagged harness]

they hardly reply tho

it's a really small school and wouldn't reply you unless it's very important

[meager bison]

idk, they've replied to every trivial mail of mine

the office, not the AO

[fading harbor]

Even I've got replies to every mail I sent.

[lament dew]

that’s weird

mine was marked complete

I applied with an application fee waiver too

[unreal kettle]

Mine is complete as well

[upper crater]

Same

[amber flame]

same

[peak fulcrum]

same

[fickle light]

to people with dual enrollment classes, college transcript isn’t one of the checklist items is it?

[lament dew]

it isn’t, but if they’re not reported on your high school transcript, it’s a good idea to include them by sending a college transcript too

[fickle light]

yeah ive been freaking out since i forgot about sending it and the college uses a 3rd party service so it took a while

arrived before the 2 week checkist update thing but iguess only time will tell 😁

difference between a rejection and a rejection 🙏

[lament dew]

i think you’re good

i begged my hs counselor to put mine on my transcript

since I have 13 DE

[meager bison]

we dont have DE or anything like that in here

what's it like in terms of rigor and overall academic experience ?

[tall fable]

Bruh your oly quals are enough
You don't even need DE lol

[lament dew]

uh it depends on the class

i do in person dual enrollment so i go into the college and take the classes

which is admittedly more rigorous than taking them in a program for high schoolers only

but i’ve done both

[spice sigil]

Does that impact your weighted gpa? My school has a policy where if you want a college class on the high school transcript? It goes in as a 4.0 instead of a 5.0 for weighted gpa calculation(assuming an A)

[lament dew]

mine are 5.0

but

only after junior yr

junior-senior they’re 5.0

before they’re max 4.5

it sucks

[spice sigil]

Okay, I see. Apparently, my school does that, so students don't take college classes to increase their weighted GPA for class rank purposes.

[lament dew]

yeah mine isn’t the competitive enough for that

we have a gifted program that lets you take in person college classes starting in 8th grade

but it’s weighted as just honors (although more rigorous than AP) until junior year

[spice sigil]

My school really isn't competitive which is why I find its policies so funny(it is ranked below 3000th nationally, and a third to half of the graduating class go to community college with most of the rest to the nearby state colleges).

[lament dew]

hello folks

make a slate account

please check your caltech status

i have a decision

[spice sigil]

An admissions decision?

[lament dew]

yes

[tall fable]

Huh

[lament dew]

but i can’t view it until march

caltech does rolling admissions kind of

they don’t have committee

[tall fable]

That's weird

[lament dew]

so i either got a no

or autoaccepted

which is likely a no more than an acceptance this early

[spice sigil]

Can that decision change in a later review(for example, after submitting more information, given the deadline for that is the 23rd), or is it finalized in your case?

[lament dew]

no

probably finalized

i will cry if caltech yeeted me this early

wait this means they aren’t even going to look at my midyear

[spice sigil]

Huh, Caltech doesn't even show up on my slate account.

[lament dew]

wait huh

maybe they haven’t started a decision for you

[tall fable]

Very unlikely that they've made a decision this quick

[lament dew]

they use slate to make decisions

the fact that they have made a decision already

on slate

means that they have gone through at least one read of my app

so i probably got a no pretty quickly

sad but it’s ok

[tall fable]

Ohh

[tall fable]

They auto accept people too
With your quals you're much likely an auto accept

[lament dew]

probably not

[spice sigil]

Half of the other schools I applied to also don't show up on my slate account. Are there any other details that have to be added to the slate profile for it to sync applications?

[lament dew]

no clue

[meager bison]

yeah, specially considering they completed the checklist like 2 days ago

[lament dew]

got auto rejected

😔

[meager bison]

oh alright, that sounds fun tho

[meager bison]

idk, i dont think you'd be auto rejected, you have like 4.8 or smthng

[lament dew]

there’s no way i’d get a decision this quickly

[meager bison]

relax, you cant be an auto reject, thats all im saying

how do you find ceeb code for an unlisted hs?

like i found the 000004 for intl unlisted but it wont let me enter a ceeb unless i choose a hs from the list and unlisted is not a displayed option.....

[peak fulcrum]

is this legal?

[lament dew]

Yes

[peak fulcrum]

why would they post decisions early?

[lament dew]

they don’t

[empty wagon]

i have one too

[lament dew]

ah shit bro

[empty wagon]

fuck

man

[lament dew]

this means i’m rejected

[empty wagon]

huge L

[lament dew]

what are your stats

[empty wagon]

come dm

[lament dew]

kk

[empty wagon]

this was so sad

why am i alr rejected

caltech handing me Ls

at least hand it to me in march

[meager bison]

you.are.not.rejected.yet.

[mint lintel]

'yet' 💀

[gleaming surge]

i doubt they would make decisions this early

[peak fulcrum]

is this a good sign?

[meager bison]

it literally just means your submitted all your stuff

[lament dew]

click caltech

[lament dew]

oh ok

@empty wagon it might just say that for everyone

unless @peak fulcrum you have godly stats

[gleaming surge]

wouldnt it be decided if that circle there was a check

[lament dew]

it would still show on “complete”

like for yale, the blue circle is on complete with a check mark

[gleaming surge]

i think the whole thing is goofy one of mine still says in progress even tho i submitted the app and did an interview for them

[peak fulcrum]

same thing for harvard

[empty wagon]

too much portal astrology

[empty wagon]

we're all getting accepted

[lament dew]

gatech comes out in less than a week

and mine says complete

[empty wagon]

class of 2027 caltech is this entire thread

we all win

[meager bison]

https://tenor.com/view/touch-grass-touch-grass-gif-21734295

[empty wagon]

oh fuck

this is truly

a sad moment

ggs

[gleaming surge]

i dont think it means anything

[empty wagon]

hmmm

@floral silo

hi

dyo anyth about

[peak fulcrum]

@floral silo does this mean anying?

[empty wagon]

slate and decisions

[lament dew]

maybe i just didn’t meet the req

[empty wagon]

same brain

[lament dew]

i’m taking IB history of the americas HL and don’t have a US history credit because of it

but that is US history

[peak fulcrum]

when did you submit your application and did you send any supplementary material?

[gleaming surge]

i submitted the last day

no supplementary

i think my school just sent the mid year report

so maybe they waited for that

[empty wagon]

my school still hasn't sent mine

[lament dew]

my school didn’t send mine either yet, also applied last day

[peak fulcrum]

welp gg guys, we didn't get in, @gleaming surge enjoy Caltech

[gleaming surge]

nah

[lament dew]

meh I wouldn’t fearmonger rn

[empty wagon]

i applied on the 1st

idk when the deadline was

[lament dew]

esp since there’s another 2 months to march

[gleaming surge]

it doesnt make sense for them to read all their apps yet

its possible they havent read mine

[empty wagon]

someone call caltech's admissions and ask thank you

[gleaming surge]

bro i dont think its a big deal

[lament dew]

“so i snooped around on slate and it says you decided on my app can i know now”

[empty wagon]

how reliable

is slate

[empty wagon]

LOL

[peak fulcrum]

r you international?

[lament dew]

they use slate to make your decisions bro

💀

[gleaming surge]

i live in america

[lament dew]

most of the admissions portals are through slate

[empty wagon]

rochester inst of tech says my app is in progress

even though i've alr

done the app and evt

[lament dew]

does it also say decision made?

uofa says in progress & decision made

except the check mark is green for decision made

not a blue circle

[peak fulcrum]

which state? (if its a popular state, then it makes sense cause there would be alot of applicants there)

[gleaming surge]

california 💀

[lament dew]

wait EK are you intl

[peak fulcrum]

yes

[lament dew]

oh odd

[peak fulcrum]

@empty wagon @lament dew r you guys also from a popular state?

[lament dew]

ooga is intl i’m from a tiny state

[peak fulcrum]

hm

[lament dew]

i don’t think it means much

[gleaming surge]

yea it doesnt

i think youll get in ice cube

[lament dew]

maybe not salabajr

but portal astrology doesn’t work 99% of the time

[gleaming surge]

we learned not to believe in astrology 💀

[lament dew]

for real

the validity of guessing through slate:

courtesy of astrology channel

[meager bison]

its been a grand total of 1.05 working days since beaver breakroom got finalized
99% of apps havent been read by an AO

no one's rejected

no one's accepted

relax everyone

[peak fulcrum]

how do you know?

[lament dew]

it’s been ONE DAY

[meager bison]

the hidden elixir of human timescales

[peak fulcrum]

its been 2.5 weeks since RD deadline

[lament dew]

since checklists were finalized and they started reviewing

[lament dew]

they can’t review before they finish processing materials

[peak fulcrum]

well my checlist was done when i submitted, so woudn't they start looking at mine since it was done

[lament dew]

no they had to update them

[peak fulcrum]

update what?

they were complete

[lament dew]

it could just mean you were reviewed today and passed first read

[peak fulcrum]

ok...

I'll see you in 2 months when I get rejected

[lament dew]

nah dude especially if you have good essays/ecs/stats it 100% could have just meant that you passed the first read

they just started reviewing

ooga is a god

he wouldn’t be thrown out a day in

[meager bison]

fr, dude's cracked

[lament dew]

nothing about my profile screams autoreject either

i’m sure nothing about yours does

[meager bison]

no one's a caltech autoreject
caltech does not auto reject anyone

[lament dew]

yup

[meager bison]

caltech wont reject anyone that quickly

[empty wagon]

bro

i have

shit academics

[lament dew]

they can’t do that in one day

[peak fulcrum]

whats the difference between faculty and committee review?

[lament dew]

faculty is professors

[meager bison]

commttee is mostly AOs

[empty wagon]

maybe i j got rejected by the first reead

[lament dew]

they just started CBE

[empty wagon]

lol

[peak fulcrum]

why would professors read my app, isn't that only for grad school?

[meager bison]

nah, caltech profs read apps for ug too

[fading harbor]

At caltech they do

[empty wagon]

a caltech prof came to my school

literally on thursday

should've bribed him there and then

[lament dew]

we do a little bribery

i don’t think you would’ve failed first read

i don’t think i would’ve either

[meager bison]

nah, you should've stabbed him, impersonated him, assumed his identity, flown to pasadena, pretended to be him in faculty review and enthusiastically recommended yourself to get in

[tall fable]

Is this specific to Caltech or for all?

[lament dew]

caltech

[unreal kettle]

I had no idea slate was even a thing till now lmao, I just made an account and most of my unis aren't even on there including caltech

[empty wagon]

caltech's showing that they made a decision lol

[unreal kettle]

I wonder if it says otherwise on list view

[empty wagon]

yeps

[empty wagon]

it does

doesn't say anyth on the list view

[unreal kettle]

Yeah so you're all good lol

[empty wagon]

@lament dew what's it for you

[lament dew]

let me check again

@empty wagon

[empty wagon]

list view

check it on that

[lament dew]

one sec

it just says complete

[fading harbor]

For using slate, does ones school need to have a CEEB code?

[meager bison]

i'd think so

that was changing urls to sneak past the system, this is simply using a legal and available for all website to check app status
relax

[amber flame]

yeah

also mine still said completed

doubt it means anything ofc

[floral silo]

You’ve got to be joking

Y’all really think slate is going to leak this info

Ok after some quick investigation, it is not impossible that this is a data leak, bc software companies are pretty garbage at thinking these things through, but I’m still leaning towards this is meaningless

I am pretty sure that the stages are like application opened, submitted, completed, and decided
E: looks like it’s in progress, awaiting materials, completed (as in application completed), and decided
E2: and the awaiting materials section is probably if you need a transcript or a creative portfolio type thing, not anything serious

The entire admissions process happens after getting a green check mark on completed, and I strongly suspect once you get the green check on completed, it moves to the next stage, blue circle on decided

So unless some of y’all are getting green check marks on decided, it’s probably fake E: or rather, the information is meaningless

If y’all cannot interpret the difference between a blue unchecked circle meaning basically in progress and a green check mark indicating completion, I do not have high hopes for you /s

My bet is that admissions has a way inside slate to enter a decision that’s like a draft decision, and they only click that finalize button a few days before decisions come out, which corresponds to the checklist disappearing from the admissions portal (which has been a harbinger of decisions in past years)

@peak fulcrum @empty wagon since y’all so kindly tagged me in this

[lament dew]

do you think applicants could legitimately get in trouble for making slate accounts?

it’s a public website and some schools use slate; i don’t see why they’d have an issue with it

also i believe different schools enter things differently, ex: gatech my complete circle is blue, but the side text says complete and under review. decisions come out in less than a week

[unreal kettle]

LOL

[unreal kettle]

Yeah, exactly. I don’t see why they’d have a problem with applicants using slate at all

[amber flame]

I mean

They literally allow students to make accounts

Ofc it's not a problem

[floral silo]

Nah if anything slate will get in trouble

They’ll probably stop allowing high school student accounts or colleges will opt out of showing their info to high school students

^ This is in the case that there is meaningful data leaked

Which it does not seem like

[lament dew]

i think the only meaningful data that could be leaked is when your decision is finalized

[floral silo]

I think this theory counteracts that tho

I’d be interested in being proved wrong

But I suspect this is probably correct

[lament dew]

icic

hmm i’ll keep an eye on it

[floral silo]

Also I was rereading and I want to clarify, this is not really true, or at least not more so than other schools. Basically, the pool just gets filtered over time and admissions does discuss each person before building the final class. My best guess is that after all the main filtering (academics, quality ECs, tests, passion for stem), there’s maybe 1000-1500 qualified people they’d consider for the 500ish acceptances, and they do their best to construct a class out of that group in the more holistic sense.

I assume there’s some applicants that the AOs have good feelings about early on, but the class is considered as a whole, not on any sort of rolling basis

There are def people that are internally rejected early on, but I’d assume that’s literally everywhere doing that

[unreal kettle]

This scholarship got extended to the 27th for anyone still interested btw :)

Similar to the Amazon future engineer scholarship, the Lockheed Martin stem scholarship just opened up tooo

Good luck to all of you applying for them!

I submitted my Lockheed Martin app yesterday :)

[lament dew]

lockheed

iwillnotselloutfortheusgovernment iwillnotselloutfortheusgovernment iwillnotselloutfortheusgovernment iwillnotselloutfortheusgovernment

maybe i’ll just… take a look

[unreal kettle]

😂

I feel the same way about them ngl

Especially considering they’re the people who make all the big scary war planes 👀

But I mean

It’s a 10 k scholarship plus internship… and it’s the Lockheed Martin… sooo

[lament dew]

it’s 10k.

😔

you don’t HAVE to do the internship…

so maybe i’ll give it a shot

not all space defense people are evil

[unreal kettle]

Lmao

[lament dew]

my friend’s mom is an executive for raytheon

and the most evil thing about her is that she went to mit

[unreal kettle]

Oh wow

[lament dew]

yeah said friend is also very smart and kind

[unreal kettle]

Thats good to hear lol

The Lockheed Martin app is super competitive, I probably won’t get it tbh but it’s still worth a shot

¯_(ツ)_/¯

[lament dew]

this is evil

my boss scheduled a meeting 2 6 minutes ago

and said “everyone get on the call”

💀

HUH

and this is definitely going to be an hour :<

[unreal kettle]

💀

[ripe hazel]

I tried looking for any makers portofolio for Caltech on yt. But I only found 1

did anyone else send one?