Anonymous
10/10/2025 17:04
Subject: Is Caltech mostly for geniuses who want to do super nerdy research?
What’s the weird obsession with Putnam here? MIT parents?
Anonymous
10/10/2025 13:20
Subject: Re:Is Caltech mostly for geniuses who want to do super nerdy research?
Unless the idea is to apply ED, it seems silly to stress about fit at this point in the application process. Your daughter can apply, and if she's accepted, she can do an overnight campus visit and get a sense of whether she wants to spend four years in Pasadena then.
Anonymous
10/10/2025 03:01
Subject: Is Caltech mostly for geniuses who want to do super nerdy research?
Anonymous
10/10/2025 02:53
Subject: Is Caltech mostly for geniuses who want to do super nerdy research?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What's her physics and math background? Has she done f=ma, AMC, USAMTS, selective summer programs in math or physics? Is she D3 material in terms of sportiness?Anonymous wrote:CalTech is usually ignored on this board so happy to see a thread. My DD is super smart, wants to major in physics. Does not do any social media, never been to a dance, has friends but stays out of group drama. However, she is also super sporty, outdoorsy, and funny. I have been wondering if CalTech would be a good fit.
Yes she is math team officer, has self study and internships, etc. physics is favorite science. Still too young for the post jr year programs but if you know of any for younger grades let me know! Another issue is young birthday. Many programs you have to be 16, and she won’t be until junior year. Yes D3 material for athletics.
She's done both f=ma and AMC? If so check out this: https://knzhou.github.io/writing/Advice.pdf for physics, and for math, use the AoPS books and alcumus and past questions. Apply for Math Prize for Girls if she does well on AMC.
For summer:
https://thinkingbeyond.education (online research classes, should be free)
https://community.stanford.edu/learning-all/k-12-programs
https://www.g2mathprogram.org/
All the well known summer math camps
Yale Summer Program In Astrophysics
I will include more later when I find them
Talk to coaches good D3 schools like UChicago, MIT, Claremont-Mudd-Scipps, Wellesley, etc when the time is right. It can be helpful for her to take some practice SAT tests so she can self-report good scores when reaching out to coaches at the end of sophomore year / beginning of junior year.
https://talaria.org/how-to-apply
https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mmss/
https://belinblank.education.uiowa.edu/students/sstp/
If you want to ED 0 to UChicago: https://summer.uchicago.edu/pre-college/pre-college/
https://education.wolfram.com/summer-research-high-school/
https://hs.sas.upenn.edu/summer-programs/academies/experimental-physics
https://www.summer.ucsb.edu/programs/research-mentorship-program/overview
Which state are you in?
Anonymous
10/10/2025 00:52
Subject: Is Caltech mostly for geniuses who want to do super nerdy research?
MIT has a huge competition culture and naturally attracts those kids. On the other hand, the kids taking graduate math classes at 14 might prefer Caltech or Princeton.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:In reality, Caltech is for MIT rejects. I haven’t heard anyone chose Caltech over MIT.
Yet Caltech sually has higher stats.
The discrepancy in stats is trivial if at all. And stats is only a small part of the package. There is generally a huge achievement gap between MIT and Caltech admits.
According to what? Can you point to a source?
Putnam competition?
(I do not have a horse in this race, it's just what I thought of immediately as something where MIT has recently been cleaning Caltech's clock.)
Anonymous
10/10/2025 00:50
Subject: Is Caltech mostly for geniuses who want to do super nerdy research?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:In reality, Caltech is for MIT rejects. I haven’t heard anyone chose Caltech over MIT.
Yet Caltech sually has higher stats.
The discrepancy in stats is trivial if at all. And stats is only a small part of the package. There is generally a huge achievement gap between MIT and Caltech admits.
According to what? Can you point to a source?
Putnam competition?
(I do not have a horse in this race, it's just what I thought of immediately as something where MIT has recently been cleaning Caltech's clock.)
Putnam competition doesn’t say anything about outcomes, just how many IMO winners attend your school. Princeton is commonly understood to be the best math program in the country- it does substantially worse than MIT every year, Putnam has little to do with mathematical excellence. It’s a math competition.
Anonymous
10/10/2025 00:37
Subject: Is Caltech mostly for geniuses who want to do super nerdy research?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:In reality, Caltech is for MIT rejects. I haven’t heard anyone chose Caltech over MIT.
Yet Caltech sually has higher stats.
The discrepancy in stats is trivial if at all. And stats is only a small part of the package. There is generally a huge achievement gap between MIT and Caltech admits.
According to what? Can you point to a source?
Putnam competition?
(I do not have a horse in this race, it's just what I thought of immediately as something where MIT has recently been cleaning Caltech's clock.)
Anonymous
10/10/2025 00:35
Subject: Is Caltech mostly for geniuses who want to do super nerdy research?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:In reality, Caltech is for MIT rejects. I haven’t heard anyone chose Caltech over MIT.
Yet Caltech sually has higher stats.
For a few years, Caltech was test blind for admission, until they restored testing with this year's class.
Anonymous
10/10/2025 00:29
Subject: Is Caltech mostly for geniuses who want to do super nerdy research?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:In reality, Caltech is for MIT rejects. I haven’t heard anyone chose Caltech over MIT.
Yet Caltech sually has higher stats.
The discrepancy in stats is trivial if at all. And stats is only a small part of the package. There is generally a huge achievement gap between MIT and Caltech admits.
According to what? Can you point to a source?
Anonymous
10/10/2025 00:21
Subject: Is Caltech mostly for geniuses who want to do super nerdy research?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What's her physics and math background? Has she done f=ma, AMC, USAMTS, selective summer programs in math or physics? Is she D3 material in terms of sportiness?Anonymous wrote:CalTech is usually ignored on this board so happy to see a thread. My DD is super smart, wants to major in physics. Does not do any social media, never been to a dance, has friends but stays out of group drama. However, she is also super sporty, outdoorsy, and funny. I have been wondering if CalTech would be a good fit.
Yes she is math team officer, has self study and internships, etc. physics is favorite science. Still too young for the post jr year programs but if you know of any for younger grades let me know! Another issue is young birthday. Many programs you have to be 16, and she won’t be until junior year. Yes D3 material for athletics.
She's done both f=ma and AMC? If so check out this: https://knzhou.github.io/writing/Advice.pdf for physics, and for math, use the AoPS books and alcumus and past questions. Apply for Math Prize for Girls if she does well on AMC.
For summer:
https://thinkingbeyond.education (online research classes, should be free)
https://community.stanford.edu/learning-all/k-12-programs
https://www.g2mathprogram.org/
All the well known summer math camps
Yale Summer Program In Astrophysics
I will include more later when I find them
Talk to coaches good D3 schools like UChicago, MIT, Claremont-Mudd-Scipps, Wellesley, etc when the time is right. It can be helpful for her to take some practice SAT tests so she can self-report good scores when reaching out to coaches at the end of sophomore year / beginning of junior year.