CALTECH

*The following is a list of materials required for a complete application for first-year admission. If
your application is missing any one of these components, it will be considered incomplete.
• Common Application or the Coalition Application with the Supplemental Application
Essays
◦ Caltech does not have a preference between the Common Application or the
Coalition Application. We advise that you use the best platform for your application
process.
◦ Caltech is also a QuestBridge Partner. Students may apply for Caltech through the
QuestBridge National College Match.
• $75 application fee or fee waiver (by request)
• Standardized tests
• Teacher evaluations
• Secondary School Report
◦ This is a document that is sent to Caltech by your high school college counselor. It
provides context about your school that helps the Admissions Committee evaluate
your application holistically.
• Academic transcripts
• Additional requirements of our international citizen applicants:
◦ TOEFL scores: Required of all international citizens unless 1) your native language
is English or 2) you have studied for two or more years in a school where English is
the language of instruction. The latter must be completed prior to the application
deadline. We do not accept the IELTS or any other substitute for the TOEFL
requirement.
*So basically for Caltech, you have 2 essay to hand in:
-Personal essay in the Common App/Coalition App
-Supplemental application essay:
In addition to the personal essay in the Common Application or the Coalition Application,
applicants for first-year admission to Caltech must complete required supplemental short-answer
essays. These are questions that the Admissions Committee has devised to get to know you better as
a student, scientist, and person, and ascertain who you'll be on our campus. Below are the essay
prompts for Caltech's application for first-year admission.
• Describe three experiences and/or activities that have helped develop your passion for a
possible career in a STEM field. (Your response for each experience/activity should range
between 10-120 words.)
• Much like the life of a professional scientist or engineer, the life of a "Techer" relies heavily
on collaboration. Knowing this, what do you hope to explore, innovate, or create with your
Caltech peers? (Your response should range between 250-400 words.)
• Caltech students are often known for their sense of humor and creative pranks. What do you
like to do for fun? (Your response should range between 250-400 words.)
• The process of discovery best advances when people from various backgrounds,
experiences, and perspectives come together. How do you see yourself contributing to the
diversity of Caltech's community? (Your response should range between 250-400 words.)
*Caltech requires a $75 nonrefundable application fee to be submitted with your preferred
application platform.
*Here’s how Caltech choose their applicants, pasted from their official website.
Let's face it—we love all things quantitative at Caltech. And yet, here in the Undergraduate
Admissions Office, our admissions decision-making process is much more of an art than a science.
Instead of simply putting your grades and test scores into a computer to calculate admissibility, we
read every application—and every essay—to get a sense of who you are and whether you would be
a good fit at Caltech. That's why our advice to all our applicants is to take your time preparing your
short answers and your essays. You are more than a GPA and a set of test scores!
So, how do we make decisions? We start by asking ourselves the following three questions.
Are you academically prepared?
We first look for academic ability by evaluating test scores, grades, and recommendations. Caltech
students are gifted in math and science and are also good test takers. If you have low math and
science test scores, we will look for evidence of abilities in other parts of your application. Even if
you have done well on your standardised tests, we will confirm that ability with your grades and
teacher recommendations. Our admissions counsellors read applications from the geographic
regions they have visited and know well. Students are not compared to one another, even if they
come from the same high school, because each student has a different set of life circumstances. We
gather this information from the "personal background" portion of your application and from your
secondary-school profile. If you have taken courses or done research outside of school, be sure to
include those transcripts and, if possible, recommendations from those experiences.
Have you demonstrated a consistent interest in science, technology, engineering, or math?
Caltech students are not only good at math and science; they love those subjects, too. In the
application, you'll have plenty of opportunities to tell us more about your math and science
activities. What is it about STEM that excites you? Whether it's researching or tinkering that you
enjoy, tell us about your experiences! If you have done research, feel free to submit an additional
research mentor evaluation along with your research paper. We want to know what excites you
about science, engineering, technology, or math. Are you ready to push the boundaries of scientific
discovery?
How will you impact Caltech's campus community?
We want to know who you'll be in our labs, our classrooms, and our community. Techers are
collaborative and trustworthy. In the application, you may wonder why we ask you about how you
may want to collaborate with your future Techer classmates. One thing we look for is your ability to
live and work within our campus community. Every piece of information you give us is like
another pixel in the portrait of your life as a potential Techer. Feel free to even tell us about the
things you do when you're not in school. 

*Application deadlines:
Caltech offers two rounds of admission: Early Action and Regular Decision.
Early Action
Early Action is non-binding and non-restrictive. If you apply to Caltech during Early Action, you
can apply to as many other schools as you wish as long as you are not violating their policies. You
are not required to attend Caltech if you are accepted during the Early Action round.
Potential outcomes from Early Action include: accept, deny, and defer. If you are accepted in
Early Action, you are not obligated to attend Caltech. You have until May 1 to give us your
matriculation response. If you are denied in Early Action, you may not reapply during Regular
Decision. If you are deferred in Early Action, you may opt-in to be reconsidered during Regular
Decision. You will be given the opportunity to send in supplemental materials to support your
application.
Regular Decision
Potential outcomes from Regular Decision include: accept, deny, and waitlist. If you are accepted
in Regular Decision, you have until May 1 to give us your matriculation response. If you are denied
in Regular Decision, there is no appeals process. You may reapply for the next fall entry term if you
wish. If you are waitlisted in Regular Decision, you may opt-in to be reconsidered should space
become available in the class after May 1. You will be given the opportunity to send in
supplemental materials to support your application.
Deadlines and Notifications
• Early Action Deadline: November 1
• Early Action Decision Notifications: Mid-December
• Regular Decision Deadline: January 3
• Regular Decision Notifications: Mid-March
• Early Action and Regular Decision Admit Reply Deadline: May 1

*Standardized test:
All students will be given our full consideration through Caltech's holistic review method. The
following standardized test are required for a complete freshman application. We do not accept any
substitutes for these tests.
◦ SAT or ACT
◦ Note: As of July 2018, Caltech no longer requires the SAT Essay or ACT Writing
exam sections. Additionally, these sections will not be considered in the application
review process.
◦ SAT Subject Test in Mathematics Level 2
◦ 1 SAT science subject test: biology (ecological), biology (molecular), chemistry, or physics
How to Submit Your Test Score Information
ALL required tests must be completed prior to the application deadline. If you are applying to
meet our Early Action (November 1) deadline, then you may submit October test scores. If you are
applying to meet our Regular Decision (January 3) deadline, then you may submit December test
scores. If you are taking an exam shortly before your application deadline, we recommend that you
add Caltech to the list of schools that will receive your score report as soon as it becomes available.
We will accept self-reported test score information directly from students submitted either through
the application or through your Caltech Student Portal. We do not require official test score reports
from applicants. We will request official test score information from students who are offered
admission.
The Admissions Committee reserves the right to withdraw the applications of students who do not
submit all of our required testing.
Superscoring Policy
We strongly recommend that you report all of your available standardized test scores because the
Admissions Committee will be certain to review the strongest score in each category, across all of
the exam(s) you've taken. Caltech will superscore across SAT exam dates and across the same test
version. Thus, if you took both the "old" and the "new" SAT, we will not superscore across those
two different versions.
The ACT does not condone superscoring, so Caltech will not calculate a new composite ACT score;
however, if you took the ACT multiple times, the Admissions Committee will take note of the
differences in your score performances across sections.

*Caltech accepts applications from students who have completed the approved curriculum provided
by their home countries. These include, but are not limited to, the IGCSE, O, AS, and A Level
curriculums; Cambridge Pre-U, AP, IB, and local public options may be considered as satisfying
high-school course requirements. The most competitive international applicants whose schools
offer the IGCSE curriculums usually present three A Level exams (the physics exam is
required) with grades of at least an A or B. Competitive applicants whose schools offer the IB
curriculum will have scores of 6 or 7 on their IB exams, including their "predicted" grades.
*Teacher’s evaluation
Caltech requires two letters of evaluation from teachers:
• 1 math or science teacher evaluation
• 1 humanities or social sciences teacher evaluation
You may submit letters of evaluation from teachers who have instructed you during any year of
high school. We recommend asking teachers who can best speak to your performance as a student in
their classroom.
In order to fulfil the humanities or social science teacher evaluation requirement, we ask that you
submit evaluations from teachers who have evaluated your writing. In the past, students have used
recommendations from the following classes to fulfil this requirement: English, Foreign Language,
Philosophy, Religion, History, Economics, Government, Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology.
In addition to the two required teacher evaluations, you are welcome to submit up to
two additional evaluations from a mentor or supervisor who knows you in a different context.
You may submit this letter through the Common Application or Coalition Application, or it may be
emailed directly to our office at ugadmissions@caltech.edu. If your recommender emails the letter
to our office, please be sure the letter includes your full name and birthdate since Caltech does not
have an official form to accompany this additional letter. We will not accept any letters sent by
the student/applicant.

Caltech SAT Requirements (from prep scholar website)

Many schools say they have no SAT score cutoff, but the truth is that there is a hidden SAT
requirement. This is based on the school's average score.
Average SAT: 1560
The average SAT score composite at Caltech is a 1560 on the 1600 SAT scale.
This score makes Caltech Extremely Competitive for SAT test scores.

Caltech SAT Score Analysis (New 1600 SAT)

The 25th percentile New SAT score is 1530, and the 75th percentile New SAT score is 1590. In
other words, a 1530 on the New SAT places you below average, while a 1590 will move you up
to above average.
Here's the breakdown of new SAT scores by section:
25th 75th
Section Average
Percentile Percentile
Math 790 780 800
Reading +
770 750 790
Writing
Composite 1560 1530 1590
*Caltech SAT Requirements (from Caltech official website)
Class of 2022 by the Numbers
Freshman Applications: 8,208
Admit Rate: 6.6%
Enrolled: 231
Gender: 46% women, 54% men
Underrepresented Ancestry: 25%
International: 8%
Middle 50% SAT and ACT test score ranges of enrolled students:
• SAT: 1520-1570
• SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing: 740-780
• SAT Math: 790-800
• ACT Composite: 35–36
• SAT Math Level 2 Subject Test: 800–800
• SAT Physics Subject Test: 770-800
• SAT Chemistry Subject Test: 780-800
• SAT Biology Subject Tests: 770-800