Caltech

The Waiting List

We've been waiting the past 10 days to see if we had additional matriculation commitments coming and and to see what the national landscape seemed to be.  It is now clear that we have had exceptionally strong results this year and that we will not be making additional offers to students from our waiting list.

Every year it is our hope that we will be able to make offers, but the unpredictable nature of admissions from year to year makes this impossible to predict.  I do want to thank everyone who accepted a place on the waiting list for your continued interest in Caltech and most especially for your patience.

We mailed a letter yesterday officially closing the waiting list and will send an email to students later today.  Best wishes to all at the colleges and universities you will be attending.

What's missing?

We were able to finish double checking files for entry errors yesterday and we will be sending emails to all Regular Decision applicants this afternoon.  All Regular Decision applicants will receive one of two emails late this afternoon.

If you are missing a document that is necessary for us to make a final decision on your application, your email will indicate those items that are missing.  Please request that these items be sent to us immediately.  You will not be penalized in any way for a document that has not been received on time, but we do need to receive the missing items within the next week or so.

If we have received all the documents that are necessary to make a final decision on your application, you will receive an email indicating that this is the case.  If for some reason we discover at a later time that we are missing a document, we will contact you directly for that information.

If you do not receive an email from us this afternoon, please contact us so that we can be sure we have the correct email address for you.  Please be sure to check your junk email folder before contacting us.

All Regular Decision applicants should be sure that they have requested that their Mid Year grades be sent to Caltech. 

Still on track

We are still on track to finish processing documents by the end of this week.  It will then take us a couple of days next week to go through applications that appear to be incomplete to be sure that we haven't misprocessed a document.  Students with incomplete files should expect to hear from us on Wednesday afternoon.

You shouldn't be concerned if you haven't received an email indicating your file is complete.  We have quite a few documents left to process and expect many files to become complete this week yet.  As always, remember that students with incomplete files will be given an opportunity to complete those applications with no penalty.

We are making progress

We have now opened all of the mail.  While this may not seem to be a big deal to you, we are pretty excited here in the Caltech Admissions Office.  We now have to finish scanning and linking the documents to your file.  Marta and Christine (our Admissions Coordinators) tell me that they think we will be done scanning and linking by next Friday.  I was pushing for Thursday, but they reminded me that Monday of next week is a holiday.  At that time, we'll be able to double check any files that seem to be incomplete for errors (usually ours) and then let you know what, if anything, is missing from your application.  Remember that we continue to email students as their files complete and that if we are missing documents you will have an opportunity to get them to us without penalty.

Is your application complete?

The truth is, we don't know . . . yet.

Caltech’s Regular Action deadline has passed. We accepted all applications that were submitted by noon (Pasadena) on the 3rd of January.

How can you be sure that we have received your application and that all supporting documents have arrived?

• All Regular Decision applicants should have received an email indicating that we have received your application. If you haven't, please call us at 626.395.6341. There is either a problem with your application or your email address. We want to get this fixed immediately.

• As soon as we process all of the documents for your application we will send you an email indicating that the application is complete.

• Don't panic if you don't receive an email in the next couple of days indicating that your application is complete. We've received 17 bins (big bins) of mail this week and it will take a couple of weeks to get the mail opened, documents imaged and attached to your application. Right now, we don't know what documents we have and what documents are missing. We are working as quickly (and as carefully) as possible so that we can let you know if we still need documents.

• Caltech does require official score reports sent directly from the testing agency. If you have not had them sent to Caltech, you should have them sent immediately. Even if the test scores are on your transcripts you need to have official score reports sent.

I'm often asked why we don't have a website where you can check to see what parts of your application have been received. As many of you will experience, these websites often produce more angst than they relieve. We prefer to communicate proactively with students after we have processed all of your documents and we have double checked your file for errors (our errors). Only then will we communicate that we are missing something. Rest assured that if you are missing a document, you will have ample opportunity to get it to us with no penalty to you.

I'll typically post each Monday with an update on how the mail opening is going.

Regular Decision Deadline!

There is always a lot of confusion about exactly when students need to submit their application to meet our January 2nd Regular Decision deadline. Is it midnight on January 2nd? Midnight where you are? Midnight in Pasadena?

We want to make this simple for you. All Regular Decision applications submitted by noon (Pasadena, CA time) on January 3rd will be considered during the Regular Decision round. We aren't suggesting that you wait until 11:55 a.m. on January 3rd to submit your application, but hope that students who may be working on their application late on January 2nd will have the latitude to work past midnight (in whatever time zone they live) without losing sleep worrying that they may have submitted it too late. Students who find it necessary to mail their application must have it postmarked by January 2nd.

You can, of course, submit your application before January 2nd.

Contacting Us During Winter Break

The Admissions Office will close at noon on December 24th and will not reopen until Monday, January 5th. 

If you are working on your application and have questions for an admissions officer, we will be available via email at ugadmissions@caltech.edu.  With the exception of December 25th and January 1st, we will be checking email and responding to questions regarding the application. 

Please be in touch if we can help.

They are gone . . .

Yes . . . they are gone.  Today we mailed decisions for all Early Action students and non matched QuestBridge applicants who had asked to receive an Early Action decision.  For Early Action, we received a total of 1048 applications and have offered admission to 227 students.  We have held 292 students for further consideration during Regular Decision.  Email notifications will be sent to the email address you provided on your application between 8:00 am and 9:00 am PST on Saturday, December 13th.

I've been asked several times why we don't just email all of the decisions immediately.  I know there are numerous schools that will post or email decisions as soon as they are released.  While students and parents are anxious to know, immediate notification is not always a positive experience for the student.  There are two issues that we have considered in deciding how Caltech makes notifications.  We hear frequently from high school counselors about how disruptive it is for the school when students receive decisions at school.  Counselors also comment on how difficult it is for students to receive an unfavorable decision at school in front of their friends.  Most students in this situation would prefer at least a little time to process their disappointment before having to talk about it with their friends.  We also think, and perhaps this is a little old fashoined for a "tech" school, that it is better to receive the official offer of admission in the mail.  You'll know that the big envelope and letter are real and you'll have something tangible to hold in your hands.  Somehow an unofficial email notification, which leaves room for doubt, feels somehow less dignified than the occasion warrants. 

So we try to mail our decisions before the posted notification date of December 15th and follow with an email so that we can be sure students aren't unduly stressed because a major snowstorm has shut down the mail system.  I do want to point out that snowstorms are never an issue here in Pasadena where it was a chilly 68 degrees today.

Mailing Date!

We are finishing up our Early Action Committee today and have started preparing letters!  We anticipate mailing admissions decisions on Tuesday, December 9th.  All letters sent within the United States are sent via the US Postal Service.  Letters for Admitted students living outside the United States will sent via FedEx.  All other letters for students living outside the United States will be sent via air mail.

We know that letters are sometimes delayed.  For this reason, we will also email decisions to all applicants on Saturday, December 13th.  We expect to release unofficial email notifications between 8:00 am and 9:00 am PST on the 13th.

I know this is an anxious time for students as you rush to the mail box each day to see if the letters have arrived.  Students or parents sometimes call to see if we might just tell them over the phone.  Unfortunately we cannot release decisions over the phone.  If for some reason your official decision letter does not make it to your address, you can contact our office beginning Tuesday, December 16th and we will send you another letter.

I'll post some statistics about the number of applications and number of students offered admission on Tuesday after the letters have gone in the mail.

Catch Caltech Online

There are a couple of upcoming events that you may want to take advantage of:

8:00 pm (PST) tonight (November 25th) is the last of our Online Information Sessions for the fall season.  This is an especially great opportunity for students who haven't been able to take advantage of a campus visit or been able to meet with admissions staff in your own community.  Jamila Everett is leading tonight's session.  She'll do a short presentation on Caltech and will then take questions from the audience.  You can find information on registering for this event at admissions.caltech.edu/events.

On Tuesday, December 2nd from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm (PST) and on Wednesday, December 3rd from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm (PST), we invite you to join our students for an online chat.  They will be available to answer your questions about just what it is like to be a Caltech student.  They'll talk about food, problem sets, student activities, professors, life in the houses and whatever else happens to be on your mind.  You can register for this event at http://caltechchat.gotoextinguisher.com/client/.

On Wednesday, December 10th I will present a new online session--"Making the most of your Caltech application."  This session will run at 5:00 pm (PST) and and will be repeated at 8:00 pm (PST).  This is a great opportunity for students who are working on their Regular Decision applications.  I'll answer some of the most asked questions about applying to Caltech and provide you with concrete recommendations for presenting the best application possible.  This session will also provide opportunities for audience questions.  We will have registration information up on our website shortly at admissions.caltech.edu/events.  We will also send an email announcing this event to students who have previously requested information from Caltech.