California Institute of Technology

Please list three books, along with their authors, that have been particularly meaningful to you. For each book, please include a sentence explaining their influence upon you (200 characters max). Please note that your response is not limited to math, science or school-assigned texts. Book 1: Jurassic Park This was the first book I read … Read more Books I Love

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. I feel myself jump as the ground shakes, and Horace Vandergelder storms out. My heart beats, and all I can think is to … Read more The World’s A Stage

Scientific exploration clearly excites you (otherwise you wouldn’t be applying to Caltech). What is it about Caltech’s opportunities and resources that will best fuel your intellectual curiosity and develop your passion for science, technology, math or engineering? (500 words max) “It focuses 201 precise beams of radiation directly on the tumor. Scary isn’t it?” As … Read more STEM Education

What has been your most profound or surprising intellectual experience? or, Tell us about an experience that has changed the way you view yourself. I arranged the bottles in front of me: 30% acrylamide, TEMED solution, ammonium persulfate, Tris buffer, and distilled water — all of the materials I needed to run electrophoresis on the … Read more Real Research

Topic of your choice. My choice: “Describe something you possess and its importance to you.” My legs dangled high above the ground as I sat next to my mom on the train. As I fidgeted the way little children do, my mother spoke to me. “You have plump fingers, not thin and bony like mine.” … Read more My Life On My Hands

Evaluate a significant experience you have had and its impact on you. According to English folklore, a woman with a widow’s peak will outlive her husband. Well tell that to a self-conscious fifth-grader and tell me how she responds. In 5th grade, a girl in my class sidled up to me, grinning, and informed me, … Read more Widow’s Peak

Interest in math, science, or engineering manifests itself in many forms. Caltech professor and Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman(1918-1988) explained, ‘I’d make a motor, I’d make a gadget that would go off when something passed a photocell, I’d play around with selenium’; he was exploring his interest in science, as he put it, by ‘piddling around … Read more Herpetology

Caltech students have long been known for their quirky sense of humor and creative pranks and for finding unusual ways to have fun. What is something that you find fun or humorous? While my classmates conversed in hushed tones about philosophy, I stood alone in the back corner of the room—hula hooping.My Humanities teacher had … Read more Hulahooping in Humanities

If you could meet a character from a book or a historical figure, who would it be and what would you ask them? (200 words) “Oh d-d-d-d-dear, dear!” Among the lush trees of the Hundred Acre Woods, a little stuffed pig named Piglet searches for his friends. Despite being a tiny ball of anxiety, he … Read more Small in Size but Big in Heart

Caltech students have long been known for their quirky sense of humor, whether it be through planning creative pranks, building elaborate party sets, or even the year-long preparation that goes into our annual Ditch Day. Please describe an unusual way in which you have fun. (200 word max) Is she moody… or just broody? An … Read more Curing All Cases of Moodiness