Do you think I can get into Caltech?

Of course you should apply. I'm down the road from Caltech and it has an amazing reputation. It really is one of the best schools in the world, if not THE best for science, math, and engineering.

Good luck!

Your SAT scores are a bit low for Cal Tech. Their average starts at CR: 690, M: 780, W: 720. You're below their averages. However, your grades are good - right where they like them - and your SAT II test scores are excellent. I believe you are a good candidate.

Can you retake the SATs and do a bit better? I'd really like you to get that SAT math section score up. Many engineering schools will give a bit of wiggle room on CR, if your M score is up there. But even with your current SATs, you may be okay. The rest of your package seems strong.

However, admissions at Cal Tech are extremely competitive, so much so that they reject perfect candidates. While I certainly believe it is worth your time to apply, you'd also want to have some good back up schools.

And if you like Cal Tech, and with your test scores, you may want to have a look at these other elite engineering/science/tech schools in the US:

- The Cooper Union

- Rose Hulman Institute of Technology

- Harvey Mudd

- U California Berkeley

- Carnegie Mellon

- Purdue

- U Illinois Urbana Champaign

- U Michigan Ann Arbor

Your SAT scores are in the range for most of these schools. But even for those where they may be a bit low, your SATII scores and your grades are very good, and with the fact that you're an international student, this may mitigate those slightly lower SAT scores. And note that I didn't put MIT on the list, because you're already applying to Cal Tech, and that should be your super reach school. You don't need two of those.

And a very, very solid engineering school, just a notch below elite but rising in the rankings and highly respected, is Rensselaer Polytechnic. I may also have you look at - Olin College (Massachusetts). It's relatively new, but I'm impressed.

Note that, if you get into Olin or Cooper Union, it's free. But obviously admissions are ridiculously selective.

Hey there is this site called collegeconfidential.com. They have forums at talk.collegeconfidential.com and i would recommend you going and signing up there. They have the best forums for admissions, essays, SAT/ACT/AP Prep. Its a great site. Adcoms often browse the site and help as well as teachers, and alumni, and they even have a chance section of the forum where you start a thread list your stats and the school you want to go to and usually anywhere from 5-10 people give you a realistic response and like i said some are admissions officers