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Caltech Welcomes Its Newest Class Act

September 17, 2010

During the week of September 19, more than 200 young men and women are converging on the campus of the California Institute of Technology to start a fresh chapter in both their lives and Caltech's. They include a Science Olympiad winner who's also a tae kwon do instructor; a mathematics whiz who served as a concertmaster with the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra; and a saxophone player who was named her high school's female athlete of the year for her feats in volleyball, basketball, softball, and track, not long after becoming one of 91 students nationwide to score a perfect 36 on her ACT college-entrance exams.

There's also the antique auto enthusiast who has spent hundreds of hours restoring vintage cars and trains; a second ACT ace who's a U.S. Presidential Scholar, violinist, and high-school orchestra conductor; and the first-place winner in the 2010 Intel Science Talent Search—a Caltech alumni daughter who won a $100,000 scholarship for inventing a software navigation system to improve spacecraft travel through the solar system. Her project was inspired by the work of a Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist who himself arrived on campus as a freshman this month—39 years ago.

Just how much has changed in those 39 years? According to the Beloit College Mindset List, an annual compilation of cultural influences on the lives of entering freshmen nationwide, Caltech's newest students belong to a peer group that is unlikely to write in cursive, considers e-mail a plodder's form of communication (never mind snail mail!), is accustomed to having rock bands play at presidential inaugurations, and regards Beethoven as both a composer and a canine.

They can't remember a time when Czechoslovakia was a country, when "venti half-caf vanilla latte" wasn't street-corner lingo, when Russians and Americans didn't cohabit in space, and when Ruth Bader Ginsburg wasn't a justice of the United States Supreme Court.

And if they're coming to Caltech, they may not remember a time when they weren't the top student in their school, school district, city, town, or suburb, or perhaps even their state.

"The students who applied to Caltech this year were one of the most competitive group of applicants we've ever had," says Ray Prado, who oversaw this year's admissions cycle as the Institute's acting director of admissions. "It's not just that they're standouts academically, but that they bring in so many other talents in areas like music, sports, and community service. They are an extremely impressive group of young people."

Caltech's Class of 2014 was selected from a pool of close to 5,000 applicants—"the largest number we've ever received," says Prado. Slightly over 600 were offered admission, and 226 are enrolling. The new class is 40 percent female—"among the highest number of women who have ever enrolled at the Institute," says Prado. Eight percent of the entering students are underrepresented minorities, also one of the largest groups in that category ever to enroll. (Scroll down to the end of this article for more statistics on Caltech's entering class.)

Academically, the new class does nothing to tarnish Caltech's reputation as a magnet for committed overachievers. Just about all of them graduated in the top 10 percent of their high-school class. Their SAT scores hover around 2250 (out of a possible 2400), and ACT results for those who opted for that test average 34 (out of a possible 36).

According to Prado, the new class also scores high in its commitment to community service. "They tutor, they volunteer in hospitals, and they've worked with the underprivileged both here and overseas," he says. One student has been both a juror and an attorney with the San Diego Teen Court, which sends volunteers into the schools to teach about the juvenile justice system and enables them to take on active legal roles in various juvenile court cases. Several of Caltech's new frosh have been involved in programs that teach computer skills to senior citizens.

"We feel we've got a terrific group of students, and we're particularly pleased about how many women and underrepresented minorities have chosen to come to Caltech," says Prado. "Our entire undergraduate admissions staff has worked very hard to reach out to these groups, and this is a testimony to the success of those efforts. Overall, this was a great year and a great class."

This latest crop of Caltechers, whose sinister classmate (per Beloit) could have been "Hal the computer, had it remained operational," begins first term on September 27.

CALTECH CLASS OF 2014 BY THE NUMBERS