Class of 2030, if you’re a huge STEM nerd and want a shot at Caltech, you must have these (considering it’s already hella difficult considering aid):
1. Supervised research + a letter of recommendation from your mentor. Make sure you get the LOR early on and don’t get screwed over by your mentor (i’m pointing fingers at somebody right now)
2. STEM Portfolio: take videos of all of your STEM projects (experiments, robots, etc.), save all of your coding projects on GitHub, have presentations just in case.
3. Have certificates from all Science Fairs you take part in!
4. If you ever did a STEM internship, make sure you have a letter of recommendation to support this.