Caltech says grades are secondary to genuine curiosity. Here's the evidence they look for.

Caltech's guidance emphasizes a genuine love of math and science and looks for self-directed intellectual exploration. A student who took AP Physics and earned an A is less interesting to Caltech than one who built a telescope, taught themselves orbital mechanics, or runs a math circle.

Families optimize the transcript and stop there. Caltech, MIT, and similar schools look for intellectual initiative, what the student pursued because they wanted to know, not because it was assigned. The evidence lives outside the gradebook.

Tafel surfaces whether a STEM student's record shows real, self-directed exploration, and what the next project or output should be.