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At just 19, Rishika Suntharam has already achieved what many would consider impossible.
Raised in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, the former SMK Puteri student scored 10A+ in SPM before continuing her A-Levels at Kolej Yayasan UEM under the Shell Malaysia Scholarship.
In 2026, she received offers from multiple top global universities including Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, and University of California, Los Angeles, before ultimately committing to Caltech.
And with that, I became the only Malaysian to be accepted by Caltech’s Class of 2030.
From tracing galaxies to chasing AI answers
Long before she knew what data science was, Rishika was already fascinated by patterns.
“As a kid, I used to trace the spirals of the Milky Way,” she shared.
That curiosity later evolved into a deep passion for mathematics, eventually leading her into machine learning research.
Together with her mentor, Rishika conducted 270 gradient descent experiments, which earned her a spot presenting at an international conference in Naples, Italy.
But for Rishika, this is just the beginning.
“I don’t have the answers yet. But I’ll continue chasing them,” she said.
No exposure or roadmap
While many assume students aiming for Ivy League or top-tier universities have access to elite resources, Rishika’s journey was very different.
“The biggest challenge was the lack of exposure. From competitions like olympiads to scholarship opportunities, I had to figure everything out on my own from researching programmes to learning how to write a strong personal statement.”
Unlike students from elite institutions with structured guidance, Rishika built her own roadmap from scratch. But that independence would soon become her biggest strength.
‘I thought I wasn’t good enough’
Even with her achievements, self-doubt crept in, with Rishika revealing that she nearly didn’t apply to Caltech at all.
“With an acceptance rate of just 2 to 3 percent, I believed getting into Caltech was out of reach.
“I was already bracing myself for rejection before I even hit the submit button,” she admitted.
But instead of backing out, she chose to try anyway so that even if she were to be rejected, she’d have no regrets at the end of the day.
At 6.30am, just before her Further Mathematics exam, Rishika received an email informing her of a status update from Caltech.
After calling her mum, she opened the email and saw one word staring right back at her: “Congratulations”.
“I started crying, and so did my mum. Two hours later, I sat for her exam while still processing the fact that I had been accepted into one of the world’s toughest universities,” she recalled.
Despite being a top scorer, Rishika emphasised that success isn’t just about academics.
Throughout her journey, she Co-founded Girls In Numbers which empowered over 1,200 Malaysian girls in mathematics, competed in international hackathons, built AI tools like scam detection software and conducted advanced research alongside global scholars.
Inspiring others
For Rishika, this milestone goes beyond personal achievement and she hopes her story can inspire more Malaysian students, especially girls, to aim higher.
“If one girl in Malaysia sees this and thinks ‘maybe me too’, that matters more to me than the offer itself.”
Looking ahead, she plans to dive deeper into AI research, with hopes of one day contributing to projects at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
But Rishika’s also committed to giving back and aims to expand her initiative across Southeast Asia to create more opportunities for women in STEM.
Her message to others dreaming big is simple: “The playing field may not be level, but that does not make your dream impossible.”
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