2010 chances

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>Hey. I'm currently a high school junior at a charter school, and I was wondering what my chances for MIT were. I lurk a lot so I know the general, but if you guys could point out area's where I could improve, that would be great.</p>

<p>[ul]
[li] SAT I (breakdown): Taking in October. 219 PSAT with not much prep. I've been taking timed SAT's in the summer from BB, and I got 2370, 2390, 2400, and 2360, so expecting a high score.</p>[/li]
<p>[li] ACT: Taking in September, no clue at all.</p>[/li]
<p>[li] SAT II: Math II 800, took physics and ush, expecting 750+ on both</p>[/li]
<p>[<em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0; 5.2 weighted.
[</em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1 / 112
[<em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Bio: 4, AP Euro: 5, AP Cal AB: 5. Currently taking AP phy b, calc bc, envi. sci., ush, eng. lang, and comp sci ab. I think I got a 5 on all of them.
[</em>]Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): I got a 91.5 on the AMC 12, nothing great. Taking Real Analysis and Statics in the fall, and Complex Analysis and Dynamics in the spring. I taught myself MVC and Linear Algebra</p>

<p>Subjective:
[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): NHS, president and founder of MAO, SGA VP. Since it's a charter school, I'm also going to be starting a Mathcounts program in the middle school.
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service: 300 hours at a summer program for kids to teach engineering by the end of this year.
[li]Sports: I played varsity tennis two years, we didn't have it this year. I play tennis at a club as well, as well as rec basketball for two years.</p>[/li]
<p>Other
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): Florida
[</em>] School Type: charter
[<em>] Ethnicity: Indian
[</em>] Gender: M
[<em>] Income Bracket: 75K
[</em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): No, but if my parents went to college outside of America, does that count for anything?
[/ul]</p>

<p>Our school really isn't good at all, and it offers like 12 AP courses in total, except nobody passes them. I've already passed more ap courses than last year's valedictorian. I tutor people for SAT and in math, and I also give presentations at the school for ap exams and such since nobody before me has gotten a 5 on an ap exam, ever lol. I was wondering if I should write about my school involvement this way, and if so, how would I put it in? Any other comments/suggestions are greatly appreciated.</p>

2

<p>I’ve seen you around. IIRC you also said somewhere you’re a year younger than your peers/skipped a grade. Considering how much ahead you are of the rest of your school, how much you took advantage of what you had, you should emphasize your independence (teaching yourself MVC, etc.)</p>

<p>Being Indian/Chinese/Korean sucks, I’m Chinese myself.</p>

<p>Also, just wondering, where did last year’s val go?</p>

<p>You seem to be strongly a math person, and have a few good leadership positions, but you should try to win a few more awards, preferably (inter)national ones. I’m pretty sure that you should be able to reach USAMO if you take AMC again and are lucky, considering the math classes you’ve taken.</p>

<p>So in conclusion, just emphasize your independence and ability to use all the resources you have. Being good at math is sterotypical but you seem to do a good job. I think you got a decent shot. =)</p>

3

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<p>Umm well it will be too late for him because AIME is in March. But you can defiently try to pass the AMC and you can probably add it to your resume. But I dont know how much USAMO will help because thats after admission decisions (unless you get waitlisted).</p>

<p>But even if he was only a rising junior, you are totally overestimating the difficulty of the AIME. My school has like 40 people that get 5s on AP Calc BC, probably around 20 that get 800s on Math II SAT every year…and we’ve only had 4 (might have been a long time ago an additional person for 5) people ever, in all the years, qualify for USAMO. Just saying, but going from 91.5 AMC 12 —> USAMO is way more than luck…it takes a lot of hard work and practice…with of course, some luck.</p>

<p>EDIT: oh and yea, the classes that you’ve taken are nice. You should try to do some physics project with the things you’ve learned this summer. A couple people from my school two years ago (ones at Harvard, ones at Stanford…ones got a CC account that a lot of people know lol) did some Siemens project and got Regional Finalist as a team…and it was over chaos theory and dynamics (or something of that nature), but it had a lot of math in it.</p>

4

<p>Oh and I got a question: How did you manage to take all those really hard math classes? Or did you self-teach all of them?</p>

<p>Im curious because my schools huge (way more AP classes than your school offers) but we don’t offer those kinds of advanced math classes–like Complex Analysis and Dynamics and Real Analysis and Statics. Did you go to a local college?</p>

5

<p>I’m planning on taking them at a university.</p>

<p>I did calc ab in 10th grade and calc bc in 11th grade [which is the normal sequence for us], and I just got a textbook and started working by myself in bc for the 2nd half of the year. I also took physics B in 11th [first time physics has been offered at school in 3 years lol =(] and I’m just going to brush up on the calc portions for Statics. Dynamics’s only pre-req is Statics, so I’ll be fine. Real Analysis has pre-reqs of MVC and Linear. Algebra along with advanced calculus, so I’m going to be reviewing adv. calc. during the summer so I’ll be set for the analysis course. </p>

<p>I did teach myself for the most part. Sadly, I can say that most of what I’ve learned in high school has come through prep books and not classrooms, but you study by yourself a lot in college so it’s good that way haha. </p>

<p>As of right now, I only have a good knowledge of Physics B and calc from Physics C, so I don’t think I really know physics enough to go into it. Plus, I’m really not into researching; I’d rather learn and apply them. </p>

<p>USAMO is definitely a far off goal lol. I also want to review for the AMC and hopefully get around 130+ on them, then get about 7-8 on the AIME, which will probably be tough. I’d be satisfied just taking USAMO once to see what it’s like, instead of like rigorously preparing to qualify for MOP or something, since I really don’t have the experience that other MOP’ers have. </p>

<p>Thanks a lot guys. Do you think you could give approximate percentages of my chances, or is that just going to be a number between 9 and 99 :p</p>

6

<p>bump 10char</p>

7

<p>anyone? =[</p>

8

<p>i think you’re pretty good and just “emphasize your independence and ability to use all the resources you have”. I didn’t do AMC or AIME or any math competitions. In fact, I had ZERO awards except AP Scholar and NM Commended when I applied to MIT EA, and I was accepted EA anyway. But I tried to show how I succeeded in my environment.</p>

9

<p>I think the OP’s chances are fine.</p>

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<p>It’s definitely possible. I taught myself linear algebra and multivariable calculus this year, if only for personal satisfaction. Luckily for me I have a stack of old college textbooks lying around, but I bought a couple books to fill in the gaps. </p>

<p>As the OP said, he tended to learn more from prep books than from classes. Honestly my school doesn’t offer nearly half the APs that I see here, so the best solution for me is to read. A lot. I found myself able to make conversation about European history with somebody who took the AP class simply by reading extensively upon the subject.</p>

<p>I think his application is strong because not only does he excel in his classes (like most of all MIT applicants) but because he actually has interests outside the classroom which he can actually mention in his essay or interview or wherever.</p>

10

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<p>Oh I thought he took them at a college class when I asked. I’ve been teaching myself some more advanced statistics using calculus, but I, honestly, don’t get some of the ideas and it would be nice to have a teacher at a real class teach me…a lot more effective that way.</p>

11

<p>thanks guys. I appreciate the responses.</p>

12

<p>bump bump bump</p>

13

<p>Your record is a lot more impressive than mine and puts you in the ballpark with every other applicant, especially charter/magnet school applicants. I don’t go to a magnet school; I go to a very average one that offers around 4 AP classes, doesn’t have much in the way of proper math and science clubs or olympiads, and if you asked anybody there what the AMC 12 or USAMO was, they wouldn’t know.</p>

<p>Your chances are about as high as MIT and other top colleges set as the bar for applicants from good schools. But I don’t think they like to use the word ‘chance’ to describe admission decisions because it implies capriciousness on their part.</p>

14

<p>The chances of you making USAMO after a 90 on the AMC are close to zero, but the chances of you getting into MIT are quite high =) Good luck!</p>

15

<p>Thanks guys. Also @ WhartonMaster - As long as it’s not 0, I like those odds ;]</p>

16

<p>^ post 5 you can’t get 130+ on the AMC 10 or 12 - a 120 is a perfect score.</p>

17

<p>Err what? </p>

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<p>25 questions x 6 pts per correct answer = 150 perfect score.</p>