<p>Hi MITChris!</p>
<p>I’m going to confess that I have not read through all the other responses, so forgive me if I’m now off-topic. I did want to answer your questions and tell you how incredibly impressed we were with MIT’s admissions process! It was BY FAR the best, most transparent, most user-friendly of all my son’s schools.</p>
<p>What did we like? Lots of thing!</p>
<p>The blogs!! Wow. The blogs were incredibly helpful. They were very informative, in terms of the process itself, and in terms of what you’re looking for in an applicant. But they were also informative in terms of what my son can expect at MIT – they said a lot about the people who attend, the people who’ve attended, and the people who work there. They were quirky, and funny, and smart, and perfectly brief but enlightening. They gave us so much insight into the school.</p>
<p>The fact that you’re on here day in and day out answering questions (and that questions are answered on the blogs). The fact that you (and MIT others) are so refreshingly honest and transparent.</p>
<p>The (can’t remember what they’re called) video thingies that my son was able to watch on his computer. Great stuff.</p>
<p>The application!!! BY FAR the best application he filled out. He loved the somewhat prying questions that inherently prompted him to reveal more about himself – without having to go on and on about it. Loved the word limits. Perfectly appropriate. Led him to really let you know who he is, but he didn’t feel like he had to write a novel about it. And he didn’t have to guess what admissions wanted to know. He just had to answer the questions!</p>
<p>The kindness at all times. We got the impression, over and over again, that MIT admissions personnel are very kind and genuine. No cold, callous people on the other end of the phone, on the blogs, or on CC. Just general kindness towards others. Much appreciated!</p>
<p>The chilled-out interview! My son somewhat reluctantly showed up in his jeans and polo shirt, because he felt that best represented who he is day in and day out, and lo and behold, the interviewer answered his door in his shorts and t-shirt with bare feet, fresh-out-of-bed hair, and some stubble. My son LOVED this! 
They proceeded to have a nice Sunday morning conversation for the next 35 minutes, which was just about exactly how much the interviewer said he would use.</p>
<p>MIT always kept us informed, more than any other school. By far.</p>
<p>The MIT website is definitely THE best. (As it should be, one would think. ) Easy to navigate, really easy to track stuff. Like everything else about the MIT process – pretty transparent. If my son ever forgot exactly where he was in the process, he could just sign in to the site and know immediately what he had to do. He REALLY liked the website! Between the application and the website, everything was very clearly laid out. There were no questions along the way; he just had to read the directions.</p>
<p>The TUBES!!! My son loved the tube! What fun! And the cards – at Valentine’s and at Christmas. Nice, personal touches!</p>
<p>What didn’t we like?</p>
<p>Well, I can only think of one thing. I sure wish the financial aid could have come out sooner. As it was, it came out much sooner than we originally thought it would, which was nice. And, admittedly, many schools sent theirs out at about the same time. But MIT is so special and such a dream school, that we really, really couldn’t wait to find out if my son could afford to go. Sadly, we think he probably cannot. (But it’s not a done deal yet.) The sooner we could have found that out, the better. Something about MIT being such a dream made knowing earlier all the more important to us. It was like we couldn’t fully celebrate his acceptance until we knew. And now we know. And now we see that we probably shouldn’t really celebrate his acceptance. Sad. But that’s okay. If not now, then maybe for grad school! We will see.</p>
<p>Thanks, MITChris! You’ve been awesome!</p>