<p>Wow, so many people with amazing stats were waitlisted/rejected. </p>
<p>Congrats to everyone who was accepted!</p>
<p>I interpreted Mollie’s point to be simply that it’s important to present your strengths fully and completely in an application. </p>
<p>Adcoms don’t see the person, they see the file. So if you are not admitted, that decision is not based on whether or not you are intrinsically a unique, interesting person who could add a great deal to the campus. It’s based on whether your paperwork presents you that way, or not. Part of your paperwork consists of your essays, but don’t forget, it also consists of letters of recommendation and (ideally) a report from an interviewer. A variety of people have the chance to weigh in on your strengths. I think that on CC, when everyone just looks at the stats, many people forget about this aspect.</p>
<p>In my daughter’s class a boy who’d been an Eagle Scout and on the robotics team was admitted. Why him? There were probably scores of male applicants with those two activities and with equally high standardized scores. What I remember about him, though, is that he was also a varsity ski jumper. Pretty unusual.</p>
<p>There was also a girl from a rural area who was very interested in science. I think perhaps she had done a research project. She had equally high standardized scores. Why her? She lived on a cattle ranch and had participated on many cattle drives over the years. Pretty unusual.</p>
<p>One of my daughter’s best friends had been interested in computers for years, and had tinkered around building stuff. She had equally high standardized scores. Why her? She also was a highly gifted varsity athlete in two sports: volleyball and baseball.</p>
<p>These are just three examples, but I could go on and on. Did you know that Piper on this board flew airplanes in high school? My daughter’s application included a lot of information about math, science, but she also wrote about art and submitted a portfolio. This year, and the previous two years, she designed the poster that went out in the tubes. The point I’d emphasize is that ALL OF THESE STUDENTS had great grades and test scores in math and science. When you read some people on this board claiming that kids get in who can’t handle the math and science, don’t believe it, because it’s not the case.</p>
<p>Here’s some advice for any student thinking of applying to college. Sit down and think about finishing this sentence: “I’m probably the only kid in my high school who has …” Think about what really makes you different and unique. You can convey this information in your essays, but think also about adults who know you and can fill out of the complete picture.</p>
<p>And you know what? If you do all of that, and you still don’t get in to MIT, you will land somewhere else where you can thrive.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>… er, no.</p>
<p>
Precisely.</p>
<p>Although a grant application may ask for different information from an undergraduate application, both applications require the applicant to figure out what the application readers want and to arrange his qualifications to best make the case that he is the one to pick.</p>
<p>
When applying for a grant, you are trying to convince the reader that your work is interesting and important, and that you are the best person in the world to do it. The science isn’t the whole story – it’s also about what you bring to the table. </p>
<p>Any application process is about convincing someone to spend limited resources on you, because you are the best person on whom to spend the resources. The exact qualities being examined will vary by the particular application, of course, but proficiency in presenting the best possible application for the particular application process is a generalizable skill.</p>
<p>
But, as I said above, it’s a lot easier to sort faculty candidates based on achievement than it is to sort high school seniors based on achievement. </p>
<p>My grant is an NIH F31 – a predoctoral training grant. I’ve been going around the lab saying I’m on the dole now. :)</p>
<p>That’s great advice for future applicants, CalAlum, and I wish I had focused a little bit more on that before I started my application. </p>
<p>The only issue I have is with the idea of colleges accepting kids based on their one unique factor. There is no doubt in my mind that all of the “unique” kids can ALSO handle the work, I’m just not sure whether “I’m the only person in my school who has been yodeling since she was three” should hold priority over “I’m passionate about and committed to my subject, I excel in it on a daily basis, and I will continue to excel”, even though the yodeler is clearly more unique. It seems like people who fit the second description routinely get rejected from HYPSMIT, and I think it’s just a shame. And what if you really do enjoy something non-unique/stereotypical/boring? Ski-jumping does not appeal to me and neither do cattle driving or varsity athletics. I haven’t found any hobby that “stands out” that I want to pursue (and it’s not for lack of trying), so my application was full of science/research/artsandcrafts/singing/things that EVERYONE does. But I wrote about really want I enjoy, and I can’t help that all of my hobbies happen to be popular. And I don’t excel enough in any of them to be counted as any kind of superstar, so I’m sort of in this awkward middle ground where I’m just Average. At the same time, I know that I could do well at any of the ivies – likely, better than a yodeler or a ski-jumper. </p>
<p>But anyway, there’s nothing I can do about it, and my applications are done anyway, so I guess just live and let live, eh? :)</p>
<p>Edit:// Oops, sorry mollie, didn’t see your post before I posted – thanks for the clarification on what a grant application is like, I guess it’s more similar to a college app than I thought! I’m hoping it is less focused on the scientist’s personality though? Because I’d love to go into some sort of research and writing about what kind of person I am on an informal level again would just be miserable hahah.</p>
<p>You will be fine, CanaryK. You’re a strong writer, and given your longstanding interests in all things math/science, I predict you will have great success wherever you go.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Sweet. Congrats!</p>
<p>@MilesToGo: Are you a US resident? You say 'Mumbai, India –> MIT ‘14’ in your ‘location’, but you also say ‘deffered EA’, and EA is only for US residents…</p>
<p>^ She has US citizenship, according to another post of hers, but lives in India. Therefore, she’s considered a domestic applicant.</p>
<p>I see, thanks. :-)</p>
<p>I saw that someone here took the TOEFL instead of SAT? Since when does TOEFL replace SAT?</p>
<p>nathalia, MIT’s testing requirements can be found [url=<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/standardized_test_requirements/index.shtml]here[/url”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/standardized_test_requirements/index.shtml]here[/url</a>].</p>
<p>Non-native English speakers can choose to take the TOEFL and two SAT II subject tests, or they can choose to take the SAT I and two SAT II subject tests. This has been MIT’s policy for at least the past five years.</p>
<p>I agree with this poster completely. It appears that not only must your essay be excellent, it must also be witty/humorous, and make the adcom laugh out loud, so that his/her otherwise dreary day full of reading boring essays gets a bit more bearable, and so that the adcom will “remember” the applicant’s name and advocate for him/her in the admissions review meetings! Infact in a meeting given by our school counselors to parents, the senior sounselor gave the impression that the student should come across as a standup-comedian (exagerating, of course)! Unless you crack a joke, you are nobody! I sincerely hope that academically top-shot univs dont lay so much emphasis on such “intagible” attributes!</p>
<p>^The most important factor in MIT admissions is “Character/Personal Qualities” ([MIT</a> Office of the Provost, Institutional Research](<a href=“MIT Institutional Research”>MIT Institutional Research)). So, yes, it does place such emphasis on intangible attributes. However, the essay is only considered ,it is neither important nor very important (ibid).
Personally, my essays were not at all humorous. I do sometimes enjoy sneaking a literary reference into an English paper in a jocular manner, but most of what I wrote for MIT was rather elegiac.</p>
<p>Sorry, I have to see the “Character/Personal Qualities” element as equivalent (more or less) to “We take the people we want.” I don’t think it’s possible to find out much reliably about a person’s character without actually knowing the person, and preferably for a period of many years.</p>
<p>I didn’t apply to MIT (I’m a Poli Sci, not a math/science, hopeful) but a girl in my Calculus class did and she got accepted. She’s very smart, but I don’t think she will be going to MIT (her words). She’s Mormon and got a full ride to BYU, so she will probably go there (again, her words).</p>
<p>Basically, to all you WAITLISTED CCers: Have Hope! There will at least be ONE extra spot for ONE of you. Anyways, best of luck to all! :)</p>
<p>Wow…I am a junior now and was thinking of applying but there is really no point. This school is impossible to get into unless you are super-human. Im just an above average guy.</p>
<p>nsmsfsat: if you think you might possibly want to go there, please don’t make the mistake of not applying. I am very much a normal person, nothing too special about me, no science or tech awards (and white male). I applied on a limb after visiting a bunch of schools in boston, and now I am waitlisted (which is a miracle). Even if I don’t get in, I am glad to say I tried. It was well worth the experience finding out more about myself.</p>
<p>^ nmsfsat - If I had been on CC before applying, I would not have applied. I got in early. Seriously, this site is not representative, and plenty of people here are just Wrong. I mostly advise people to stay away :)</p>
<p>Guys,
Anyone knows how many international students, in total, are accepted ?
Please, Enlist them along with the country and no. of students accepted from that country.
:)</p>