hey everyone! i’m a rising senior this year and mit has been my absolute dream school for a few years now. usually i feel like chancing is futile when it comes to top schools, but i’ve recently been doubting myself and maybe someone with experience can give some insight.
white female,
major: chem e
minor: philosophy or astrophysics… very broad range of subjects. i am curious about a lot of things.
my dream career is an astronaut, however i’d LOOOVE to do something in space exploration, whether i’m an astronaut or not.
i’ve visited mit twice: through a summer program and w/ family.
Objective:
SAT: not submitting
ACT (breakdown): 36 (36 S, 35 M, 35 R, 36 W)
SAT II (subject, score): Physics (750) Math II (taking this fall)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.8
AP (place score in parentheses): Physics I&II (4, 4) Biology (4), Lang (4), USH (5)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Chem, Gov, Eco (both), Calc BC, Lit. Intro to eng and College psych as electives.
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel, etc.): FIRST Dean’s List Award Finalist. I’m submitting a ChemE project to regeneron and doing ISEF affiliated fairs later this year too, so hopefully that pays off.
Common Awards (AP Scholar, honor roll, NM things, etc.): AP scholar w/ distinction, i got a 1470 on my PSAT so i’m expecting at least NM commended this fall (new york). other than that, i was named a rensselaer medalist, a few school awards…
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (name, grade levels, leadership, description):
-FIRST Robotics, 9-12. treasurer (soph year), dean’s list finalist (jr year), head of electrical department (sr year)
-Girls Who Code (school chapter), 11-12. founder, president. 1st place winner of U’s entrepreneurship competition. collected data before and after student participation to gauge the effectiveness of female peer mentorship in STEM (lowkey wanna write a paper w/ this data but i dont know if i’ll have time to: help needed if u have experience w/ social science).
-National Honor Society, 10-12. president (sr year), junior VP (jr year)
-Science Honor Society, 10-12. president (sr year), secretary (jr year)
-March for Our Lives (school chapter), 11-12. chair of protest leadership (jr-sr year). (led peaceful school protest among entire student body)
-Varsity Tennis, 10-12. not much here, i just really like playing tennis. i’m ok at it, not playing in college tho.
Job/Work Experience:
-paid intern at DNA Learning Center (all throughout jr year). i used genbank and PCR to classify invertebrates found by high schoolers all over long island. it was pretty cool and encourages students to pursue scientific research. i did it for 10 months, and i think i want to go back this school year if i have time.
either way, should I get a rec from my boss to verify i was a good intern?
Volunteer/Community Service:
i’m not exactly sure how many hours, but i have coordinated a lot of community service efforts for NHS/SHS as an officer. all causes i’m passionate about:
-donations to women’s domestic violence shelter
-mental health awareness
-school-wide recycling efforts
-heart health awareness
etc, etc. i could go on.
Summer Experience:
small science camps freshman and soph summers, such as creatingSTEAM (we connect the dots) and envision engineering leadership camp.
the most impressive has been doing research at U this summer. i engineered a flame retardant spray-on solution for shrubbery to mitigate the effects of wildfires while remaining nontoxic to plants and animals, and it’s the first of it’s kind. again, being displayed at ISEF affiliated fairs, regeneron STS, etc. i’m in the process of getting patented, and i have one publication affiliated with it/our control published in the journal of forestry right now.
also, on my mit portal thingy under summer experience, i put that i really enjoy reading for enjoyment instead of school class requirements. i wish i could tear through books all summer, but that’s beside the point.
Essays: in progress, but i think these are my final topics.
fun: kickboxing and dying my hair red… how they are so different but really give me strength and confidence in a similar way
dept: writing about chem e and philosophy minor, how science is great but having a humanities background could supplement that.
community contribution: discussed being a woman in engineering, having a teacher explicitly tell my parents that girls aren’t interested in sciences, and then helping my female peers through the creation of girls who code. we’ve been able to help get girls engineering internships which is cool. also my school has NO comp sci classes. yes, NONE. whatsoever. so this is something that hits home.
world i come from: my mom is the only person in my family to go to college, but isn’t even able to use her degree because she quit her job to raise me. this had an effect on me as i watched her get really sad about not having a professional life and making me question “having it all” at a young age.
biggest struggle: a bit private, but it has to do with self-image and confidence.
Teacher Recommendation #1: school research program advisor. basically my #1 fan and biggest supporter, helped me start girls who code when i was facing tension over it w/ principal. this one WILL make me cry.
Teacher Recommendation #2: robotics advisor that has known me for 3 years. during the school year, i see her for hours after school, she really gives great academic advice and helped me win dean’s list award.
Counselor Rec: i’m supposed to fill out a brag sheet about myself with my parents to assist in his letter. either way, cool guy, helped me find a lot of summer opportunities b/c i’m very passionate about my potential major. eh.
Additional Info/Rec: research mentor at stonybrook, possibly my boss @ from internship if necessary. for additional info, i’m thinking about discussing not having a lot of support from teachers before high school, and coming into high school as a mediocre student and eventually being REALLLLY self motivated. it would explain my pretty average science/math grades from 8th grade (included on transcript :-(((( )
Art Supplement: while i was bored and needed an outlet this summer, i made a small collage of pictures from my school gun violence protest. i was actually really passionate about the students against gun violence movement, i want to showcase that/my creativity here. getting involved w/ student activism in college is a thicc goal for me
should i submit the ChemE project or girls who code research data as my research supplement?
SUGGESTIONS TO STRENGTHEN APP are welcome 
thx