A Chinaman's Chance at MIT

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>Hi, everyone. Thanks a lot for reading my post.
I came to the States 3 years ago from Shanghai, China, and I frequently g back for volunteering and visits.</p>

<p>Here are my stats:</p>

<p>SAT I: took it 3 times, most recent one: 1560, 760 V 800 M
SAT IIs: Math IIC 800, Physics 800, Chemistry 790, World History 800, US History 760, Writing 740
APs: calc bc 5, chemstry5, physics c mech. 5, physics c e&m 5, world history 5, us history 5(projected score; they lost my free-response section!!!), english language and comp. 5 </p>

<p>GPA: 4.36 weighted, 4.0 unweighted, ranked 2nd in class,
College courses: have taken/am taking/will take 6 math courses at Pomona, Harvey Mudd colleges. Engineering Physics at Citrus College
Use all resources available to me at my public high school, courseload difficult.</p>

<p>ECs:
Math Club co-president, science club president, JETS Varsity captain (1st in S. CA, multiple choice score best in history; free-response sucked though--15th nat'l), currently organizing Science Olympiad, Physics Bowl/Olympiad teams at my school(not many ppl interested...) Bio research at Keck Graduate Institute (now)
Speech and Debate team treasurer; won many awards in congress, policy debate, thmatic interpretation, duo interpretation, etc.; represented team and the USA in a trip to Azerbaijan in 4/2004.
School tutoring for four years
Full-time volunteering last summer: China Shanghai International Arts Festival, shanghai int'l piano competition, and Shanghai Business Daily; worked as a translator, interpreter, organizer, and editor.</p>

<p>Essays for MIT: discussed my experiences being a Communist Young Pioneer(controversial, but decided to take the risk) and how that shaped my life.
my experience in Azerbaijan (a basketball game, in which I discovered another side of my debate coach, an admirable man). creation: taking a shopping cart as my evidence box carrier at a USC debate tournament...conciese, neat short answers...don't have the time to list them all.</p>

<p>Thx a lot everyone. What are my chances?</p>

2

<p>stop that. how many school's boards are you posting this on?</p>

3

<p>Is it not allowed that I wanna discuss about my chances at different colleges???
thx for the post anyway.</p>

4

<p>No, it's allowed... just annoying =&lt;/p>

5

<p>am I the only one that is a bit turned off by all these "chances" threads (from any poster)?</p>

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<p>You are not the only one</p>

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<p>it is kind of annoying, but I sorta can understand why. The feelings of insecurity (w/o knowing what college u will go to) is quite unpleasant. But just so you know, no one here is from the admissions (i think) so we really can't tell you how competitive you really are within your admission pool. I presume you will be counted as an International Student? You do seem to have competitve stats, but that can mean very little since most people applying to top colleges have competitive stats like yours, plenty still get rejected. I guess the best thing for you to do is apply to as many colleges as you think is necessary to guarantee you a college by next year and then pray for the best. Good luck!</p>

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<p>thx sophster. btw, I am not counted as an int'l student because I got my greencard. Will the domestic pool be less competitive than the int'l pool? cuz I think MIT or other top colleges only accept around 5% int'l students.</p>

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<p>shanghaiwes, i can't tell u the stats exactly because i don't know, but in general, i can tell you that you can't compare competition like that. True, internationally, students are only accepted on a 5% basis, but there are fewer int'l applicants than domestic applicants. So it is only natural that more domestic applicants get accepted.</p>

10

<p>Yes, the domestic pool is definitely less competitive than the international pool. MIT's website specifically made a point that successful intl applicants were those who were recognized in some way--regional, national, or international. MIT also has an intl students quota, whereas Harvard and Princeton don't. So, with the same stats as int'l students, Americans or permanent residents will have a bigger chance of being admitted.</p>

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<p>From what I've read MIT takes 100 international students, no matter how big the pool is.</p>

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<p>That number is supposed to increase for the Class of 2009. Let me hunt for that article...</p>

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<p>sophster , yes. please do! i really want to know!</p>

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<p>you have no chance. cuz you havnt applied. tell us all this AFTER youve sent in your app. thx</p>

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<p>Oh, but about the insecurities, we're all in the same boat. I don't think there's a single person on the MIT forum right now who WOULDN'T be devastated by a rejection (or even deferral, for EA-ers). But, you have to realize sooner or later, that there's a certain threshold you reach, where your stats are competitive within the highest circle of colleges and really don't make much of a difference anymore. Your scores and grades will be ABLE to get you into Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and all the rest, but still a large majority of the people with those competitive scores are rejected each year. It comes down to factors that we, online, can't possibly judge - like your interview, your essay, recommendations, how you present yourself to the college in your application. And the rest is thrown to chance - maybe the admissions officer reviewing your application is in a great mood that day, or maybe she/he is extremely stressed and frustrated.</p>

<p>I think I was just EXPECTING the students with stats like shanghaiwes' to be able to recognize that fact. After all, I see an outstanding academic and test record to be a reflection of intelligence, common sense, and worldliness to SOME EXTENT - (though that may be argued). You should know that with near perfect scores, there's no way you WOULDN'T be competitive at these colleges, especially against those of us who don't happen to have such "stats". It's really out of your hands now. All there is left to do is count the days and hope for the best.</p>

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<p>Sophster, here is where I got my information:</p>

<p>This is a quote from Lorelle Espinosa, Director of Recruitment for the Admissions Office (October 19, 2004 issue of 'The Tech'): "“We are capped at admitting around 100 [international students] each year,” Espinosa wrote in an e-mail. </p>

<p><a href="http://www-tech.mit.edu/V124/N46/45admissions.46n.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www-tech.mit.edu/V124/N46/45admissions.46n.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>This was in an article about MIT trying to recruit more internationals increase yield and number of applicants.</p>

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<p>yeah most of the cross admits i know chose Stanford over MIT for CS and chose harvard over MIT coz of the better Financial Aid</p>

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<p>Does that article imply that MIT will probably accept >100 intl applicants this year to increase the international yield?</p>

19

<p>No, I don't think they're increasing admits, only trying to increase yield.</p>