A general question.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I felt this belonged here as this is the 'competitive' board where people essentially compare their stats to other people or to the supposed ideals of admissions officers.</p>

<p>Since this is the chances board, let's start it off with a few details about me. My SAT I score is 2160 and I'm not going to change it any time soon. I have a 790 Math II and a 760 Physics. I don't really know how my school calculates GPA, but it's around a 3.9-4.0. I go to a small school that doesn't offer that much in the way of national prestige but has managed to send some people to a few top schools anyway. My extracurriculars aren't very numerous and quite modest so I'm not even going to mention them.</p>

<p>On a more personal note, I have a couple hobbies, some of which playing TF2, programming, mathematics, and, on occasion, reading. I have some friends, some of which are competitive, and a lot of those who really aren't. I find the latter more interesting. I don't put that much effort into school and I probably never really studied much for the SATs either. I feel that retaking the SAT over and over again is a waste of time and money. On an even more personal note, I've always had very ambitious dreams. This doesn't exactly correlate with my record of not doing anything wunderbar but my life has had its fair share of ups and downs.</p>

<p>What I am wondering, essentially, is this: why do you deserve to go to an Ivy League, whereas I might not? Because you've worked hard enough to get around the same grades, or even better, possibly even valedictorian? Because you studied enough to achieve that 2300+? Because you've devoted your time to dozens of activities simply for the purpose of getting into a top school? And for what? What dreams or ambitions?</p>

<p>Ultimately, what is the point of all this for any of you?</p>

<p>I'm not trying to be rude; I want to know what exactly motivates any of you to shoot for these colleges. From a psychological perspective this is very interesting- and probably one of the reasons I joined CC. I've hung around the MIT forum for a while, partly because I want to go there, and partly because I want to try to get a glimpse into the minds of some who went there and some who want to go there. For many students it boils down into numbers and activities because it's comforting and convenient to think about themselves in a quantitative sense. Others, usually undergrads, admissions officers, or alumna, mention that essays and qualitative aspects of a person are equally important, if not more so.</p>

<p>To me this whole board seems like a case study of the human psyche under considerable duress, assuming that basic human physical, emotional, and security needs are met.</p>

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<p>Ok, that’s two topics now I really wanted to talk about. Beaten again…sigh</p>

<p>Anyway, you bring up some interesting points. The entire chance board is a very twisted thing filled with a couple of types of people

  1. Overachievers who need an ego boost
  2. Really bitter people who will try and tear down everyone
  3. A lot of people who have no idea what they’re talking about
  4. Genuinely worried people who want some help
  5. Genuinely helpful people who do know what they’re talking about</p>

<p>Types 1,2, and 3 are a complete and utter waste of space.
Types 4 and 5 face a different problem. 4s might want help but nobody on this board (or anywhere on the internet) is qualified to help them. 5s want to help but can’t since they don’t enough about the 4s. </p>

<p>I’ve looked over quite a few chance threads just out of sheer fascination and haven’t seen any that ended up helping the OP. It’s just not possible.</p>

<p>As to your question of who deserves admission…
We get back to the question of whether your “value” can really be measured. Do grades really determine our worth? I’d argue they don’t completely but they’re all we have right now. And they’re all we’re gonna have for a while. So we have to figure out some metric to deal with them. I’d say if a person gets very high grades consistently in hard classes, they’re either very smart or study very hard or both. And these two traits are both equally valuable in society. I’m more of a not work hard but get by on pure smarts guy. It doesn’t mean i’m better in any way. I would love to be able to sit down and work for a couple of hours at a time but I can’t - It’s just not the way i’m wired. And those work hard but not brilliant people end up going to do great things. We need both types to progress.</p>

<p>I personally want to go to certain school’s because of how they fit me. I want to be surrounded by people as smart as me, I want to be given the opportunity to expand my knowledge and I want to be able to apply that knowledge to change the world. </p>

<p>A couple of questions for you

  1. What about that kid who didn’t study and got a 2400 or 4.0?
  2. What about that kid who joins lots of activites because they’re genuinely passionate about them? who genuinely contribute to these activities?
  3. Why do you want to go to certain schools? and what makes you deserving?
  4. why on earth do you play TF2 when COD4 is so much better. : )</p>
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<p>I wasn’t sure whether to make this topic because it isn’t really a chance thread per se; to be frank I couldn’t care much about a random person’s opinion on the internet unless they were an admissions officer or an undergrad/alumni/alumna there. Well…</p>

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<p>Well, that just shows their personal insecurity more than anything else.</p>

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<p>You encounter these people all over the internet, as well as people who will do it simply because it’s funny, aka ■■■■■■.</p>

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<p>Most people don’t. I try not to make any judgments simply because I don’t know enough about the process to do so, even if they have really low scores because ultimately I still don’t know anything.</p>

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<p>Like I was, at some point. There’s a bit of naivet</p>

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<p>I hate the SAT with a passion. I hate to see all efforts to build a meritocracy crushed by some stupid standardized test. </p>

<p>But I think it’s a little premature to judge people when you yourself seem to not want to change the world in any significant way. You say you have great ambitions and want the opportunity that MIT gives you but admit your ECs are “modest”. Either you’re actually being modest or you’ve never tried to make a difference in the world. I’m sure to many people it sounds like your motivation is no better than those overachievers who don’t know where to direct themselves. What is your motivation?</p>

<p>My motivation is simple, maybe naive. Get the best education I can, hone my skills and expand my knowledge, and then use my considerable talents (modesty not included) to better the lives of others. No bs. </p>

<p>Incidentally, I came across your chance thread while looking around the MIT board and… it’s pretty much everything I think is wrong with the whole chancing thing. Hope you’ve moved on from there.</p>

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<p>The SAT does one thing, though. It puts everyone on a rough but somewhat equal playing field, and although you can’t measure aptitude exactly your performance can be measured based on the range rather than the exact score. What really bothers me about it is that although it’s elementary math I still manage to get one or two questions wrong.</p>

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<p>Well, I said dreams, but ambitions are a different story. Realistically I know that I am one person and that my role in the big picture is very limited, but I want to shape the future in the best way that I possibly can. My extracurriculars are modest because they are very local and I don’t really feel they make a huge difference. Activities we do in high school really don’t have too much bearing on the world we live in, and in any case, I do try to be modest and downplay any achievements I’ve made. </p>

<p>And, to a certain extent, I feel there are some things we just cannot change in time. For example, climate change. I do think it’s happening and that we’ll be experiencing the major effects thereof in the next three or four decades, but I believe it’s futile to try to mitigate its effects because economic growth in the developing world is going to far outpace any of our current efforts. But I feel that we need that growth in order to better cope with the deleterious effects we may experience in the future.</p>

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<p>Well, to be perfectly honest, the one thing that I’m really interested in is space exploration. I earnestly hope that within the next 20 to 30 years we see some major developments in space travel, especially now because I think we are definitely capable of establishing a real permanent presence in space. I don’t want to be very specific about my goal or ambition, but if I had to it would be to establish, or at least help establish, a permanent off-Earth settlement.</p>

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<p>Everyone wants that- and essentially that’s a stepping stool to bigger things. I might reconsider every political position I have. I may discover something fascinating. The option is there in order to broaden one’s world view, mindset, and experiences.</p>

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<p>Oh yeah. That wasn’t exactly the best encouragement I could have hoped for. It didn’t really bother me though.</p>

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<p>I come from an art school perspective, where you are admitted based on essays and portfolios. Your essays are meant to supplement your portfolio, give reasons, background info, etc.</p>

<p>So in a liberal arts mindset, your resume and achievements are your portfolio, and your essays are there to supplement them. If you have weak scores or weak ECs or lackluster AP scores, but your essay provides insane insight on how you singlehandedly started a student-run literary magazine, are president of the NEHS, and have received writing awards, it becomes obvious to colleges where your passions lie. It is pretty hard to seem passionate when you are president of the Spanish Club, Mu Alpha Theta, Tennis Team, and First Chair Violin in your orchestra. It just becomes impossible to back that up (well, not IMPOSSIBLE)</p>

<p>i don’t know, i just started recently and I don’t see the point of these things because in my (uninformed) opinion, I would assume the essays are the most important part.</p>

<p>But I also think it is silly to complain about this, because it is assumed that every forum will be filled with ego-boost-needers, bitter people, and dumb people</p>

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<p>That’s what I figured. The only thing a resume says is that you’re competent- you need to demonstrate passion and enthusiasm.</p>

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<p>I really can’t complain about the dumb people, though. It’s the smart and obviously insecure people, and the competitiveness of college admissions overall.</p>