A question about stress

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>I know many many other applicants go under similar amounts of stress, but I question if MIT admissions should know about the stuff I go through or if it's just another normal thing for an MIT applicant</p>

<p>First, I am the leader of 5 clubs/teams (Acadec, math team, science olympiad, varsity swim, and FRC robotics).</p>

<p>However, the lack of support I get from other teachers and students in the school is close to none.</p>

<p>Academic Decathlon - I, by myself, have had to search each year for the past two years for a new teacher to help lead our team. Hardly any teachers were willing to take over. We recently had teacher layoffs, so the task was even more difficult. Then once we finally found a teacher, I had to help them learn all the basics, help send out letters to other teachers, design study schedules. Only one other student helped in all of this. </p>

<p>Math Team - We lost our original teacher, so we have been running ourselves. We have had to make payments with our own fundraising, none from the school whatsoever. We had no transportation to competitions because we weren't able to get any help from the school and we were forced to use parents cars. We were unable to have one half of our team attend a meet simply because a parent was busy one day, and there was no alternative transportation. No math teacher in the whole department was willing to help us learn or even run the club, so we were forced to teach ourselves.</p>

<p>Science Olympiad - I created this team with the hope of a sponsor teacher from the science department, but yet again, no teacher in the whole department was willing to help. We had to teach ourselves yet again. We were forced to take a commuter rail train and then walk 2 miles to and from competition because there was no other way to get there, while carrying all our binders and devices. </p>

<p>Swimming - Our team has a horrible record (2-9) due to the fact that we are unable to get dedicated men to join and come to our meets. I have literally asked every single one in class the day before and of a meet, seeing if they will come, and they always say yes, but then on the bus there ends up being 7 or 8 out of 20 guys. They stress my coach out to the point where I fear for his health because the roster always gets screwed up and we have to make it up in the first few minutes. I am always the one responsible for making up the new roster because he is just so stressed as well, which makes me stressed. Mind you I'm not a captain.</p>

<p>Robotics - Luckily this is the one place where I do get adult help. But there is hardly any help from the students. There is one other programmer that I work with, and he does just as much as I do. But whenever he or I are not there, nothing at all gets done. The other programmers either don't come enough, or they simply are unable to do the simplest of tasks which are required to get the robot running, so I always have to try and be there, while doing all of the above.</p>

<p>Most of the members of all these teams hardly show up when needed badly and most consider their personal needs greater than that of the teams'. I try to do everything to the best of my ability, to make sure the standard of all of the teams are at least as good as previous, if not better. I can not quit any of them because they would fall apart if I wasn't working for them and I personally can not stand to see any of them fail. We hardly get any recognition for any of the teams from the school, let alone funding, and hardly any of the teachers are willing to support us.</p>

<p>I wish I could do better in everything (teams and grades), but I just can not. I am only human and I can't be expected to do everything and excel at it all while being one of the only ones to do everything. I know that there are probably many people out there like me, but I wish that colleges could see past the transcript, and past even the recommendations sometimes, to see what a student is truly going through and how it affects them.</p>

<p>I'm sorry if this was inappropriate or whining, I just needed to get this off my chest and ask if there's anyone out there who can sympathize or empathize.</p>

<p>Thanks for reading if you made it all the way down here :)</p>

2

<p>*I meant lack of support is close to none xD</p>

3

<p>In terms of the MIT application, you should find some way of communicating how active you are without being negative at all. The best way would be through a rec, although it doesn’t look like your teachers are the sort to appreciate your work.</p>

<p>Regardless, you need to ask yourself what YOU are gaining from doing all this. It may sound selfish, but the point of you going to school is to learn. Sacrificing grades, or even sacrificing learning regardless of the grade, is really a bad thing. While you are probably learning about how to organize and run things, a useful skill, I think you no longer are benefitting from that. Part of maturing is making conscious decisions to reduce one’s responsibilities to a manageable level. You may have to let one of these clubs fail. Or look at this way. It may be an opportunity to try to learn how to delegate or motivate people to do what is necessary. </p>

<p>As for your funding problems, you might run a funding drive or something. At least then you’ll get some credit from college admission committees.</p>

4

<p>I do understand that and I agree. I really do understand the material (5’s on all AP’s, love to learn it), the grades simply don’t reflect it. And I feel the reasons above are why. Would it be worth even noting to MIT that this could be a potential factor (in a positive light) or would it be dismissed as whining or explaining incessantly and decrease my shot?</p>

5

<p>Explaining academic blemishes never goes over well with admissions, unless there is like a semester your parents got divorced or a death in the family or something. If you detail your involvement, maybe they will put two and two together. Most kids who do math team and science olympiad just have to study and show up on the day of the competition. Undoubtedly, you have honed your organizational skills and you might talk about that, but obviously it’s gotten way out-of-hand at this point. </p>

<p>Also keep in mind that MIT adcom do read and post to these boards. What you’ve posted so far is fine, but just wanted to make you aware of it.</p>

<p>Good luck. You do sound like you would be a great addition to MIT.</p>

6

<p>

</p>

<p>I’m curious about this (yes, I believe it, and have heard people say so), so clearly there was an ‘unless’ - why is it bad to explain? I mean, whining forever is probably bad, but isn’t it better to have a sentence or two giving some context for blemishes? Or is it because a blemish here and there is insignificant if the overall trend is strong … . and if there were blemishes more than here and there it would be apparent there is something larger wrong anyway? </p>

<p>Obviously anything one presents in an application is one’s point of view, and admissions will evaluate how worthy the points presented are.</p>

7

<p>^If you have an otherwise perfect record, explaining blemishes is a) useless, as they’ll know there must’ve been a reason and they don’t need to know it, b) it sounds like whining/making excuses, c) it makes you look obsessive. Imagine the following scenario:
Freshman year 1st term: 4.0, 2nd term: 4.0. Sophomore year: 4.0, 4.0. Junior year: 3.6, 4.0. Senior year: 4.0
Intelligence doesn’t just drop randomly then reappear; there must’ve been a strong reason why said student dropped. Colleges like MIT and the like trust their students enough to know it wasn’t just a result of goofing off. That blemish might even show something about your personality if you don’t mention a reason: that you had a problem, overcame it, and didn’t make excuses and obsess. Might also show you’re modest (others must’ve faced such challenges as well, and yet maintained a higher GPA.)
If it’s a 100% untarnished timeline aside from that one term, it’s perfectly fine.</p>

8

<p>tmanneopen: I can really empathize with you (although I had to skim through mostly)
I’ve been there as well. </p>

<p>It’s things like these that recs can best communicate. You might have addressed some of your challenges in your significant challenge essay, and I’m 100% sure that MIT admissions cares about the adversities that you overcome. Speaking your mind out is not whining.</p>

<p>Initiative is one of the key things that MIT looks for in an applicant and seems like you’ve taken plenty of that so stop worrying and chill out. :)</p>

9

<p>It looks like I guessed the reason you gave above, at least partially. </p>

<p>Why does the reason not matter? Obviously there was a reason, and at least if I were evaluating someone for anything, I would be interested to have a look at the odd time out. Maybe the student decided to work on something unrelated that term that is not clear from the records. Maybe there were other issues. I think the recommenders and students should hopefully give a good picture of what the student’s academic style is, and what the records really mean. Admittedly it would be good for an external party like recommenders to give explanations for confirmation.</p>

<p>Sounds like whining? Show you are modest? Perhaps a few sentences explaining a circumstance aren’t sufficient to judge how much of a whiner or how modest someone is. These are essays, not the person in real life.</p>

10

<p>Why do you participate in so many things? Sounds like you need to drop the stuff that isn’t going well and just focus on a few that you love. All the stress is taking away from your high school experience.</p>

<p>It sounds like your coach is the one with the swim team problem–people are either on the team or they’re not. Why are they allowed to show up only when they feel like it?</p>

11

<p>

It might just be my personality, but if I wanted to talk about a problem so intense that my grades dropped because of it, I wouldn’t mention my grades, because the actual problem and overcoming it would be so much more meaningful. Perhaps reference a timeframe and leave the rest to the AOs. The admissions officers are capable of linking two dates, you know.</p>

<p>If you’re going to write an essay just to explain why your grades dropped, it makes it sound like you’re obsessive, overachieving, and are making excuses. Depending on how you word it, these 3 characteristics might be obvious or, if you know how to approach it, a meaningful addition that would actually help your app. That said, wording it in such a way that it wouldn’t seem like making excuses is difficult, and therefore it’s better just to let it lie. The reason is unimportant, I don’t think everyone gives admissions officers enough credit in reading a person’s personality. I’d opt for the above option in a heartbeat. You say that the experience is important to talk about - sure, talk about it. Don’t use it as an excuse. There might even be people who have faced bigger problems than you have (there likely are) and managed to remain consistent with their grades. We can’t know the broader applicant pool. It’s just my opinion, I guess, but sending in an explanation for dropped grades is more harm than good. It might be acceptable coming from a counselor, though.</p>

12

<p>Wouldn’t “lack of support is close to none” mean you have no lack of support?</p>

<p>You’re trying to do too much. It’s better if you focus on one thing at a time and getting one club/team to succeed before trying to start another. I mean, it’s good effort, what you’ve done, but not thought out very well or responsible.</p>

13

<p>@limabeans: I originally joined all of them freshman year and I liked doing them all and up to junior year I could handle them all, because I was only a leader in two of them. However this year I was the only one left to handle it all by the previous leaders because they thought the others couldn’t handle it. I didn’t quit any of them because I truly like them all and can’t give up something I’ve started, I need to follow it through to the end.</p>

<p>The problem with the swim team is that there are so few boys that when the boys do show up, he needs them to swim badly to get any possible points, so he puts them in. Therefore he doesn’t have an effective way of punishing people who don’t show up. I’m thinking of recommending that he really creates a rule not allowing guys to swim in the next meet if they don’t come to the current meet, and always stick by it, even if it means that we lose horribly.</p>

<p>@QSCXQQ: I posted right after I saw that and couldn’t edit the first post xD</p>

<p>The problem is, as I said before, was that they all came at once to me, and I didn’t create all of the clubs/teams. I only created one, and that was when I didn’t have as many positions/stress. Then all the leadership positions came at once. I also didn’t have too much of a choice, as no one else was willing to step up, and that means the clubs/teams would have been disbanded, and I couldn’t let that happen.</p>

<p>Overall, I think I will just let it sit and hope that the admissions officers do read between the lines and see how much effort I’ve put in. We’ll see what happens. I do agree that it would make me look overachieving and obssessive.</p>

14

<p>

</p>

<p>I mean sure, they can link the two dates. I just want to emphasize that I am personally very against making a subject taboo to talk about. If getting an A- due to having a cold on a day is the most meaningful thing one can say, well that is intrinsically a cause for worry, right? Versus if there was a real difference in trend on a term, I think saying what it was is good. Going into the details of what mistakes one made on a single test, unless that test is broadly significant probably doesn’t matter. Saying something affected the amount of time you could allocate [note - it could be a tragedy, or it could just be a personal choice on how to allocate time] is probably fine, or at least in my view should be. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>There are probably who have achieved similar things, bigger things in the same areas, than one has. There’s always going to be someone with bigger and better. If it was important, it was important. Like I said, if the person has bigger and better things to say, they should say those anyway. There are professors out there who publish work I could never dream of achieving with insanely major illnesses to deal with. But when I talk about me, I’m talking about me, not someone else. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>The counselor gets the info coming from the student, anyway, at least likely. I don’t see a reason why the student’s words are so meaningful for all the essay writing he/she does, but suddenly if it’s about grades a counselor saying the same thing has more weight. </p>

<p>I think all of a student’s talks about what he/she is interested in and wants to do and has the credentials to do should be backed up by the records, of course.</p>

15

<p>

</p>

<p>If they really knew how to read the person’s personality, your advice as to whether they should or shouldn’t include a line or two in an essay wouldn’t affect the outcome. We all know people who present one thing, are a different way, and are just more careful about that presentation.</p>

<p>Final advice to everyone: “Be yourself. Admissions will just know.”</p>

16

<p>

My feeling is that explaining small blemishes only calls attention to them, not to mention that there aren’t too many excuses that really put the applicant in a positive light. And what the applicant sees as blemishes may not be central to the admissions office’s decision-making process anyway.</p>

<p>For myself, for grad school apps, e.g., I did not explain my C in physics freshman year, because the explanation would have sounded like this: “I didn’t feel like going across the river to do lab reports with my lab partner who lived in a frat, so I got a 0 for 10% of my grade.” Not terribly flattering. And the C in physics was likely not at the forefront of the application readers’ minds anyway. I did work a little section into my statement of purpose about – gosh golly! – being a double-major and taking heavy courseloads for several semesters while working my hind end off at the lab had sure taught me a lot about time management, smile smile smile. </p>

<p>I think a lot of these minor application issues can be worded in such a way that they’re not excuses, and they’re not whining. Or ignored on the applicant’s end altogether.</p>

17

<p>I agree with Mollie completely. Mentioning things which clearly are small is not a good use of space. If there were more significant factors, then it should be mentioned…with a good attitude.</p>

<p>Mollie, I would have approached your grad school situation the same, as my knowledge of admissions strongly suggests the physics would not have mattered. Whereas the rest of the more significant stresses you endured are very relevant, and not whining. Again, making them be the most significant point is probably unwise.</p>

<p>My advice is this: don’t worry about saying something wrong. Question what is valuable to mention and why, and that is the real key. When the reason not to mention something is how you will make yourself ‘seem’, there is something wrong. </p>

<p>However my advice may be wrong, as the admissions people may be evil, and you may have to trick your way into MIT by perfecting the art of portraying yourself accurately.</p>

18

<p>

I hope I didn’t misunderstand, but that felt like sarcasm aimed at my posts. Reread what I said. It was more or less the exact same thing you did in your last post.</p>

19

<p>@Jimmy, sorry if it seems that way, I think we generally are in accord. The first line of your post 7 is why I even bothered clarifying. Your statement that clarifying a terrific record with a blemish is useless is more extreme than I endorse for the reasons I gave, and I chose to instead support a weaker version of that statement contained in Mollie’s post. I also support checking whether something is useful info to give about one’s profile. However, the fact that others endured bigger conflicts and still maybe did better should not, to me, have much bearing on being forthright about situations. </p>

<p>Admittedly you made a distinction between excuses and actual explanation, so I think we really were in good understanding, but for what it’s worth, I felt it worth clarifying.</p>

20

<p>I do agree with you, but I’d like to clarify one thing. The experience one must’ve gone through must have been a very drastic one, or a very un-notable one having something to do with laziness. Generally, if it’s the latter, it’s a bad idea to explain, so I agree with Mollie’s version of things perfectly here. If it’s the former, though, I think it’s a really good idea to talk about the experience in an essay or something considering its end result was good, but not make it revolve around the grades slump (just 'cause you don’t want to be making excuses.)
For me, my midyear grades sort of fell. My school allots 50% of the semester average on our midyear exams (which I personally think is ridiculous), and while I did perfectly fine on most of my exams, I dropped heavily in subjects that require a lot of studying and not a whole lot of comprehension (History and social sciences) due to lack of time to study (I was preparing a full curriculum for SAT courses I’m going to be giving at school next month (I’m doing this at the request of the school and my peers.) I have 3 C-range subject scores in my midyear report (my 3 social sciences), while last year they were A-range. I’m not going to bother explaining it.</p>