about MIT's application form....

<p>IIRC, there's only room for 7 EC's and 3 SAT II's </p>

<p>For those 7 EC's is there any place where you can elaborate on your accomplishments? Also, does this mean, there's no point in doing more than 7 things? Is there a separate section where you can unload and put down everything you've ever done?</p>

<p>For the SAT II's I think MIT needed 2 (maybe 3, im not sure). Can you only put 2 or is there somewhere where you can put more?</p>

<p>Also, how much of a factor are sports in your application? If you are a pretty good athlete and the coach shows an interest in you, would it help as much if you were at a D1 school? I know MIT is mainly D3 but do sports help as much as compared to say Harvard?</p>

<p>

Yup, in the section that asks for “anything else you’d like to tell us.”</p>

<p>

This is an odd interpretation. I think there’s no point in doing more things than you want to do just to fill up the application, but doing more than seven things could be very useful for you if they’re >7 things that you really like to do.</p>

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If you feel the need to data-dump, you can send a resume as supplemental material; MIT just asks that you still fill in the spots on the application. A data dump is not necessarily a useful addition to your application.</p>

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You should put your top scores that fit MIT’s criteria (highest math, highest science). MIT will get your SAT II report form with all of your scores, but the only ones they will use for admissions decisions are your highest math and highest science.</p>

<p>

Sports are useful in the way other extracurriculars are useful – they can definitely help you if the other parts of your application are also very competitive, but they won’t get you in if you’re not otherwise competitive for admission. MIT’s athletes are just as academically qualified as the rest of the student population; there’s no lower bar for athletes as exists at DI schools.</p>

<p>By more than 7 things, I meant that because there’s only room to list 7 things, would it be useless to do an 8th thing because there’s no room to put it? But you answered that question anyways. If MIT only takes your top Math+science SAT 2 into consideration, what’s the point of taking a humanities SAT II? If they get all your scores, why wouldn’t they take all of them into account? This leads to my question of don’t we get to choose what scores we send now? Or does MIT require all your scores? Thanks.</p>

<p>I think what Mollie meant was more along the lines of don’t plan your life around the MIT application. Do the things you enjoy. If there are 6 of them, don’t force a 7th just because there are 7 slots. If there are 8, then do all 8 and then when the time comes decide which 7 you want to list.</p>

<p>The point of taking a humanities SAT II is that other schools require it?</p>

<p>MIT is not the only college out there, and thus this is not the only application out there.</p>

<p>Always keep in mind that you can send in a resume with more accomplishments/awards.</p>

<p>It is really rare to have more than 7 EC’s that you are really devoted to, that you put a lot of time into and that have made a significant contribution to you and vice versa. For example, if you had an EC that met weekly and you put in 3 hours a day into each of youre EC’s after school, then that is still only 5. MIT definitely values quality over quality. It is better to be deeply involved in a few EC’s where you have made a significant contribution, than to be a passenger in dozens.</p>

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Well, scores don’t really play all that important a part in the admissions process once they’re high enough. </p>

<p>I think the reasoning behind using only the highest math and highest science scores is twofold: 1) it allows the admissions officers to compare applicants on a more level playing field, because everybody’s taken the same types of tests, and 2) it communicates to applicants that scores aren’t something to obsess over, and it’s not worth taking every SAT II in existence.</p>

<p>I don’t know whether MIT will participate in Score Choice or not – it’s sort of irrelevant, because they only consider the highest math and science SAT II scores, and the highest subsection scores on the SAT. There’s not really any reason to pick and choose which scores to send to MIT in the first place.</p>

<p>Wait, I thought it was only 5 ECs (one of my friends who got accepted this year told me only 5, the common app is 7)? Or did they change it?</p>

<p>I only have like 6 ECs that I am interested and dedicated in so ill only put 6</p>

<p>Also on the subject of scores, I dont know if you are suited to exaclty answer this, but molliebatmit, should you try to include math scores from different competitions also? I know it has a blank for AMC/AIME, but I also have USAMO, ARML, and some smaller math competitions. Is it appropriate/relevant to add these scores, or will MIT generally not care? I was just thinking that if I dont put it, MIT might wonder why I didnt put it (my USAMO scores are nothing to be proud of, but I want to atleast be honest)? Also, how do you “send” your AMC/AIME/USAMO/ARML scores? My teacher has the score report and if MIT wants to verify, they can check the USAMO qualifiers list online (and I can give them my USAMO number to check my score), but do you have to send a score report from the AMC offices like you do from collegeboard? </p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>You can put all other relevant in the extra info section. I would definitely list those scores; even if your USAMO score’s not impressive in itself, the fact that you GOT to the USAMO is extremely impressive. Also, you don’t need to send any kind of supporting documents for AMC, etc with your application; MIT works on an honor system for that, I think.</p>

<p>Heh, I sent them an extra document by mail listing every math competition I had done and my scores, along with listing the best/most important ones on my application. That was probably unnecessary, but I do 15+ a year and I was hoping that the sheer quantity would convince them of how much I liked math.</p>

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This can be easily checked online too, if they wanted to.
I qualified for AIME with a score of 105 on the AMC 12 this year (AMC 12 school winner). But I got like a 3 on the AIME. Is this worth putting on the app?</p>

<p>Yeah. They say a lot of people get accepted without even taking AMCs, so putting it is definitely a good thing. </p>

<p>I got a 91.5 on the amc 12 this year, and I’m going to put it. I wish I would’ve known about this exam a month before it happened though :[</p>