<p>Warning: This may or may not be a Dumb Question.</p>
<p>Anyway, I am going to include my experiences in Academic Decathlon in my application. However, although Decathlon is hugely competitive in my state and several others west of the Mississippi, it seems to be more unknown in the East.</p>
<p>Do I need to explain to MIT what Decathlon is? Would a brief, one-sentence description suffice, or would they see that as an insult to their intelligence?</p>
<p>Yes, I think they have quite a few applicants each year that do Academic Decathlon. I do it. I have been to Nationals twice, and I am hopefully going again this year. Decathlon was a huge part of my application.</p>
<p>I represent Indiana, the state is somewhat competitive. Our school has won the state championship the last 14 times in a row lol. The state is sort of competitive, and we are nationally competitive, last year we placed 11th at Nationals which is really good for us. Indiana doesn’t allow us to have Decathlon as a class, and we are a small rural public. We work extremely hard to win because we don’t have as much natural talent, and we start in November due to the Spell Bowl state championship which we have won or gotten second for the last years in a row. Our coach is very good, I had him write a recommendation letter for me. I forgot to clarify on my application that we don’t have a team captain unlike some teams.</p>
<p>I’ve done academic decathlon for 3 years and I’m from MA. We have a huge state competition each year and I know many people who do it (not just from my school). It’s definitely well known</p>