Am I/Will I be a competitive enough applicant for MIT considering my ECs and classes?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

I am a junior in a suburban area in New York State. Female, Kashmiri Indian. Recently I’ve been feeling stressed about my lacking resume for college considering how lazy I’ve been during freshman and sophomore years compared to other 2019 MIT applicants.

ECs:
Freshman year: Key club, Tutored peers in algebra after school, Chess club, art club (just exploring my interests). I transferred this year and kind of fell into a state of depression so there isn’t anything amazing here.
Sophomore year: Key club, tutored peers in geometry and chemistry, yearbook, volunteering program at hospital, started internship at cancer research lab, “ran track” (I only went to practices to get fit, never raced). I tried to enter into the Junior Breakthrough Challenge and I’m still kicking myself in the foot for uploading my video an hour after the deadline. I spent a lot of time and effort into my video but it is what it is.
Junior year:

  • I am founder/president of the AP Chem club this year.
  • I’m also continuing the scientific internship until I graduate. Currently I am doing two projects, one for my supervisor where my work should get published before senior year, and the other project for myself which I plan on entering into the Intel-affiliated science fair in March and qualify for Intel ISEF in May (my area isn’t competitive).
  • Recently became the manager at the lab as my first job. Basically I manage the budget from the grants, order materials, restock supplies, make solutions, etc.
  • Self-studying for USA Biology Olympiad. I’ve grown to love Biology as I started studying for this over the summer and I’m currently spending about 3 hours on weekdays and 6+ hours on weekends preparing. It’s a shame that I didn’t know about it in freshman or sophomore year otherwise I would have been studying then. If I work hard I can make camp and potentially IBO if I stay focused and motivated.

Summers: I played videogames all summer after freshman year. After sophomore year I did a surgery program and continued working at lab but I honestly didn’t accomplish much because of experimental issues and I went to India. Next summer will be more productive.

Competitions: I plan to compete in USABO, Intel ISEF, Davidson Fellow, the Google Science Fair and participate in DNA Day for junior year. For senior year I’ll try for Siemens, the Junior Breakthrough Challenge, Regeneron STS, and I’ll compete again for USABO, Intel ISEF, and the Google Science Fair.

Significant courses:
Sophomore year - AP World (4); AP Lit (3)
Junior year - (IB Diploma candidate) IB Lit, IB Bio, IB Physics, IB Spanish, APUSH, ToK, Spanish lll
I’m also “self-studying” AP Bio, AP Physics l, AP Spanish, AP EnvSci, AP Chem, and AP Stat to qualify for National AP Scholar in time for college apps and make up for the academic rigor that wasn’t offered to me in freshman year and sophomore year. It seems like a lot of work but most of them align with my IB courses and AP EnvSci, Chem, and Stat only take up a couple hours on the weekends. But honestly, do you think MIT would care that I did this? Will MIT care about how behind I am in math compared to the rest of the applicants?
Senior year - The same IB subjects but HL (SL for physics though), IB Mathematics SL, AP Calc, IB History of the Americas

Test Scores:

  • I didn’t do remarkably well on my past 2 APs but history is my weakness. Hopefully the predicted 5s and 4s on the APs I’m self studying will help.
  • I plan to take the SATs in May and the ACTs in August, which I think I’ll score well (predicted 1550+, 35 based on practice exams). Reason being the SATs is generally easier while the ACTs allow me to demonstrate my scientific knowledge.
  • I plan to take the Bio sat subject test this December (predicted 800) and the Math 2 in June (750+)
  • Regents Exams: Bio (96), Earth Science (98), Chem (95), Algebra 1 (92), Global (96), Geometry (87 yikes). I’ll probably get the advanced regents designation with honors award.

I realize that there is quite a gap between the things I’ve already done and what I plan on doing. I’ve put a lot of emphasis on junior year to make up for my laziness during freshman and sophomore years. If I could go back to those years, I would, but I have to work with what I have now. I’m just nervous because I will be competing against people that have been working hard since freshman year, that have done varsity sports, founded several clubs, math geniuses, science bowl, entering science fairs since 9th grade, etc.

How would MIT view me as an applicant considering what I’ve already accomplished vs what I plan to accomplish?

I would appreciate any constructive feedback, comments, and advice. Thank you so much for reading my post.

2

Honestly. This may be the first time I’ve ever said, “Too much.”
It’s taking something of everything on the menu, overloading, without focusing. without discerning, almost as if there is no plan but to do it all. That’s not really thinking. It may reflect not really knowing what MIT looks for. It misses the balance tippy tops look for.

If you’ve looked at what MIT says, and any other tippy top, really dug in, no one says, “Do it all.” They want to see a measured, well-considered approach, that reflects solid awareness and thinking. (Plus some fun breadth.) Not spinning.

Don’t just assume the pendulum, which was slow in the beginning of hs, now has to swing wildly off it’s pin.

MIT has the best blogs. Find them.

3

Oh okay. I mean it didn’t seem like a lot considering my EC’s are just chemistry club, usabo, lab manager, and scientific research. It’s just the process of entering competitions that adds the “load” in “overload”. Even then, I can enter all the competitions with the same science project. Moreover, I really like biology and so I think it would be the most productive and enjoyable to focus on that area with usabo, ap’s, and science fairs. Maybe MIT wants breadth out of me but frankly I’m not interested in doing sports or arts right now. But specifically, what do you think is too much?

4

I’m a freshman at MIT, and don’t worry I didn’t do much freshman and sophomore year either. I think you shouldn’t worry too much about academics except getting good grades and scores and then focus on that cancer/bio stuff you love. That’s what MIT really cares about. Btw trying to get AP scholar is a waste of your time, no one really cares about that. Also MIT doesn’t really care about AP scores especially because they have a limited number of spots for them on the application.