<p>Recently WSJ and ABC reported an college admission case brought up by Jian Li. Here is another case of rejection by MIT. I am sure that the rejection has huge effect on a math-science oriented kid. His broad knowledge in Science made him always finish first or second in state science written contests. His math skill should be ranked in top 10 in the state, even higher within his grade. Here is a brief stat:</p>
<p>Class Rank: 7 out of ~560 in a very good public school in a competitive state.
GPA: 3.98 (un-weighted), 5.7 (weighted).
SAT and PSAT Scores: 2400 and 240
SAT Subject Tests:
Math II: 800, Physics: 800, Chinese: 800, US History: 790
AP Tests (at end of 11th grade):
Calculus BC: 5, Biology: 5, Physics C Mech: 5, Physics C E&M: 5, Chemistry: 5, US History: 5,
Computer Science AB: 5, World History: 5, English Language and Composition: 4</p>
<p>Semi-finalists in USA Math Olympiad (once), Biology Olympiad (twice), Physics Olympiad (twice).
USA Mathematical Talent Search Gold Prize winner.
US Physics Bowl Division II Regional individual winner once and runner-up once.
Numerous top finishes in various state-wide math and science competitions</p>
<p>President of school Math Club and officers of a couple others
Over 100 hours of community service. Some music and chess achievements. </p>
<p>I dont know the stats of Jian Li, but this student certainly could not meet the standard of MIT admission. Therefore, as a Asian-American, you should never be too sure on your chance to be admitted to MIT even though you are an accomplished nerd.</p>
<p>Car202, please don't make your conclusion so quick. It is a 100% true story. Maybe you prefer to call USAMO Qualifier. Semfinalist is another way to say. Like I said US Physics Olmpiad, you may prefer US Physics Team. They call their qualifier as semifinalist.</p>
<p>I did hesitate quite a while till I saw the report of Jian Li. Because I am not sure if the person will be unhappy to make him public like this. For those who has doubt, do your own search based on the stat I listed. It is not hard to find. But it is better to leave his name out without his acknowledge. He now has a good destination, like Jian Li found his, though not many and not same.</p>
<p>FYI pgbovine, your link leads to the Jian Li story, but not the story of the student the OP is hinting about. (Just so everyone's clear that the OP was not talking about Li's situation, rather someone else's.)</p>
Therefore, as a Asian-American, you should never be too sure on your chance to be admitted to MIT even though you are an accomplished nerd.
[/quote]
As a human being, you should never be too sure on your chance to be admitted to MIT.</p>
<p>MIT rejects 87% of the people who apply, most of whom are strongly qualified to attend. (Ben Jones says about 70% of the applicant pool is qualified to attend MIT, and he gets to see the whole application.) Unfortunately, there are a lot of great applicants who cannot be offered spots.</p>
<p>"I don’t know the stats of Jian Li, but this student certainly could not meet the “standard” of MIT admission. Therefore, as a Asian-American, you should never be too sure on your chance to be admitted to MIT even though you are an accomplished nerd."</p>
<p>Maybe this guy came off as a prick in his essay, because I can't see why else an app this strong would be rejected. Two URMs got in from my school last year with stats that were crap compared to this Asian guy's(4.1 and 4.2 GPA and roughly 2100 SATs with good but hardly spectacular ECs), and I know for a fact that one of them INVENTED a sob story to put in his essay. BTW, these were upper middle class kids. One had a cardiosurgeon father and the other had parents who were both directors at Cisco, and both of these guys went to a private school that charges 15K a year so don't give me BS about them not having opportunities. Does MIT honestly think these URMs can contribute more to the intellectual environment than this Jian Li kid? Honestly, if they were Asian they wouldn't have had a ghost of a chance.</p>
There is no way that a USAPhO Top 24 + USAMO Qualifier gets rejected at MIT........
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</p>
<p>sadly, it's happening.</p>
<p>You know how many USAMO qualifier are asian, check out their website and see each year's Mops pictures, there are about 1/3 of Mops are asian. With a quota for college admission of asian, an asian USAMO qualifier gets rejected is not that unuasual.</p>
<p>btw, USAPho selifinalist is top 200. check it out</p>
<p>I am just curious here, because this discussion has continued despite my use of italics above. And despite the obvious fact that MIT admission is not numbers-based, as all of us on this board have been broken-recording for the past forever.</p>
<p>Do you guys actually think that SAT scores are meaningful for discriminating between the top something like 0.1% of high school students in the world? Do you think that someone with a 2400 is inarguably, invariantly more intelligent than someone with a 2100?</p>
<p>Let me be the first to say that I do not.</p>
<p>Although admittedly I have a small sample size, I haven't seen SAT scores be an accurate predictor of success at MIT. Some of the most successful people I know at MIT had scores at or below 2100; these are people who could design circles around the rest of the world, but who just aren't good at silly tedious analogies and word problems. I know people at MIT with stratospheric SAT scores who struggled a great deal with school. Ben has said before that Admissions hadn't found a difference in performance in freshman math classes between people with 700s on the SAT math test and people with 800s.</p>
<p>If SAT scores alone are not predictive of success at MIT, why should students with high SAT scores expect to be admitted by virtue of those scores alone?</p>
<p>Do you think that someone with a 2400 is inarguably, invariantly more intelligent than someone with a 2100?</p>
<p>I do believe that someone with a 2400 is more likely on average to do better in college than someone with a 2100. And you'll find IMO winners and others who dominate the hardest classes at the school tended to have 800s on their SAT maths. Sure SAT-type aptitude isn't the only thing, but claiming that these tests are useless past 2100 is taking it way too far</p>
<p>I don't think I'd go so far as to say they're useless -- I wouldn't, for example, be in favor of making SAT scores optional for college admissions.</p>
<p>I just think it's unwarranted to act like the scores are some sort of ranking of "merit", or that they represent something fixed and unchanging inside the brain. In my experience, those who succeed at MIT have a lot of drive and stubbornness and masochistic tendencies -- I found stubbornness to correlate much better with grades than SAT math scores, which admittedly isn't terribly surprising.</p>
<p>1- non-studiers who know the basics very well (bright people)
2- rich people who pay thousands+ for "review classses" and "private tutoring"
3- people who get someone else to take their test--that someone else is usually a "bright kid" or a bored "rich kid" who has had the classes.</p>
<p>then theres people who are disadvantaged or bored, like me =)</p>