<p>^^Well, at this point so many people do research that I don’t think it helps anymore unless you have some major distinctions. </p>
<p>I can’t really answer your question. I went to a school that like 95% of people did research–I was one of the few who didn’t. I had signed up senior year to do some, but ended up not getting placed.</p>
<p>I think people lose track of the big picture sometimes. Intellectual development should be somewhat organic. Hopefully, you decide to do research because you have aquired a wealth of knowledge in an area and the intellectual questions that you still have are undiscovered. I think it’s good to get your feet wet with the techniques too, but overall you want to keep your eye on the prize. It’s about intellelctual development.</p>
<p>If adcoms do care, doing research may signify to them a sign of advancement–like taking an AP class. However, I think this can be an illusion. I know I was better at reasoning in science then all the people signing up for research and doing what their mentors told them to do. </p>
<p>Above all, the high schoolers out there should not get caught up in what looks good. It’s easy for me to say that now, I know. But keep in mind that after you graduate from college, you will be expected to generate your own ideas. You want to spend your time in a way that helps you do that. It’s not wrong to do something fun, but don’t force yourself to do something that doesn’t even help your intellectual development.</p>
<p>Absolutely, intellectual development really should be organic. I think we might have both tossed this around earlier, but the surest way I can know someone has potential is by talking to them and seeing them communicate not a slick, rehearsed message but actually talking in the language of their interests, and seeing them both have direction and recognize the part about organic development. People who show this maturity and responsibility + also have some impressive achievement on paper tend very sharply in my eyes to correlate with those who are both very enjoyable to be around in a community and actually achieve things. And I think realistically there are not that many people who fall into such a category. </p>
<p>If someone does research, I’d like to hear from them in depth about what it is they were thinking when they got into it, and what they gained from it, again not in a packaged, silly fashion, but very specific to their experience. This is even just as a bystander interested in talking to an individual, not associated with admissions or anything.</p>
<p>It’s good to see someone else consistently putting out a message I think is important.</p>
<p>I agree, but I am very positive that the MIT admissions has some people who can clasify those research papers.</p>
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<p>WOOOW, that is almost every one!
I think many of those students were collecting data for local scientist without knowing the hypothesis!
My research is about pure math, and in all of my papers I either provide a proof for an old theorem or introduce one/method. I think that is what pure math is all about, though many of those thoerems can be trivial. I think doing science research or applied math is much different and most students prefer that. I mean, it is kind of easy to work with scientist than number theoriest.</p>
<p>Don’t you guys think the admissions have some specialists who read research papers. I am very sure that Matt McGann was once a math Major and can understand my papers.</p>
<p>My high school requires AB before BC. I don’t like the system though. I felt that BC was very repetitive since we had to cover the AB portion as well, so I only learned new stuff in the last 2-3 months.</p>
<p>^^ So to those of you who took AB only in HS, do you think it would have been helpful to have done BC? We only have AB but few kids do self-study BC with the help from the calc teacher. As I understand it, its only like 3 more chapters in the book. I understand its not necessary but might take a bit of work off the first year?</p>
<p>As people have said, if your school does AB and then BC then that’s fine. Or if your school doesn’t have BC, you won’t be penalized at all for your school’s limitations.</p>
<p>Well it’s not a question of whether they can tell what kinds of research papers they are…I’m merely trying to give a message that research should generally not be viewed (at the stage before college or even graduate school and beyond) as “more” than learning. I was basically agreeing with collegealum that developing one’s wisdom and reasoning over the years is an “organic” process, and signing up for research mechanically is not so great. For those few who really are curious about something and feel they can do something meaningful to them and really like it, fine, but I gather the general public isn’t at all like this. And I don’t think research should be viewed as something someone “should” do to indicate direction and talent. That’s all I was saying.</p>
<p>I took Calc AB senior year, followed by 18.01 first semester freshman year. I had no problem with the material in 18.01. It wasn’t much harder than my high school curriculum, so there would have been no real benefit to self-studying BC for the purpose of making 18.01 any easier.</p>
<p>However, I wish I had tried to take 18.01A/18.02A, which is the accelerated version which crams single var and multivar into the fall semester plus January. I had a somewhat unique scheduling situation, which I won’t bother to explain here. 18.01A/18.02A may or may not be a good choice for you. If it is, I’m sure that any extra calc studying will help you get through the accelerated course.</p>
<p>Of course, my remark was intended as friendly, I know you weren’t being arrogant, just picking a little on the phrase! Good to know you’re having a good time with the math.</p>
<p>I’m not sure about your question collegesgirl. Are you asking if people took only Math1 and Math2, or took both along with a science SSAT. MIT requires 1 math and 1 science, so people with no science can’t get accepted.</p>
<p>Yes, some take more than 2 tests. Some I know took Math 1 and Math 2 to see what they did better on. With only taking AB senior year, Math2 score may not be as high. If I was in BC, maybe my score would be higher. Took a science…but waiting to hear the results.</p>
<p>Thanks, I am really having a good time with the little I know
mathboy98, are you a math major in MIT?</p>
<p>@ collegesgirl
I think SAT MATH subject tests score have less to do with both AB and BC.
The highest math you need for the SAT II is precalculus.
There are some calculus topics like limits in the SAT II and they do cover limits in precalculus. I think AB is beyond SAT II.</p>
<p>May be BC covers convergance and series which may help you do well in SAT II. I did not took SAT II yet, but I think they do have some geometric series and stuff.</p>
<p>And taking from experience, I don’t think knowing higher math will not always help you do well on SAT II. Because I took both SAT I (reasoning test) MATH and AB , and got 460 and 5 respectively!</p>
