<p>Will applying a year early hurt my chances? Do i even have a chance a year early? Also, if i don't make it in during junior year, will it hurt my app senior year? I'm talking specifically about MIT, my dream school. Here are my stats, if it makes a difference:</p>
<p>GPA: 3.85
Rank: Something like top 7%?
SAT: Been getting 2350ish on practice tests
SAT II: None yet, gonna take Math and Physics, confident 800 on math, prolly between 750 and 800 for physics.
AP's: 5 on calculus BC (5 AB subscore), 5 World History
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
Location: Midwest</p>
<p>EC's:
I play violin and piano, have some piano awards, just in orchestra for violin
Quiz Bowl Captain
Knowledge Master Captain
Fed Challenge Captain, 3rd place in regional competition
A little involvement in student government
Random math awards
100 hours community service
JV Tennis (Will play varsity in the spring)
AMC/AIME/USAMO: 123/9/10
Participated in Governor's School
Participated in MathCamp 06</p>
<p>The reason I want to apply early is because i've already exhausted the math classes at my school, and I'm taking math at a nearby community college. The learning environment in my school, and in the college aren't very good, and I'd like to be around people that like math as much as I do. Thanks for reading!</p>
<p>I think you have to compete fairly with other applicants, without exeption; and that won't be easy, you know that yourself. I also have the same problem as you, and I would recommend on applying to a school that to which you can be accepted and which offers great math program at the same time. Just remember, that colleges probably don't like people like you and I.</p>
<p>Well, I don't see why you'd want to skip a year of "the best years of your life." I do, however, understand that you want two chances, because a single shot, do or die, is very scary.</p>
<p>If you apply one year and don't get in, then re-apply the next year, it won't hurt you at all. I don't have a cite on that, but I have read literally every single Matt/Ben blog entry in the past week, and I know it's in there somewhere. :)</p>
<p>My opinion is that you might as well go for it - I really doubt it would hurt you, and if you didn't get in and decided to stay in HS and then re-apply, the fact that you had applied previously would probably show just how motivated you are. However, you might want to think about what will happen to the rest of your hs career if you leave - will they give you a diploma? Will you get to graduate? How will you feel about leaving home when most of your peers are still there?</p>
<p>I went through the same decision-making process a few years ago, and I decided that the best choice for me would be to leave HS after three years. Since I was absolutely sure about this, I got my school to change my grade-level status, making me a junior right after my freshman year, and then I doubled up on classes to fulfill the graduation requirements so that I would have a hs diploma after 3 years, basically removing any possibility of staying in HS if I didn't get in to MIT. I will be entering MIT as a freshman next Friday.</p>
<p>Now, as far as I know, MIT doesn't require a HS diploma for admission - that's not something that would stop you from getting in. However, it has been said by the admissions officers that they are very reluctant to take younger students away from their high schools if they haven't exausted all of the resources there. With your math situation, it seems like you have exausted most of your resources, so just make sure you convey that to MIT. Good luck!</p>
<p>The thing is...I live in the middle of the countryside, which is real bad in terms of having other people who care about academics (hell, people here don't do their homework when there's a NASCAR race on TV). Like, ever since I went to Mathcounts Nationals, I saw how different the world was outside of my little town, and Mathcamp and Governor's school has just reaffirmed that notion. I really think that there's nothing left for me here, and that's why I'm applying a year early. It's not because I want the two chances.
Also, will not having a HS diploma hurt me later in life? There aren't too many overachievers around here so i've kind of had to "blaze my own path" so to speak. I was like...the first one to take the AIME...the first one to take a class at the community college (that was alotta paperwork ;)) and stuff like that, so I really have no idea what i'll do in terms of a diploma. So i guess my question is, would I be competitive with the rest of the applicants (with one less year of high school), and also, how much does a diploma matter? Thanks for all your replies, you guys have been really helpful.</p>
<p>If I were you, I think I'd apply now and decide later. It's not going to "hurt" your application in the future if you apply this year and end up not being accepted. If you apply and get in, than that also won't be bad. Really, you've got nothing to lose by applying now. Why not apply? Think of it a lot this year and if you get accepted you can decide then.</p>
<p>On a semi-personal note, I was in a very similar situation to you last year ( also had no math/science classes left to take at the community college). I didn't apply, but really wish I would have. I have a good friend going to MIT next year that skipped his senior year. Inside, I'm still feeling a little disappointment, but there's not much I can change now. If you do feel like you've run out of classes to take, don't be afraid to investigate other options. I found some gap year stuff that looked really interesting, but ultimately decided to take classes as a non-matriculated student next year at our big public university an hour away. There are definitely other ways to "fill" that year, and if you'd like a list of ideas I had, I can PM it to you...</p>
<p>Alextheman, this sounds like it's worth a try for you. I think Caltech is also worth looking into. They do not require a high school diploma for admission--try applying there!</p>
<p>Alextheman: during your junior year, try working on a math or science project outside of school. It'll keep you occupied by letting you use your talents on something that interests you. You probably aren't close to any labs or other high-tech facilities but try working on some sort of interesting project that fits your environment. You might want to submit your project to contests like Intel or Siemens. But that isn't my point--I think it would be a valuable endeavor for you no matter what.
Have you formed any relationships with teachers at your community college? They may be able to help you to some extent.</p>
<p>A friend, an extremely brilliant who would have been valedictorian and definitely would have been accepted to MIT, skipped a grade and was rejected. He got into... UCLA. (OH NOES!!!)</p>
<p>If you skip a year, MIT will view you as a kid who didn't make the most of your high school career and won't make the most of your college career, your only ambition being to move ahead.</p>
After questions about homeschooling, one of the most frequent "special case" questions I get is about younger students looking to apply. Often, phone calls about this to the Office will be routed to me, since I graduated high school a year early, and had a few friends at MIT who came in at age 16 or 15. Younger students are not a huge population at most colleges as at MIT, but each year we do admit, after careful review, a number of early- and mid-teenagers, those who, even though young, would truly be a significant part of this community.</p>
<p>While entering college/MIT at a younger age is not the right course for most students, for a select few it is exactly the right course of action. Most of these students are coming from areas where there are not enough resources, and they have just plain run out of opportunities. Some of these students' families will move to another district with more opportunities; some will send the student to a boarding school to finish high school; but sometimes, applying to college is what makes the most sense. With these students' applications, we'll for the most part treat them as any other application, but we will ask a few additional questions: Why is this student applying to college now? Have they exhausted all of their resources? Do the teachers support this decision? Does this student have the emotional and social maturity to be a successful college/MIT student?
<p>I think 11argon is referring to people who don't NEED to apply to MIT early. They're perfectly fine where they are...however the OP simply doesn't have much to do where he is at. MIT would help him use his talents. People who already have opportunities are the kind of people who should stay in school.</p>
<p>Yeah, I think you definitely should apply- I'm similar in a way, though I didnt skip any grades in high school, but I exhausted my math curriculum in my area very quickly, and probably would have gotten in all the same at the end of my junior year. I think it would be important to write an essay about a challenging social situation or something (though for gods sake, not one about peer pressure)- maybe a simple story about struggling with making friendships last, or how you reconcile socializing with your competitive nature, or something like that. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks for all the input guys, I really do appreciate all of it. I didn't make MOSP (i made the USAMO as a sophomore and I scored a 10, I think the cutoff for MOSP was 19 this year). Maybe next year :). Anywayz, I think there's like one more math class left at the community college, and I don't wanna be mean or anything...but the students there really don't care about learning at all. I have some teachers there that would write me good recs though. I'm on JV tennis, because our team's coach was a former men's tennis coach at some state university, and we've gotten to the finals at states 3/4 years in our division. And i'm number 1 JV (i was so close to varsity ;)). Anywayz, Thanks for all of your input, is my GPA of concern to anyone? And will MIT want me to take the last class available at the community college?</p>
<p>Oh, and also, should my lack of research be of concern? Because I know alot of people have participated in ISEF, and Westinghouse and all that stuff, but I never have...</p>
<p>no, obviously, if MIT only took ISEF winners, there would not be 1,000 people in the incoming class. Research is cool, but demanding it would cause people to stress over producing dummy paperwork, just to claim they can check one more item off some college resume. Just do your thing.</p>