Applying now from India

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<p>I'm in the 12th grade in an Indian school, and I'm applying in the next few days.. (before Jan 1)</p>

<p>Almost all the schools where I live are upto the 10th grade only, and you've got to move to a new school for the 11th & 12th grade.</p>

<p>My grades are pretty good upto the 10th grade (98% in P/C/M combined and 92% overall in the 10th grade school board exams)</p>

<p>I pretty much neglected school in the 11th & 12th grade for preparing for the IIT entrance tests..
I've scored 84 % in the 11th grade finals and 62% in my 12th mid-term exams.</p>

<p>I'm taking the SAT in January for the first time</p>

<p>I read the application info on the MIT website, but there's a lot of stuff there that I'm not sure I understood:</p>

<p>1)They require recommendations from a P/C/M teacher and from an language/humanities teacher.
Which teachers can fill in the recommendations? Will the teachers in my old 10th grade school do? I can expect excellent recommendations from any of them.</p>

<p>My maths teacher from my present school can also give me a glowing recommendation, but I'm not so sure about my language teacher (I don't have a humanities subject in 11th/12th grade).. No one knows me much in my new school</p>

<p>2)Also as for awards, would 2nd place ( :-( ) in various city/state level competions (mostly National Cyber/ Science Olympiads and a few tech competions) and 1st place in local inter-school competions(wide range from English to computer competions) count for much? Do I stand a chance against the large bunch who have got medals from the International Olympiads,etc?</p>

<p>3)They require a 'Secondary School Report ' and 'Midyear Report'.. I'm not sure what these mean. Do they require my 11th/12th grade marksheets? Will the dip in grades in these 2 years be a big blot against my past achievements? Also do I have to convert percentage to grades or anything?</p>

<p>I expect to score above 85% in the school board prelimanaries in January and later in the board exams too in March.. Would these marks be even considered?</p>

<p>4)The deadline for interviews was 10th December but they allow late interviews at the EC's descretion-- I live in India, so am I automatically waived? Also, there is no link to contact an EC on my myMIT page.
Would not taking the interview impact my chances greatly ?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<h1>1 - There’s no hard rule, but teachers from upper grades are preferable.</h1>

<h1>2 - They count. MIT practices holistic admissions, so your opportunities will be taken into account.</h1>

<h1>3 - I’d ask MIT admissions about this directly if you’re not clear on what these mean. A secondary school report should have your complete transcript thus far. The midyear report serves as an update for your grades (in the US, a lot of people don’t get grades for the middle of their senior year until after the deadline).</h1>

<h1>4 - I doubt you’re automatically waive, as I’m fairly certain there are many interviewers in India. Interviews statistically help an applicant. (It’s one more person to advocate for you in the process, generally.) It’s not an end-all-be-all, but usually it’s a good thing to have.</h1>

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<p>

You will be able to send the preliminary results as an update, but the board exams will come too late for decisions. MIT generally releases decisions in mid-March.</p>

<p>

Have you just signed up for a MyMIT account in the last few days? It’s possible that if you signed up after Dec 10, you were not assigned an EC since it’s after the deadline.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the quick replies, everyone.</p>

<p>So I guess the interview is not possible now…</p>

<p>Do I need to take the TOEFL? Would it be a better idea? (My english is good but not excellent)
The MIT page doesn’t say anything about whether January TOEFL scores are accepted or not.</p>

<p>When I’m registering for the SAT – they require my GPA – should I leave it blank (“I would not choose to respond”) as we simply have a different (percentage based) grading system?
Do the colleges even bother reading my profile on the College board site?
What about the “Describe your high school studies” section of the SAT form? Should I tick in the courses that best match their Indian equivalents which I have taken?
They also ask for individual grades in each subject… What about that?</p>

<p>Sorry if I sound a bit desperate…
I don’t have anyone near me who has got any clue about this stuff.</p>

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<p>I missed the SAT deadline by a few hours… Apparently ‘late applications’ are only for those taking the test in the US. The form was throwing up some kind of error yesterday, by the time the College Board rep got back it had just become the 24th of December… I tried calling them but they are closed until the 28th of December… </p>

<p>So as crazy as it sounds I’m taking the standby SAT on the day of the test.
My friend wrote the December SAT and according to them they allowed all 12-13 of the standby candidates to take the test that day. (He appeared as a regular candidate)
I’m keeping my fingers crossed…</p>

<p>So I’m taking the SAT subject tests (standby) on January 22nd and
I’m taking the TOEFL test on January 8th…
I cannot take the SAT I and Subject tests on the same day anyways, so TOEFL is the only alternative to SAT I?</p>

<p>MIT allows non-native English speakers to take the TOEFL and 2 SAT subject tests.
Going by the posts on this forum this option seems to have been taken rarely… </p>

<p>Are students who take TOEFL+SAT Subject tests considered inferior to those who take SAT I + Sat subject tests?</p>

<p>Will MIT expect Indians to be on par with native English speakers and take the SAT I instead of TOEFL?</p>

<p>English was the medium of instruction at all schools that I’ve ever attended…</p>

<p>–</p>

<p>IS January 1st the last date for just the 2 part online application or for postmarking the teacher evaluations and transcripts/records as well?</p>

6

<p>

No, MIT doesn’t have a preference. Most people take the SAT I simply because most applicants to MIT are native English speakers, and because not all schools allow the TOEFL to substitute for SAT as MIT does.</p>

<p>If it is logistically easier for you to take the TOEFL than the SAT I, you should do it. MIT does not care.</p>

<p>

January 1 is the deadline for submitting electronic parts of the application and postmarking non-electronic parts.</p>

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<p>Thanks a lot!</p>

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<p>The MIT Admission Office will be able to respond only after the deadline…</p>

<p>Do I need to send in 2 copies of the secondary school report?
One from each high school that I’ve been to?</p>

<p>

From the 9th grade onwards, right?</p>

<p>Does anyone have any idea</p>

<p>Also if I fill in Physics as my SAT - II subject for consideration for MIT, will I be able to change it to Chemistry if score better in it?
(January SAT will be my only SAT)</p>

9

<p>

Yes, one from each high school. Your transcripts should include your work from 9th-11th grade, plus anything that’s available at this time from 12th grade.</p>

<p>

It doesn’t matter what you fill in on the application. They will use the better score, so if your chemistry score is higher, they will consider that one and not the physics score.</p>

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<p>My school(s) doesn’t prepare transcripts with marks of every exam but instead gives us report cards after every major exam with scores from each subject.</p>

<p>So they’ve asked me to prepare my own format for the transcript and they’ll just fill in the marks and print it under the school letterhead…</p>

<p>I’m not sure what to include…
Should it contain only half-yearly and final examination marks or should I include marks of every quarterly test too? </p>

<p>The report card contains marks from every subject separately and the school assigns a grade based on the total of marks of all subjects after each exam (no individual ‘grades’ for each subject)… Like I got an A2 grade in the 11th grade finals , a B1 in 12th grade quaterly and so on… These grades are in no way ‘standard’ or comparable to the American system… Both schools I went to followed different guidelines for grading…
IMO including the grades will cause considerable confusion and possibly give an inaccurate measure of my performance relative to others…</p>

<p>I’ve got A+ throughout the 9th and 10th grade.
Mostly A2 s in the 11th grade and one A1 and two B1 s in the 12th grade (new school has an A1, A2 , B1 ,B2,C1… … system, while old one had a A+,A, B, C,D system)</p>

<p>I am aware that marks/grades are not all that they consider,
but should I include the ‘grades’ , or only marks in every subject / exam?</p>

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<p>Allow me to rephrase my question:
What should the transcript contain :</p>

<p>Marks from the final exams only or all the 5 tests held each year?</p>