<p>I come back again with some questions regarding my application. Today I sent an email to EECS graduate office at MIT for enquiring my application status, they replied as follows</p>
<p>I cannot give you an answer to your question. Your application is strong, but not as strong as some. As you are aware, we receive over 2500 applications for only 100 openings. It is a very competitive admission process, you are still in the running. I cannot advise you, but we are planning a meeting on Friday and I may be able to tell you more after that.
XXXX YYYY
EECS/MIT</p>
<p>For me the answer seems to be gray (negative). They try to encorage me a bit first that my profile is strong, however it is not strong enough but they try not to give me any strong negative words at this time. So do I still have any chance to be admitted? Sould I happy or sad for this reply.</p>
<p>It depends. Was MIT your first choice program? If my first choice said that, I'd be jumping up and down with joy because it meant that I had made at least some sort of preliminary cut and that my application was good enough to be considered. I would figure that they couldn't possibley review 2500 applications. I guess at this point I would probably be on pins and needles, but leaning more torward the hopeful side more that the other. But the way they put it kind of gets to me. I mean I'm all for honesty, but saying that your application isn't as strong as others? Oh well, overall I do think they seem to put it nicely though.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for your replies, I really appreciate that much.</p>
<p>I am now absolutely worry about my future, maybe too much, I know, but I cannot stop it. The admission process is being run after the new year but my application status was complete and informed to me on 15 Jan. The result will be annouced by the end of Feb, so this month. I have absolutely no idea with her reply and she makes me scare because of that.</p>
<p>Why would you only apply to 2 graduate schools? Most sane people will apply to at least 5 graduate schools. The norm is around 10 if you are a serious student.</p>
<p>What's INsane is the rudeness and ignorance of that comment. How many school's one applies to is hardly a reflection of a person's academic abilities or ambitions.</p>
<p>I applied just these 2 schools because I am already started my PhD in Germany. So I shouldn't apply too much, I think, just only my dream schools. The reason is if I cannot get in, I still have a place to finish my PhD, that's all for me.</p>
<p>What tenisghs said is right. To be safe, most of the applicants applied many schools, let's say more than 5 or sometimes 10+.</p>
<p>So I posted this thread here because I really need to know how negative this emal, let me say, maybe 80% reject or so.</p>
<p>In my opinion, to be honest, my dream is lost with this email and I am preparing for the worst.</p>
<p>Really need more comments on the email. Thanks guys!</p>
<p>It's actually pretty common to only apply to two or three programs. I, too, am already in at an excellent school (my current institution) so I'm only applying to three others (Oxford, Princeton, and Chicago). The application process cost me all of $100... Friends in similar situations are applying to: Princeton-Yale-NotreDame, Penn-Chicago, Harvard-Johns Hopkins, ect. There is nothing wrong with being picky.</p>
<p>I have been thinking about emailing MIT as well regarding the status of my application; however, I don't know if that's a good idea. </p>
<p>electrotechnik33: If I may ask, what exactly did you ask the admission officer? I'm afraid they might just say, "wait for the damn letter".lol. </p>
<p>Is "emailing" the Admission Grad Officer of the said program regarding the status of your application a "common" practice? I try no to be too anxious about the result of my application, but at least, I wanted to know how things are coming along. </p>
<p>I also applied to (2) two schools - MIT and STANFORD- under the Structural Engineering program. However, unlike "electro" I don't have a fall back - I'm just banking on those two schools. Wheh..Not to mention that it's too expensive, considering that all of my documents are coming from overseas. A freaking TOR (1 copy - with most schools needing more than 1) costs me $50. Too much, indeed.</p>
<p>I think the admin was BSing you..100 out of 2500 applicants? That's a killer. The last time I spoke with the Grad Officer, while preparing my documents, she told me that the acceptance rate for Civil and Environmental Eng is about 30%. As far as the number of applicants per year, I'm not aware of it. But, 30%, according to her, is not pretty bad. I guess it depends on the program as well.</p>
<p>In my personal opinion, mailing at this time is not a good idea, unless you are in some emergency case like me. I mailed them since I have been admitted to the other schools in Europe and they want me to reply as fast as possible, but I don't want to do so before hearing anything from MIT. So I informed MIT that my case is a bit difficult now, they replied me as you saw. But if it would make you feel better, mail them. There is no such rule to prohibit any applicants to know their status.</p>
<p>I have been informed that last year the admission rate is just 8% for EECS, only 4% joned them. So it is very competitive at EECS.</p>
<p>The acceptance rate for EECS is about 8%, so that means they accepted 200 out of 2500 applicants and 100 decided to enroll. I would not advise e-mailing them asking for your status, because if everyone did that they would get 2500 e-mails to go through. Just be patient. There's nothing they can tell you now before a decision is made.</p>
<p>As a whole, MIT has a very competitive atmostphere. I don't think it's limited to EECS alone. However, I'm still questioning the 8% passing percentage for the program alone. 2500? Don't you think that's a lot in terms of the number of applications for a lone Graduate program? I still think it's a lot of BS. But hey, it's MIT. Why am I even questioning it?</p>
<p>AFAIK, over 2500 spplicants applied to EECS graduate program. There is no SM(MSc) program offered there, any applicants is admitted to the ScD(PhD). If they were admitted and could not pass the qualify exam, they would get SM. So SM is just an intermediat degree of their ScD program. The applicants are then from both BSc and MSc graduates, this leads to a huge number of applications, I think.</p>
<p>What should I ask here is, how the select the applications? I have heard that there are application pools seperated by region like India, China, Europe or domestic. Then the top applications from each pool are selected. The selected applications will be again put in a pool, the last pool, and then reselected. But I don't know what is the important factor for them.</p>
<p>My question........if there is a pool. For a case study, I am from country A, finished my BSc from country B and MSc from from country C, in which pool will I be placed? Any idea?</p>
<p>Why is it strange that MIT EECS receives over 2500 applications? Berkeley EECS receives over 3000 applications for 100 spots, so numerically it's among the most selective programs. UIUC ECE receives 2200 applications for 100 spots.</p>