Chance a Junior?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>I know I'm only a junior now and I've got a lot of time to go, but can you tell me if I'm on the right track for MIT? Also, I know that no one can give accurate chances for MIT or any top school, but I'm just curious as to what you think</p>

<p>Gender: Male
Ethnicity: White
School: Private Catholic School in California</p>

<p>SAT 1: 2280 (800 Math, 800 Writing, 680 Critical Reading) - That was my first test. I'm going to retake it to improve my CR and hopefully get a good superscore
SAT 2: US History (760) Math 2 (800) - I also plan to take Physics next year
Ap's: I will take English and Calc BC this year, then English, Stats, Spanish, and Physics next year</p>

<p>GPA:
Unweighted: 3.97
Weighted: 4.74
Rank: My school doesn't rank, but I'm top 5% </p>

<p>Honors/awards:</p>

<p>Eagle Scout
Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do
Hopefully National Merit (I scored 223 on the PSAT, which is above last year's 219 cut-off for CA)</p>

<p>EC's:
Boy Scouts - I am an Eagle Scout and I served as Senior Patrol Leader for my troop for 6 months. My project was repairing and refurbishing furniture for the Ronald McDonald House
Founder and President of the Ronald McDonald House Club at my school - I started a club to keep helping the RMH. We make and deliver a meal to the RMH every month and we raise money for them
National honors society(11, and likely 12)
Spanish National Honors Society (11 and likely 12)
Co-Founder and vice-president of my school's Young Republican's club
Model United Nations (9, 10, 11, likely 12, and I have 8 Best Delegate and Gavel Awards)
Seceratary-General of MUN
Varsity Track and Field (9, 10, 11, likely 12)
Football (9, I'm not sure if I should even mention this)
Wrestling (10, I'm not sure if I should mention this either)
Orchestra (Violin, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, likely 12)
Link Crew (11, likely 12)</p>

<p>Community service:</p>

<p>Over 400 Hours with Boy Scouts (200 alone on my Eagle Scout Project)
Ronald McDonald House (over 100 hours)
NHS and SNHS Tutoring (more than 50)</p>

<p>Work Experience:
I served as a clerk at a law firm for the past 3 summers, and I will continue to do so next summer</p>

<p>Hooks: Legacy</p>

<p>Other Notes: My school offers the IB program in addition to AP. I chose not to take IB, but I am taking the most rigorous classes offered with the exception of Philosophy, which is offered only to IB students. I don't know if this puts me at disadvantage. </p>

<p>I would appreciate any help or tips I could get. I'm really interested in MIT!</p>

2

<p>looks like your chances are pretty high, assuming that your grades were really good freshman and sophomore year. it’s mainly going to depend on if they see something on your app that they really like or makes you stand out. the perfect scores in math on the SAT and subject test will help. the admissions director at MIT has said that most applicants have great grades and test scores, but are lacking creativity. good luck!</p>

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<p>Thank you! Yeah, my GPA for the first 4 semesters was 4.71, and this semester it was 4.86. I have to keep it up for the next two, though. I’m hoping my EC’s take care of the creative part. They’re fairly diverse, but I really enjoy all of them, especially scouts. Does legacy add anything big to the app, or is it more of a side note? (I’ll be applying early for sure)</p>

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<p>Bump please? I’d appreciate any insight</p>

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/939227-reminder-no-one-not-even-me-can-give-you-accurate-chance-mit.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/939227-reminder-no-one-not-even-me-can-give-you-accurate-chance-mit.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>First of all, you have a very good record and I would predict that you should get into an ivy or MIT. I wouldn’t go so far as another poster as to say your chances are “very likely” at MIT. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got into one of HYP (the hardest ivies to get into) or MIT, but nor would I be surprised if you got shut out. I would also apply to a few ivies that are not as hard to get into for academic stars (e.g., Cornell, Dartmouth), because I think you would probably get into those.</p>

<p>My first impression of your record is that you are a garden-variety valedictorian with strong scores and fairly strong community service (very strong community service compared to other MIT applicants.) The community service will help your MIT app some, but probably will be more helpful at an ivy because that is what they are focused on. Actually, if I was to draw up a blueprint on how to get into an ivy I would use your record as a foundation. You were pretty active in high school. Don’t think everything has to result in a magnum opus in order to justify including it on your application…go ahead and puts your sports involvement even if it was only a year. One negative, or rather lack of a positive, is that you don’t have very many academic awards, although plenty of admits don’t. All in all, I’d say you have a good application and you should apply to top schools and see what happens. </p>

<p>The one thing I find unusual is interning at a law firm. That won’t help or hurt you, but it’s an interesting thing. I assume your interested in a law career, so for practice for your LSAT I would try to get your verbal SAT score well into the 700’s. Law school admissions hinges on your LSAT score.</p>

<p>One last thing: legacy status does not help at MIT.</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>Uh…
If you don’t mind, can you elaborate how you racked up 200 hours on your Eagle Project? I had about 400 worker-hours for everyone that attended (40 people x10 hours), and about 20-25 personally, but I just don’t see how you could have worked for 200 hours given the description of your Eagle Project unless you led… nobody.</p>

<p>Anyways, IMO you have the stats even with 680 reading, but then again so do many other applicants. So make your essays/interview tip you.</p>

<p>Also, 4 year varsity track in CA? Unless you are in a relatively junk program, then you can probably get recruited (which will def help, but no guarantee as far as I know) What event/what marks do you have?
Or what about violin? How good are you at that? Possible music supplement?</p>

<p>So, IMO if you apply to all ivy+Stanford and MIT, you will probably get into at least one. But HYPSM is so random that it could go in any direction.</p>

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<p>Thank you very much!</p>

<p>collegealum314, I really appreciate your detailed reply. Yeah, I’m definitely going to re-take the SAT, and I’ll probably try the ACT too. I’m hoping I can make National Merit, which will be an academic award. What other kinds of academic awards are there? Besides valedictorian and salutatorian, I mean. </p>

<p>idkmyname, thanks for your help too! My project was pretty thorough (there were a TON of approvals I needed) and I was really detailed in keeping track of my times. How did you finish yours with only 20 personal hours? Also, with regard to track, I don’t think I can get recruited. I compete varsity for throws and JV for long distance, but my throwing marks aren’t good enough to really be competative at a collegiate level. My EC’s are all pretty random. I just enjoy a variety of things.</p>

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<p>No math/science activities?</p>

<p>You’ll probably get in because of your legacy status, but why would you even want to go to MIT if you don’t like math & science?</p>

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<p>Apparently, MIT doesn’t take into account legacy. There was a recent blog post about that. Anyway, you’re a competitive applicant, but I don’t see an apparent hook. As stated above, I can’t give you an accurate prediction, but I can give you my input. I, again as stated above, believe that you may get in, but there’s a good chance you won’t.</p>

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<p>MIT does not consider legacy as a factor in admissions.</p>

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<p>iceui, I love math and science, and I want to be an engineer, but I don’t have many activites relating to that. Like I said, I’m kind of random.</p>

<p>mitigated, Yeah, the hook kind of worries me. I never studied in Europe or built a shelter in Africa or anything like that. I was hoping legacy would help me.</p>

<p>MITChris, so legacy does absolutely nothing? That’s unfortunate. Will a lack of a unique hook be severely detrimental to my application?</p>

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<p>Hmm… 11 on actual project day, 2 for meeting with housing director (organization person), 3 for logistics, 1 for recruiting volunteers, 2 for getting supplies, 2 for pre-project setup. Also, a handful of shorter things, like getting council approval, copying waivers, etc.</p>

<p>Also, in response to your question directed at MITChris, I didn’t have a hook at all. I think its been brought up before, but top schools (well, at least this is what they tell touring people) look for either “well-rounded” or “well-focused” kids. Hooks fall under well-focused, usually. So no hook, then you better be well rounded.</p>

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<p>legacy means essentially nothing in our process. </p>

<p>grizzlyman, it’s impossible for me to answer your questions for the reasons outlined in the thread i posted above. sorry!</p>

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<p>@GrizzlyMan: As long as you expressed a sincere interest in math & science in your application, you definitely have a good chance of getting in. However, what you presented in this thread show no commitment to those subjects. I’m not saying that all applicants to MIT must join math club, but not having a single math/science extracurricular is not going to help.</p>

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<p>I’m curious myself why the OP chose to work at a law firm for 3 summers. Was this strictly a money-making decision, or does it reflect an interest in pursuing law as a career?</p>

<p>Being interested in law school is fine for MIT, but you might want to think about how you would answer these questions. I would ask that as an interviewer.</p>

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<p>As for the OP’s question, there are a number of scholastic competitions for high school students. Science Olympiad, Intel/Siements (for research), math team (ASHME/AIME/USAMO/IMO, USAMTS, Mandelbrot,) other olympiad competitions for the sciences, robotics competitions, JETS. Scholastic Bowl and Academic Decathlon are two non-techy competitions I have heard of.<br>
It’s a little late to be thinking about most of these things. However, you could still do research for some prof and submit an intel project. It might not be too late to try to sign up for ASME (I forget the acronym; help me out guys,), the first level of the US math olympiad tryouts. It is in early February. You would have to get moving on that obviously–if interested, I would look up the organization on-line and ask them how you can take the test if your school doesn’t offer it. Someone who is good at math and who has had high school geometry, tryg, and algebra through algebra II could expect to qualify for the next round.</p>

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<p>MITChris, I understand. Internet forums can only go so far…</p>

<p>iceui2, I’m taking rigorous math and science classes in school, but I never joined any clubs directly relating to those. I plan on expressing my interests in my essays. </p>

<p>collegealum314, the opportunity for a job in the firm presented itself to me, and I decided that getting experience in that field would be more fun and more beneficial than flipping burgers for the summer. I’m not directly interested in law (I want to be an engineer) but I still found the job interesting. I’ll definitely look into those competitions and see what my school has to offer. Thanks for the suggestions!</p>

<p>Thank you all for your help! I really appreciate it!</p>

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<p>I think collegealum means the AMC. If you do well on that, you take the AIME. Do well on that, USAJMO right?</p>

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</p>

<p>Right, that’s it. Back in the 90’s it was called the AHSME–American High School Mathematics Exam.</p>