I’m a rising senior and the dream school I want to attend is MIT. However, I am afraid that my poor GPA will hinder, even completely get rid of, any chance I have at MIT. The following are my stats:
Academics:
GPA:3.77(UW), 4.2(W)
SAT: 2280(CR:720,M:770,W:790)
SAT2: Math 2(780), Bio E(750),Physics(760)
APs: CS(5), Chinese(5), Physics 1(4), Waiting for(Calc BC, APUSH, Physics C Mech, Physics C E and M, Lang and Comp)
ECs:
Varsity Badminton
Officer for Science Olympiad
Robotics
Tutor
Research project at Carleton College for 2-3 weeks
CS Internship, will create a final project
Hiking/Backpacking trip for one week over the summer, will perform basic field research
GPA holds you back. Aim for your state school. MIT has more than enough 4.0s and perfect scores. Asian makes things 10x worse. If ur male (not sure) then that’s even worse. good luck.
Tbh I don’t know much but I really think your passion for math shows through your achievements in all the math contests. I think the USAMO qualifying score could really go a long way for you.
Definitely a possibility (awards can help to a degree). Can see a real passion. As far as publics go, they are not always safeties. Berkeley and UCLA are pretty tough to get into (16-18%), as well as UNC and UVA depending on your state.
From the comments already posted here, it would seem to be the consensus that your GPA is not strong enough to keep your folder in the pile of ‘Give a Second Read’ candidates. I wonder about that, though.
Can you tell us why the discrepancy in the really strong testing grades and the classroom grades? Something to do with the reputation your school has for rigor and grading? Did you have a bad semester or two, and then decide to get it in gear?
Whatever the case, you will need a way to grab the attention of an adcom and keep it. What’s your story?
I’m confident that this isn’t an adequate excuse, but I would find it hard to adjust in the beginning of each semester, so I would do significantly worse in comparison to second semester,where my grades had visible improvement. In terms of “giving me a second read”, I was wondering if my awards had the potential to show my interest and capabilities in math, as I have heard that MIT places importance on these math competitions and even asks for your scores on their application. Furthermore, most of my classes have been honors and AP(1 freshman year, 4 sophomore year, 4 junior year) and my school doesn’t weight GPA. I’ve always taken the hardest courses in each year, and I feel like this is definitely a heavy contributor to my low GPA.
Absolutely, your awards are going to be the thing which gives your application the heft it needs.
I have not heard of anyone who consistently … suffers… such a slow start out of the gate, but you may want to begin to craft essays related to this peculiar pattern, and tie it to your winning finish(es).
Yours is nearly the moral of the old story of the tortoise and the hare.
Truthfully, there are also reasons for adcoms to be concerned about such a pattern, as the college semester is the grading period, with no real chance for re-dos or playing catch-up, though MIT’s grading system for Freshmen could help you stay in good standing for a while.