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<p>I believe Caltech has the same policy. </p>
<p>This means (unless you are a permanet resident) that you are in the extraordinarily competitive international applicant pool with most applicants especially from India have major international math/science awards such as IMO. The admit rate for internationals was around 3-4% last year at MIT.</p>
<p>By “serious demonstrated interest in the sciences” I mean involvement in extended multi-year projects in research or math/science competitions at a high level. I don’t see any of that in your ECs. If anything your ECs are all over the map with no particular focus. MIT does not care about a long laundry list of activities and does not give any credit for the quantity of Ecs. They would much rather see a few math/science activities where you have participated extensively and succeeded at a national or internationally recognized level.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply!</p>
<p>I guess I wasn’t specific enough, I was born in Ohio, and am a Citizen…(Indian-American), my fault on that part.</p>
<p>And for the “serious interest” part, I have done research in compressors and such, and I am independently studying astrophysics and have also helped build a giant Roller Coaster at school, obviously none of these things are amazing or such, but there are no clubs or such, and I don’t think I could get one started, are there any other things I could do? (My town is literally in a cornfield) I mean I don’t live anywhere near an AMC part and IMO and similar activities. I’ve heard MIT takes my city into account for a lack of those things, but is there anything you would recommend I could realistically do here?</p>
<p>-Thanks</p>
<p>I think you have an almost certain chance of being accepted to Michigan, and a decent chance of getting into at least one of the others. But you have to realize that no one can really “chance” you for those schools - seems like what they’re looking for changes from year to year, if not day to day. I have kids who are 2015 and 2016 at MIT - the youngest applied to only 4 schools, very similar to those. He was accepted to Michigan, Caltech and MIT (along with Purdue) EA, and thus decided not to complete his Stanford application since it was his #3 after MIT and Caltech. I think his stats were a bit stronger than yours (pure scores/classes/GPA). My older son’s weren’t as strong as yours. And they’re both white males from the Midwest without any international honors or anything like that and somehow got in. Yet looking at the decision threads over the last two years, I’ve seen a whole lot of applicants who looked a whole lot stronger than them who were rejected, yet others who didn’t seem as strong who got in. I know for Stanford there’s a lot of the attitude that you won’t get in if you’re not a minority/legacy/recruited athlete but for MIT/Caltech those aren’t the case. So my bottom line thought would be that you definitely have a possibility - ie. it’s worth spending the money to apply - but that’s as good of a “chancing” as anyone can give other than the admissions folks themselves, and that may depend on who views it and when!</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback! I definitely appreciate the different perspective</p>
<p>They pick who they like. It’s all about the essays.</p>
<p>It is definitely NOT about the essays, especially at MIT. The essay has been eliminated in favor of short questions and answers. Pay attention to them. They are important. One of the big issues with MIT is that they want to find out how the applicant will handle stress and adversity. There is always much more work than hours in the day, and the difficulty is an order of magnitude greater than what most candidates are used to. For the first time, the vast majority will actually struggle academically while at MIT and the school wants to know how you would handle such a case. I interview applicants every year and I always ask them the question of how they would handle flunking a class at MIT and how they would try getting back on track if that happened. Those that haven’t really thought through that scenario are probably poor candidates for MIT. One of the best answers I got was from a brilliant girl who had suffered a severe concussion sophomore year playing volley ball and had lost her ability to concentrate. She even had to relearn to read. She struggled her way through junior year going from the very bottom to the top of her class at the end of the year. Her GPA took a hit and her SATs were affected. Nevertheless, she was admitted early to MIT as it was evident she could pretty much handle any adversity coming her way.</p>
<p>Hmm interesting, @cellardweller how important is the interview in the admission process?</p>
<p>Hugely important! </p>
<p>A good interview won’t guarantee admission but a bad one can certainly kill it. The interview really covers all the intangibles such as motivation, outside activities, the personality of the applicant etc… I like to perform the interview without knowledge of the applicant’s test scores or GPA which are separately reviewed by the admissions committee. There is an enormous emphasis put on collaboration at MIT. Students work very hard but the environment is very non-competitive. There is no grading on a curve at MIT so you are not competing for grades with other students. Problem sets are always worked on in teams. During the interview they really want to know how well you will function in a team. If you appear too arrogant or overly competitive, it will work against you. The interviewer will also want to know how you will handle adversity as everybody at MIT will at one point or another face failure or disappointment. It is very common for instance for students to get a 50% or lower on some of the first mid-terms. That’s why in part MIT does not record any grades the first semester but have classes pass/fail. Still, well over 20% actually flunk a class during the first year. Some because they are overconfident and fail to prepare adequately, others because they take on too much work or too hard a class. MIT won’t prevent you from taking a class for which you are not prepared but expects you to learn from your mistakes. MIT wants to know how you would manage if that happens to you! One hint! Always say you will seek help and not just lock yourself in you dorm and get depressed. Since freshmen are intermixed with upperclassmen in the dorms it is actually very easy to get help from somebody who has worked through the exact same problem. In addition, the school will assign a tutor for free (typically a senior or grad student) if it seems you are getting too far behind.</p>
<p>Thanks for the pointers!</p>
<p>I guess ill bump again…</p>
<p>I think you have a very good chance at UMich but its almost impossible to chance for Stanford, Caltech, and MIT. Your academia seems in-line but they are looking for the whole package. I would suggest you try to start those groups your school is lacking, generally schools are pretty happy to have those so long as there is interest and it shows great initiative on your part!</p>
<p>Hmm possibly…thanks for the feedback</p>
<p>I also forgot to mention…I also made the Dean’s List at a local college. Any improvement for my chances?</p>