Chance Me For MIT

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

Hello! Any advice would be appreciated.

Applied EA to MIT, Caltech, UIUC, GATech, UChicago

SAT: 1570 (800 Math, 770 Reading/Writing), 2nd sitting
SAT Math 2: 800
SAT Bio M: 800

GPA: 4.0 UW, 6.4 W
All Applicable Honors and AP: (15 APs total, 5 currently, 5s on 9 exams [AB, BC, Chem, Bio, Physics C Mech, Physics C: E and M, APUSH, AP Euro, Stats], 4 on English Lang)

Extracurriculars:

(Reported on MIT App and Common App):

  1. Captain of STEM, Science Club, and Math Team: Help run these clubs and get students to participate. Also participate myself in almost all of the opportunities. Brought the biology and chemistry olympiads to my school.
  2. Mathematics Teaching Assistant: I help out the Calculus courses in my school by tutoring struggling students, and also giving full lessons as well as creating exams. (I didn’t report that I was giving full lessons and making exams when I submitted my app, should I update them?)
  3. Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Sciences (PGSS): Highly-selective STEM summer camp (14% accept rate) at CMU
  4. Graduate Math Courses at UPenn: Sitting in on three graduate-level mathematics courses at UPenn. Didn’t report grades as they were not available, but currently have As in all three.

(Reported on Common App but not MIT App):
5. DECA: Business club, designed a financial aid marketing program, won 2nd place at international competition
6. Research: Currently developing a data clustering algorithm. Didn’t report on MIT app because it was not very developed at the time and I hadn’t written a paper.
7. Fruit Fly Research: Studied effects of electromagnetic fields on fruit flies, submitted paper as research supplement.
8. Spanish Club/National Spanish Honor Society
9. Job at Kumon
10. Community Service at Local Soup Kitchen

Awards: Top 50 on USABO Semifinal Exam, Top 141 on USNCO National Exam, AIME qualifier, 1st Place in State Engineering Competition, 1st Place in Category at State Science Fair, AP National Scholar and National Merit Semifinalist, 2nd Place at DECA ICDC, School-wide Chemistry Award, Accepted to PGSS, 1st Place in Local University Mathematics Contest, Gold Award in National Spanish Exam (9th, 10th, 11th grade).

Maker Portfolio: Worked with a team to create a novel water filter/regulator that could regulate water output, filter water, and determine methane concentration. Won first place in state engineering competition.

Research Supplement: Studied the effects of electromagnetic fields on fruit fly behavior and health. Won first place in category at state science fair (Intel ISEF qualifying fair, but did not qualify for ISEF).

Essays: Decent, put a lot of effort into them, stressed my service as a TA and my Persian heritage, supplemental essay (optional essay) was about my really long last name and how it related to my culture.

Interview: Kind of rushed but enjoyable, talked about the research I’m currently doing with data clustering and basketball. Really cool guy, but he was about 25 so he seemed to be in a hurry

Recs: Research advisor was about a page and a half, very well-written. Engineering advisor (school) was also about a page long and well written. APUSH teacher: not as good as others but decent.

Gender and Ethnicity: Iranian Male with dual citizenship (Could someone enlighten me as to how affirmative action affects me? I can’t seem to find anything regarding Iranian males.)

Reach: MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Ivies, CMU CS, UChicago
Target: GTech, UIUC, UT Austin, JHU
Safety: Pitt and Penn State (already accepted)

Thank you

2

Chancing is futile, but you are a strong applicant overall.

3

Just a question: how much did you research what MIT looks for?

4

@lookingforward
I just knew that schools like MIT really wanted sort-of “pointy” applicants in a STEM sense with above average skill in in the other fields. In high school I have just tried to do things that interest me, and STEM would definitely be the majority of my interests.

Could I ask you the reasoning behind your question?

5

Very curious as to where you end up… i havnt seen such an impeccable resume… Bravo… yo uhave studied soo hard, undergrad is going to be a breeze… Go reach fro the stars… !! congratulations and keep us posted…thanks

6

Pointy? Not in the way many think. Expertise is great, especially expressed in a number of activities related to the major, a level of experiences in and out of class.

But most tippy tops aren’t looking for unilateral, which is what you’ve emphasized here. They’re building a vibrant "campus community, " which goes beyond academic drives. The only non stem is the soup kitchen?

I do think you have a shot. But, you would have found the MIT admissions blogs informative, how they like various interests and sorts of engagements.

Best wishes.

7

@lookingforward

I agree with you that I haven’t done much outside of STEM.
The two biggest things would probably be DECA and Spanish Club.

Also, I forgot to mention my major would be something along the lines of Math, Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering, or Quantitative Analysis

8

bump

9

I think that I agree with @renaissancedad, chancing is pretty much futile and you are a very strong candidate. I would expect that your chances are a little bit better than the approximately 8% or 9% average for applicants, but of course we really can’t guess what will happen. I see that you have very good safeties, which leads me to believe that you will do well where ever you end up.

10

@APS2000:
If you read through past years’ decision threads for MIT on this forum, you’ll see many with seemingly perfect academic and extra curricular profiles who did not get accepted, and you’ll see many with weaker profiles who did get accepted.

Chancing you or anyone for MIT is as good as throwing darts at a dart board.

MITChris wrote this a few years ago, but it’s just as relevant today:

http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/no_chance

You will do fine wherever you end up. The only people who can tell you if it will be MIT will be the adcoms and only when they’re at the table (not a moment earlier) discussing your application.

11

Any updates on your admissions decision?

12

@minimango Yeah, I got deferred. Not surprised considering how competitive the pool was this year. I am definitely going to report and hopefully send my DECA manual. I am also sending a letter from the professor of a graduate course I got an A in. My current research mentor also wrote me a great letter of recommendation letter (compared my work to that of a good graduate student) which I will send in, hopefully along with the paper if it’s completed.

What do you guys think? Any hope for RD? If you could comment on the other schools I am applying to I would greatly appreciate it. For reference, I was deferred from Caltech and UIUC CS as well. Thanks.

13

@minimango I was also thinking about sending in a video of myself lecturing the calculus students at my school. My school allows me to do this and I give a lecture once every 2 weeks or so. Do any of you think this is a good idea?

14

If they don’t ask for it, don’t send it. It will annoy them more than anything.
Your activities were narrow and specific for your field, and that’s okay when you are an undergrad, but when you apply, you need activities that show that you are not a robot.

15

@“aunt bea” Oh, I thought that grad schools and companies would want activities specific to a job.

16

@“aunt bea” Wait, I understand what you are saying.

17

I strongly object to the use of the term “robot” in describing a student with very high objective qualifications. It tends to dehumanize them, and make any disappointments they may have seem unimportant. If you prick students like this, do they not bleed?

18

Having said that, I have some advice for you, AP2000. You do need to look at the MIT blogs and see what they are looking for, as looking forward has suggested. Your current plans in response to your deferral will not help you. If being academically impressive were enough to get you in, you would be accepted already. (In my opinion they should be enough, but the evidence suggests otherwise.) Here are two key words that might actually help you with RD: helpful and fun. This is what you want to show. You have academic team activities. Can anyone write to the ways that you inspired your team mates? By this, I do not mean academically or with your brilliance, but rather with emotional support when needed. Also, can you or someone else write about what you learned from your team mates? This would show that you can learn from your peers, and it’s not just all you, all the time. Is there anyone who could describe you as a really, really nice person? Have that person write for you. Could you write a decent letter to admissions in Spanish? Finally, can you think of a way to convey that you are actually a very “fun” and interactive person? This will serve you much better with MIT admissions than more evidence of over the top academics. Just reality. I can’t explain UIUC CS though. You might want to talk with your GC.

19

lookingforward latched on to your Soup Kitchen volunteering, so here are some questions connected with that, which may help. First, why did you do it? Beyond that, do you have any non-standard insights about your work there? Discard your first nine ideas, and start with the tenth. Were you the person who did jobs that no one else wanted to do, because someone had to do them? Can an adult at the Soup Kitchen write about that? Did you do anything to make the experience better for the people the Soup Kitchen serves? When you were working there, did you just engage with the other volunteers or did you connect in any meaningful way with the patrons?

20

Although my comments are fairly specific to APS2000, I hope they may be helpful, mutatis mutandis, to other applicants as well. I suspect that some applicants are so in awe of MIT and some of the exceptionally bright people who study there that they have difficulty believing the messages about admissions that can be found in the MIT blogs. I understand that mindset, but it is a mistake with regard to MIT. You may have exactly the qualities they are looking for, but if your application shows only your strength in STEM, the admissions staffers won’t attribute any other excellent qualities to you, and they do care about them.