Sophomore Year:
Honors Math 4(Junior Level): A
Honors Mandarin: A
AP World History: A
Regular English: A
AP Computer Science: A+
Regular Bio: A+
Junior Year:
AP Mandarin: A+
AP Chemistry: A
AP Calculus BC: A
AP Art Studio: A+
Regular History: A
Regular English: A
Senior Year(so far):
AP Physics C: A+
Advanced Computer programming:A
Robotics and Engineering: A
Regular English: A
Multivariable Calculus and Linear algebra(dual enrollment): A
AP economics: A+
Extracurriculars:
Math Competition: 10 on AIME, JMO qualification
Founded and led a non profit that impacted 1000 students and 1000 high school students and raised 100K
Regional Scholastic Gold Key for Art
Submitted a decent art portfolio to both schools
Peer leadership club
PROMYS, AwesomeMath and Ross Math Program
Internship over the summer at local university
Part of community that invites guest speakers from various tech fields. Pitched multiple decks to billion dollar companies.
National Honor Society
Various other volunteering(Not extremely impressive but she has 200 community service hours)
AP scores:
AP Computer Science: 5
AP Biology: 4
AP World History: 5
AP Statistics: 5
AP Calculus BC: 5
AP Calculus AB: 5
AP Mandarin: 5
AP Chemistry: 5
AP Art: 5(I don’t remember how scoring works for art but my daughter told me she got a full art score)
AP Physics: TBD
AP Economics: TBD
SAT: 1600 1st Attempt
Background: Both parents work at MIT.
If your daughter doesn’t get in, it won’t be because she isn’t well qualified. I know in that Harvard lawsuit, it was revealed that one of the biggest trump cards an applicant can have is a parent (or two) who works at the school. Don’t know if it works the same way at MIT, but if it does, I would say your daughter has as good a chance as you can have at a school with such a tiny acceptance rate. Good luck.
According to a quick Google search, MIT has recently accepted a bit less than 7% of applicants. I have heard from a different source that about 85% of applicants are fully academically qualified to attend. A lot of very well qualified students are turned down.
Being Asian probably hurts her chances. Having two parents who work there should help her chances. Her grades and other considerations are great. I think that chances might be slightly better for women than they are for men.
I think that her chances are probably somewhere between the overall acceptance rate and about twice the overall acceptance rate – depending upon how much it helps to have parents who work at the school. I know that MIT is one of the schools that does not consider legacy for admissions (which as an alumni I think is a good thing), but I am not sure about having parents working there.
Regardless this puts my guess as being “definitely worth an application” and “a reach”. Apply, but make sure that you also apply to at least two solid safeties.
For Stanford, I think that being Asian will not help and you do not work there. Her stats are still great. I would put her chances as a bit lower than the overall acceptance rate, which is less than 5%. I still think that it is definitely worth an application.
In terms of safeties, U.Mass Amherst is probably the obvious one assuming that you live in-state. McGill is probably also very close to being a safety – admissions is very stats oriented and they will not care about freshman year which means they will only be looking at A’s and a few A+'s. If you live near MIT, then McGill is about a 5 hour drive – I did this drive many times but mostly in the opposite direction.
Seriously, you both work for MIT and are asking this forum to chance your daughter? Both of you are in a far better position to know what her chances are than anyone else here by a long shot.
I think OP’s post belongs in the bragging thread
Seriously, with so much going on for her, I’d focus on essays as early as possible so there is a distinct candidate’s voice behind these fabulous stats.
https://hr.mit.edu/benefits/ccs says that “the MIT Undergraduate Admissions Office does not give any preference in the admissions process for children of staff or faculty.”
That 7% includes all of the applicants who ae not qualified, or are less qualified. I would say that there are something like twice to three times as many applicants who are as qualified as she is who are applying than will be accepted. Women are also accepted to MIT at a higher rate than men (2x the rate in 2018, the most recent CDS), which means that she has a hook. I would say that she is highly competitive, and has a much higher chance than most applicants.
Finally, something more reasonable than a cookie-cutter response “oh, but it is soooooo selective,” thank you for showing not-so-common common sense.
Would you say her chances are about 50%? I would.
My son had a similar profile of the math side, and I have offered advice to many strong math kids on CC.
Her most impressive accomplishment is the JMO qualification. Her score of 10 on AIME is typically on the low side for qualifying, but qualifying is itself impressive. Among USAJMO/USAMO qualifiers, most get into at least one HYPSM college.
Her admission into Ross and PROMYS is also impressive. AwesomeMath is less so because it is far less competitive.
Overall a very strong application. Good chance of admission into at least one.
When a student is this qualified, but the college has very low acceptance rates, I am always hesitant to give hard numbers. But if there were 20 students with applications of this strength, I would guess that anywhere between 1/3 and 2/3 would be accepted, depending on how they fit in the rest of incoming class.
prob 25% for each if essays are good. stats are amazing but my only concern is that there is no real story beingg told by her ECs, ie I have no idea what major she wants to go for and what career she wants to do. a good EC list will tell u this immediately.
Agreed, This would be unusual for two professors to post on a public site since anyone at MIT can figure out who they are. Anyway, this kid is well crafted, curated and qualified on paper and they’ll find out this weekend.
