chances at MIT 2013?

[tebow15]

<p>hey i'm a rising senior and i'd appreciate it if any big posters or MIT 2012 acceptees could chance me for MIT along with yale, harvard, princeton, and stanford...thanks!</p>

<p>gender: male
race: indian...yesssss</p>

<p>class rank: 1/218</p>

<p>testing:
SAT: 800 M, 750 CR, 800 W (2350 total)
ACT: n/a
SAT 2s: 800 Math 2, 800 Bio M, 800 Chemistry, 790 World History
AP exams (10 total): human geography-5, biology-5, world history-5, european history-5, us history-4, calc ab-5, environ sci-5, eng lang-5, stat-5, chem-5</p>

<p>awards:</p>

<p>science:
-3 time florida state science fair finalist
-1st place florida junior of sciences symposium
-2 time intel international science and engineering fair finalist
-4th place, 2008 international science and engineering fair
-1st place US Army award, 2008 international science and engineering fair
-published one book chapter and two journal articles: "ecological modelling," "ecological applications," "advances in modeling agricultural systems"
-presented research (lecture) in south africa at kruger national park annual science network meeting in april 2008 </p>

<p>math:
-placed 22 times at mu alpha theta (regional and statewide) competitions including:
-2nd place regionally and 2nd place statewide, algebra 2
-2nd place regionally and 5th place statewide, pre-calc
-2nd place regionally and 6th place statewide, statistics
-3-time AIME finalist (highest AIME score: 6)</p>

<p>random:
-1st place, florida state brain bee (neuroscience)
-finalist, 2008 USA national brain bee championship
-debate: won 3 regional tournaments and 2 statewide tournaments in original oratory and student congress</p>

<p>ECs:
-varsity tennis team
-mu alpha theta: president (11 and 12), organized schoolwide math tutoring program, coached competitive algebra 2 team
-science NHS and sci. res. club president (11 and 12)
-attended SSTP at UF, 7 week summer science program
-research internships at university of miami medical school and university of florida department of ag/bio engineering, developed computer simulation engine for a national park in south africa</p>

<p>community service (~1,200 hours):
-organized textbook and workbook drive for tsunami-stricken middle school in chennai, india
-taught classes on hindu religion and culture at local temple for 3 years
-organized spelling and vocabulary bees for kids in my neighborhood through north south foundation</p>

<p>essays: i plan to write a funny one about my childhood infatuation with bollywood (indian cinema) and a serious one about hindu scripture and learning elementary sanskrit</p>

<p>any tips/advice would be appreciated...thanks!</p>

[curious8582008]

<p>How are you going to tie your infatuation with Bollywood back to MIT?</p>

[ask-paul]

<p>@curious: My primary essay had nothing to do with MIT at all, it was about my dad. You don’t have to tie everything back to MIT. And MIT is not all “math math science science engineering!” - MIT students are allowed to have fun too, sometimes.</p>

<p>@tebow: Fantastic credentials, it seems to me (especially placing at ISEF), but how are you planning on organizing them for MIT? Remember, you only get 5 spaces for extracurriculars: what matters most to you. What do you want to major in, and how does your research factor into that? Did you work with a professor who can write you a supplementary recommendation?</p>

<p>Remember, there will be plenty of applicants who are also valedictorians/ISEF finalists/AIME participants, etc. - and it’s fantastic that you have all of those things under your belt. But when applying to elite schools like MIT, it’s important to stand out - and an interesting essay can be one way of doing that. But also remember that no other person will have done the research and service you have, for example.</p>

[tebow15]

<p>@ curious, i was about to say the same thing as ask-paul. the bollywood one is pretty humorous i’d say, but i’m using that for the common app (every other school) — i haven’t looked at MIT’s essays yet, but hopefully i can adapt it to whatever MIT asks for. i thought it would be cool to pepper in a funny side to contrast with the techie part of my app.</p>

<p>and @ ask-paul, i think i’ve got my main awards/ECs sorted out pretty well (for the common app, at least),and i also plan on submitting a supplemental resume to each school. in addition, i was planning on sending a research abstract/journal article along with my supplemental professor recommendation; do you think sending all three of these is overkill or worthwhile? and thanks for your input regarding my essay, hopefully humor can stand out as a little distinctive.</p>

[molliebatmit]

<p>

@Paul

MIT students are allowed to have fun too, sometimes.

According to one of my all-time favorite articles in The Tech ([here](<a href=“http://www-tech.mit.edu/V110/N37/jackso.37o.html]here[/url]):”>http://www-tech.mit.edu/V110/N37/jackso.37o.html)):</a>

@The Tech

In order to be allowed to have fun, [MIT students] must gain the signatures of half of our classmates, our advisor, three graduate residents (only two of whom can live in the same living group), and Dr. Ruth Westheimer. We then submit these signatures and a Fun Proposal Form to COFFEE (The Committee On Free Fun and Exciting Entertainment) and hope for permission.</p>

<p>With a well-written proposal, your chances are still slim, but just last year, one sophomore was granted permission to square dance in a cafeteria and a junior was allowed to put up a humorous picture of a bulldog in his room. But I suppose you probably have a similar system at (insert name of stupid person’s college here).

:)</p>

<p>(Can I add, while I’m being silly, that the OP’s use of the distinction between “big” posters and incoming freshmen amuses me? I mean, I’m actually rather small, for what it’s worth.)</p>

[Vivi]

<p>I’m not a chancer, but I just wanted to drop in to say that I think I remember your project at ISEF 2008 this year, haha =D You did the elephant-vegetation thinger with the African national park, right?</p>

[ducktape]

<p>Good god, child. Your stats outshine most peoples’ on these boards. Or maybe just mine. But come on. Ridic impressive. You should know that.</p>

<p>That being said, your essay sounds really interesting and potentially really funny. HOWEVER. Make sure you have other people with different senses of humor than yourself read it first, because if you’re going to go for humor you’ve got to nail it. I am not generally a laugh out loud hilarious writer, so I didn’t try to magically become one overnight for my college essays. I did, however, take a very random topic and write about it totally seriously, which sort of served the same purpose. One approach to think about.</p>

<p>Regarding the presentation of your many accomplishments. Resume isn’t a bad idea. For MIT, pick out your main ECs or group them or however you want to do it. Pick out a few of your main accomplishments under each, list those under honors and then maybe something like “see attached” at the end of each list, if you still have more. I sent a professor rec, too, so I don’t think that’s too much. However, stick to just an abstract and you can include that as the “something you created” essay. Then, explain what that project meant to you. I spent 3 sentences just saying why I loved working on that project over the summer, that I really wanted to pursue the same general topic in college, and then listed a couple labs that I would kill to UROP in. Or something like that, you get the point.</p>

<p>You can be the most awesome applicant ever and still not get in because you don’t know how to best present your accomplishments. Spend a lot of time just making sure your application flows and has some organic internal unity and really would allow someone you’ve never met to get a clear picture of who you are and what you’ve done.</p>

[tebow15]

<p>@ vivi, haha you’re right, i was in enviro management at ISEF and that was me :)</p>

<p>@ ducktape, thanks for the response. i’ll be sure to lay my app out as well as i can…and i was thinking the same thing for the “something you’ve created” essay.</p>

[lce]

<p>lool i’d love to hear your bollywood one, as many of my best friends are indian too</p>

[tebow15]

<p>haha ducktape, you’re out of space in your inbox</p>

[ask-paul]

<p>@ducktape: Ssh, don’t inflate his ego too much! It’s not like he got all 5’s, I mean seriously…</p>

<p>@tebow: I sent in the full, 20-page paper I submitted to Siemens (where I was a semi-finalist), which was maybe a little extreme. But obviously it didn’t hurt too much in the long run. And it had such pretty pictures of small molecules chelating to histone deacetylases…</p>

<p>I digress, however. ducktape’s advice is slightly more sensible. Though for what it’s worth, I actually put my research under the “is there anything more you want to tell us?” essay, since I used the “something you have created” essay to talk about a club I founded at my school.</p>

<p>@mollie: They always say, good things come in small packages.</p>

[ducktape]

<p>Yeah, yeah, I have space now. Go ahead and send it if what I ended up replying to wasn’t the entire package.</p>

<p>FWIW regarding the supplemental stuff, I used the creation essay for my abstract, and then the anything else essay for a letter to MIT explaining why I was a perfect fit and was dying to go there. In retrospect, it was cheesy, but was totally heart felt and I thought it absolutely necessary at the time.</p>

<p>Honestly, though, guys, don’t stress about your supplemental material not exactly fitting one of those two spots. Just send it in. I can’t imagine they’re going to reject you for not being able to decide which topic to submit your high level research abstract under.</p>

[curious8582008]

<p>@ ask-paul & tebow15: Good point.</p>

<p>@ducktape: tebow15’s stats definitely outshine mine too…</p>