<p>I had my transcript sent to MIT not long ago, but I am still debating whether it is worth filling out the Common Application and paying the application fee. I sort of have an odd situation, and I really don't know if I stand a shot at all or not. Of course, I know I can "apply and see what happens", but I am more interested in realistic responses here. </p>
<p>Basically, my high school grades are atrocious. I've earned C's throughout all of high school career, mostly because I skipped a lot of school. However, I have did take six AP courses during my junior year. Among them are the more pertinent courses that MIT would like to see (AP Chemistry, AP Physics C, AP Calculus BC), and although I earned a C in pretty much all of my courses, I scored a 5 on all six exams. (Well, 7 if you count each physics exam separately.) I took the ACT in December of my junior year and earned a perfect score of 36. I also took the SAT I during my junior year for the first time and I ended up getting a 2400. I took some subject tests last year and this year: Chemistry - 800, Physics - 800, Math I -760, Math II - 800, Literature - 800. </p>
<p>My junior year GPA was not even a 3.0, but I am finally taking school seriously this year, and I have over a 4.0 for the current semester. With my predicted semester grades averaged in, my GPA should be about a 3.1. I only participate in one extracurricular activity at school, the Academic Team, but we have won a variety of awards at competitions. I have always found school immensely boring, so I just never went. However, as I have noted, I have certainly changed my ways this year. I wish I could go back, but I simply can't. Somewhere on my application I think I could perhaps explain my situation to shed some light on it. </p>
<p>How do you think MIT would view my particular application? I believe I have shown my ability pretty thoroughly, but I believe I'll probably look incredibly lazy and inactive. Please post your honest thoughts.</p>
<p>I would not apply. As all colleges know, the best predictor of how you’ll do in college is how you did in HS. A couple of terms of good grades isn’t going to get you into any top college.</p>
<p>There are lots and lots of high scoring kids who did poorly in high school. A problem is always involved ranging from boredom to ADD to psychological problems to old fashioned slacking. Top colleges will not take the time to figure out which your problem is, they have too many 2400/36/4.0 award winning kids they can’t accept to give it a second thought.</p>
<p>Your shot at a top college is as a transfer or grad student. So put down the application and address your issues. Do as well as you can senior year. Get into the best college you can. Do brilliantly inside the classroom, do research and get involved on campus. 2 years later apply to some top schools.</p>
<p>I can see what you are saying, but I would like to add that my both my physics and calculus teacher wrote outstanding recommendations on my ability. Basically, they attributed my average grades to being more interested in topics that were beyond the level of the class, which was certainly true. I don’t think I have an issue necessarily–I simply did not care about getting all A’s and doing tedious assignments that taught me absolutely nothing. I even went to a magnet governor’s school (which I got into due to my math ability) and still I could not find anything that was challenging enough. It was a waste time to sit in a classroom doing worksheets when I could be teaching myself advanced things you would never learn in school. I guess I am kind of disappointed in myself, but I’m far more disappointed that I couldn’t be provided with a stimulating education at all. I guess following your true passions and really wanting to learn is not what colleges want.</p>
<p>Are your teachers going to write letters of recommendation that say you are so brilliant that they could not teach you and they gave you low grades because they bored you? The transcript is the most important part of your application to selective schools. MIT rejects plenty of kids with perfect test scores - probably many of them with poorer performance on their transcripts. If you did not care to do the work necessary to get A’s you can hardly fault the colleges when that red flags your work ethic.</p>
<p>I’ll be really blunt. Sorry, that won’t fly. Not even close. A world famous physicist wouldn’t convince them.</p>
<p>There are too many brilliant, highly accomplished students from around the globe applying. These kids have won national and international competitions, done published research, attended MIT programs that take 1 in 20 national award winners. They’ve invented and discovered things. Kids, as Yaledad say above who teachers will say passed their knowledge by in 6th grade.</p>
<p>Many, many kids don’t find school stimulating so they go out and get their academic stimulation from all of the available outlets while keeping
their grades up at school because they know they have to.</p>
<p>So I don’t think you see what I’m saying. I’m not saying you probably won’t get in, I’m saying you’re not even close to being considered. This is not about ability. It’s about promise already fulfilled to a very large extent. Your situation isn’t odd at all, it’s very typical. Most kids do not fulfill their potential and that’s why less than one percent of the population can ever set foot inside MIT.</p>
<p>Sorry to be so blunt, but it’s too close to deadlines for you to be pipe dreaming. You need to figure out where you can get in and start fulfilling your promise.</p>
<p>Sorry, not to sound rude but you said things like “I could not find anything that was challenging enough” and “I could be teaching myself advanced things you would never learn in school.”</p>
<p>What I’m not understanding is, if the subjects were so easy, why did you get mostly C’s? Even if you had a poor attendance record + missed projects, etc., if you really found the classes so incredibly basic, shouldn’t have you been able to at least perform well when it came to test time? I’m asking because if there is a compelling reason, you could have a potential explanation in your essay. Otherwise, I’d have to say I agree with Waverly; you could always just apply “just to see,” but with such an awful GPA, I don’t think you could be considered seriously.</p>
<p>You sound like a smart, capable student. The opinions of the people here criticizing you for your poor class performance misunderstand you but accurately represent the attitude of most MIT students: that you have to abide strictly by the rules of the “system” or else sacrifice your ability to advance in the world. MIT used to stand for something, but not any more. (So why would anyone with a great passion even consider MIT? Beats me.)</p>
<p>A while ago, you might have been able to take your great SAT scores + poor GPA + passion and get into Harvey Mudd or UChicago, but those days are long gone. You might be able to make it into Reed, but even that’s questionable. Today’s universities aren’t looking for special cases; they’re looking for non-risks.</p>
<p>You might be able to score well for an AP exam, but going to school is not just about the grades. There is a process for learning that you would also have to show at a school like MIT … you’ve skipped that process. You come off as a typical smart kid who tests well but the arrogance jumps off the page. I’m not an MIT admissions counselor, but if I pretend to be one, I cannot see how you would fit well into an academic environment that requires you to sit in a classroom for the types of classes you would have to take as a freshman and sophomore (core, plus other liberal arts electives). Maybe you just need to mature, but I don’t see it for an accept this cycle.</p>
<p>Depends on who else is applyign from your school.</p>
<p>Schools claim to want to see if you made the best of the opportunities presented to you at your current school to determine if you will make use of the resources and come out well in their school. If you blew off school for 3 years in high school for no reason whatsoever, it is not a good predictor of your expected performance at their college if it is costing someone (the school, your parents) 57,000 a year.</p>
<p>The American educational system is a complete joke today–all colleges care about is nonsense credentials that people gain for the purpose of getting into college. They don’t con’t care about true passion and true ability. As someone mentioned, those days are long gone. You probably won’t get into MIT, but you could at least apply. I can tell you from reading your posts that you would not enjoy it at all. The school is not filled with people like you. It’s filled with the people I just was talking about. </p>
<p>Anyways, I would not say that you even look lazy. Sure, earning bad grades due to bad attendance is not a plus, but you have consistent perfect scores on exams that absolutely require you to know the material. It is obvious that you have learned the material on your own.</p>
<p>If you were actually following your true passions, you should not only be acing your classes (especially in areas of interest), but should also be doing activities that would actually show that you have “true passions.” You show neither of these. You really don’t show that you really want to learn with such poor preformance. If your transcript doesn’t automatically put you in the rejection pile, your lack of extracurricular involvement will.</p>
<p>“but I am still debating whether it is worth filling out the Common Application and paying the application fee”</p>
<p>MIT does not use the common application. Before you decide to apply or not, you should probably learn more about the school… [MIT</a> - Massachusetts Institute of Technology](<a href=“http://mit.edu/]MIT”>http://mit.edu/)</p>
<p>MIT is a school that makes you work you butt off… Only apply if you are actually willing to start going to school, because you can’t fool around at MIT or not go to class. MIT requires a large dedication to academics from their students who wish to be successful. If pulling an all nighter with a few buddies to finish a problem set does not sound amusing, be careful about applying/attending MIT.</p>