<p>Asian-American girl in Texas
Class rank 8/740 [ridiculously competitive public magnet/IB school]
GPA: 4.86 W, 4.0 UW (the val has something like a 4.99999)</p>
<p>SAT: 760 M, 760 CR, 800 W
SAT Subject Tests: 800 Bio, 740 Physics, 740 Math 2</p>
<p>AP's: World History 5, U.S. History 5, Biology 5, Spanish Lang. 5, English Lang. 3 (I'm not much at that rhetoric stuff...)</p>
<p>Taken a ridiculous courseload all 4 years - all classes have been Honors/AP except for P.E. and Health.</p>
<p>Clubs/extracurriculars/volunteer work:
Internat'l Students Club 9-12, Senior Rep
National Honor Society 11-12
Mu Alpha Theta 11-12
Chinese Honor Society 11-12
Spanish National Honor Society 10-12
Service Club 10-12
Learned piano ages 8-15
Chinese School ages 5-16
Volunteer at a museum over 2 or 3 summers, 400+ volunteer hours and still collecting</p>
<p>Work experience:
Summer camp counselor</p>
<p>IB Diploma candidate
No alumni relation to MIT
Research assistant right now, helped write a paper that's getting published - and my name's on it =]</p>
<p>I'd really appreciate feedback! Thanks in advance =]</p>
<p>Why do you want to go to MIT? What do you want to do there? I ask only because your list of EC's does not provide the answer. When an adcom looks at an app, they like to see quality, not quantity.</p>
<p>Maybe she likes the environment? or just the name? Even I used to want to go to MIT, and I still kind of, but not really since I don't want engineering.</p>
<p>I'm leaning toward science-y or math-y stuff, especially biology-related subjects. I visited MIT once and I totally fell in love with the culture =]</p>
<p>I guess I didn't emphasize my research position right now -- I'm doing research with another high school student, supervised/directed by a doctor. We discovered a new species of bacteria, and the research paper is being published by a prestigious medical magazine. We're hoping to get another paper out soon.</p>
<p>I think you sound like a pretty good applicant...MIT is a reach for everyone, and you should obviously be realistic, but there is absolutely no reason why a person with your credentials should not apply. (I would know, I am enrolling at MIT this fall.)</p>
<p>Congrads on the bacteria thing, that's awesome! MIT seems like a really good place to study bio.</p>
<p>It doesn't seem like MIT is hellbent on only getting applicants with math/sci EC's. Check out the MIT blogs and board for a better answer, on that topic, as well as more information about admissions and general MIT stuff.</p>
<p>I honestly doubt that. You can't get a good feel for the culture by just visiting it once. Also, if you really want to do biology, you should consider other places like JHU or UCSD which have great biology programs. MIT has a great biology program too, but I believe they're more focused on bioinformatics, proteomics and genomics rather than more traditional approaches. Depends on what you're interested in.</p>
MIT has a great biology program too, but I believe they're more focused on bioinformatics, proteomics and genomics rather than more traditional approaches.
[/quote]
I would say that the department is strongly focused on molecular and cellular biology -- lots of proteomics and genomics by the people who sequenced the human genome, some bioinformatics and computational bio by the engineers who do biology, but most researchers in the department are doing basic molecular/cell biology research. There is basically no ecology or organismal biology research.</p>
<p>Thanks, guys. Your opinions are appreciated.</p>
<p>k-theory - You're right, I read the MIT blogs and have spent a lot of time trying to get a feel for it beyond my visit, and I really think it's amazing. The culture has really drawn me in, but I'm being realistic ;D</p>
<p>MIT would be a great reach school for you to apply to. Consider EA if it's your first choice (some people also choose to apply to Caltech EA with MIT EA).</p>
<p>Thanks, I'm definitely applying EA. Any opinions on how much it might help?
Also, does anyone know how much being an IB diploma candidate/taking IB exams & courses, etc. AND taking AP tests/courses will help?</p>
<p>Applying EA to MIT does not give an applicant an advantage -- MIT has a quota for EA admissions, and only 30% of the incoming class can be admitted EA. Most EA applicants are deferred to the RD round, where they are totally reconsidered. The admission rates for EA and RD are similar, although the overall EA admission rate is a little higher when you factor in the EA kids who were accepted RD.</p>