<p>Hey Guys I'm a white male from a suburban town and from a 2A high school. My graduating class has approx. 300 people. What are my chances of getting into MIT?</p>
<p>GPA: 4.0
Class Rank: 1 of approx. 300
SAT I: 1440; Math:770 Verbal:670
SAT II Math Level 1: 760
SAT II Chem.: 720</p>
<p>Higher Level Classes:
AP Calc BC - 4 ; AB - 5
AP Chem - 4
AP US - 4
Frederick Community College Class - Film History 101</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
Varsity Basketball
Varsity Outdoor Track
Key Club
Student Government Association
Model United Nations</p>
<p>Leadership:
Freshman Basketball Captain (9th Grade)
Junior Varsity Basketball Captain (10th Grade)
Student Government Web Site Committee Chairperson (10th - 12th Grade)
Student Government Treasurer (11th Grade)
Senior Class Council (12th Grade)
President and Founder of Model United Nations (12th Grade)
Maryland Boys State: President of City Council
Maryland Boys State: State Delegate</p>
<p>Community Service:
Approximately 180 Hours including:
Special Olympics Fall of 2004
Special Olympics Spring of 2005
Walk-a-thon for the Homeless Spring 2003
Middletown Basketball Camp Staff Member (Summers of '03 and '04)
Working with Autistic and Mentally Handicapped Children</p>
<p>Work:
National Institute of Health, National Cancer Institute, Laboratory of Genomic Diversity - Frederick Intern</p>
<p>We have similar stats. I think we're competitive applicants but it's important that we write really intriguing and powerful essays so that we don't just melt into the cauldron with the rest of the high SAT scores and NHS members. Make yourself seem as if you would contribute more to the environment at MIT than others that are just as well, if not more, qualified than you are.</p>
<p>That should help that your sister graduated from there, but I don't know how much. Are you planning on playing basketball or running track at MIT? If so, that could help you out a lot.</p>
<p>It is pretty damn hard. When I first got here I got pretty bad grades, like 3.0/5.0 freshman year. It is probably because I had never done homework before so I didn't know how. I have had a signifigant improvement in grades, with my GPA junior year being 1.6 higher than freshman year, once I realized the best thing I could be doing is studying, not just procrastinating and complaning. If you can get into MIT or Stanford and want to do engineering, I think you should go to one of those.</p>
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It is probably because I had never done homework before so I didn't know how.
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<p>I don't believe that. If that were really true, I don't think you'd be at MIT.</p>
<p>They say that certain people out there are so smart that they can get top grades without studying too hard. Were you one of those people in high school?</p>
<p>some high schools are strange when it comes to homework. mine, frexample, tended to have ap classes with less homework than the regular classes, which baffled a lot of people. of course, what they assigned was much more about thinking than about rote "do lots of problems", but it still ended up being less work, timewise. and the rote assignments don't really count as homework, once you get here and decide psets=hw. if you're not thinking, it's not homework...and by that token, a lot of high school quickly has no homework. but it definitely depends on your school.</p>
<p>I read in a magazine that you guys routinely stay up all night doing homework. That can't be very fun.</p>
<p>A lot of my friends have told me that they intend to go to a local state school for undergrad, and apply to MIT for grad, saving money. Does MIT undergrad teach you material you can't find elsewhere, or is it just the atmosphere that can't be found elsewhere? </p>
<p>I'm from a pretty well off family, so no scholarships for me. Is $140000 worth it?</p>
<p>routinely? it's not uncommon, but probably averages to no more than once or twice a week, and you're just as likely to stay up all night doing something spectacularly fun b/c you're an insane college student. and all- and late-night study sessions are by no means not-fun, provided you have the right set of people. also, we tend to think psets are fun, or at least, get somewhat addicted to the adrenaline that kicks in when you're trapped in a vicious fight for survival and sanity with the 5th part of the 4th problem of 9...</p>
<p>um, right. back to answering your question. as for state school->MIT, i'd say it depends on your state school (especially in your department), and on how highly you judge your ability to make yourself a competitive applicant in that atmosphere. i hear many state schools are large, and some of the opportunties that MIT offers just aren't quite there (or, maybe, well-funded), so an individual has to work harder to seek out and grab such things for themselves. and the material may or may not be the same, but i think a bigger difference might pop up in the rigor, depending on the field. <em>shrug</em> my state school, while known for its engineering, was sufficiently unimpressive that i didn't even bother visiting there, so i fully admit to mostly talking out of my ass.</p>
<p>if mit impresses you sufficiently, and you sense something about it that speaks to you and makes you think that you'd be measureably happier here than somewhere else (for any number of reasons, which depend muchly on the somewhere else), and that's important to you, then yes, come to mit. you won't regret spending the money. remember, it's hard to find a place that'll give you a better chance of paying off that bill.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Grad school (at least in science and engineering) is generally free, because the federal government likes it when people go to grad school. Grad students get stipends. So don't worry about saving money <em>for</em> grad school.</p></li>
<li><p>One of the biggest (if not the biggest) pieces of a grad school application is undergraduate research. Meaningful undergraduate research. Many of my friends attending state school have had difficulty a) finding research positions and b) finding positions that don't involve cleaning glassware. Here, of course, it's common to find a good UROP (or two, or three).</p></li>
<li><p>(IMO, the biggest disadvantage) There are a lot of people who think the same way you do. Therefore, there are a lot of applicants to top grad schools who hail from State U with 4.0s and good GRE scores. There are fewer applicants from top schools (because there are fewer people at top schools). You do the math.</p></li>
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