I am a girl and my GPA is about a 98.5. My SAT scores are a 2170 (800-math, 710-reading, 660-writing) I finished all the math courses at my school and for my Junior and now Senior year taking Calculus classes at a nearby university. My dream is to go to MIT and I want to become a meteorologist. I also am an athlete, looking to be on one of MIT’s teams. Most of the girls on the team are above my level but I am trying to get recruited. I think it would be really beneficial for my college schedule to be on a varsity team.
AP classes:
Fresh - Statistics
Soph- Chem, Calc, World History
Jun- Physics, US History, Lit
Senior- Biology, Macroeconomics, Language
I also have completed 5 years of Latin and gotten 3 gold medals on the National Latin Exam.
I am part of National Honor Society, Science Olympiads, Mathletes, 3 varsity sports teams, Orchestra, and Latin Club.
Do you think I have a good shot of getting into MIT?
Also, my brother has special needs, how should I convey my experiences with him in my application?
SAT score is low for MIT. You haven’t taken your subject tests yet. I say you can mention your brother’s situation in your app, but unless it affected you in some way, don’t put it in your essays. Are you sure you are D3 recruitable? Did you contact the coach yet?
Does your coach have a relationship with MIT? Has he referred other athletes to similar programs? While your ACT is on the low side, if you were a recruited athlete, it would be a legitimate hook. I would get some good film together, and get in serious communication with the relevant coaching staff at MIT.
@powwow43, what is your sport? You mention playing 3. I’ve heard anecdotally that coaches have very little impact on admissions decisions at MIT, but I’d defer to anyone with more experience in this area.
Your math is fine with AP calculus as a sophomore (AB or BC?), 800 SAT I math and 790 SAT II math. Your SAT II’s are fine. Your reading and CR scores are low, especially the CR, and it wouldn’t hurt to bring those up.
I think your latin and sports background gives you an added dimension that is missing from some MIT applicants. It’s important to bring these sides out to differentiate yourself.
As for your brother’s special needs, the question is how those have impacted you. The adcom wants to know about you, not your brother. If there was something about his situation that inspired you, or affected your choice of activities, or that directly impacted your ability to pursue activities, then it’s not relevant.
Are we looking at the same thread here? A 2170 on the SAT with a 800 math, 710 reading, and 660 writing is definitely not “too low” for MIT. Sure, bringing that SAT up 100 points on the reading and writing section would be nice, and a 2170 isn’t doing yourself any favors on the application but a 2170 by itself does not disqualify yourself from MIT admissions.
I have also heard that athletic recruits for MIT do not get very much special treatment, I have a friend who was recruited with very solid stats, but did not know whether or not he would get in until decisions came out. (He did end up getting in)
On most other points, I agree with renaissancedad (besides the point of your 710 CR being “especially low”, I personally think 710 is fine). Just make sure your essays convey a sense of yourself. I wouldn’t say that you have a good shot at MIT (very few people have a “good shot” at MIT), but I do think you have an about average chance. As always, with schools like MIT, don’t get your hopes up and enjoy senior year.
This comment is so irrelevant I don’t even know where to begin. OP is finishing high school with 10 AP classes under her belt. I know people accepted with as few as 1-3 AP exams, and people with as many as 15-18. The number of AP classes, by itself, is irrelevant compared to the rest of the application.
@ZeeTee, thanks for correcting me. I got the CR and writing scores mixed up. The 660 is definitely on the lowish side; the 710 CR by itself is fine, but combined with a 660 W is seems a bit lower than ideal.
A 660 writing score puts you below the 25th percentile of admitted students, and those who were accepted with that kind of a score most likely had a big hook. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it certainly is a big hurdle to overcome
I know MIT students who took no AP’s - all depends on your school/location.
Your writing score is a bit low but I doubt they’ll reject you over the writing score (in fact, I got the exact same writing score). Additionally, MIT has its own measures of writing ability - if you’re accepted and enroll, you’ll have to take the FEE which determines writing placement, unless you score a 5 on Language or Lit.
The main “weakness” I see is that your EC’s look pretty average. I guess if you can convey your involvement in them, it won’t be too bad.
This is a low SAT score for an MIT applicant. I know people want to be all positive… but it’s the truth. AP classes don’t matter hardly at all for admission; the colleges just want to see serious course rigor. It doesn’t matter if you took 5 AP’s or 6… at all. Without a little more info, it’s pretty tough to gauge the chances. Gauging the chances without considering possible recruitment, I’d put it at a low reach. Not likely, but by no means impossible.
Its a marginal feature relative to everything else. Do they have worth–most certainly. That said, most college applications do not require or request AP exam scores. You can apply to many elite universities and test never reveal your AP exam scores. Unlike the SAT, there is no official AP score report that gets sent directly from the College Board to the universities you apply to.
Feel free to pm me, I can talk to you about the MIT process, especially for recruited athletes. I committed to play for MIT last year, and can tell you a bit about what that entails. Though, 3 varsity teams generally implies something about the quality of your individual high school’s athletics (which may or may not reflect your personal talent, who knows).
For my sport, most students turned down offers from D1 schools such as the ivies. I was in the same situation. So, although it’s D3, major sports are no cake-walk.
I’m rather familiar with the MIT admissions process at this point, after speaking to various admissions officers at Intel ISEF and RSI. So, I’d be happy to relay some of what I’ve learned.
As far as math is concerned, what are you considering taking at the University? If you’re finished with calc it’s time to start linear algebra and differential equations to get a taste of higher math.
