<p>wHat if my class ranking is bad because of 9th grade and my gpa is 3.89 weighted and 4.12 unweighted, do i still have a good chance</p>
<p>68/489 rank
800 math IIc, 800 biology, 760 writing, 790 Physics, 730 chinese
34 ACT</p>
<p>Rank isn't everything, and if your grades show improvement, the admissions committee will see it.</p>
<p>I hear they use all sorts of complicated algorithms to calculate a score for each individual. how much does class rank factor into that</p>
<p>NonOnOnnonononNO!
Ben has made it very clear that there</a> is NO formula.</p>
<p>ugg, i hate that train example. they kid liked trains and then suddenly got an fantastic job at amtrak. i mean none of us have been hired by a company for an important executive position. ben makes it sound like he got hired because of his passion for trains, but if the kid had the same passion, but no executive job, he probebly would not have gotten in. i think he got in because of the job, not the passion.</p>
<p>Sharkbite: You do realize his passion GOT him the job, right? Anthony made a fan website about riding Amtrak trains that got millions of hits, Amtrak noticed, and gave him a job. It's not like his dad owned Amtrak or anything.</p>
<p>So it was a combination of things: his passion for trains, his writing ability, his coding ability... You can't say that the job (which wasn't executive, IIRC) got him in, because his passion got him the job.</p>
<p>He posts here, too...</p>
<p>I think the mention of a job simply serves as a manifestation of the passion. Mentioning it is an effective way to qualify the degree at which he pursued his love for train travel. Ben wasn't trying to imply that the simple hiring was a make-or-break factor.</p>
<p>People get into MIT because they are a good fit for the school. Perhaps "passion" is an overused buzz word among the sweaty-palmed applicant contingent, but regardless, specific anecdotes or facts about a given applicant don't all-of-a-sudden guarantee admission. Everyone has their own story and there is a class of one thousand to fill.</p>
<p>I definitely read in the MIT alumn magazine that they do use an algorithm. They compute two separate scores, one based on test scores, gpa, etc, another based on your personal profile. So basically, when people say there isn't a formula, they mean that 4.0 and a 2400 won't necessarily get you in, because you need great essays and teacher rec's too. Think about it.</p>
<p>They do have two numbers, your NI and your application score. There isn't a particular "weight" to anything. They look at your SAT scores and GPA and put it on a scale 1-5, then they look at your essays, extra-curriculars, interviews, put it on a scale 1-5.</p>
<p>The thing is, they don't use a cutoff or anything like that. People with extremely high scores have been rejected while people with extremely low scores have been accepted. I guess you could say they have a rough scoring system, but it's not what they determine acceptance on (i.e. top 12% of scorers get in, etc).</p>
<p>Eh, but there probably is some general cutoff to where it goes. I doubt anybody in the bottom 50% or so gets in...</p>
<p>I know for a fact there is no cutoff, and people with numerical indices of ~2 have gotten in before (I wish I had the table of information, but that is circa 1994 IIRC). However, there is a MUCH stronger correlation between someone's application score (essays, extra-curriculars, interview, personal character) and acceptance than there is numerical score and acceptance.</p>
<p>My google-fu is weak, can anyone find that table of NI vs. NNI of accepted applicants?</p>
<p>still, do you think mit would have admitted him without the job, just the website and interest in trains? i dont think so.</p>
<p>I definitely do. A website that gets that many hits? Clearly you're doing something right, and something you love.</p>
<p>You make it sound like he has no other qualities, and that the ONLY thing that got him in was the train story. Forgetting to mention that he took the train job because he graduated from high school two years early and wanted to get some life experience under his belt before going to college. </p>
<p>I don't possibly see how you can possibly look at all of that, even without the job, and not see incredible passion.</p>
<p>ahh, i didnt even notice that so i guess im wrong. the place i read it from didnt even mention all that. still, that is extraordinary passion that most of us wont have. oh well, you have to be extraordinary to get into mit. well, i guess i have no chance if that is what they mean by "passion" oh well :(</p>