<p>Is it true that MIT likes to accept strong students with good gpa and sat score who have competition experience in math/computer science/physics</p>
<p>I would imagine that they like to admit well rounded students that will make great “team members” of the undergraduate class. You should seriously visit the MIT admissions blog, they have a ton of useful information and general applications advice. They also lay out exactly what they are looking for in a candidate. As far as competition experience goes, I would think that it depends on what competition you were a part of, and how you placed. Placing second or first nationally for Intel, for example, would probably look really cool to admissions! (After grades and stats have been accounted for.)</p>
<p>These competitions are AMC, AIME, USAMO, USACO, USNCO, USAPho, Science fairs, science research, local competitions as well. Does this make any difference ?</p>
<p>It makes some difference although not as much as one might expect.</p>
<p>Of course they make a difference. They are simply ways to show that you are academically capable of succeeding at MIT. But they are by no means a requirement - there are other ways to show academic competence.</p>
<p>According to these stats - <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/882019-statistics-mit-2014-admissions-cycle.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/882019-statistics-mit-2014-admissions-cycle.html</a> - “academic stars”, which seems to include those that do well in competitions, generally get accepted to MIT at a much higher rate than the overall population.</p>
<p>I also get the impression that those who do well in contests are more likely to get accepted to MIT than they are to schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford. I’m not sure if this is actually the case though.</p>
<p>I was at one of the daily admissions talk, and basically, they want kids with passion. They are fine with the unrounded kid that spends his life doing math AND MATH COMPETITIONS. It is not the competition, per se, that they are looking for, but the passion a kid has that leads him to compete in the competitions.</p>