<p>Piper…<br>
It’s not what you find in a few months, it’s the opportunities and doors open to you in the next 10 years because you will have the MIT name on your resume. Hopefully, the contacts you met at MIT will lead you to where you want to go. </p>
<p>If you are interested in getting an advanced degree, will the MIT name help you advance to a great school/program or would you have better off getting stellar grades at a ‘not so highly ranked undergraduate school?’ </p>
<p>It’s one thing to get an undergrad degree from MIT
It’s quite another thing to get the graduate degree from MIT</p>
<p>I think that if an MIT coach is within his right to contact a prospective student by email then each email should be required to briefly mention coach’s lack of influence on said admission.</p>
<p>Sounds like double dipping. Sounds like the coach wants the benefit and goodwill of a non-existent influence on the application without the responsibility for a rejection. These are 17/18 year old young people without life experience yet.</p>
<p>Uhh, I’m looking for jobs right now, and this multitude of doors I should be expecting are not coming to me. Nor are my grades good enough to go for an advance degree (despite being dean’s list when I spent a short time at another college - if I had stuck there, I’d probably have had more opportunity).</p>
<p>Your idealized world of advantages don’t apply to everyone in the class.</p>
<p>@Arelcao, you’re right in that MIT’s admissions is not a pure meritocracy, but if it were then MIT would become an institute of rich, white, privileged males who arguably have less need for the institute since the rich-white-male paradigm is already overrepresented in the hard sciences.</p>
<p>Besides that, though, the athletic department probably DID verify if he was an “acceptable candidate.” 85% of MIT applicants are “acceptable candidates” and most are still rejected. It’s not like this kid had a 1400 SAT and a bunch of D’s on his transcript. He had a genuine shot and he just wasn’t one of the lucky ones.</p>
<p>It happens. My Caltech basketball recruiter told me I was “more than competitive” as an applicant because of my scores, etc. but I took it with a grain of salt – she’s a bball coach, not an admissions officer – and wasn’t surprised to be rejected. Yes, I was qualified, but nothing is certain with schools of this level.</p>
<p>That’s exactly where MIT draws the admitted class from - the most brilliant and accomplished. But it sounds like you don’t understand what “accomplishment” is. A raw measure tells you nothing about an applicant - it is only accomplishment compared to what resources they had that matters. </p>
<p>At MIT, people will be on a more level playing field. Some people will come from wealthier families or have better academic backgrounds and such, and they will still have an advantage - but MIT’s resources are the same. MIT wants people who will take advantage of them.</p>
<p>A friend of mine is a coach at peer college of MIT. She told me they recruit high school seniors during the year (those who have expressed an interest in the school). Once they develop their list of top candidates, they send that list off to the admissions department and say “We’d love to have these be accepted if you can find a way.” </p>
<p>Then they sit back and hope, as she said they have no further influence.</p>
<p>@jpm50: Exactly. The admissions office makes the ultimate decisions, which is the way it should be. This isn’t like an Ivy League school where the coach sends a list to the admissions department and say “we are taking these people. send out likely letters to them”.</p>
<p>I can say nothing on MIT’s athletic recruitment program other than you shouldn’t count on getting in because of that…but as for MIT being a meritocracy, nay, it is not a meritocracy. It is an institute which has high standards of academic success, but it’s more a baseline than a mountain peak. That is to say, the ones who are admitted are not necessarily those of greatest merit, but rather, those who (along with strong academic standing) the admissions office determines to be a “good fit” for that particular class. </p>
<p>Of course, I don’t know what they consider a “good fit,” but they certainly are not a meritocracy in the actual sense of the word.</p>
<p>^ You clearly have no idea of the caliber of the majority of MIT’s applicant pool if you think they can’t maintain excellence while team-building.</p>
<p>Im sorry, but is that what I said?..I don’t think so. Trust me, I recognize the caliber of MIT’s applicant pool. What I said is that MIT is not filling their admit pool with the best of the best when it comes to merit. If they were, they would be 50% international Indian students. Did I say it was bad that they don’t do this? No, I’m just saying they don’t do this. </p>
<p>Before you start attacking someone, try to recognize what they’re trying to say. Ya, MIT students are smart, but try to get off your high horse and recognize that there are rejectees that are even more accomplished than some acceptees. It’s just a fact of the college admissions process - again, before you start making claims of my ignorance, i’m not saying this is necessarily good or bad, I’m just saying it’s a present phenomena.</p>
<p>Edit: This argument is not related to the OP’s question, so if you want to discuss this further please PM me.</p>
<p>^right. I am sure that if merit was the case (atleast the int’l pool), the 10% admitted int’ls would be mostly Indians and Chinese! If you want to talk about the entire pool, then at least ~300 would be Indian and Chinese.</p>
<p>It is cruel to pursue, defer, keep pursuing and then reject. Nothing wrong in letting others, esp. MITchris, know so that it can be avoided if possible in the future. Speak up!</p>
<p>Isn’t that really a “Life’s not fair” complaint?</p>
<p>When one applies to MIT, they know the rules ahead of time. MIT is a business that is allowed to privately select which 1 of every 12 applicants it accepts.</p>
<p>If you are the caliber of someone who can apply to MIT, you know there are hundreds of other colleges out there who will accept you on the spot. </p>
<p>If someone choses to apply to MIT, the rules of the process are known ahead of time. If they don’t agree with them at the start, it’s their choice to not proceed. Is it reasonable to complain after the fact?</p>