<p>Is it any difficult for a straight A student to get into MIT than a student with As and some Bs?</p>
<p>Cs and Ds and certainly Fs are out of the question.</p>
<p>A lot of it has to do with the high school you come from. At some particularly competitive high schools, like Thomas Jefferson or Phillips Exeter, Bs would be acceptable. Then there are other less competitive high schools where anything less than first ranked(with what ever grades that entails) would be unacceptable.</p>
<p>Of course, MIT's admissions office seems to make a lot of exceptions for kids with outstanding achievements outside of classes and test scores. Being very good at music, a sport, winning prestigious science and math competitions, or showing true passion about a subject can get grades overlooked. But one would still have to be in an acceptable range of grades, which again, varies from school to school.</p>
<p>okay . . . bump??</p>
<p>LOL. No way, I got atleast 1 B every semester =D. Some were even B-'s! I don't think C's are out of the question, actually - I think some people have had a bad year but explained family reasons or some other reason and have been accepted because their other years showed that they were decent students.</p>
<p>Grades are like SAT scores - admissions wants to see that you can handle the work (hopefully A's and B's and 700 SATs) and after that, they want to know why they should accept you. What makes you special, stand out, etc...</p>
<p>I got a few Bs in freshmen and sophomore year for spanish class and lit in freshmen year.
not a big problem... but do your best to not get B's in math and science classes.
but many admits DON"T have a perfect GPA</p>
<p>of 4 MIT admits from my school this year, only 1 person have straight A's
so no worries.</p>
<p>Actually, one of my B's was in math freshman year, and another one was AP Bio junior year.</p>
<p>(And a third one in physics last semester senior year, though admissions didn't see that at application time.)</p>
<p>Er, yeah, it's a good idea to keep your grades high, especially in science/math - but again, a B won't kill you.</p>
<p>My transcript was horribly marred - Bs every semester except for first semester senior year, and even a C in APUSH! The horror of horrors! Granted, it was strange and my guidance counselor addressed it in her recommendation letter, but you <em>can</em> get in with a C.</p>
<p>Grades are just what gets your application considered; it's the rest of it that'll get you through the door. Essays, activities, recommendation letters...don't forget that you're a lot more than a transcript and some test scores.</p>
<p>
[quote]
LOL. No way, I got atleast 1 B every semester =D.
[/quote]
QFT .</p>
<p>I didn't have a perfect transcript. I had a 3.85 GPA (unweighted, we had no weighting).</p>
<p>I have a friend who got into Cornell engineering with a bunch of C's.</p>
<p>He has a joke about the "You must maintain your grades at your normal level or else you'll get rescinded." He planned to maintain his C's. :)</p>
<p>^ hahaha. very funny. I had 2 Cs and a D on ma tarnscript but I got in so dun worry. We all make mistakes occasionally, and I believe the admissions committee knows that too.</p>
<p>Lol - I ended up with 4/6 B's last semester senior year. Wasn't kicked out =D</p>
<p>I also had several C's, mostly earlier in my HS career (including a C in bio freshman yr), and a lot of kids with much better grades than me didn't get in. My impression of the people around me here is that everyone did well enough in HS to demonstrate they could handle the work at MIT (no small task), and then excelled at something really cool/interesting/unique outside of the classroom.</p>
<p>Question: Did MIT admits have a perfect transcript?
Answer: No.</p>
<p>You're welcome. =)</p>
<p>Haha,
Thanks, guys.
I ended up with my first B+, actually. I got an 89.3, and I messed up on the finals. I could have gotten an A- if I answered just two questions on the finals correctly. </p>
<p>The subject was AP Stats. Its a math class, which makes it worse . . . now that it "doesn't matter" for MIT, I wonder if the same applies to Caltech, as they are more grade orientated.</p>
<p>Whether you need a near-perfect transcript for serious consideration will depend on your performance within your own high school. MIT's admissions statistics for the class of 2011 indicate that the Institute admitted only slightly over 2% of applicants who were not in the top 5-10% of students in their high schools. When President Susan Hockfield gave the 2011 convocation speech last year, she gave a thumbnail sketch of the class and mentioned, among the many achievements of the students, the fact that some had been valedictorians. There are many reassuring posts on this thread, but don't be lulled into believing that grades are not important to MIT.
Admissions statistics for 2011 are here: MIT</a> Admissions: Admissions Statistics</p>
<p>P.S. --The context for my own post is this: I know two MIT prefrosh who just graduated from a high-school in Silicon Valley in which, to place within the top ten percent of students, they each probably had to have a perfect, or a near-perfect, transcript. At this school, dozens of students qualify as National Merit finalists, and many of them apply to MIT and other top schools. I'm sure others face quite different situations, but as at least one other poster here has already pointed out, it all depends.</p>
<p>
[quote]
There are many reassuring posts on this thread, but don't be lulled into believing that grades are not important to MIT.
[/quote]
Right -- I think it's dangerous to think that grades don't matter, because they certainly do. It's just that many other things matter, too, and the impact of a single grade, or three or four, can be muted by your other accomplishments and qualities.</p>
<p>do A-s count?</p>
<p>The way I see it, you do your best to get the best grades you can possibly have.
And if those, (and not one of the numerous other factors) keeps you out of MIT, you weren't ready academically anyways.</p>