<p>It seems to me that - from what I have read here - it seems impossible to get into MIT if you do not do academic competitions or some form of research (this is excluding URM, legacy, first gen, or some other special case). Really, if you are from a middle class family that lives in a normal suburban town/city, you stand no chance if you go out of your way to do competitive programs, competitions, or some form of research. Is this true, or are there any cases of people who are able to get in without all the awards and flash?</p>
<p>remember CC is known for over achieving students lol</p>
<p>People have gotten in without awards and research.</p>
<p>I've conducted research on neuroscience but never went to science fair because our research was not finished by the deadline for Intel and Siemens, but my MIT interviewer said that competitions and awards are not everything in an MIT application. As long as you show them that you have challenged yourself to the fullest of your ability and can succeed in the rigorous curriculum at MIT, a lack of prestigious competition experience will not hinder your application.</p>
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It seems to me that - from what I have read here - it seems impossible to get into MIT if you do not do academic competitions or some form of research (this is excluding URM, legacy, first gen, or some other special case).
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This is emphatically not true -- actually, most of the people I knew at MIT didn't do high-level competitions, or any research at all, in high school.</p>
<p>CC is a very unusual slice of the applicant pool, for sure.</p>
<p>hmm..well, i had no awards at all...really..the only awards i put on my application is AP Scholar and National Merit Commended</p>
<p>but i did research with a MIT professor at a harvard medical school hospital..so i guess that probably helps a lot.</p>
<p>and i stilll got admitted to MIT..</p>
<p>so, what the other said above is true, as long you take INITATIAVE for your own education and the opportunties around you. :)</p>
<p>I am going to MIT next year and I did not do any national/state science competitions, did not win any national/state/etc awards in science, did not do any research, come from a middle class white family, and am a male.</p>
<p>Ham: what did you do if you don't mind me asking? You had to be impressive in some other way.</p>
<p>Etoile_x, I think we're in the same boat. I was so busy with other work that I couldn't finish my cryptography paper in time for Intel/Siemens. gahh...though i try not to focus on awards stuff. but still, sometimes u just hear about those huge scholarships are ur like, damn...those guys sure arent gonna need to fill out those fin aid forms.</p>
<p>I think there was something on the MIT website that said something like yeah, we have a lot of award winners and very special people, but most of the students are just "garden variety smart." People probably get in without competitions and research, because I'm going to guess the vast majority of the high school population is like I was until a few months ago and doesn't know that stuff is possible... I go to a good school, but I don't know anyone in my grade who's done major competitions or research.</p>
<p>Although that might just be wishful thinking since I'm a middle-class white girl with nothing but some high test scores and a handful of NJ science league and math league plaques, lol.</p>
<p>I got in and did no competitions and applied for no awards.</p>
<p>I was going to ask this question too. It seems to me like a lot of those people who did research may have been pushed in that direction by parents (just a hypothesis). For someone who isn't exposed to any opportunities for research, is already doing more than anyone else in his/her school, you wouldn't expect or even think of calling up some company you find in the phone book asking to do research. And even then they probably wouldn't let you do anything interesting.</p>
<p>Of course people get in without competitions or research!</p>
<p>I got in early action, and I did no research, I am middle class and from a suburb.</p>
<p>don't be hatin'</p>
<p>To show the opposite end of the spectrum, I thought research was the strongpoint of my application (one summer internship in MIT nuclear engineering, last summer in Harvard physics/seas, paper pending publication). All else perfect --> deferred.</p>
<p>^^ that's what i was thinking when I saw your stats and stuff like that, i mean, you had ties to MIT as I did. Maybe MIT thought you're extremly good and competitive, but no room for u in EA, so they defer u, but likely to accept u in RD round?</p>