This is undoubtably a random card non-URM admit -which provides the basis for a possible legal strategy which these elite (and very race conscious) schools are constantly preparing for -should for example a future litigant down the road claim race was the sole factor in being denied admission</p>
<p>For example it allows a school to make the argument "If race were the deciding factor, then why are we admitting Mr Johnny White Middle Class along with his (URM level) relatively low SAT scores</p>
<p>Every single elite schools seems to have a handful of cases like this: basically URM stats added to a middle class background with no obvious "X" factor
I find this hysterical. My fiance was admitted so MIT could use him to back up their legal case in some hypothetical lawsuit? Listen, Ben and Matt are my friends, and they're really not that conniving. Ben in particular can't keep a secret or execute a nefarious plot to save his life.</p>
<p>I'll note also with some degree of irony that my fiance is considered one of the best aero/astro students in his year, and also one of the top several to come through the department in the past decade. His SAT scores were simply not predictive of the phenomenal success he's been able to achieve at MIT, which I don't find shocking in the least, but which people on this board apparently do. He's an excellent fit for MIT, and the admissions office made a wise choice to admit him.</p>
<p>So what if you know that you would do extremely well in an environment such as MIT? How can you convey that message through papers and numbers?</p>
<p>I am not a particularly strong academic student. 3.8 QPA out of a 4, and that is weighted. I have a bunch of B's on my transcript as the letter grade, since I took a bunch of honors and AP classes (0.5 and 1.0 boost respectively). I sometimes think that within my school, I am one of the only few who can think outside the box. I took a chem class over the summer after freshman year and I became some sort of spectacle in the school. It was as if no one had ever done that before. I advanced into Physics as the only Sophmore in a class of all juniors, and eventually into Physics B AP as the only junior in a class of all seniors. I figured out that I loved Spanish and eventually became the only junior in my Spanish AP class filled with seniors. </p>
<p>I have taken, more or less, most of the most challenging courses in my school but my grades are fairly mediocre (B's, 3-4's on AP tests, 1900 SAT, 620/690 physics/math1 SATII). But i know for a fact that in a place like MIT, I can do well. </p>
<p>My only problem is convincing them that MIT is a fit for me; but through paper and numbers, I'm stuck. I know that I can do the work if I put my mind to it, cause I've been slacking for the past 2 years and I still have a 3.8 GPA, which in my school is pretty damn good. To me, I see it as though the APs just prevent me from looking stupid.</p>
<p>I've also been elected as a leader in 4 different groups in my school. I've called for respect in diversity in my school, I've met with the president of the school because of injustice, I'm not afraid to act on behalf of my beliefs. I think I have the mental capacity for MIT, but I just dont have the grades and scores.</p>
<p>What a whiney post I just typed up. Something to think about, eh?</p>
<p>Here, here, Mollie. SAT scores themselves can fluctuate wildly - I went from a math score of 640 to 770 by re-taking. Was I any worse at math before I re-took than after? Of course not. I think that many CCers put far too much faith into the SAT's predictive ability. I see it as one of many ways that a student can show ability - not one of many ways to show someone to be "dumb."</p>
<p>Oh, and mollie, do you have any relations with MIT aside from your fiance? It seems like youre pretty knowledgable about their admissions process.</p>
<p>I like MIT because they're not so much based on grades and scores, atleast from my impression. They're more involved in the person as a person.</p>
<p>Mollie was an Admissions</a> Blogger for MIT for over a year. She graduated in 2006 with degrees in cognitive science and biology, and is now a grad student at Harvard. </p>
<p>If you haven't spent much time reading the admissions</a> blogs, I recommend you do so. They're both entertaining and a great source of information, from Ben and Matt and Bryan in Admissions, Daniel in Financial Aid, and actual students.</p>
<p>I second mootmom's advice. Read the admissions blogs. Most answers to the FAQ's on college confidential can be found by searching through the blogs. They are categorized so take the time to review them.</p>
<p>Also, please stop worrying because you got a 780 or 760 on a SAT II as opposed to an 800. That is statistical noise. If MIT wanted to fill the class with 2400's they could. But, how boring would that be? Scores are important, GPA is important, but they are but one piece of the puzzle. Don't do something because you think it will look good on an application. Do it because it is something that you want to do.</p>
<p>In addition to the stuff Mootmom said, I lived in MacGregor for four years and was a four-year member of the MIT cheerleading squad (captain junior year). I did three years of UROP (and got published three times), served as rush chair for my dorm junior year, and graduated with two degrees (despite coming in with almost no AP credit). I also graduated with an A- average (4.5) despite getting a 690 on the math section of the SAT. ;)</p>
<p>And, of course, I met the man I'm marrying at MIT -- he's a senior right now in course 16, and we're getting married next September at the MIT chapel, then having a reception at the Museum of Science. We live on campus with a pet rabbit, so if you come on a campus visit, you might see us. (Well, not the rabbit. She doesn't get out much.)</p>
<p>3000th post! Yay!</p>
<p>EDIT:
Most answers to the FAQ's on college confidential can be found by searching through the blogs. They are categorized so take the time to review them.
And I would further add, in the way of biographical information, that I was the poor soul whose August was spent categorizing all the blog entries.</p>
<p>mollie- from MIT to Harvard. :eek: Did I just hear someone say superwoman? You were an undergrad, right? it says on your blog that you are starting a Phd. program. I was always under the assumption that one went from: Bachelor's-->Master's-->Doctorate</p>
<p>In science generally you don't do a master's -- I don't think that any of the students in my (biology) program have a masters degree. None of the top biology schools actually offer a master's program, except that sometimes they will award sort of an honorary master's to a student who doesn't manage to complete the PhD program.</p>
<p>In other fields, like engineering, it's more common (and often necessary) to get a master's on the way to a PhD.</p>
<p>And my PhD program at Harvard is pretty heavily composed of MIT grads -- of the 70 first-years, 10 of us graduated from MIT. :D So it's not such a strange world after all.</p>
<p>mollie... you said cheerleading... do you know a certain girl on the cheerleading squad who graduated two years ago majoring in biotech and went off to einstein's college of math/scence in ny?</p>
<p>haha cool! shes my cousin. she lives, literally, across the street from me! what a small world. shh. dont tell her i was here. i dont want people knowing that im so nervous about getting rejected from college!</p>
<p>oh, are you doing cheer camp this weekend? i heard she was coming back to do it..</p>
<p>"It would be interesting if you would post for us a list of schools which provide this sort of data. I can't think of a single one off the top of my head."</p>
<p>Citation X, just stop now before you embarrass yourself even further.</p>
<p>First of all, your categorization of "URM stats" as below average is racist and frankly obnoxious.</p>
<p>Also, this argument that these schools are preparing for: "If race were the deciding factor, then why are we admitting Mr Johnny White Middle Class along with his (URM level) relatively low SAT scores" would never in a million years hold up in court, so no one would waste their time with such a ridiculous endeavor.</p>
<p>Also, according to your theory, colleges must waste so many of their spots on "below-average" minorities and dumb white kids, it's a wonder they ever accept anyone intelligent at all! You'd think that people drop out of MIT like flies. Oh wait, MIT actually has a 98% freshman retention rate. Oops!</p>
<p>Has anyone given an example in this thread of someone with low high school grades getting into MIT? Aren't school grades the requirement that is applied to all applicants?</p>
<p>That's harder to remember. :) I remember my SAT score, but I don't even have a ballpark for my unweighted high school GPA. Makes it harder to compile anecdotal evidence, at any rate.</p>
<p>The admissions statistics do seem to suggest that high grades are pretty important -- 91% of admits who were ranked were ranked in the top 5% of their classes, and I don't think it's too much of a stretch to imagine that many of the 9% who weren't in the top 5% of their classes come from pretty competitive high schools.</p>
<p>I'd like to highlight this quotation from the original post to bring this thread back to the OP's question. Does the description in the quoted text sound to you like someone with a reasonable probability of being admitted to MIT, or not?</p>