<p>I thought this was the case, but now I'm maybe thinking that's not true. In addition to other top schools such as Yale and Princeton not making any distinction between domestic and international students, I've often heard how MIT is supposed to have one of the fairest and most meritocratic policies among colleges (plus it doesn't have quotas), which makes me suspect MIT does not disadvantage internationals. </p>
<p>But also on the other hand, EA is limited to us citizens/perm. residents, and international admission rate is so much lower (which, however, does not necessarily mean international students are disadvantaged). Also when you call the admissions office, they have separate lines for domestic and international admissions (which may or may not mean something..)</p>
<p>I tried calling MIT, but they never pick up my calls, so I thought I might as well ask here.</p>
<p>In case of confusion, I am talking about whether the international status itself causes any disadvantage, rather than going to an international high school, etc - for example in the case of a person of international citizenship who has gone to high school in the US. </p>
<p>I also suppose that if domestic and international students are evaluated by different committees, there has to be some inherent bias in the decisions even if policy says they can't disadvantage someone by their international status (if that is the case.)</p>
<p>MIT does have an international quota- around 8% or 9%- so yes, MIT does distinguish domestic and international applicants. International applicants are in their own pool and are effectively only competing against each other.</p>
<p>Does MIT distinguish international applicants who have been studying in the US from those studying in their original countries such as India/China/Canada?</p>
<p>It’s not that being international is itself a disadvantage, except that there are a limited number of seats the admissions office is permitted to fill – the international quota is set at a higher level of the MIT administration than the admissions office. As far as I know, it has to do with mandates from the federal government, as MIT receives a great deal of US government grant money, and the government is interested in seeing that those funds enable the education of US citizens. </p>
<p>The admissions office evaluates domestic and international applicants separately, during separate periods of reading and selection, and the distinction is between citizens and non-citizens, not between students who went to US high schools vs. foreign high schools. Going to high school in the US is not inherently an advantage or a disadvantage, but it’s a factor in an international applicant’s history that will be considered closely by the admissions office.</p>
<p>mollie is correct. However, I will also say that I still think we have a very meritocratic international admissions process. We are full need and need blind. We don’t - as is the case at most other schools - have any sort of limit who we can take internationally; we don’t have to sit there with a calculator or tax return and say “ok, we can take you because you can pay full freight” or “ok, we can’t take you because we don’t have any money left to give you.” We are in the extremely fortunate position to be able to take whoever we want to take, subject only to the limitation on the total N of seats available for the purposes of ensuring full funding in a need-blind process. </p>
<p>As for English skills - basically, if you hit our minimum marks (90 on TOEFL, 100 recommended), then we don’t worry too much about English skills because we know they are good enough to succeed here.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, are you saying that there exists a sort of separate standards for international students where only a threshold needs to be met and any further discrepancies in English skills between the applicants are overlooked? That is, as opposed to domestic admissions where the fully fluent students of course have to take the SATs which is designed to gauge the students’ English skills even further.</p>
<p>For example, in a hypothetical situation, if I were an international student who is very good in English (perfect 2400 SAT) with ‘decent’ math/science achievements, and I’m compared with another student who got 110 in TOEFL but didn’t take SAT and has a math and science record slightly better than mine, how strongly (if any) will my high SAT score help, or will it be sort of ignored under the premise that the focus of international admissions should not be on English skills?</p>
I think he’s saying that as long as you’ve demonstrated that your English is good enough to succeed at MIT (they likely have data of past students with certain marks on the TOEFL/SAT CR and how they did at MIT), your English won’t be an obstacle to your acceptance. It will not be the reason you’re not admitted while someone with a higher TOEFL/SAT score was admitted.
Applicants aren’t directly compared to each other at any rate, they’re evaluated individually as fits for MIT.
Basically, clear a 90 on the TOEFL (100 recommended) and you’re perfectly fine on the English front - they move on to other parts of the application.</p>
<p>Just asking, does it affect in any way (for internationals only) that if you’re the only applicant who has applied from his/her school. My school rarely sends anyone to the Ivies, and after quite many years, I’m the only applicant who has considered and applied to MIT (the previous and only applicant from my school was my school’s superintendent’s daughter), can this affect my chances (good or bad) in any way?</p>
<p>^Not really. MIT doesn’t rank schools, but rather looks to see what you’ve done within the context of your school and the opportunities provided. Applicants from the same high school are neither pitted with nor against each other, so there’s no difference if someone from your school is applying with you. It might be a bit different for internationals, seeing as they’re grouped by country, the might as well be grouped by school, but generally, your application is not compared to anyone else’s.
I’ve heard that at the end of decisions, they might group applications by school and check to see that they’re really choosing the best they can (not sure if this has a significant impact on decisions though), so in that context, it might be better that no one from your school is applying.
Take this with a grain of salt, though - while everything I’ve said is from legitimate sources, I’m not a representative of the admissions office.
Out of curiosity, was the previous applicant from your school accepted?</p>
<p>The previous applicant, well I’m not really sure as to why she was accepted, I heard that her family was able to fully support all costs… and of course, she graduated from MIT. She applied some 6-7 years prior to when I applied.</p>
<p>Also my guidance counselor told me that by far, she was the only applicant from my school who has actually applied to such a prestigious university, so I’m second in list (I’m only talking about US universities, there have been a few applicants who have applied to Oxbridge from our school). </p>
<p>@Jimmy797 – you’re a fellow applicant like myself yh? just asking :)</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure MIT was need blind even then, so the ability to fully pay tuition is not the reason she was accepted. Applying (or not applying) for financial aid does not affect your chances in any way at all.
And yes I am an applicant as well.</p>
Sorry for not being clear: the distinction is between US citizens and green card holders vs. everybody else. I’m lumping permanent residents in with US citizens, which is sloppy of me.</p>
<p>But it’s emphatically not between people who live in the US and people who don’t, as there are American citizens overseas who count in the domestic pool and non-green-card-holders in the US who count in the international pool.</p>
<p>disagree with molliebatmit.
I asked the question to the regional admission officer of MIT, and he said international applicants inside the USA are evaluated differently compared to their fellow students at their own countries. Their activities/recommendations/achievements/… are totally different. You cannot compare apple with orange then pick banana :-)</p>
<p>International students are evaluated in the same big pool, though in the end MIT may balance applicants’ nationality.</p>
<p>Actually I meant international students inside the United States are evaluated in the same big pool, though in the end MIT may balance applicants’ nationality.</p>
<p>three3, you don’t actually disagree with me – as I said, being considered with international students within the US (as opposed to those from your home country) is not by itself advantageous or disadvantageous. MIT will use information about the opportunities available at your high school as part of your evaluation.</p>