My son, a Canadian with green card, a senior attending highly ranked public high school in New Jersey. I think his grade and scores are good. MIT is his dream school. But he has two friends and classmates: one went USAPHO summer camp this year and another one made USNCO summer camp. My son is a 2018 USAPHO gold medalist. There are 35 gold medalists in USAPHO this year and I think about 15 of them are senior now and are applying for colleges now. Since my son did not made summer camp, he thinks he can not compete with his two friend who went summer camp and he is quite frustrated. I just wonder if MIT has a quota for a school? My English is not good. Basically my son is on his own in his study and college application. Your advice will be greatly appreciated.
Stats:
SAT: 1560 with 6/5/6 essay
SAT II: Math II 800, Physics 800
Weighted GPA: 4.69, UW GPA: 4.0. AP Chem (5), AP English 11 (4), AP Calc BC (5), AP Comp Sci (5), AP Physics 1?(5)
EC:
United States of America Physics Olympiad Gold Medalist in 2018
National medalist in two events (Material Science, Optics) in Science Olympiad 2017 National Tournament
Competed in AAPT PhysicsBowl and placed 7th in the nation in 2018
Won two 1st place medals(Chemistry Lab, Optics) and a 3rd place medal (Material Science) in 2018 Science Olympiad State Tournament
camp instructor for Science Olympiad Summer Camp in 2017 and 2018
No, MIT doesn’t have a limit on how many students are admitted from each high school. I believe the policy to judge applicants individually, not compared to his or her schoolmates, is stated somewhere on the admissions website.
Our process is a student-centered process, not a school or region centered process. This means that we do not read your application along with other students from your school or region to compare you against each other; each applicant stands on their own. We have no quotas by school, state, or region. You are not at any disadvantage if other excellent students from your school or area are also applying.
Thank you very much for your input. Although MIT is my son’s dream school, he thinks only super smart kids can get in MIT and he is not that smart. I do not know how to convince him to give it a try. Any suggestion?
MIT is not only looking for super geniuses. They are looking for smart kids who will be an asset to their school community and who have a strong desire and potential to make the world a better place. Ask your son if that sounds like him.
His achievement in the Physics Olympiad shows your son is smart enough. However, he’s applying as an international applicant. Make sure he applies to Canadian schools such as U of Toronto and McGill.
@ brassatter, The U.S. Physics Team is a training program for U.S. citizens and my son is not a citizen. But he has a green card, he should not be treated by MIT as an international applicant.
Others answered your specific question (thanks @skieurope) but I am thinking of trying to address the underlying anxiety – the fear of failure of not getting in if you try – in a blog post soon.