<p>Halo everyone,
A very quick question: Can International students apply EA/ED to MIT? even if the answer is no, here goes the second question: when is it generally?</p>
<p>In RD,I do know that all applications are first received and then all are veiwed and then the applicants most suited for the uni are selected...However I want to make sure I am right....so third Qs: Is the admission process on a first-come-first-in basis? ie... the earlier you apply, the better chances?</p>
<p>No. Internationals are limited to RD.</p>
<p>No. It is definitely not first-come, first serve. All the applications are read prior to the selection process. There is some four months of reading apps (including EA), then selection takes place over two selection committee meetings (3 actually for waitlist admits). All applications are read a minimum of twice before selection committee meets, and all applications are analysed together in what by all accounts is an extremely intense week of selection.</p>
<p>Ben Jones summarised it as:</p>
<p>
[quote]
First you apply. Your application is read by a senior staff member who will look for deal-breakers (like a bunch of D's, for example). Assuming you're competitive, your application is then read by a primary reader who will summarize it at length for the committee. Then a second reader (and sometimes a third) will read and write their own summaries.</p>
<p>Then it will go to selection committee, where multiple groups of different admissions staff and faculty members will weigh in on it. Assuming you've made it that far, the senior staff will then review it again, and then finally the Dean of Admissions will spend some time with it before it gets put definitively into the admit pile. Approximately 12 people (give or take) will significantly discuss and debate your application before you're admitted.</p>
<p>This is all very intentional; committee decisions ensure that every decision is correct in the context of the overall applicant pool, and that no one individual's bias or preferences or familiarity with a given case has any chance of swaying a decision unfairly.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Take a look also at many of the admissions blog posts about the process. I particularly like:
<a href="http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/the_selection_process_application_reading_committee_and_decisions/reading_folders.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/the_selection_process_application_reading_committee_and_decisions/reading_folders.shtml</a></p>
<p>Thank You very much. I enjoyed the article the first time I read it last year and yes again. The tone is soothing somehow.</p>