EA MIT, Chance ME! I return the favor

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<p>EA MIT and EA Caltech
Asian male (chinese)--Californian Resident Class of 2010
GPA (unweighted): 4.0/4.0
GPA (weighted): 4.92/5.0
RANKING: 4 out of 555, Top (0.7%)</p>

<p>SATII's:
Bio/m:780
Physics:790
Math II:800
SATI (best single): CR: 750 Writing:720 Math: 790 total: 2260
SATI (superscore): CR: 750 Writing:750 Math: 790 total: 2290
I am aiming for 2300+ in October in single sitting. (most likely gonna break the 2300 for superscore). Will be my 3rd and last try</p>

<p>APs :
AP Biology: 5
AP World History: 5
AP Calcu BC: 5 (subscore 5)
AP Physics B: 5
AP Environmental sci: 5
AP Macro econ: 5
AP Micro Econ: 5
AP English Language: 5</p>

<p>Scholastic Awards/ Recognition/ EC (Level of award: school,state,regional,national, international) (* = team competitions, four per team)</p>

<p>-----Westmont College High School Math Competition 2008 and 2009<em>:: (regional) 1st overall in 2009, 1st in Written test 2008
-----Capital Markets Contest 2009</em>:: (state) 1st．Won free trip to NY stock exchange floor and other tours
-----California State Economics Challenge Championship 2009<em>:: (State) 1st in California
-----National Council on Economic Education- Economics Challenge West Regional 2009</em>:: (Regional/Semi-national) 2nd out of 8 states
-----Regional Science Bowl 2009<em>:: (Regional) 1st (our school only participated once before)
-----National Science Bowl 2009</em>:: (National) no award, just got to participate
-----National Merit Semi-Finalist 2009-2010:: (National) confirmed
-----National AP Scholar 2009:: (National) confirmed with my Eight 5's
-----School of Modern Language Certificate of Excellence 2008:: (School) from local city college XD
----Member of the school FIRST Robotics Team* (seniors only): Head of Finance.</p>

<p>Non-scholastic Awards/ Recognition/ EC
-----Music Teachers' Association of California:: Certificate of Merit for Piano 2006, 2007, 2008: (state) for levels 4,7,9,
-----American College of Musicians: National Piano Playing Auditions 2008:: Intermediate C (State) state winner
----- Most Improved Player on HS Tennis Team 2007 and 2008:: (school) been on the team for 4 years
----- 240 hours of community service at hospital
----- Numerous leadership roles in clubs. (sci bowl, math club, etc.)
Summer:
----- Intern in Electrical Engineering Department at UCSB this summer with a Ph.D student to apply Gallium Nitride (a semiconductor) into solar cells.
----- Interned with Economics Professor at UCSB.</p>

<p>Additional info?
Two rec additional rec letters from internships.
Our school is best in the county and sends 1-5 people to top notch schools (MIT, Yale, Princeton, etc)
My two teachers have good stuff to say on rec letters. (done way more stuff with them than sitting in classroom)</p>

<p>Yea I might look like the stereotypical asian I guess. But I do have a very interesting life story that goes beyond textbooks and test scores.</p>

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<p>1 question. How are you not ranked 1? What do the other top 3 students have GPA wise?</p>

<p>My weighted GPA is lower than your unweighted, so all I can say is, Good luck at MIT.</p>

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<p>because we have two valedictorians with a 5.0 GPA and one person with like a 4.93. Our school reports 10th-12th rank</p>

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<p>You’ve got great stats and if you do have an interesting life story, which you can put in your essays, then you have a good shot at both. But since admission to MIT is like crapshot, well best of luck! But caltech, being a California resident u’ll probably get in.</p>

<p>By the way, why do you want to give he SAT again, 2290 - 2300, dosen’t seem like its worth it…?</p>

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<p>well I am really hoping to score 2350+ in one sitting so that I don’t have to super score my other SATs.</p>

<p>I’ve taken it twice so far. 2130 first time 2260 second. I prefer just score choice one good test instead of sending all 2 bad ones</p>

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<p>lol iNd, you are an international applicant giving people advice here?</p>

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<p>@SA-07: Well he asked me to chance him back, what was I supposed to do?</p>

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<p>Chancing is a bit unreliable. It just reflects your own personal opinion on who will get in and why, not the actual admissions process.</p>

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<p>no iNd, you said he has a better chance at Caltech than MIT. How do you know? Caltech is for people who got the Nobel prize and the age of 5 or discovered the cure for cancer. That college is for math/science GENIUSES. Djokovic is more well rounded and thus has a better chance @ MIT than Caltech.</p>

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<p>It is well-known that acceptance at “elite” schools (including MIT and CalTech) is unpredictable. That said, you will improve your chances at both schools by finding ways to distinguish yourself from the thousands of others with similar lists of accomplishments and awards. IMO, the best way to do this is to craft an application that tells your story, that shows examples of you - and this is best accomplished via the long and short essays as well as supplemental submissions. By all means, list your awards, etc. where you’re asked in the applications, but use the rest of the applications to somehow highlight your resilience, collaborative spirit, and love of learning. Failure is a particularly good subject.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>SA -07, its seems that you are a freshman in high school and you already know that you are going to MIT? Thats really interesting… haha. Plus, if you are a freshman, you shouldnt really be giving others advice since you probably are not old/experienced enough. If you are in some special program at MIT for 8 years (which I am unaware of), I am very sorry haha. But Djokovic, your looking great man, I hope all goes well for you. Novak better become number 3 again…</p>

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<p>MIT and many others use EA, at least in part, as a means of filling their slotted “needs”. as such there are alot of athletes, diversity cases and other special admits in EA. Nothing like that jumped out at me from your brag sheet. You appear competitive for RD though. Good luck.</p>

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<p>You look like a competitive applicant for RD. Though Asians from California always have it the hardest. You from SoCal? Same here…I know other people from your school too ;]</p>

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<p>haha you know ppl from Dos Pueblos HS? :)</p>

<p>DP is awesommeeeee. And I am really hopin for MIT :/</p>

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<p>or maybe you know us from robotics. TEAM 1717 FTW</p>

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<p>That’s a really cynical way to describe those admitted.</p>

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<p>MIT doesn’t recruit athletes like the ivy league. If it did, it would have no room for anyone else–since MIT fields more teams than any other university except Harvard. In other words, it’s not looking to fill spots per se. It is more that being well-rounded is a plus, whether or not a person participates on a team.</p>

<p>And I don’t know if they target “diversity cases” in the EA. We don’t have any special admits, if you mean legacy or “developmental” ($$$$$) admits.
Beware of making conclusions on a limited sample size.</p>

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<p>Yea…I know someone from Dos Pueblos from a summer science program I went to.</p>

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<p>yea I know who you are talking about I think. :)</p>

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<p>Calalum: </p>

<ol>
<li><p>I never said MIT recruits athletes like the ivy league. The process is different and, among other things, doesnt involve likely letters. </p></li>
<li><p>You’re simply wrong if you think that MIT is not conscious of the need to fill spots on athletic teams as part of its admissions process. Coaches provide admissions with requests to admit for the athletes that they want and even rank them. Admissions of course is free to reject anyone who is not qualified in their view. But then again, they do that in the Ivies too. I will agree that at MIT it is less of a factor, but it is not as you describe either.</p></li>
<li><p>I never said that special admits include legacies. At MIT. they do not, unless you include faculty and administrator offspring, who I believe do get special consideration/free tuition. And, dont be naive about there being NO “developmental” ($$$$$) admits.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Beware of making conclusions based on your perception of what you want the process to be, as opposed to what it is.</p>

<p>Why do you diminish athletes? Are their skills less important than others?</p>