first choice

<p>Would it be a bad idea for an EA applicant to clearly state somewhere in his/her application that MIT is his/her first choice school?</p>

<p>i doubt it would help
unless you have some kind of very believable way to make them believe you
anyone trying to get in will be willing to write that MIT is their first choice</p>

<p>I can't think of why it would be a bad idea. On my app, in the "additional info" section, I wrote a whole essay about how MIT was my first choice. I did end up getting in EA, though it's impossible to say if that essay had any effect.</p>

<p>I doubt they would care, most people applying to MIT have it as their first choice.</p>

<p>^ Not necesarily; a large number of people merely apply because of its prestige, or just as a kind of a shot in the dark. You never know...</p>

<p>Maybe it would be better to write WHY MIT is your first choice. Otherwise you might come across as something like:</p>

<p>"well...uhhhhh... mit is like totally my first choice! o y? uhhhh.... well.... uhhhh... it just is?"</p>

<p>And don't write something like "MIT is the bestest school for math scienc in the WHOLE world!!!111" because you'll look ignorant as hell for not knowing all of the other great tech schools (many of whom are better than MIT for certain departments).</p>

<p>Plus, why <em>wouldn't</em> they take first-choice-ness into account? I mean, if you reeeeally convince them you'll definitely come to MIT if you get in, then hey, that's guaranteed money. That's not as common as you might think...</p>

<p>Well it may not help, but I can't imagine why it would hurt as long as it's not desperate. If you're in their shoes, you see too otherwise equal applicants, except one listed that MIT is their first choice. Maybe they're just saying that, but personally I'd like to think that most people are honest on their college apps. and I think adcoms might think the same way. EVen if they are lieing, the adcoms don't have anything else to go by besdies what is on the app. They can't call you up and interview to see if it seems like they're lieing. That being said, I think it's most likely they'd accept the person who said MIT was they're number one choice for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, colleges like to increase their yield (that is the percentage of ppl. accepting acceptance lol) because it makes them loook good. A person who really has MIT (or any other school) as their first choice is likely to accept acceptnace. Second, if a schoool is greedy (which I'm not saying MIT is by any means, I don't really know), they may think that they can charge you more and you'll still be willing to come becausse the school is your first choice. Let's face the facts: colleges are a business. They're in it to make money. Third, the admissions committee are humans. If someone made note that MIT was their first choice, and they were borderline admit/waitlist or waitlist/deny, I'd be very tempted to move them up a notch just because they're aware that you will be greatly disappointed by my decsion, a lot more so than somebody who was applying to MIT on a whim.</p>

<p>Of course, all of this was just speculation, so take it with a grain of salt.
:)</p>

<p>so I screwd up a lot of the pronouns in that post. I flip-flopped between I, you, and their a lot. I should have proofread. Sorry for the confusion.</p>

<p>For the record, I really do not think it would help at all to say in your application that MIT is your first choice. (Actually, I think to some degree it's like having to say that you're telling a joke -- it should be obvious without having to say it.) Applying EA already means that MIT is one of your top choices, to a first approximation. The rest of the yield stuff is taken care of at Campus Preview Weekend in the spring.</p>