<p>Hey MIT Alumni and students, would you mind posting your stats/ECs if you play for the school football team or post if you know someone who plays/ed football for MIT? Thank you!</p>
<p>Search my posts for a chances thread I started, my stats, ecs are there. I am an incoming freshman.</p>
<p>thanx kirbus...anyone else?</p>
<p>the football players have the same stats as everyone else.</p>
<p>MIT doesn't make breaks for athletes.</p>
<p>ahh ok thank you emmitt</p>
<p>Well, no breaks for athletes isn't really true. MIT will give a break for athletes, but not in the sense of other schools. At harvard, if you are good enough at football, you can get a 900 on your SAT's and get in, because they have a rigid point system with you GPA and SAT's that determine whether they can get you in.</p>
<p>Also, the MIT football coach can't guarantee you getting in, or tell you early that you are in, which almost any other football coach will do.</p>
<p>However, I am captain of MIT's team, and am 99% sure I would not be at MIT if MIT's coach, Dwight Smith, hadn't written a letter for me.</p>
<p>In high school, EC's:
Captain of the football team, basketball team, lacrosse team</p>
<p>Stats:
800 math / 660 verbal
4.5 weighted GPA
5 AP's
Pretty competitive Public High school (I only mention it because 6 other kids in a class of 200 got in with me, and I have heard from sources that that can help)</p>
<p>What emmit told you is the line that MIT admissions and MIT coaches will often give you, but I have seen examples that tell me otherwise, including myself.</p>
<p>Having a coach write a recommendation definitely helps you get in. Recruiting at MIT doesn't help you as much as at an Ivy League school. And at an Ivy League school it doesn't help you as much as a Division I-A school.</p>
<p>MIT does admit people that probably wouldn't get in without coach recommendations.</p>
<p>okay, well maybe I was mistaken.</p>
<p>I do know that MIT doesn't place as big an emphasis on it as other institutions.</p>
<p>Besides, wouldn't you rather get in based on how mostly everyone else did?</p>
<p>MIT emphasizes it less than any Ivy League or D-I school as I said in the last post.</p>
<p>Of course everyone WANTS to get in only their academic achievements alone, and the just have the athletics "to boot". You can't just get in however you want. I don't really get what you are saying.</p>
<p>Having success in athletics is something that makes you unique... not everyone who applies to MIT has to come home after a 3 hour football practice, beaten and bruised, and then having to finish often 2+ hours of fairly difficult homework...</p>
<p>I know players who get into MIT have the grades and I do not think that they should make major breaks for athletes, however; I hope that they realize that athletics aren't something to be taken lightly. Adcoms should look at the mental and physical strains of sports and value what those athletes go through as much as what someone who paints masterpieces goes through or the same for the lead clarinet player in the school orchestra. So to sum it up, it would be nice if admissions officers would value the virtues of athletics as much as academic ECs.</p>
<p>MIT values sports they have more than ECs, because they need them for the teams.</p>
<p>If MIT doesn't have the sport, then they are valued about the same as ECs.</p>
<p>If you are the best horseback rider in the country, you will get a lot of preference, just like if you are the best chess player in the country, or a competitor in the Chemistry olympics.</p>
<p>If you are just a pretty good horseback rider, you won't get a lot of preference. But if you are pretty good at football, you will get a lot of preference because pretty good football players do a lot for the university, whereas in a sport or EC they don't compete in you really have to be outlandish to bring accolades and uniqueness to MIT.</p>
<p>
[quote]
You can't just get in however you want. I don't really get what you are saying.
[/quote]
I was under the impression that most (all) of the students are admitted based on their academic performance and accomplishments. In other words, I was asking if you would want to be admitted knowing that you were being held to a lower set of standards.</p>
<p>
[quote]
not everyone who applies to MIT has to come home after a 3 hour football practice, beaten and bruised, and then having to finish often 2+ hours of fairly difficult homework...
[/quote]
I was captain of my high school's football team. I spent just about 3 hours every day year round dedicated to the sport (in the off season, I trained hard). Yet, my academic record is just as strong as all the other non-athletes in my class.</p>
<p>Most students engage in extracurricular activities that are equally as strenuous as football and that require 3 hours of work after school. Granted, working in a lab may not result in as many bruises and pains, but it is still exhausting. One might even argue that it is even more difficult to go do school work after spending that three hours doing mental work rather than physical work. After all, football was tough, but it was a hell of a lot more exciting (and fun) than programming in the lab.</p>
<p>
[quote]
it would be nice if admissions officers would value the virtues of athletics as much as academic ECs.
[/quote]
I believe they do. But, someone who wins state science fairs will be more appealing to someone who wins state superbowls simply because MIT is primarily interested in academia. Now, athletes who win superbowls are attractive to MIT for two reasons: they could come and help MIT's athletic teams, as keavtrice pointed out, and therefore help with MIT's image/revenue (the latter I know applys to other schools, but I'm not so sure if MIT makes any money via athletics) and more importantly, being on a team (even more so -- a successful team) that requires consistent dedication requires certain attributes that are applicable not only to athletics.</p>
<p>Now, I respect athletes immensely (as I have mentioned, I have been a dedicated athlete). I would just personally rather be held up to the same academic standards as everyone else who is applying.</p>
<p>This isn't to anyone personally, but if you don't want to be held to different standards, then don't have the coach write a recommendation for you. See if you are fine with not doing something that would improve your chances and make you held to a different standard.</p>
<p>This is similar to affirmative action in that there are separate standards. If you are a minority and you don't want to be held to a different standard, don't tell admissions that you are a minority.</p>
<p>(Note: I said this is like affirmative action in a certain way. I am not drawing direct analogies between the two.)</p>
<p>You put in the time and energy to become the best football player you could possibly be, and there is no reason why the fact that there may be a "different" standard for a fine football player means that it is a "lower" standard. Let the state superbowl champion instead spend his time excelling at football, and then let's see what HIS academic standing looks like.</p>
<p>The academic standards for athletes at MIT is still really high. I mean a guy with a 1400 isn't exactly someone you sneak in. Harvard had an RB with an 11 something...
If you had an athlete with good scores, good grades, and a good personality, why would you not admit them? They would definitely be helping the university.</p>