<p>Hi all,
Just thought I'd post some stats of a friend who got accepted into MIT EA with subpar test scores and gpa. Just goes to show you that even with mediocre test scores you still have a shot, of course he did have some nice EC's + Awards</p>
<p>Anyway, here it is
Race: Jewish</p>
<p>-GPA UW: 3.9
-Salutatorian (2/540+)
-SAT:2220 First time
-Math 2 SAT- 800, first time
-Chem- 780, first time
-ACT- Never took it</p>
<p>Course Rigor: Most rigorous possible, took Multi Var calc senior year at University of Hartford</p>
<p>Major EC's:
-3 time AIME qualifier (10,11,12)
-2 time USAMO qualifier (11,12)
- 4 time ARML team member
- Captain of science quiz bowl team, 1st place in State 3 times ---> 3 times to nationals, Huge Time commitment...
- 4 time to NEAML (New England Math Team)
- Top 50 in nation on Chem exam, (Made it to nationals, top 25 get into camp)
- JV Debate Club (JV 1 year, Varsity 3 years)
- Debate Club Captain + VP (11,12)
- 1st place JETS (Physics competition)
- Computer Club 4 years
- Math Team 4 years (A team got 1st place for past 4 years, captain in 11th grade)
- Math Camp 4 years
- National Merit Semi Finalist + Finalist
-Talented at music
- Chess Club 4 years
-NO Sports at all
- I don't think he did community service at all...very minimal at most (very lazy kid lol)
-No research done while in high school</p>
<p>-Excellent Rec's</p>
<p>-Mediocre Essays? Wasn't that good at writing in general but they essays weren't horrible</p>
<p>Other Schools he got into: Caltech and Brown
Waitlisted at Harvard: Took his name off of waiting list
Rejected: Stanford</p>
<p>Anything above a 3.8, especially when the applicant is in the top 1%, is beyond competitive. You don’t need a 4.0 and a 2400 to get into MIT. In fact, a 2100 is excellent with the right breakdown. 700+ on each section is sufficient.
And it doesn’t matter if it was “first/second/third time” that he took the SAT’s since MIT accepts score choice. He could’ve taken it every month it was offered ever since starting freshman year and only send his best month - it doesn’t affect you (though that would indeed be nuts). Same for the SAT II’s.
And his essays were probably great, because MIT puts a lot of emphasis on those. You don’t need to be an excellent writer to write a great essay - just need to know what to write about. They’re complementary to your grades, and probably as important.
Also, those are some excellent EC’s.
This applicant is in no way subpar. Subpar for MIT would be like a 3.5 with a 2000.</p>
<p>Yeah, sorry but I would not say that your friend was accepted with “subpar test scores and gpa” by any means. Sounds like they had a very strong application, both objectively and subjectively and deserved their admittane to MIT.</p>
<p>^^^^^^Oh wow. I always see people on chance threads comment that you need to have a 2300+ 4.0 GPA to have a good chance at MIT (or HYPSM in general). People usually get told to improve there SAT Score if they have anything below 2280. </p>
<p>Ok then, I guess people are too harsh on CC</p>
<p>Ok, so this guy has a 3.9 UW which is basically one B, and a perfectly fine SAT score since MIT admissions says scores only need to be in a certain range, plus he’s a USAMO qualifiers and with High Honors in the USNCO. He had way more than “a shot”, even with bad essays.</p>
<p>^Can’t hurt, can it? Plus in other schools it makes you more competitive. In MIT, I believe a 1400+ is good enough. 1450 to be safe, 1500 and above is excellent. Doubt you need any more than that - if you have a 1500 and didn’t get accepted, it wasn’t because of the SAT scores.</p>
<p>Yeah, most people on CC go a little overboard with their critique of people’s scores. They say that people need the 2300+ SAT score to have a “good chance” at these top schools and this may be true depending on your definition of “good” but to have a score under that does not eliminate your chances by any means. Just take a look at these school’s average scores- 2200 falls in the median range for all top tier schools including MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and the likes.</p>
<p>^I personally have a 2260, and I don’t feel it’s good enough, for one reason: I got a 660 on my CR. I needed a 700+ to really be competitive at the top schools. It really depends on the breakdown of the scores - at MIT, for example, a breakdown of 700-700-700 is better than my score (probably) with a 660-800-800.
Plus, having a 2200 doesn’t eliminate your chances by any means, though it IS preferable to have a 2300 and above for the top schools. If you have a 2200 you’d have to compensate for it slightly by being more competitive in your essays/recs/ECs, and those are kind of subjective, so it’s best to get a 2300. I’m referring to top schools aside from MIT - MIT’s sort of different in that 700 and 800 is barely different. An 800 is preferable, but it will barely give you a chance boost. And I stress on barely.</p>
<p>
How wrong he is. I’ve been on this board long enough to know that while qualifying for USAMO and such will help your application, MIT rejects many applicants who have qualified due to a subpar showing on the rest of the application (and I’m not talking grades, mostly.) Plus, the majority of MIT applicants and acceptees haven’t really had “USAMO” on their application. You have to have an all-around competitive application to be accepted, meaning excellent grades, great recommendations, solid ECs and excellent essays. Awards don’t hurt, either. But you don’t get accepted into MIT for one aspect of your application.</p>
<p>It may very well be true for HYPS, for all I know. I have no idea how they run their admissions process. But yes, in general, people are fanatically wrong here about what MIT wants. It gets interesting when those people end up rejected and start blaming AA when they took no time to go beyond their assumptions and figure out what’s actually going on.</p>
<p>Note that I was generalizing, not quite on topic. In any case, “Jewish” is difficult to clearly categorize. Judaism is a religion, but it’s an ethnicity too (I still don’t get the line between ethnicity and race - but I believe AA applies to both anyway?).</p>
<p>There isn’t one. Maybe personal satisfaction, but definitely not to assist you in getting into MIT. Your scores are not the things that can get you into MIT (though sufficiently poor scores can keep you out), and therefore, once you are “in range”, then I cannot see the purpose of trying for the 2300+.</p>
<p>I think the reason why CC places such a high emphasis on SAT’s because they can relatively easily be raised and better SAT scores have higher acceptance rates.</p>
<p>Often someone posts a chance post and asks what they can do to have a better chance at being accepted. Because random people on the internet don’t know that person, their situation or their school, they can’t say do a science fair project with teacher Dr. X or join Club Y. Instead, they say raise your SAT’s because that GENERALLY leads to higher acceptance rates. </p>
<p>This also proves that “chance me” posts are pointless.</p>
<p>I had a 800-800-690, with the Writing being the killer.</p>
<p>Actually, I would say at any school other than MIT, a 770-760-760 would have been more favorable than my scores. I think MIT is actually more flexible with standardized exams, and does not demand perfection on all counts when it comes to standardized testing. You can point of exceptions and such, but I personally feel now without some extraordinary application or outstanding achievement or being a URM, it is my humble opinion that it is very difficult to get into HYP with a SAT score of less than 2300. </p>
<p>Yet, this is still not true at MIT. MIT simply (again, my own humble opinion) doesn’t place that much emphasis on test scores when compared to HYP. At risk of sounding like a broken record, please google “MIT and The Match.” Stanford IMO is also much more similar to MIT on this regard than the Big Three.</p>