<p>I am a German senior and would like to study in the US. Here in Germany you are obliged to do one year of social service after your high school degree. Anyway, I applied to Stanford and MIT and got rejected by both. Now I am considering to do my social year and reapply for next year. This would be s.th. like a gap year then.
Some questions:
1) How do I get my teacher's recommendations? I mean, the probably forgot me. What is more, they have already written a recommendation for Stanford/MIT.</p>
<p>2) What about the SATs? I got perfect SAT Subject tests, I took them Dec 2005. Am I supposed to retake those anyway?</p>
<p>3) Is there anything I should know about reapplying to college?</p>
<p>I presume you are still in school and still in touch with the teachers who gave you a recommendation. Let them know that you will be re-applying to different schools in the fall.</p>
<p>It is not unusual here for teachers to write many recommendation letters for individual students. In most cases, they fill out boxes calling for basic information then attach the same narrative about the student "the best student I have had in 25 years of teaching" "brilliant, an otuside-the-box thinker" "a leader" and so on.</p>
<p>I know that MIT has its own form; I forget if Stanford does, too. Many other colleges use the Common Application form. Give them a copy of the Common Application form for them to fill out. If you know which other colleges you might apply to that have their own forms (such as Chicago), print out that form as well and give it to them. I hope they have kept a copy of what they wrote on their computers; they need only print it out, making sure that the recs are generic rather than specifically to MIT and Stanford. They can also wait to do this until the fall if they are willing to help you again. </p>
<p>You won't need to re-take the SAT Subject tests. Did you take the SAT? If you did well on that, there's no need to re-take. If you did less than you hoped for, it would be a good idea to re-take.</p>
<p>In re-applying to colleges, cast your net wider. Both MIT and Stanford are extremely hard to get into; there are other excellent schools that might be less selective. </p>
<p>Make use of your gap year wisely. When writing your essay, you can use your experience to present different facets of your personality that might not have come through in your old application. </p>
<p>Thank you very much, marite, for your post.
I especially appreciate your comments on how to use my gap year wisely. I will certainly focus on the essays. However, I feel that I need some more assets that will make me interesting for those universities. Do you have any advise what to make sure (for example research, competitions, etc.)?</p>
<p>I don't know what the requirements for social service are in Germany and how they would affect your ability to do research, take part in competitions, etc...</p>
<p>Also what are you specific academic interests? If you have never taken part in competitions, search out the international competitions in your field of interest and look up the procedures for participating. You need not be a contestant in the international level competition, but a national level achievement would certainly be impressive. I remember that MIT asks applicants to note their scores on the American Mathematical Competition (AMC) and American Invitational Mathemcatical Exam (AIME). These are competitions that lead to the US Math Olympiads (USAMO) which in turn lead to the International Math Olympiads (IMO). Each country probably has similar kinds of competitions. It is not, however, necessary to take part in competitions to build an impressive enough resume for highly selective colleges.
As for research, it will depend not only on your interests but also on access to labs, mentors, etc... Look up the information posted by students who got into some of the schools you are interested in. They often mention the kind of research they've done while in high school. Again, it is not really necessary to do high-level research. My son participated in his high school science team which was involved in regional competitions, and very occasional reached national levels. But many members of that team got into great schools.</p>
<p>Your social service might involve something totally different. It might be an environmental porject, tutoring students, whatever. This experience could make you more attractive than a student who does not have extra-curricular activities, something American schools value quite a bit.</p>
<p>If you're resolved upon gap year, next time maybe you should apply to a more wide range of colleges. I don't know your interests, but there are a lot of outstanding colleges in the US other than MIT and Stanford.</p>