<p>I'm planning on attending either Rutgers or NJIT. Are these schools good enough to be considered "stepping stones" to MIT? Or do I have to transfer to a more prestigious schoool first then apply to MIT?</p>
<p>It's possible to go from any undergraduate institution to MIT, so long as you maintain a high GPA, get excellent recommendations, and get outstanding research experience in your field.</p>
<p>Admissions to most (if not all) MIT graduate programs are fiercely competitive, however, and there are many excellent applicants for each spot, so you'll have to work very hard to stand out in a very strong pool.</p>
<p>My personal feeling is that applicants from more prestigious institutions are given some leeway in the graduate admissions process -- I had a 3.5 undergraduate GPA, but I was interviewed for (and accepted to) the MIT graduate biology program, while a friend of mine who interviewed from Case Western had a 3.9. I suspect that, if you did the math, you would find that the applicants from less prestigious institutions had to have a higher GPA to even be considered for interviews.</p>
<p>Almost all of the students interviewing at MIT during my weekend were from top 20 schools, and I think about half were from Ivies, MIT, Stanford, or Caltech.</p>
<p>awful late (early) to be up, mollie.</p>
<p>Haha, I had a plane to catch to San Francisco at 8 AM. I'm old. I don't stay up until 5:30 AM anymore.</p>