Here's how my MIT interview process went.

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<p>Sign up for a MyMIT account, wait for 20 minutes, and after refreshing the page you'll see an email of the nearest interviewer to you. Email him/her with the subject titled "MIT Interview Request," and then within your email mention your location and that you'd like to request for an interview for Early Admissions or Regular Decision. The interviewer should reply within a few days. My interview was set a week after I contacted him. He may ask you for your resume.</p>

<p>After you set the date, compile a possible list of questions you may be asked and make sure you think of your answers before hand. Practice your answers beforehand so you don't freeze up and have an awkward silence in the conversation, and don't be nervous. Relax. The interview's supposed to be less like an interview and more like a casual conversation. My interview took about one and a half hours.</p>

<p>Tips:
- arrive at the meeting location 15 minutes early (my guy was ten minutes late, which was actually a relief for me haha)
- act like yourself, but be mature. Try to refrain yourself from saying "cool" or "awesome"
- emphasize your struggles, your initiative, and your passion (don't answer a "Why did you do this?" question with a "My parents told me to" answer)
- I don't think interviewers really care how you're dressed. My interviewer wore a t-shirt, jacket, and pair of jeans. Plus he had a mohawk-ish hairstyle. First impression still counts though, so don't dress like a schlump
- look at the interviewer's eyes while talking, don't look down at the floor
- minimize "ums" and "ahs"
- avoid smart-alecky responses or trying to be cute
- understand what the question is and don't be afraid to ask them to reiterate if you don't understand</p>

<p>All interviewers are MIT graduates, so it's a good time to ask them questions about their experiences. My guy works at Microsoft now, and some things I remember him telling me was that MIT is a very diverse place with different people who have different passions, he's had classmates who took 7 classes and had A's in all of them. Boston's tough in the winter. MIT is right across from Harvard so you can take classes there if you want. </p>

<p>I asked him if he thinks attending MIT affected whether he got his job, and he said that there are more recruiters who search for students at prestigious schools, so you should take advantage of career fairs and attend even as a freshman. Otherwise, he considers work easier than college. And being at MIT taught him how to manage the input of information, "drinking from a firehose" he said. </p>

<p>My resume leaned toward computers so you may receive a different set of questions, but here are all the questions I remember him asking me:
*<em>Tell me about yourself.
*</em>Why MIT?
*<em>Why should MIT want you part of its student body?
What do you do on the weekends?
What was your favorite project?
What was it like being the only girl (in basketball or the tech community)?
What's a project that you want to do?
What was your first project?
What was the hardest thing you did in your project?
Would you rather work individually or in a group?
Have you worked in projects with groups before?
What was your favorite class, why?
What was your least favorite class, why?
Is there anything you're interested in besides computers?
How do you deal with stress at Newport?
Do you regret doing anything during high school?
How did you first become interested in computing?
What do you think will be the most difficult thing to face in college?
*</em>What questions do you have for me?</p>

<p>**You'll definitely be asked these questions, prepare your answers.</p>

<p>During the first 3/4 of the interview, he took notes on the things I said, and he told me afterward he'll draft a writeup about the interview and send it to admissions. Past that he will not be involved in the admissions process so interviewers won't even know if you are accepted until wayy later. </p>

<p>Personally, the interview really helped me understand better if MIT is the right fit for me. Take advantage of getting to talk to an alumnus/alumna!</p>

<p>Wish you the best :)</p>

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<p>An interesting take. My only comment is on the “**You’ll definitely be asked these questions”. I have been an EC for many years and a regional chair of the Educational Council for while now, and I have never asked “Why should MIT want you part of its student body?” I’m not sure it is a friendly question and frankly, if I cannot figure out the answer to that question on my own, something is wrong.</p>

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<p>@Mikalye‌ It may have just been my EC who asks that then. In that case, I stand corrected. </p>

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<p>If that’s a sign of maturity, I wasn’t mature during my interview and I’m not mature now :slight_smile: </p>

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<p>MIT interviewer I had was a total jerk, very full of himself, and in full attack mode: why do you think MIT should accept you? What makes you better than 1000’s of other candidates? I wanted to ask him: you are ensconsed in an obscure medical office block with one assitant to do your Medicare reimbursement forms in a clearly marginal practice – where was the mistake MIT made with you? No, utterly, no interest in this institution. Also, like Penn, way too many suicides.</p>

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<p>@makennacompton‌, I am really sorry to hear that. With 4300+ EC’s around the globe, very rarely but occasionally we get someone who ummm… needs additional training. If you are really not interested in MIT, I would suggest that you write to MIT at <a href=“mailto:interview@mit.edu”>interview@mit.edu</a> and let them know, so that they can fix this.</p>

<p>That being said, I find it a myth that MIT has a large suicide problem. Statistically that just isn’t true. The one data point that people quote is the Boston Globe article in 2001, which found MIT highest of the 12 schools that they looked at. However, only 14% of schools keep suicide statistics, and each of them keep statistics a different way. For example, most schools do not count suicides off-campus as being school related suicides though MIT does (given that roughly 30% of MIT students live in one of the off campus fraternities, sororities or independent living groups that skews figures). </p>

<p>The Boston Globe article found that MIT had a suicide rate of 10.1 per 100,000 students compared with a national average for the age group of 12.0 per 100,000 (and a university average estimate of 7.6). MIT’s suicide rate has subsequently dropped. The Globe article was shortly after the Elizabeth Shin case in 2001. Since that time, MIT dramatically increased mental health and counseling services, and has seen a subsequently significant drop in undergraduate suicides. But everyone remains focused on the 10.1 figure from the 2001 study, and how MIT was the highest. Indeed, many commentators at College Confidential have commented on how given the workload at MIT, then this was inevitable. Of course, during the same period, Arizona State (not included in the Globe study) was at 10.2 suicides per 100,000. </p>

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<p>@PiperXP – Me either, dude. Man, I thought I would be mature when I hit 30…</p>

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<p>It’s not a myth. MIT’s suicide rate at that time may, indeed, have been slightly below the national average. I’m not sure if they were counting grad students in their count of students; this would matter as grad student suicides were much, much rarer. Even if it was, this is not a valid statistic since the most at-risk subroup of 18-22 age group are people with high school educations in dead-end jobs (i.e., low income). I’m not speculating; I remember reading that in the early 2000’s. So it’s not valid to compare an average including that group to MIT when trying to find out if MIT as a college has a suicide problem. </p>

<p>The suicide rate was astronomical when I went there. It was one undergrad a semester for 5 years, almost always on campus and often in a public fashion. It was part of my undergrad experience. The problem seemed to get better after I left. However, recently it seems to have gotten really bad. The only difference now is that it appears to not exclusively the undergrads; it is spread across the undergrad, grad student, and even faculty communities at MIT. I don’t know if the undergrad suicide rate is as bad as it used to be.</p>

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I was thinking about this at work today, and I think it’s worthwhile for applicants to think of an interview as a chance to give your EC material to advocate on your behalf. Your EC is rooting for you – he (or she) would love to see the day that all of the students he interviews make it into MIT. So one of your primary objectives in the interview is to give him the ammunition he can use to fight for you.</p>

<p>Some people are just aggessive jerkwads, for sure. But I think it’s also possible that what a college applicant perceives as “full attack mode,” a practicing MD might see as an enthusiastic line of questioning intended to ferret out the good stuff. </p>

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<p>That may be so Mollie. That being said, I can assure you that that goes against all of the EC training. There are a list of Do’s and Don’ts in the published guide, and the very first Do is “Do put the student at ease”. There are valid reasons why someone may wish to deviate from the guidance, but this seemed to suggest a general approach that as an RC, I would tend to strongly discourage in any of my EC’s.</p>

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<p>I think those questions would make most high schoolers uneasy, but in a similar direction to what Mollie said, the interviewer himself may not have thought those questions would put the student on edge. I’m certainly much more blunt and less uneasy after my MIT experience, and I’m figuring that adulthood will continue that in some ways. Recalibrating can be hard.</p>

<p>(Of course, the interviewer may have been an outright jerk, as originally stated. It’s hard for me to tell. But I’d certainly expect the occasional jerk to show up in any large collection of people.)</p>

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<p>@zgamergirl Thank you for posting this; it makes me a lot less nervous for my own interview. I have always had trouble answering the question “Tell me a little about yourself.” Would you just advise to give a little summary about yourself relating to the major you are hoping to pursue? </p>

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<p>@aberlasters‌ I’m happy to help! :slight_smile: During my interview, I told the interviewer my background story–stuff about what my parents do, school, situation at home, some major events in my life, and I did keep in mind to mention struggles I’ve experienced. I mentioned things I thought the interviewer should know about me to get a grasp of what my character and background is like. </p>

<p>If you know what major you’re going to pursue in and why, then I definitely do suggest bringing it up in your interview because it demonstrates your passion/interest in something. At one point in the conversation, I mentioned to my EC that I a reason I wanted to apply to MIT was it had a great computer science department. He asked questions related to computer science like what sparked my interest in it, and we talked about the lack of women in STEM (which he promptly commented that MIT has almost equal distribution of male and female students).</p>

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<p>That latter bit is not quite true. For the academic year 2013-2014, MIT enrolled 4,528 undergraduates of which 2,041 were women. That means that breakdown is roughly 55% male and 45% female.</p>

<p>However the question about interview practice question is valid. Most people do not have much experience of talking about themselves, and this is something that can be practiced a little bit, particularly amongst friends or families. You can ask family or friends to ask you questions about yourself and you can reciprocate (for friends who are also interviewing). A little self-reflection also helps. “What are my favorite things and my least favorite things? Do I know why they are so? Why would I want to go to [MIT or insert other school here]” It does not take much practice, but a number of students find that helpful. </p>

<p>Also, do keep your applications straight. I am an MIT interviewer, but last year I had one student contact me about his Columbia interview and one about Princeton. I usually politely point out that they made an error, but I would be happy to talk to them about MIT. I genuinely do not hold it against them (the applications process is stressful enough), but they always walk into the interview as nervous wrecks and sometimes struggle for those reasons. Do be careful, and organised.</p>

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<p>@zgamergirl Thanks for the info!</p>

<p>Did you bring any stuff to the interview? (resume and stuff like that)
What did you wear to the interview?
Do they ask what other schools you applied to?</p>

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<p>@daphne13 No problem!</p>

<p>I did not bring anything to the interview. He did ask me to email him my resume beforehand so I think he took a brief glimpse of it to see my interests and extracurriculars, but I didn’t bring a physical copy nor did I see him with a physical copy of my resume during the interview.</p>

<p>I wore a bright orange button-up short sleeve blouse, a pair of dark jeans, and some leather boots. I think wearing a regular hoodie and jeans would work too though, just dress in a way that makes yourself feel confident. Keep in mind to not wear anything revealing though. </p>

<p>Nope, my interviewer didn’t ask me what other schools I was applying to. Btw, I did the interview for early action so I think my interviewer expected me to consider MIT my top choice. </p>

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<p>@Mikalye Good advice. To add on, I also sat in front of a mirror while practicing answers. This might help for others. </p>

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<p>I’m in the process of scheduling my interview now, and it looks like it will be this coming Sunday, the 12th. Hopefully it will go well, I thought I would at least have three or four days to prepare but it looks like it’s going to be just two! :)</p>

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<p>@ARandomGeek‌ Hey, you’re going to do AWESOME! </p>

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<p>thanks zgamergirl! This is so great of you to share your experience. Did the interview increase or diminish your interest in MIT?</p>