How Can I Improve...?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>I'll try to keep this short and to the point although I often have trouble doing so.</p>

<p>I'm in the second semester of my Junior year and currently scrambling to improve my college admissions resume. I've wanted to go to MIT since I was nine years old, but I never realized how tough it is to get in. I'll begin by listing each year with an explanation (or excuse, whichever POV you wish to take).</p>

<p>[Caucasian/Male]</p>

<h2>Freshman: GPA: 2.8 Avg</h2>

<p>Art 1AB: B
Comp Lit 1AB: B
Spanish 2AB: C
Algebra 1AB: A
Weight Training: A
Earth Science 1AB: B
-----Semester 2-----
Art 1AB: A
Comp Lit 1AB: B
Spanish 2AB: D
Algebra 1AB: B
Weight Training: A</p>

<h2>Earth Science 1AB: C</h2>

<p>Alright... I'll admit that looks like Jr. College standards, but allow me to explain.<br>

[QUOTE]

I was sick much of the year, causing me to miss many days. In the second semester my health got even worse when I learned that not only did I have a streptococcus infection, but also a viral infection (the flu). On top of all of that I had fallen in love and was rather heartsick. I was absent almost all of March, attending school maybe once a week. It's on my permanent record that I had mass "truancies" because the attendance office failed to log the doctor's note I gave them. By early April I recovered to learn that I had straight F's. I managed to bring all of my grades up, my art teacher called it a miracle and my English teacher called me the "Comeback Kid" his "favorite part-time student"

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<h2>Sophomore: GPA: 4.0 Avg</h2>

<p>Comp Lit. 2AB: A
Geometry 1AB: A
Physical Ed. 1AB: A
Biology 1AB: A
Sociology 1A: A
World Hist/Geog 1AB: A
-----Semester 2-----
Same as above with
Sociology replaced by</p>

<h2>Health Education: A</h2>

<p>
[QUOTE]

Well, I suppose sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom before you can reach the top. I never missed a day and all of my A's came easily. My biology teacher liked me because I was the only student to ever get 100% on his tests in his twelve years of teaching. I had the highest grade in all of the classes that I took (except Geometry, this Korean and I competed for the top grade, he ended up with a 98%, I with a 97.6%). Enough said.

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<h2>Junior: GPA: 4.0 Avg</h2>

<p>Comp Lit. 3AB: A
Algebra 2AB: A
Chemistry 1AB: A
U.S. History 1AB: A
ROP AutoTech: A
-----Semester 2-----</p>

<h2>Same courses with A's thus far.</h2>

<p>
[QUOTE]

Well, I probably should have taken AP or at least honors courses this year, but I didn't feel fully prepared by the end of last year after my Freshman year incident. Chemistry and Algebra 2 are by far my easiest subjects. This doesn't mean that English and U.S. History are hard, I have a 98% in English and am top of my history class with a 97%, the only difference is that I need to do moderate studying for those. AutoTech was taken just because the other technical courses are far too easy/boring and I have a project car to work on. In addition to the courses above, I'm retaking Spanish 2 in order to replace the 'D'. I currently have an A in that.

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<p>Now that all of that information is out, let me tie up a few loose ends. At the end of this year I will have a 3.7 after the 'D' in Spanish is replaced and assuming I maintain straight A's. I'm attending a community college this summer to take Trigonometry and Pre-Calculus so that I may take AP Calculus Senior year. I am also taking AP Chemistry and AP American Democracy/Economics next year. I'm almost positive that I can get sensational recommendations from my Chemistry, Math and History teachers.</p>

<p>If I retain straight A's with these classes, I'll have a weighted GPA of 3.9(28) by the end of Senior year. I have not taken the SATs yet, but am planning to study four days per week for at least a couple of hours over the summer. I have a friend with a 4.8 (GPA) who regards me as more intellectual than him, so it's not as though I'm not capable of MIT standards. I have no interest whatsoever in sports, to me they are more of a punishment than a form of entertainment. I have not attended any wacky summer courses at Ivy League schools or entered into any academic competitions. So my question (sorry it took so long to get to it) is what can I do with the minuscule amount of time that I have left in addition to the summer courses, AP courses next year and getting good SAT scores? Would an application like this at least qualify for an interview? Has anyone been accepted to MIT with a similar resume? Does anyone believe I have a chance at MIT or should I set my goals a little lower and attempt to transfer out of the college I do get accepted to?</p>

<p>My apologies for the long post, but thanks to those who actually took the time out of their day to read it ;)</p>

<p>EDIT: It may appear as though I spend my free time watching television and scratching my stomach. The truth is that much of the activities I do are "off the record". In fourth through sixth grade I learned HTML, CSS and basic web design (on my own). In seventh through ninth grade I learned basic C++ (on my own) and was able to put some of it to use on my algebra homework :D . In tenth grade I worked on a couple of websites, experimenting with PHP and SQL databases. Neither ever took off due to the fact that I stopped working on them because I wanted to keep my grades up. As for this year I've gotten more into engineering as I've done some modifications to my car and rigged my own small home theater system from scratch. Many of my friends' parents own small businesses. When there's a technical problem or they need some boxes networked, I'm the one they call.</p>

2

<p>I’d say you stand a fighting chance. Sure, you had a crappy freshman year, but they’ll see the improvement and the consistency afterwards.</p>

3

<p>Why do you want to apply to MIT? To me, nothing in your posted transcript so far indicates a strong interest in math/science/engineering. You were ill freshman year but pulled up your grades sophomore year. I would have thought that after a year of 4.0 grades, you would have enrolled in some more challenging courses as a junior. Instead, you’re taking only 5 courses, none of which is an honors class. This is probably the most puzzling thing on your transcript. You say that at the end of your sophomore year, after having received straight As, you did not feel prepared to take on more challenging classes as a junior because of the “Freshman year incident”. I don’t think this makes sense. </p>

<p>You could be the sort of student who becomes stronger and stronger academically each year and ends up at MIT for graduate school, but at this point in your school career, you haven’t demonstrated that you are the sort of person who seeks out and can handle an academic challenge. Not yet, anyway.</p>

<p>This is just one person’s reaction to your post, so take this with a few grains of salt; I’m not on the admissions committee. However, I do think that if you want a shot at MIT you will have do demonstrate that you will be able to survive the basic core requirements: two semesters of calculus and two semesters of physics, in addition to other coursework.</p>

4

<p>CalAlum made a few good points. I judged your schedule based off mine, which had about as much math and science as yours. I didn’t have much opportunity at my school, however, and MIT looks at classes offered. That said, your post’s concern was whether or not your freshman year will hurt you, and I still think it won’t.</p>

<p>But to sort of parallel what CalAlum said, good grades alone will NOT get you into MIT. They’ll make you eligible for consideration. What’s your passion? Do you do stuff besides academics?</p>

<p>Nutshell: You’re not screwed out of MIT because of bad grades freshman year. Now you have to wonder why they <em>should</em> accept you.</p>

5

<p>Agreed with the other posters who said your transcript needs to demonstrate academic rigor. That being said, “academic rigor” is a value relative to what your school/community offers. It might be helpful to know what AP/Honors options you HAD but didn’t take advantage of your junior year. Taking 3 AP classes your senior year, even with stellar grades in each subject, might not make up for it. Your performance in your math courses at your community college will also be something they’ll look at. However, it is clear that your low grades freshman year were circumstantial. With a proper explanation (MIT gives you a place in the application to do this), I doubt it will count against you. </p>

<p>You should also let MIT know what you did during your summers after freshman and sophomore year. If you took this time to teach yourself a programming language or pursue an individual project, that’s great. Summer activities are viewed in light of your financial means and family culture. If you were not able to attend a summer course at an Ivy League school because every summer your work for your family’s local business, that’s really okay. But those kinds of things need to be explained. It would also help if you had something to demonstrate to MIT what you’ve done with your free time. MIT has an (optional) spot on the application where they ask you to describe something you’ve created. Think wisely about your answer.</p>

<p>All that being said, it is also important that you are a good fit for the MIT culture. A straight-A student with a 2400 on the SAT is in no way guaranteed admission to MIT if the admissions committee does not believe they would be able to thrive in the unique MIT environment. To find out more about this, I would recommend this website:</p>

<p>[MIT</a> Admissions: The Match Between You And MIT](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/pulse/the_match_between_you_and_mit/index.shtml]MIT”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/pulse/the_match_between_you_and_mit/index.shtml)</p>

<p>If you get good scores on your SAT and SAT IIs (be sure to at least take the ones MIT asks for - Math lvl. I or II and one science subject - doesn’t matter which), I think you have a chance. I’m not an admissions officer, its just my opinion. And most importantly, be genuine in your application. When answering the questions on the application, just write what feels good and what isn’t burdensome to write about. If you’re struggling to think of what to put in your next sentence, you’re doing something wrong. That’s my view, anyway.</p>

6

<p>^^ Great advice for any prospective student.</p>

7

<p>Wow, thanks for the replies… I expected harsher criticism than I got :)</p>

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<p>You’re correct, nothing in my transcript does indicate a strong interest in math/science/engineering. However, this doesn’t mean I’m not interested. I have always had a desire to figure out how things work. I can still remember every time I visited Burger King I would take the toy that came with the kid’s meal and crack it open to figure out how the mechanisms within the cheap plastic made sparks or how they wound up the wheels to propel the little car. When I was ten years old I wanted to know how the air conditioner worked so I removed it and disassembled it (it was a small window air conditioner). I also disassembled the vacuum cleaner and other things like this. Things didn’t always work when I reassembled them, more often than not I had to troubleshoot the problem. Troubleshooting always turned out to be a learning experience though, and I can’t recall an event where I couldn’t fix the problem. What also attracts me to engineering is the power of creation. The fact that a useful function can be performed by something created out of otherwise useless breadboard, circuits and diodes is intriguing to me. When I was in the seventh grade I decided I needed a quality computer… so what did I do? I took up $600 that I had saved and went down to a local electronics warehouse. I matched all of the form factors and such and purchased all of the parts that I needed. I went home and spread it all out on the floor. My mom came home and freaked out that I had wasted my money on computer parts that I had no use for. Within two hours I had that computer booted up and running. Matter of fact, it’s the one I’m typing this post on at the moment ;)</p>

<p>Well, I let my engineering reasons ramble on a little long so I’ll just say this about math/science. They’re both entirely logic based and have the power to provide rational solutions to engineering problems.</p>

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<p>Well, six courses if you count the year of Spanish 2 that I’m repeating (I don’t get credit for re-taking it, but it will replace the D from freshman year). The reason I didn’t sign up for honors/AP courses at the end of sophomore year wasn’t so much that I didn’t want the challenge (believe me I do), but I was more afraid that the workload of honors/AP courses would perhaps end up digging me a hole just like the one I fell into in freshman year. (I hope that’s a better explanation, my confidence level hadn’t fully recovered)</p>

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<p>Yes, I’ve read the recommended high school preparation section of the MIT site. It lists physics as “recommended”… I suppose I’ll assume that that means your chances are 1000x lower without it (with exceptions to the rule). In this case would it be vital that I take physics next year? (I don’t believe my school allows me to take AP Physics without first passing Physics with an A)</p>

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<p>Hmm… Well to be honest I my passion is learning… In my free time I read books, earlier this year I worked on a political campaign (of course none of that ever transfered in to community service hours required to graduate as it’s not an ‘approved service’), and I have an appreciation for foreign culture (films, traditions, etc). Actually, I originally intended to take Korean this year at a local college (my school only offers Spanish/French and none of the community colleges had Korean). Unfortunately the only time the course was offered was in the dead center of my school day. So far I’ve taught myself to read Hangul characters, I just have no idea what they mean :slight_smile: It’s hard to make progress in learning Korean when I have other courses that take precedence because they actually count as official grades.</p>

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<p>To be honest I probably could have taken all of my current courses in AP/honors (with the exception of Spanish & AutoTech). I do understand that taking three AP courses will not be enough damage control for the 3 years of regular courses.</p>

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<p>Well I’ll be studying all summer for the SATs and just today I took the STAR CST (California Standards Test) and it feels to me like I got 100% on the chemistry portion so I’ll take that as my science. I’ll decide which math level to take depending on how confident I am after my summer Pre-Calculus/Trigonometry courses.</p>

<p>My apologies for making another lengthy post, perhaps I went into too much detail but I suppose that’s what forums are for :P</p>

8

<p>Yeah, I wangled my way into AP Biology even though I technically wasn’t allowed to (this was junior year).</p>

<p>I agree with rainy - being afraid of a workload isn’t a good reason. (Though I took calc senior year…).</p>

9

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<p>Yeah I realize that… I swapped schools a few times between 6/7/8 grade and it turns out my mom signed me up for the math course that was easiest… I took the same course (whatever comes before pre-algebra) twice. I guess she thought she was doing me a favor, but she attended community college for less than a year before dropping out so I can’t really blame her :(</p>

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<p>That’s the reason I’ve decided to take on summer courses and APs next year, I’ve gotten over it. The past two years have been a testament to myself that I can achieve much more than I’ve been taking on.</p>

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<p>Well I’m a part of this club, but rule #1 is that I’m not supposed to talk about it… and rule #2 is that I’m not supposed to talk about it… and rule #3 is that I’m not supposed to talk about it (sorry, I couldn’t resist a Fight Club joke). But in all seriousness, that’s one of my biggest concerns… I haven’t been a member of any school organized club, I’m not a part of the yearbook committee or anything like that, and my school doesn’t really have any awards system (other than valedictorian) that I know about.</p>

<p>Although I’ve never been a member of a ‘club’, I’ve always wanted to work on a team that actually made some kind of progress or created something unique/new. Perhaps I should start my own club next year… not sure what I’d base it around but I don’t see how it could hurt :P</p>

<p>PS: I realized rainynightstarz removed his (or her) post after I wrote this >_<</p>

10

<p>yeah sorry. I removed the post thinking people are going to give me a big lecture about the math stuff.</p>

<p>But seriously 6/7/8 grade is a long time ago, so it’s not that great of an excuse and saying it’s because of your mother’s fault doesn’t show much determination either. For one of my essays I even wrote about moving to new school in 7th grade and was placed in the lowest math level, thinking I was like really dumb or something. But I , not my mom, talked to the teachers about math levels in the beginning of 7th grade with very broken English. I tested out of half of a level to accelerated Pre-algebra, but that was still not the highest level. I self-studied Algebra 1 over summer, got 90+% on an old final for placement and took Geometry Enriched in 8th grade with the rest 1/4 of my graduation class. I later skipped Pre-calc, too.</p>

<p>I think you got a shot, although definitely not the highest chance, but I think it is worth a try.</p>

<p>You said you wanted to go to MIT since 9 years old. I guess you could have planned ahead better, like what you had to do to have a good chance of getting into MIT.</p>

<p>My point is, for a lot of things you really do have a chance to choose. It all depends on what you decide for yourself, or if you don’t care enough to make a difference for yourself. Whether it is math level, taking APs, participating in extra-curricular, doing research, learning things, etc. From reading what you wrote, sometimes it feels like you let of lot of your opportunities slip away without fighting for them. I guess, make sure you show that you won’t waste your opportunity at MIT on your application.</p>

<p>By awards I meant like math competition awards, science fair awards etc. It’s not like required, but it is definitely good to have some.</p>

11

<p>“Well I’ll be studying all summer for the SATs and just today I took the STAR CST (California Standards Test) and it feels to me like I got 100% on the chemistry portion so I’ll take that as my science.”</p>

<p>The STAR CST for chemistry is definitely NOT a good indicator of future performance on the SAT chemistry test. It is really really really really really really really really really really really really easy and is basically a joke.</p>

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<p>lol ^
I mentioned that in my deleted post. Kids at my school take it , do well on it only to raise property price for the area for our parents. Nothing more.</p>

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<p>^
It’s so easy that the kids at my school don’t even bother taking it (you can opt out of STAR testing), so we miss out on federal funding every year. :(</p>

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<p>Oh gross, gross, gross. There are so many things wrong with this discussion!</p>

<p>Math at MIT starts at 18.01. This is single variable calc. Taking calc in HS is recommended but not required. I know people who started in 18.01 never having seen calc before. They lived.</p>

<p>Please don’t ever say things like “You said you wanted to go to MIT since 9 years old. I guess you could have planned ahead better.” Uck. When you’re nine years old, be a kid. If you like math, do math. Otherwise chill the ?!#$%^! out. There is nothing worse in the eyes of an admissions officer than someone who planned out their life for the past 9 years with the goal of impressing said admissions officer.</p>

<p>Also, yeah, 6/7/8 grade was a long time ago. It doesn’t matter. You’re going to penalize someone applying to college because of something they did in the 6th grade? Give me a break. Good for you, you’re math genius, but there are normal people out there too who deserve to not be judged just because they didn’t argue with their principal in 6th grade because they thought that the work they were doing was below them.</p>

<p>I never self-studied math or took classes over the summer. I took AP Calc my senior year and got a 3 on the exam. GASP! THE HORROR! How will I ever pass math classes at MIT? It’s going to be imposs- oh wait, I already did it, 2 years ago.</p>

15

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<p>I’m not trying to pull that out as an excuse, I know I should have been more involved in my academics early on. I was just explaining why I wasn’t in a higher math class.</p>

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<p>I agree, that’s the reason I’m trying to get a firmer grasp at this point in time, before it’s entirely too late.</p>

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<p>Part of it’s true… The problem is I that I didn’t start planning any of it until recently T_T.</p>

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<p>Well that’s reassuring to me :)</p>

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<p>Well obviously it’s not a great indicator, but it was relevant at the time I typed it, seeing as I took the test only a few hours before the post. This brings me to another question… Does the chemistry SAT require me to know material from AP chemistry (shouldn’t be a problem) or is it based mostly around material covered by basic chemistry classes?</p>

16

<p>see? people did make a deal about the math thing.
the OP expected harsher comments, so I was trying to give it all I got?
The math is just an example of working towards a goal. Of course, you don’t have to be a math genius. I know Mollie didn’t take any Calculus in high school. By plan earlier, I guess meant more like find ways do more of what you love instead of just wait for time to go by and go by everyone else’s plan. I didn’t really consider applying to MIT till a little more than a year ago. I always just wanted to learn more math. And when I want to do something, I’ll set a goal and go towards that goal step by step. Yeah, so don’t plan from like 9 year old. I guess 9th grade is a bit more reasonable for college. Think out what classes you want to take, and what are the prerequisite of the classes so you can take all the classes that you wanted. </p>

<p>SAT chem is mainly just normal chem, but if you take it after AP chem, it’s a lot easier. Overall, shouldn’t be a problem either way.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

17

<p>Alright, thanks for all the responses guys! I really got more input than I expected :D</p>

<p>Thanks for all the advice… I’ll bump this thread when I get closer to college time to report any progress/admissions news/etc. ;)</p>