<p>I'm a prospective international undergraduate currently in my Junior Year of High School in the UK. I am considering applying to MIT with, currently, vague intentions of doing biology/chemistry or business-related degree. </p>
<p>To give some background, I currently study Biology, Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Economics. I dropped Physics in my Sophomore year (2 years prior to graduation from high school).</p>
<p>Whilst I do not intend to study Physics, I know that MIT is famous for its engineers and physicists and I was wondering if, when making my application (regardless of what course I intend to take), will MIT admissions tutor prefer to see a candidate with a recent background in Physics as opposed to someone, like me, who has dropped the subject two years before making my application?</p>
<p>I've been told that, whilst impossible to determine for sure, having a physics course in the last two years of high school may be in my favour in further stages of the admissions process when the admissions tutor has to make a decision between two otherwise equally qualified applicants.</p>
<p>Should I be worried that I haven't taken Physics in my Junior and Senior year?</p>
<p>Thanks and any advice much appreciated!</p>
<p>Sai</p>
<p>Edit; Haha, just noticed the typo in the title. It should be 'does' of course :)</p>
<p>Perhaps I was not clear enough but I did do physics in freshman and sophomore year of high school. I dropped it after that, because I knew I didn’t want to do a physics-related course at college. However, I’m wondering if MIT would prefer a student with more than just the one year physics requirement (against someone who took a different subject such as, for example, economics or chemistry). </p>
<p>Why is Physics so important to MIT, even perhaps for students who do not want to take a Physics course?</p>
<p>If you have to choose between physics and some other science course that you’re more interested in, you should take the science course you’re more interested in. Most MIT students have not had more than a year of physics in high school. Make sure you also take biology and chemistry and calculus; those are just as important to MIT as physics.</p>
<p>All MIT students are required to take a year of physics (through E&M material) in order to graduate. You might be able to place out of these courses, but I’d check out finals for 8.01 and 8.02 on OpenCourseWare to see if this is at all realistic.</p>
<p>One more question; when you say a year in high school, I suppose you mean Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior which are the four years of American High School. </p>
<p>Here in the UK we have a single secondary school from Year 7 (freshman of middle school?) to Year 13 (high school senior). I’ve read that MIT requires 4 years of high school English but, as with Physics I dropped it after Sophomore year of high school (having already done 5 years of it in my secondary school).</p>
<p>If that’s not too confusing, do I need to have done English for the last four years of my high school? Or just four years total (in my 6 year secondary school)?</p>
<p>Well that’s a bit of a pickle because I have dropped English at the end of Sophomore year. There’s no way for me to study it during my Junior (current) or Senior year, but surely this does not mean I cannot apply to MIT and get a place with evidence of pursuing communication-based activities and reading books etc.? Also having done well in my SAT Reasoning’s Writing and Reading sections, though considering the vast amount of flawless SAT applicants, perhaps this is not the best point in my favour…</p>
<p>Are you saying that simply to make an application to MIT, English has to be taken during the last two years of High School? Here in the UK, schools allow you to choose 4 subjects to take during these two years as a maximum. I’m actually doing a fifth outside of school, but, unlike the American High School system, you can’t just take as many types of classes as you want. I’ve taken core subjects like Maths, Further Maths, Biology and Chemistry. Why should English in senior high school be a compulsory requirement?</p>
<p>^ There’s not really one American high school system, but we don’t get to choose as many classes as we want, either ;)</p>
<p>That said, you should really call up Admissions and ask. There are different considerations for different school systems, and no one here that I know of is international and able to answer these questions (aside from Chris, if he happens to be on).</p>
<p>That said, these are recommendations, not requirements. You can apply to MIT no matter what.</p>