<p>I've been looking through this forum annd it seems as though many MIT applicants either come from private schools like Andover or hardcore tech magnets like Stuyvesant, NCSSM, etc. Now my school isn't crap. It was ranked in the top 200 by Newsweek and sends about 5 to 10 people to HYPMS each year, but I don't think it can compete with the schools mentioned above. This has got me slightly worried, so can someone tell me what percent of MIT students went to non-private, non-magnet schools.</p>
<p>My daughter's friend is going to MIT and he went to Cape Cod Academy, a private day school with 40 seniors...extremely bright...</p>
<p>I have no idea, but there are two from my son's class that have MIT as first choice next year. (Big public high school - not a magnet.) Seriously, I'm sure you'll have plenty of company.</p>
<p>I come from a normal public school, but remember, MIT doesn't compare you to other applicants. They look at each applicant individually and see if you made the best out of your environment. So, when you're applying, you don't have to worry about MIT comparing you from a normal school to another from a high-class school. :)</p>
<p>This obviously isn't a number, but a lot of my MIT friends went to normal, run-of-the-mill public high schools. I mean, I did, for one. So did my fiance. And I'm not even talking about "ranked in the top 200" public schools, either. Unranked public schools.</p>
<p>Here's my sorry attempt at data: there are 1,566 members of the "I went to a public school... *****" MIT group on facebook, while there are only 180 members in the "I went to private school... and therefore am better than you" group. ;)</p>
<p>One of my son's friends is going to MIT this fall. He graduated from an average public Massachusetts high school where the mean SAT score (old scale) is about 1080.Most kids go to UMass and other state colleges from this high school. He played baseball, hockey and football
He was not the class validictorian probably top 10%, but had great SATs--800 Math and had very good grades. He is an engaging, gregarious kid from a real nice normal family</p>
<p>two kids from my average and very mediocre public high school in Ga (which happens to be approx 49th in education :))are attending...we sat next to each other at graduation, it was kinda funny. Anyways, I think that there are quite a few from "normal schools!"</p>
<p>Hey aviatrix, hows it going ;)
You haven't replied to my PM. ?</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Well, I know a couple of kids who went to normal public school and got into/are going to MIT. I don't think you HAVE TO be in Stuy/Exeter/etc to get in.</p>
<p>haha...Chaos...I'm working on it...I got a job:(</p>
<p>My friends and I honestly talk about things like this in our free time. I think it might be EASIER to transition from a top-flight private school where you're used to doing 5+ hrs of homework a night... but that's far from the only way to get to MIT. I'm from a school where my guidance counselor didn't know where MIT was or whether it gave merit aid, and she certainly did not suggest the idea of applying to me. I actually find MIT more comfortable than a lot of the other Ivies I visited, simply because nobody really cared where you'd gone to school... Stuyvesant or a small, unranked, under-funded public school in the middle of nowhere. It's actually something of a popular misconception that the top schools fill up with private school kids. </p>
<p>Straight from the blog of Matt McGann: "At MIT, compared with our "peer institutions," we have one of the lowest percentages of private school students in our student body, and a great deal of those private school students are from religious schools of various sorts."</p>
<p>"small, unranked, under-funded public school in the middle of nowhere" </p>
<p>This description fits our town and high school perfectly, and yes you can get into MIT from one of these schools.</p>
<p>I don't remember the exact percentage, but I remember reading an overwhelming majority come from public high schools, albeit "top 200."</p>
<p>Congrats, by the way Mollie. (From a silent blog reader/stalker)
Kidding about the second.</p>
<p>In response to DefeaningHorns post, how many of these students from the top 200 schools come from non-magnets. It seems to me as though there is a large gap between magnets and non-magnets in regards to research oppurtunities, # of APs offered , etc. I know a guyfrom NCSSM in North Carolina and he says there are entire classes devoted to resaerch. Most of the students in these classes place at the Siemens and Intel science competitions whereas there isnt a single semifinalist from my school. At MIT, how do normal kids like me compare with these magnet school guys?</p>
<p>You mean once you get here?</p>
<p>Freshman year is basically the great leveler. The GIRs are easier for people who had stellar high school preparation, and people who went to crappy high schools do have to work a little harder. But then at the end of the year, everybody has the same knowledge base... when you start taking classes in your major, you don't notice a gap anymore between people based on their high school prep.</p>
<p>EDIT: And thanks, DeafeningHorn. :D</p>
<p>I went to a large public non-magnet high school. The only thing it has going for it is the large number of AP classes (I took 14... everything offered except the Art and Foreign Language ones because they had a lot of prereqs I didn't have room for). </p>
<p>In my graduating class of ~500, I'm going to MIT, a friend of mine is heading to Stanford, and everybody else is going to either UF, FSU, or community college. (Although I do know a few people that got into UCLA, UCSD, Georgia Tech, and other decent schools but chose to stay in-state because of the Bright Futures scholarship and unrealistic aid offers elsewhere.) Most people (>half) aren't going to college at all. We are one of the strongest classes in a long time.</p>
<p>I was valedictorian, but since I come from a mediocre school I don't think that helped me much at all. As others have said, they are more interested to see how you used the opportunities available to you than whether you went to an expensive prep school. Try to show your personality and passion through your essays; if you were deciding who to admit, wouldn't you much rather admit a qualified candidate with some personal depth than an award-winning automaton from a brand-name school? Of course.</p>
<p>Also: Try not to take this board too seriously; nobody really knows what anybody's admission chances are. When I saw the stats and ECs other people were posting last year I seriously considered not applying at all because I felt like I didn't really have any amazing hooks to make me stand out of the stack of amazing applications. But I did apply, and I got in. Plenty of people here with stellar stats got rejected. All you can do is try...</p>
<p>Magnets tend to have better opportunities than other schools in their area, but not every magnet, even, is Stuy or TJ, so take it with a grain of salt if people are talking about magnets.</p>
<p>Most MIT kids are public school kids. Back in 1999, the Boston Phoenix ran a great [url="<a href="http://www.bostonphoenix.com/archive/features/99/05/27/MIT.html%22%5Darticle%5B/url">http://www.bostonphoenix.com/archive/features/99/05/27/MIT.html"]article[/url</a>] about MIT, which touched on this subject among others (and also featured quotes from the incomparable Matt McGann back when he was an undergrad! ;)).</p>
<p>From the article:</p>
<p>* "MIT is an elite institution, but it doesn't feel as . . . elite," says McGann, as he readjusts his olive-colored fedora. "It's more blue-collar. More people here went to public school."</p>
<p>You hear this at all levels of MIT, from the president's office and the admissions office as well as from the students. MIT has traditionally boasted a high percentage of first-generation college students, kids from lower-middle- and middle-class families who see science and engineering as a way of getting a leg up. Seventy-nine percent of MIT's undergraduates come from public high schools, which is high for universities in its academic league. At Harvard, it's 65 percent and at Yale, 53 percent, according to the Princeton Review Complete Book of Colleges: 1999.*</p>
<p>I'm from NCSSM and am in one of those research classes. They are called "Research Biology/Chemistry/Physics." I think you have a misunderstanding of how these classes operate. Going through one of these classes guarantees you nothing, and some of our best research students never took one of these classes. Last year, I placed at ISEF without ever taking a research class. What does help is that we have connections with local universities. Even then, you can usually tell the kids who will place because they are motivated anyway. I will admit the teachers are pretty awesome. </p>
<p>I'm sure MIT compares you against the background you come from, not against some kid half way accross the country.</p>
<p>Hahahahaha, fedora.</p>
<p>
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Hahahahaha, fedora.
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<p>Apparently it was his trademark. <em>grin</em> The first time I ran in a UAP/VP election, he told me to have a trademark article of clothing, and to wear it all throughout elections, to help stand out in people's memories. I figured my black leather trenchcoat did pretty well for that.</p>