Sorry for sounding so harsh or conclusive on this matter. Let me rewind a bit.
I have already spoken with my parents about finance. We have agreed that money should come last in terms of choice, because he does not want me to worry about affording. In fact, he does not want me to worry about the finance of my family, period. We are not poor by any means; both of my parents are well educated and work daily. They run a medical office, which yields a nice stable income. Of course though, some financial aid might be helpful, because they don’t want to work long past the point of retirement. By the way, are you implying that only the rich can afford MIT?
As for “unofficial rank,” the rank is posted as such because the rank is subject to change until the end of junior year. After the 6th semester, the official, permanent rank is placed on my transcript and that is the rank that I graduate with.
I am Hispanic. My coding projects I don’t keep to myself: after a certain amount of complexity (not necessarily completeness) I do put them on GitHub. I have to cut back on information like this though because it might make myself identifiable (as if I weren’t already identifiable enough).
Good thing this is only junior year, because if this was senior I’d be completely hopeless. There is plenty of time to improve, so how can I do so? I’ve still yet to take the SAT subject tests and, of course, the SAT. Not “where” to improve, since the obvious answer is “everywhere”.
I make my list of ECs sound short, but I run a home server, am learning my third language, am trying to learn yet another programming language (I’ve lost count), have very recently become “yet another” member of FBLA, and am in NHS.
This is my frustration: I stand out somewhat, but not enough. And because I stand out somewhat, then it’s just as bad as not standing out at all. I don’t want to do things and stretch myself for the mere sake of entering into colleges, I want to do things for the sake of enjoyment and contribution to society.
Do you think I should just give up on MIT, just live a regular life on some mid-tier college, hoping that nobody scoffs when I tell them what I want to study? Or am I even somewhat worthy of pressing on? Because I have an opportunity, right here, right now. I can apply to MIT’s summer app and see if I even stand a chance against the super-humans (who were “born that way”) of this world. Then, if I don’t happen to get curb stomped by aforementioned super-humans, I can make an informed decision of whether I should continue with my 4-year summer engineering program or try one of their programs for once.
But I will not let anyone play God and see who can crush the most dreams with one stomp. (I’m not saying any of you are, though.) I am capable of trying and I will. Many people do not try and just accept their “abilities” as how they are, but I am not one of them.