<p>Hello everyone! :)
I wanted to go to MIT since I was 9. I'm an international applicant in grade 11 (in a british school, so it's like grade 10 in an american one) and my IGCSE predicted grades are:
English Language: B
English Literature: B
French: A
Maths: A
Global Perspectives: A
Geography: A
ICT: A*
Biology: A
Physics: A
English is not my mother tongue. I joined a british school last year. Before I've only studied in a public italian school. Next year i will do the IB diploma program, and I'm planning on taking:
English Language and Literature SL
ITGS HL
Spanish ab initio
Biology HL/SL (still deciding)
Physics HL
Maths HL
Unfortunately i do not have many hours of EC activities, since i spent most of my last year (and beginning of this year) free time studying english with a tutor. Right now I'm doing MUN (and i will be the president of the club next year) and I'm studying russian on my own. I already speak Italian (mother tongue), English, French and basic German. I have also done around 50 hours of community service (teaching street children basic english and maths). The area where I live right now (East Africa) does not have any national science fair or competition, and I'm afraid this will put me at a big disadvantage, especially because I'm an international applicant.
I have not taken the ACT/SAT yet, but I'm planning to do it next year.
What do you think i should do in order to improve my chances of getting in?</p>
<p>If you do not have access to national science fairs, then not doing them will not put you at a disadvantage.</p>
<p>You should focus on your passions and how you might apply them to the world around you. Do something important to you beyond the high school level. You could take courses at a local university, if that is something you can do without creating a financial burden on you or your family. Or you could do research at a local university or company, if that is something you have access too. Or you could do something altogether different. It could be anything, as long as it is something that you are passionate about.</p>
<p>Hi Lidusha (are you Lidya K. of MIT admissions? Because I love her blog entries!),
The problem is that here the universities teach in the local language that unfortunately i do not speak. Internship here is not an option either, since there are no science firms. I would like to major in the course 6-7 (CS and molecular biology). What if i do research on my own? will it be interesting? What about taking part in some MIT summer courses? will it help to strength my application?</p>
<p>I am indeed Lydia K. of the MIT admissions blogs. Thank you so much for reading. :)</p>
<p>Self-studying using MIT course material through edX or OCW is very useful but is unlikely to help your application. The same goes for independent research. It might be interesting, but since you’re just starting out it will be very hard for you to figure out what kinds of problems are solvable in under a year by a one-person team that is also taking classes, it will be hard to dig yourself out if you get stuck, and it will be even harder for you to publish any results that you produce.</p>
<p>Would it be possible for you to find a lab in a local university that has people who speak your language? I recommend emailing them–very politely–with your enthusiastic interest in their research and information on your availability (are you looking for a summer project? are you able to work during the school year?), your computational skills (do you know how to program? in what language(s)?), the extent of your background in biology (have you studied genetics? DNA replication? have you read research papers like the articles published in Nature? were you able to understand them?), and, less importantly, any wetlab skills (have you used a pipette? do you know how PCR works? do you know how gel electrophoresis works?). Make sure your email starts with Dear Dr. or Dear Professor and ends with Best, Thank you, or Thank you so much followed by your name. It will help if you look up what that lab does before you email and mention a particular paper or project that you found interesting.</p>
<p>I may be able to get in touch with some universities this summer. I’m planning to start programming next year, beginning with Python. For Biology I have already done genetics and I have already read some research papers and I was able to understand them. Unfortunately my wetlab skills are very limited (just a few things that we have done in class).</p>
<p>What about my EC activities? Are they enough? And I believe that i should take IB Biology Higher Level for this course. However if I do that I will need to drop an higher level subject and study it as Standard Level. What should I drop, ITGS, Physics or Maths?</p>
<p>Thanks for your help Lidusha :)</p>
<p>I couldn’t tell you anything about your extracurricular activities. There isn’t a threshold for enough and I don’t know you or your passions and interests and what it is that your extracurriculars mean to you.</p>
<p>I don’t know what ITGS is, but I would avoid dropping physics or math unless you’ve completed these requirements: [What</a> To Do In High School | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/highschool]What”>What to do in high school | MIT Admissions) Other than that you should take the classes that are most useful and interesting to you.</p>
<p>ITGS means Information Technology in Global Society. The main objective of this subject is to identify ICT solutions for a given situation. It is mostly project work. For more information you can go on this website: [Information</a> technology in a Global Society](<a href=“http://www.ibo.org/diploma/curriculum/group3/InformationtechnologyinaGlobalSociety.cfm]Information”>http://www.ibo.org/diploma/curriculum/group3/InformationtechnologyinaGlobalSociety.cfm)
I thought it could be useful since i would like to study computer science and this subject can give me some basic knowledge… Do you think it can be a useful subject?</p>
<p>If it teaches you how to program, then yes. If it does not involve writing code, then not as much. Or at least I don’t think so.</p>
<p>It does not teach programming. I guess i know what i should drop! 
thank you!</p>