HI - I have read much about the difficulty of getting into MIT whether a student athlete or not. My child is a very good student but is by no means the top of their class. Unweighted average in the mid 90’s and weighted in the low 100’s with good, not great, ACT score in mid 30’s. Whether that qualifies to get into MIT with athletics is certainly up for debate but let’s assume my child does get in. What’s next as she/he will be among some of the brightest students across the world. Will she/he be successful and, what I mean be successful , will she/he be able to handle the rigors of MIT? I know MIT is difficult for the brightest young adults and I wouldn’t expect my child to walk in and get straight A’s. My real concern is will my child be able to cope with the work and pass. I am a super concerned parent and looking for advice.
First advice is to not think about it all and make no assumptions. The odds of your kid (or any other kid for that matter) getting in is extremely low. For the summer I would focus on chiosing a variety of schools (reaches, matches and safeties) lined up to apply to, prepare for essays, and make any school visits.
I have two friends with kids there - one is a brilliant recruited athlete and one is “just brilliant.” Both have found it challenging. One said her intro Physics class covered all of high school physics in the first week. (She took every AP class our high school offered - truly brilliant kid.) It’s not easy for even the smartest kids. I have a kid looking at T20 schools and we’re not even thinking about MIT - she’s very smart but she’s not at that caliber and I wouldn’t want to put her in a position where she’s drowning the first week. Plus, she would never, ever, ever get in! She’s focusing in a few “dream” schools and a bunch of more realistic ones.
Your child will be amongst the best and the brightest AND most motivated students in the world. You get a lot thrown at you right from the start and you are expected to perform. For the majority of MIT students, that is just what they want and actually need to feel good. There were lots of “interesting” ways to describe the environment at MIT: “I’ve been here a week and I’m already a month behind” or “Getting a education here is like trying to get a drink of water from a fire hydrant”. MIT will test your study habits and your ego (you can be the top of your high school class and just be average at MIT). It is, however, a great opportunity. You get to study and work with world renowned experts (both current and “to be”) and be involved in cutting edge research.
Visit MIT; do more than just the admissions tour, stop a talk to students, visit a class (you can probably arrange that thru the admissions office). Read the blogs on the admissions website. In other words, do your research (actually, your child should be the one doing all this) and be ready to make an informed decison if your child is admitted.
From what I see, MIT admissions is pretty good at figuring out who can succeed there and those are the students they admit.
I have mentioned this in other social media, so I will say this:
There’s a ton of information out there what 1) MIT is like and 2) other schools.
For instance, the material in AP Calculus BC, if you more than double the speed, that’s 18.01 (Single-Variable Calculus). MIT freshmen usually carry 4 classes like this and then a 6-unit (Fall) seminar/6- or 9-unit class/seminar in the Spring or some combination that totals 54/57 units for Fall/Spring respectively.
And it’s not just the GPA/grades – that’s only a very small sliver. High GPA+most challenging course load at school would be closer in terms of an academic fit.
Good signs are:
- the applicant loves that kind of challenge, looks forward to that
- the applicant would even try for 18.02/18.03/18.01A+18.02A, 8.012, 5.112 if applicable (in other words, the applicant would really enjoy over-learning / really developing on fundamentals / loves even more challenge)
- the applicant is truly excited for the challenge
- the applicant would not feel adequately challenged in a “good to very good school” (lots of schools teach the material of Single-Variable Calculus over two semesters)
- the applicant has looked at MIT’s programs/majors, including the progressions within the major (and if applicable, specializations of engineering majors) and really believes this is what he or she wants
- the applicant is comfortable / wants to be at a place where he or she will (in most likelihood) not be the top
- the applicant will be able to reach out to others (peers, upperclassmen, profs, advisor(s), TA’s, RA’s, study group, tutorials) for help – including that the applicant can form and maintain friendships
- the applicant has ways to balance life, work, etc. and has positive outlets for stress
Bad signs:
- the applicant doesn’t like challenge
- the applicant is doing this for prestige
- the applicant is being pushed by his/her family
- no study skills, organizational skills (just doing well in school by virtue of natural intelligence)
- no outlets for stress
- the applicant doesn’t think about how he or she is going to engage the MIT community including what he or she might contribute
- low emotional intelligence, self-awareness, resilience/grit, social skills
I have been interviewing applicants for some time and I’ve had two valedictorians rejected by MIT (one is at Yale though). A number of others were very good students in every measure (several with perfect state-wide assessment scores, several straight-A students, one is at Cornell for engineering) and they’ve gone on to be on the Dean’s List at their respective institutions if applicable. Every last applicant had solid extracurriculars. This paragraph is to mention how competitive it is to be admitted.
I think I would have assessed myself somewhere in the middle of the pack at MIT:
- I had AP Calculus AB, where I only made like 5 mistakes all year and had a perfect final (99% overall) – this also meant I did not come in with credit for 18.01. I took 18.011 when it was offered, which is about 11-12% faster than 18.01. It was a good challenge for me. (Hidden grade due to Freshman Pass/Fail: A)
- I had self-studied AP Physics C and took (and passed) Advanced Standing Examination for 8.01
- my province’s senior-year Chemistry curriculum covered a bit of organic and inorganic chemistry, plus I had covered Schrödinger in my self-studying for Physics, so I was only one of two to get credit for 5.11 in my freshman year through the Advanced Standing Examination (yeah, I was an international student at MIT)
I didn’t do anything special over the summer. I went to nerd camp. I worked for my MIT interviewer’s company, evaluating his company’s graphical supercomputer and learning to program using C and graphical routines.
MIT is hard for just about everyone. Will your son cope will depend on his personality. He must be open to looking and asking for help and advice when he needs it. There are many places to get this help from. One great thing about MIT is that 1st semester freshman year there are no grades, just pass or no credit and second semester has A, B, C, or no credit. Even so, my daughter had a very hard time acclimating to the work load that 1st year. She ended up dropping one class each semester, but by by her junior year, after learning a lot of new study skills, she got straight A’s. The question is if your son can handle seeing very low grades, probably for the first time in his life and still keep his mental health in check.
It actually took my daughter an extra semester to graduate because of those early dropped classes. All in all, she loved MIT and looks back at it with very fond memories.
Your child can check the MIT course materials online (ocw.mit.edu), this will give an idea what to expect.
Would going to a high school for the arts lower my son’s chances of being admitted into MIT?
The only way to know the answer is to visit and stay sometime during the school year with another student. S stayed there from Thursday to Sunday on an athletic OV, staying with a friend from HS a year ahead of him 1 night and with a potential team member the 2 remaining nights. S was an unweighted 4.0 and had taken all the STEM AP courses offered in his school, but after attending a few classes, he just didn’t see it for him. There was a passion and dedication to science/math that he just didn’t have.
Waste of time and head space to be “super concerned.” Your kid – and any kid – has close to a zero chance of getting in. Literally. When/If he gets in, then you’ll know he can handle the work. MIT does not admit students who cannot handle the work.
Edited slightly for emphasis and gender but mostly this
I see you have a son, from title.
Remember, , your child may decide for himself not to attend MIT even if he does get in, so don’t worry too much. Let your child decide, based on his own campus visits, taking to current students, interview with alumni in your state, if he is a fit for MIT. Plenty of students turn down MIT, sometimes for costs, or best fit. Here in Colorado students pick Stanford, Yale, Princeton over MIT at times. Students sometimes pick full ride BS/MBA programs at Texas A&M, and in state publics over MIT. Don’t over focus on MIT. Something like 93-97% of male students get rejects at MIT and many other popular schools. A reject at MIT should not be taken personally. MIT and most highly selective schools, pick a diverse class of students from all 50 states, various socio economic status, race, academic interests and EC talents in a variety of areas.
MIT is a VERY small school, when compared to say UT Austin, Arizona State, UCF etc.
I heard it from another MIT parent: “It’s much easier to get into MIT then to get out”. It’s very very difficult. To the breaking point difficult on so many levels.
My take on MIT (I spent four years there and did manage to get a bachelor’s degree) is that you have to want to do it. MIT is a lot of work, and the workload does not let up for four years. If you are accepted it implies that you are capable of doing it. However, being accepted does not necessarily mean that you want to do it.
What @MITChris said. If your son gets in he shouldn’t worry about the difficulty, but about the fit. Nobody gets admitted who can’t do the work. They do not guarantee a 5.0, but if you are reasonably diligent you will graduate on schedule. If someone is lazy, wants to be spoon fed, or doesn’t like STEM topics, another school may be a better fit. MIT expects students to take charge of their own lives. There are plenty of helpful resources around, but in general you are the master of your own domain. You can’t expect anyone to give you detailed instructions for life there - you must figure it out yourself. However, the culture is highly collaborative. A substantial portion of my education came from observation of and interaction with other students. The student body is one of MIT’s greatest resources. Friends I made there over 50 years ago are still friends today.
I found it to be and think it still is a unique university, but not because it’s “hard.” I suspect there are plenty of other places where the classwork is equally difficult if you are a STEM major. I think what makes it special is the dynamic atmosphere - the place never stops and many people are obsessed with making stuff. It really is mens et manus. Students are allowed great independence (in fact, it’s expected), and they get very revved up about what they are doing. It’s like visiting Manhattan: you can’t help but get caught up in it. Sure, ennui will creep in from time to time, but it’s not a good place for lazy people.
If he goes there your son WILL develop great problem solving skills. IMHO, that’s really MIT’s stock in trade.
Of course, your mileage may vary. My only other student experience was in law school at Harvard, which is totally different - dynamic in its own way, but nothing at all like MIT in rigor and workload, but that’s comparing nuts and mangoes.
My daughter is a sophomore at MIT. It’s hard.
At the 2018 convocation in August, President Reif had a wonderful line that I still remember.
He assured us, ‘In Stu we trust.’
For her, so far, so good. If your child gets in to MIT, it will be difficult, but they are meant to be there.
(Stu Schmill is the Dean if Admissions)