<p>I'm applying to MIT this year as an international student and I'm confused about a thing (or five).</p>
<p>I did some independent research in mathematics, complete with derivations, code for numerical testing, data results, Excel tables, metric ton of vector graphs (2mb each) etc. I've been working on consolidating it in a single PDF file that is supposed to resemble a scientific paper (with introduction, derivation, discussion etc) although much more amateurish, I'm afraid. Main purpose of that paper is to show MIT what did I do and what results did I achieve, I won't be publishing anything publicly until I'm satisfied with all the little details. </p>
<p>How would I show this project off?
It doesn't fit in the makers profile, nor do I think that the mere abstract of the thing will suffice to show the full scope of the discussion and such.
I've been thinking to upload the main thing (the PDF) on Dropbox/Google drive and paste the link in the Optional section along with short description and another link to additional materials.</p>
<p>One more thing, earlier this year I've uploaded some earlier (and incorrect, probably ridiculous) results online under a pseudonym (linked to e-mail address I own, so I can confirm my identity as an author). Should I link to that too? I don't know how to explain the pseudonym thing either. Discussion in that paper provides background to my whole project but there are some pretty stupid mistakes too, so I don't want them to throw everything in the trash because it looks like I have no idea what am I talking about.</p>
<p>Thanks and I hope to see you all next year :)</p>
<p>My suggestion is to include the PDF link in the additional materials section, along with a short note about the purpose of the project (suitable for a non-specialist) and the abstract. But keep in mind that MIT doesn’t really have the ability/capacity to evaluate research projects on a technical level, and you should be prepared to have your note and abstract be the only part of the project that’s viewed.</p>
<p>^ Math research is done by picking an unsolved proof, bashing your head against a wall repeatedly until you solve it, then being awarded a PhD :P</p>
<p>Well, I derived a set of functions, and made a conjecture, however the derivation relies on several assumptions that I can’t prove with sufficient mathematical rigor (or perhaps they can’t be proven more precisely than just O(g(x))), thus I did numerical simulations in Mathematica, calculated deviations from true value and from that inferred that there is a constant that I can’t explain (only make a conjecture) but it fits like a glove to (certain) real values.</p>
<p>I can’t stress enough that I’m a high school student who read Hardy&Wright “Introduction to number theory” and was left in awe. I don’t claim I did anything useful (although it fits so damn good …in some places…), I just think MIT would like to see that math is something I really like and do, even if I don’t have IMO gold.</p>
<p>Mollie; I’m sorry to hear that it probably won’t be actually read (although I did mention it to my interviewer and I’ve sent him some draft-ish discussions and basic ideas) but it’s not that surprising. Thanks for the info :)</p>