<p>I'm a 9th grader in India. And you know what? I think MIT is cool. That is definitely one of the colleges I would like to be in. In India, (and particularly in my state) there are two types of places where you can study your 11th and 12th grades. One- A place where they train you for the IIT- JEE test (and where you may end up having very little time for extra curricular activities) and Two- A place for all the rest (where you get many irrelevant, time consuming projects and you meet , I'm not being condescending, less smart people). </p>
<p>I study well. I've regularly been on the top ten in the olympiads for younger students in my country and won the NTSE scholarship(don't know how many of you heard of that). I top my class. I'm also a good speaker and write well, having won many city level contests in those areas. I'm a good quizzer(won three this year, city level) too. I did my 6th grade piano test and will probably do the 8th some time down the line.</p>
<p>And I come to my question. Which type of a high school would it be good to attend? The IIT sort of one will ensure some backup in case you don't get into MIT. You'll be in IIT. On the other hand you might be able to make more time to focus on you ECs if you go the other sort of school. Or do you think its too early to decide?</p>
<p>MIT seems to better than IIT in every possible way except that if you have a start up in India, the contacts from IIT will help. Any comments on that?</p>
<p>Welcome to CC. The dilemma that you face is a relevant one.</p>
<p>Before I say anything else I have to tell you that your attitude (or what I perceive as your attitude from your above post) needs work. If you plan on applying to top-notch universities like MIT, Harvard etc. I will advice you to become more open-minded. The “less smart people” that you speak of will be your room mates in those universities. Unlike IIT, where all the “smart” science people go, these universities are composed of individuals who will seem less “smarter” than you in the sciences but in their fields of interest will make you look “less smart”. So I strongly advice you to use your words wisely. In the your application essay, if they sense that intellectual superiority that you proclaim, there is a good chance that your application will be looked upon negatively. Universities like MIT want to accept students who are accepting (or at least seem accepting in their essays) of people with different abilities. The same applies for the real world. You will just generally enjoy life more if you learn to accept people for who they are instead of how “smart” you think they are I am not chastising you, just giving a bit of friendly advice. Take it constructively.</p>
<p>Coming to the real issue, I would advise you to go to a high school where you will be able to pursue your interests to the fullest. If that means going to an IIT-prep based school so be it. As far as my knowledge goes, fellow CC’ers excuse my ignorance here, you will have little time for any non-science based activities if you go to an IIT coaching institute in Kota etc. If you are from a metropolitan city, you might get time to participate in your extra-curricular interests. Generally, MIT likes to accept interesting individuals with interests that go beyond science. So keep that in mind. To summarize it, just do what interests you instead of doing what MIT might like. It will help you in future with your admissions essay because so many applicants will tell stories based on their science-based experiences. What will help you stand out will be something that’s unique and that you are honestly interested in.</p>
<p>I really can’t help you with the contacts question as I have no concrete knowledge or even evidence to support anything that I say.</p>
<p>Hope this helped. If you have any further questions feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>Well in my opinion you should go to the IIT-prep school nevertheless if MIT is your aim. In MIT 2014, 4 Indian citizens without a green card were selected from India, 3 having some sort of olympiad achievements. Its kinda different for MIT. I don’t know much since I haven’t applied there but this is what I’ve observed. For Harvard and the rest I guess it mainly depends on your school grades, essays, <em>unique</em> ECs and SATs. Keep lurking/posting on CC to get a better idea of what I’m trying to say.</p>
<p>+1 @ mynameisv’s advice.
Also, 9th grade is too young to be worrying about ‘contacts’, but even if you do go to MIT you’ll still develop more than enough in India.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone, especially mynameisv. He’s right of course and I’ll try to kick the perceived arrogaance out of the window. I meant that I would find people bunking classes, etc to watch movies, etc and I wasn’t sure how good such an environment is.</p>
<p>go for the non IIT one…
im in 12th, in Pune. 11th is when you should concentrate on your ECs coz if you are doin IIT you have absolutely no time to do anything else. and you kill your social life. I went to a state college. got great marks, great RCs and alot of memories. done community service, started an environmental club and taken part and got a great rank in many olympiads too. MIT is not judging you. They want to get to know you. And they want you to be able to challenge yourself and do things other than studying, although it is important. If you are serious about going to the States like how I was then you should drop the IIT and focus on one thing. thats what i did and i do not regret it. :)</p>