Let's start a place for class of 2020 MIT hopefuls or something!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Chance each other and stuff (no one seems to have made a thread or sth as far as I can search for)?

Also, MIT’s blog is saying a lot of bad things about this website so please be nice to each other and not say its impossible for qualified people to get in :P. This place is not to ruin people’s dreams and stuff lol. (People with 2100 SATs get into MIT pretty often, you know)

I think it would be helpful if we helped each other come up with ideas for essays rather than saying everyone's SAT scores aren't high enough. That would be much more constructive and everything.

I’ll start with a rough description of me:

(US resident)

35 ACT (33 eng, 34 read, 35 math, 36 science, and I didn’t finish essay: 8 (was I supposed to study for essays or sth?? how to do that :|)), 3.8 GPA (unweighted, duh) (when I think homework is useless I tend to skip it \o/), no SAT (since I don’t like it)
USAMO (not number theory, but I’m only super good at combo) x 3 and USAPhO gold x 2, IPhO team Canada (lol), MOSP x 1 (woohoo, I like it when half the problems are combo XD)
Composes music for fun (and currently working on a video game making group thingy indie stuff) and a lot of other random things that tend to distract from boring schoolwork
One really meh rec letter and one really good one.
Might screw up interview a bit, worried.
Only two SAT II’s: Math II, Physics, you can guess my score.
National Merit Semifinalist (Apparently I have to take SAT to get further in this :|)
8 AP tests, (french, apush, stats, all of the physics, calc bc, idrwhatelseItook :|)
Did some weird research thing at NASA, contributed to project proposal ideas without realizing it was of any importance at first. \o/

Knows a lot of undergrad physics and math from self-studying online courses, but the only teacher that knows that apparently writes really bad rec letters so nvm about that.

I don’t know if there’s any other important things to write \o/.

Oh, right, I TA for APCS at my school.

(People who kind of know me now can find a lot more about me now! \o/)

Chance me, if you want, I kinda more want to start a place to start talking about stuff.

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I’m also going to put this here for sake of searchability purposes: MIT, high school students graduating 2016, essays

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Combo is fun…I am pretty bad at geometry but still scored a 13 on the 2010 USAMO because #1 and #4 were easy geo.

You made MO(S)P and IPhO so you should have a pretty good chance for most top schools. I feel like the only reason you’d get rejected from a school is if they’re aware other schools accepted you. Just don’t skip too much homework at MIT.

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@qwerytiop Wow. If only I had 10% of your skills in competitive math and science :-p I have researched in extremal combinatorics, graph theory and stuff but I literally suck at competitive math/science. You are in for sure at any college you apply too.

Please apply EA to MIT if that is your top choice and leave something for us mere mortals in the RD round. :-p I’m EAing to Stanford and Georgia Tech.

My stats (more or less): http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1806647-inputs-appreciated-will-chance-back-if-required-p1.html

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@MITer94 USAMO #3 or #6 combo is easier for me than a #1 geometry problem XD.

Yup, would not skip homework as long as its not taking notes on something I feel like I can learn better by just reading carefully and stuff like that. Homework in universities in general is (probably) more necessary and less pure work?

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I’m applying EA as well! D3 lightly recruited Swimmer. Heavy interest in biology, chemistry, and math. Not physics lol. I can’t do it. Good luck to everyone!

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Hey everyone, so, i was just applying this year as an international and had some questions.

1- I’ve taken both the SAT and the TOEFL. MIT, oddly enough, allows you to sub the SAT for the TOEFL and I was wondering which one I should send. My TOEFL result is a 115 whereas my SAT is a 2180. I’ll be sitting for the SAT again and I’m going to be taking the SAT subject tests in Math II, Chem and Phys. I’m hoping for 760+ on all of them. My question was, which one should I send to MIT right now? The TOEFL or the SAT?

2- MIT only allows you to list up to 12 exams on your application. I’ve taken 8 O-Level exams and will be taking 6 IB (DP) exams. What do I do?

3- When it comes to listing my activities, I’ve done a lot of social work. One of my biggest projects is working for an orphanage for kids living in poverty. I’ve put in a lot of work here. So, I work here year round and while I do something like 12 hours per week during the school year, this jumps to about 40 something hours during the summer. Do I list the activity twice?

4- I’ve done some summer work for a political party here in my country. While I believe in most of their messages, like educating all people living in squalor, they don’t have a very good international reputation. Should I list this activity? Even if it may cast me in a bit of a ‘bad’ light?

5- Is there a place I can go for some essay advice? English is like my fourth language and I have no idea how you guys manage to write amazing essays in less than a hundred words.

Thanks for taking the time to read all this!

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International student male (Europe) and in the most competitive school of the country well known in USA’s Universities (under scholarship)
SAT one and first sitting 2310 (800M 760W 750 CR)
SAT subjects Math2 800 Math 1 790 Physics 800. We don’t have AP classes.TOEFL 107
Grades in all classes 19,5/20 (There is no GPA equivalent)
School winner every year in AMC8, AMC10 (grade 9 and 10) AMC 12 grade 11 also AIME qualified
National competitions in Math and Physics
School team for lab science
Various conventions (literature also)
Summer school every year one was CTY-Game Theory
School orchestra 3 years (Violin many years) and traditional dance group
Some tutoring
and EC in church charities
MENSA member (national and international)
Thank you and I appreciate any recommendations also.
BTW I’m sure the recommendation letters will be great.
Chance me if you can please

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@Ahmad12345 MIT probably wants you to send both? I’m not sure.

  1. Put 12 scores there and add a note in the optional section, probably.

  2. Probably not a good idea to list anything twice. You want to show that you do a lot of things rather than fewer things?

  3. MIT is pretty liberal with political ideas. As long as its not anything very extreme, it should be fine. Okay if its just out of the norm.

  4. Truthfully speaking, we don’t write “amazing” essays in less than 100 words. XD. We write okayish ones :P.
    Essay advice is hard to get for an international student. I think they will take your English as a fourth language into account. However, if they determine that your english isn’t good enough to do well at MIT, then it will become a problem.

Can’t be sure these are all very accurate, but its what the blog seems to say.

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@ammoopi

International student is apparently much harder.

MENSA comes with some connotations. Some people don’t like it if you flaunt it out too much, so do some more research on that? I’m not sure, don’t take my word for it.

You have a moderate (aka pretty good) chance of entering MIT were you a US applicant. Depends on what other stuff you do that’s not mentioned here. International applicants are much harder though. On the blog, MIT asks for stuff like “external validation”. Your national contest scores would help, but things that are standardized over multiple countries would be more helpful since they can compare it to US students.

You should probably compare yourself to former students at your school who went to MIT. What kind of people were they?

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Wow OP you are too OP. (Forgive my attempt at a pun). But honestly, You are basically the stem of STEM, with MOSP and IPhO. … I would have a hard time imagining your not getting in. Makes it scary to even apply, when you barely even hear about AMC and school math is hard for you. … Well, I’ll see how motivated I am to get rejected to decide if I apply lol. MIT has its own app, which makes people need to be more serious and dedicated before applying

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I guess I’m part of the reason why people get discouraged from applying to schools. Well, let me just say that olympiads aren’t really the only thing that shows one’s capability to do math and sciences.

:expressionless: that was … an okay pun.

Oh, and my GPA rounds up to 3.8 :P. Yeah, APUSH kinda killed me since the teacher made us take notes on the entirety of every chapter in high detail :|.

“MIT has its own app, which makes people need to be more serious and dedicated before applying”

But the application for MIT is much shorter! I like their essay style actually. I know exactly what they want with their short specific essays, rather than the general catch-all essays of most schools that I can’t answer very clearly.

(I’m paranoid as always, but I suppose I have a pretty high chance of getting in.)

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HI ! I’m an international student from Europe (girl). I’ve participated in many olympiads in informatics and summer schools. My SAT and TOEFL score are moderate. Do you think that I have a chance ?

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Hello nice to see you all!!
I’m a senior at Indonesia and here is my stats!

TOEFL: 104
SAT: M2 / Physics (No results yet - expecting 700+ both)
Grades: 86/100 (never serious at subjects I don’t like lol)
Awards: Silver & Bronze at National Mathematics Competition (no major), 3rd Place at National Youth Innovation Series (Business Pitch), 2nd Place regional math contest, Platinum Award in ASEP (Presentasion contest in taiwan)
EC’s: Entrepreneurship (Member), Honors Guard (2 Year - Now senior and mentor), Red Cross (1 Year - Captain), Karate (7+ years - now a mentor), Scholarship from a company
Activity: Selling foods at school since freshmen to provide my own needs

I know my grades aren’t the best but I’m applying EA and goodluck to you all the applicants!

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@Ahmad12345 List the best ones and/or the ones that pertain most to what you plan to study.

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@dianaDM Add more info, what level in those olympiads?

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@orfromin That’s a great set of stats if you lived in the US. You should consider people you know about in your country and compare yourself to them in order to get a good idea of it.

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@ammoopi - You are a strong candidate. Good luck.

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@qwerytiop Well that’s the problem, I couldn’t find anyone applying to MIT in Indonesia yet every year there’s 1-3 students accepted to MIT (all international science medalist btw). But it never hurts to apply right:) oh I actually developed a custom t-shirt webstore in Junior year and I hope that I can set it up again so that the admission can see it. Best of luck to you btw!

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@orfromin Thanks!

One more important thing; International students have it much harder so you would be at a significant disadvatage if you don’t get 800’s on your SATII Math 2 and Physics. But you do math competitions so you should be fine getting that. (9 problems wrong still gives you an 800 on either test, so yeah \o/)