<p>I have a pretty low GPA for MIT (4.2 weighted/3.6 unweighted), but my SAT's are good. Im sure I can make my personality show through. GPA-wise I received
B's because I was doing stuff that I liked like learning C in 8th grade, the ins-outs of linux/apache in 9th grade, java in 10th, and PERL and MYSQL in eleventh.</p>
<p>I also have a personality in school, and I think I can make that show through. My SAT's are stellar. 2300+ on SAT, 800's on SAT II's, 5's on APs</p>
<p>My question is, is it useless to apply to MIT because of m yrelatively low GPA or can I make my extracurriculars shine. </p>
<p>I have two more questions:
1) Im filing for a patent, but have not received it. It takes a while. Will this be considered on the app?
2) I hope to get a rec from my physics teacher. He taught me in sophomore year, the yera that I took AP Physics the highest Physics course in my school. He is also the FIRST robotics advisor, and I am the president of the team, so we interact a lot. His rec of me will be stellar, but since it is in the sophomore year will it be discounted?</p>
<p>You have a good shot, I'd guess. Just use your essay to stand out and make sure you emphasize your hooks (strong interest and pursuit of the computer sciences/programming, patent for an invention, etc.). </p>
<p>I don't think your GPA is too low, at least considering the courses you are taking.</p>
<p>Last question: How do I tell MIT that I am really interested in computers and taken initiative to leran about them? The only computer skill that is concrete is that I made a website for my robotics team that won the FIRST award for excellence. Other than that my knowledge about Linux, C, PERL, mysql, and computers in general is merely my "word". I dont have any solid results to speak of.</p>
<p>I guess they could see my mastery of websites by viewing the source and seeing how I incorporated several advanced things in the website. But still, what about the rest.</p>
<p>Have you written anything useful or just cool? Maybe something little program you've distributed over the internet?</p>
<p>Websites you've designed can be sent in as supplementary application information; otherwise, if the C/o'11 app still has a "Something you made" essay question, that'd be a perfect response.</p>
<p>Yeah, I wrote for the "something you made" essay question, and they'll generally believe you. I mean, they're not stupid, they know when people are lying to them about scores and ECs. But I wrote about the control panel I made for my FIRST team's robot and it's not like they called me up and were like "hey can you send us the robot?"</p>
<p>And obviously, in your case, it would be a whole lot easier to send them a link to the website. And other than that, as long as you're telling the truth, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Just talk about why/how you learned things, and try to make it relevant to your strengths. (It shows your passion for computers, demonstrates that you're hardworking, something.) It's not like they'll totally discount it because you can't prove it by showing that you got an A in the class.</p>