<p>I am a magnet school student with a GPA between 3.0 and 3.1. I had a few problems my freshman and sophomore years. The problems arose because I was too passionate. Also because I changed from Comp Sci to Physics/Electrical Engineering, I am taking 10 classes from MIT OCW.</p>
<p>I started playing football and I was humiliated by 8 year olds, while I was a freshman. I worked my heart out and now I am being recruited by MIT to play football.</p>
<p>I have an internship at MIT. Doing research in EECS. I will be living on my own, and I am completely self motivated.</p>
<p>I am a very extreme person. For example. I got to a top 50 high school (out of 37100 schools). I was invited to Mu Alpha Theta. I spent the week I knew about the election preparing for it. I can prepared in a suit and had a killer speech. I lost the election because of my reputation from 9th and 10th grade. Despite that, I still accomplished what the previous class did in 24 hours, and I started a research project in math.</p>
<p>I help people whenever I can. I was roaming around the school and I helped the drama department at like 6 pm after practice. I did this kind of thing all the time, so I didn't expect anything. The next day, my teacher came up to me and said wow, that was an amazing thing to do. I looked at her dumbfounded for like a minute, and she filled me in.</p>
<p>I am very curious. I have spend countless lunches talking about all kinds of subjects with my Analysis 1 teacher (Magnet AP BC Calc). We have talked about morality to creating a new number system. I also am one of those people who just walk into places and start talking and learning what I can.</p>
<p>My teachers love me. I should have 8 - 10 special teacher recommendations. </p>
<p>I am writing a book on my life over the summer. </p>
<p>My SAT is in the 2300's.</p>
<p>Do you think I am the kind of student that MIT would accept.</p>
<p>As long as you don’t write your essay like this above. While a college wants to know what an outstanding person you are, you kind of came off as someone who loves himself enough to write a book about himself about how he became good enough to play D3 football. Your SAT is good, I’ll give you that, but coupled with your GPA you are going to have to be just as great as you think you are.</p>
<p>The thing about the book is, its based on my whole life, and for most of high school, I was a very insecure person, and it’s about how I turned my life around. I usually keep quiet about my accomplishments (in the book, it will be written with different names and a few events are changed for dramatic effect) its just how else could I portray my self as a good person? (A serious question)</p>
<p>Sorry man, I realize I was kind of harsh with that comment. I’m sure you’ll get into MIT, but also look into Carnegie Mellon and RPI, they’re also D3 and really math oriented and intellectually based which your info really says about you.</p>
<p>No worries bro! Honestly it didn’t come across as harsh at all. I would rather know the truth than smile with a lie. I have been looking at CMU, RPI, and Rose-Hulman for football and academics. I have also been looking at GTech, Stanford, Caltech, Berkeley, and UMD(Safety, I am from MD) for just academics. For the D1’s, Maybe also for football if I have a magical senior season. I am actually more Physics/EE oriented, but my high school has more math opportunities.</p>
<p>Also say all of the aforementioned is completely true, (I did make some assumptions about next year), would you consider me up there with the elite students in the country?</p>
<p>(1) That GPA will hurt you. Combined with your SAT scores, it shows that you’re a good test taker who isn’t willing to put in the work. Is your GPA higher now than it was in 9th and 10th grade? Could you give your year GPA for each year?</p>
<p>(2) “The problems arose because I was too passionate” is not going to fly. It’s not a good excuse.</p>
<p>(3) Recruitment at MIT is not a huge factor in admissions. It’s a good thing, but I just want to make sure that you have a realistic view. This isn’t like a D1 school.</p>
<p>(4) There is no point in sending in 8-10 teacher recommendations if all of them are going to say similar things about you. Only send in extra recommendations if a teacher has something to say that wasn’t said in the others.</p>
<p>Oh no the problem that occurred happened because I was to passionate. That specific problem consumed my life, and I kept putting more and more energy towards it, while the way to get out of it was to relax. It’s hard to explain without actually telling you what it was. Also I had a 3.2 GPA Freshman year, 2.5 Sophomore year, and now a 3.8 GPA(non of them are cumulative, also my schools grades are very deflated, we have 60 of the smartest people in the county, and only 3 of them have straight A’s most have around a 3.5), and I have very good reason to believe I will have a 4.0 first semester next year. I know recruitment isn’t big, the thing I am hoping MIT gets out of it is that I work hard, can deal with failure, and succeed when people don’t believe I can. Also I miswrote they aren’t all from teachers. My mentor, my coach, a teacher (who was never my teacher) but I have spent a lot of time with, my Analysis 1 teacher, Theater teacher, English teacher, physics teacher, and my counselor. I am trying to convey that it wasn’t an act, that the person they are reading about is exactly who I am. Also most of the teachers have seen different parts of me.</p>
<p>There is no way to do this and not come off narcissistic. If you do this, don’t put it on your resume’</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I see it a lot on cc that kids aren’t disciplined or have lapses but are also super-ambitious. As a result, they try to go overboard to seem “extreme” so that their lapses won’t be held against them when applying to MIT. For instance, I think they think if people see them as “extreme” then their lows will be matched by future highs. It’s a natural reaction to dealing with one’s blemishes, but it’s not the way to go. </p>
<p>The best way to go is to be matter-of-fact about the choices you’ve made, but don’t use exaggerated or extreme language. (“humiliated,” “killer speech”, “too passionate”, etc.) If you spent a lot of time exploring your interests on OCW, that’s certainly better than if you were playing video games. But the fact is it’s unlikely that your going to get better college admissions results than someone with 2300 SATs, a 3.9 GPA from the same type of magnet school, and an array of demonstrated interests. And even people like that are not that uncommon; for <em>them</em> MIT admissions is still a crapshoot. Don’t try to look better than them by exaggerating your accomplishments. By the way, MIT is leery of people with extreme personalities; some of them jump off buildings. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It’s not impossible, but it’s unlikely. 3.1 GPA is pretty low. It depends a lot on what your grades actually look like. If you got A’s in upper level classes, then that will help. For instance, if you get a “C” in soph chem but an “A” in AP chem, at least people will know you know chemistry.</p>
<p>8-10 recs is too much. At most, maybe submit one more than what they ask for. Another idea is to have some people who weren’t your designated teacher recommenders (e.g., mentor, coach, theater teacher) send anecdotes about you to the counselor, and then he/she could incorporate them in the counselor recommendation. But I would clear it first, and don’t get crazy with that. Don’t have 10 people sending your counselor stuff.</p>
<p>That is really good advice thank you! I think extreme is a bad word for what I meant. I was once very extreme as you have described it, but from the failures I have had, I have changed. I don’t get too high or too low, but what I do is give what I do my absolute best. Now this seems to contradict my grades, but you have to remember I was suicidal my first two years in high school. And I was suicidal because, I kept trying harder and harder for something that can not happen through hard work, and it ate me alive. (I won’t describe it in anymore detail)</p>
<p>If it screwed with the rest of your life so thoroughly, it sounds more like OCD than passion. If you have a medical issue that once caused you problems but you now have under control, that is what you need to make clear to Admissions.</p>
<p>Again, it sounds like you have way too many recommendations. Are the teachers going to say different things about you? If not, cut out at least 2/3 of those. Admissions does not need to hear the same thing 8-10 times.</p>
<p>You counselor should make the grading system clear to Admissions.</p>
<p>I missed the part that you were writing a book about yourself. Why?</p>
<p>Contrary to some belief, passion is probably one of the best things for colleges to see. Direct it. Make something with it. Show them passion through essays. Tell them your football stories about how hard you work. Passion will make you stand out. But only if its in the right place.</p>
<p>@Complik I know! I have shown it, my teachers will probably write about it, and I have A LOT of stories.</p>
<p>@PiperXP It was definitely passion. I know how to show that I won’t let it become a negative again, and I have already had experiences that show that I won’t let it become bad.</p>
<p>Each teacher will have different things to say because they have all seen me in different lights.</p>
<p>Also my English teacher has always said that I write my best work when I am writing about myself. She has always loved reading about stories I wrote about myself. My life so far, works well with the prototypical underdog story, but with a few twists. I have also always wanted to write a book. I used to read a lot in middle school, and haven’t had time in high school. Also it will be written as fiction, and some events will be changed.</p>
<p>Make the book even more fiction. Change all the names, even. Yours. Make it a life story of someone (like Forrest Gump or Benjamin Button)
Use some of your live events, make the main character very similar to yourself. Say “inspired by life events”. It’s a book, fiction, but it’s also a story and people won’t see it in a bad way. Think of Eminem’s “8 Mile”</p>