MIT Acceptance: Could football help?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

This thread is going to sound quite bizarre at first, but stick with me. :slight_smile:

Alright, so here are my credentials:

Academics:

GPA 4.00
Weighted GPA 4.70
SAT Composite: 2110. Math: 740 Reading: 690 Writing: 680 (Quite subpar, I know, but this should improve 100 points or more)
ACT Composite: 31. Math: 32 English: 31 Reading: 28 Sci.: 31 (Again, subpar, but this should improve 2 points or more)
AP Exams: 5 AP Gov, should receive 5 APUSH, 5 AP Comp (4 at the lowest)

Leadership Roles:

  1. Beta Club: President (12th)
  2. Student Government: School Secretary (11th, 12th), Class Representative (10th)
  3. Rotary Youth Leadership Award (10th)
  4. School representative in local forum on race. (10th)
  5. School representative in college preparatory accreditation process. (11th)
  6. Boys State (11th)
  7. Wrestling Team Captain (11th)

Work/Extracurriculars:

  1. Georgia Soccer Referee: Level 9* (8th, 9th), Level 8* (9th, 10th) [*Lower levels indicate higher rank].
  2. Topographical Surveyor: Full time employee at Lanier Engineering (Summer 2014)
  3. Architect's Assistant: Part time employee at James W. Buckley & Assoc. (September 2014-present).
  4. Math Team: 2nd in GISA AAA in competition at Georgia Southwestern (11th), 4th overall in competition at Albany State University (11th)
  5. Literary: International Extemporaneous Speaking (10th, 2nd at Region 11th), Rhetorical Analysis Essay (1st at Region, 11th)
  6. Academic Bowl: 2nd overall in math category for juniors (11th)
  7. Writing Center Tutor (11th)
  8. Beta Club
  9. Science Club
  10. Newspaper

Athletics:

  1. Soccer: 8th-11th (Region Hon. Mention 10th/11th, All Region 9th, All State 9th)
  2. Wrestling: 8th-11th (3rd Region 9th/10th, 2nd Region 11th, 7th State 9th, 3rd State 10th/11th)
  3. Track: 9th (800m)

Here’s the kicker (pun intended). I am playing football this year. It will be my debut year, and I will be our starting kicker. Despite this, without training I am already kicking <50 yards consistently, and can make kicks in the 50-60 yard range on occasion. If I have a good year, I may be able to mention this in my application and offer to walk on as a kicker, for my stats are more than good enough already. Could this help me get accepted? Without kicking, how are my chances for acceptance?

2

Are you entering 12th grade?

It probably won’t help if you’re not recruited / the coach hasn’t even see you play / you don’t have any kind of honors or credentials to prove you’re actually very good.

3

Yeah, rising senior.

I’ll have team statistics by the end of the year that will help. I also have videos of me kicking 53, 54 yard field goals that can validate my claims.

But I appreciate the reply. :slight_smile:

4

@Hermit9 you should send this to the football coach asap

5

Alright, I will.

Thanks!

6

Any sport talent can help, if you contact the coach ASAP and intend to play for MIT. I am an EC for MIT
and have seen sports talent make a difference for admission. The key is to call the coach and send the materials he needs, such as those videos. Since you are a 4 sport athlete, think carefully about what sport you want to play in college. Sports are a commitment, but division 3 is not so bad, perhaps. Research the teams at MIT and figure out what you want to do for your college sports career, whether you can study as much as you will need and play a sport. If you come from a very strong high school, sports should be a great thing to balance your MIT life. IF you come from a weaker academic high school, it might be wise to take freshman year to catch up to your MIT classmates. One way to figure this out is to take an MIT test for say , calculus, 18.01 on MIT OpenCourse. If 18.01 and 8.01 are very familiar to you, then you will be OK to have a big sport commitment. Also, football at MIT has a special fraternity. Some MIT fraternities are athletically focused. This offers extra academic help, to join a fraternity, in some cases, from your fraternity brothers.

7

If you get injured the first week of practice at MIT, will you still be a good fit for the school? That’s not for you to answer here but the adcoms will be considering that.

There are many past athletic recruiting threads on this MIT CC forum. I encourage you to read through them.

8

Fantastic replies, thanks both of you.

I fear that if I do send all this info and am accepted, my family still probably won’t be able to afford MIT. Should this compel me to reconsider applying to play football?

9

MIT is Div 3 which means no athletic scholarships. MIT offers financial aid based totally on need. So it doesn’t matter whether you play football or not.

10

@HPuck35 That’s what I thought. My family currently makes $130,000 a year, but my mom has had medical problems and her partial income may be cut this summer, leaving our income at about $75,000. If that happens, would I be eligible for need-based aid?

11

Yes. The fundamental rule is that MIT does not want anyone to turn them down because you cannot afford to go. That doesn’t mean that it will not hurt, even a lot, but that it will be possible. The basic idea is that Student Financial Services works out what the family can possibly afford to pay, asks for all of that, and then provides aid for the remainder. This is why income alone is not a good proxy for aid eligibility. The SFS team does understand this stuff very, very well. There are six financial aid counselors assigned based on your surname (see http://sfs.mit.edu/contact). Based on your personal circumstances, you may fall into what SFS calls “special circumstances”. Talk to them and see what happens. A good place to start is with the net price calculator (http://sfs.mit.edu/access-affordability/net-price-calculator). This can be inaccurate in some special circumstances, such as significant medical bills, but it should give you a reasonable idea of what this all is likely to look like.