<p>I want to know how you made it in and if you have any tips/suggestions/warnings about admissions as well as high school curriculum leading up to applying :) Thanks!</p>
<p>When I got in, in the mid-90’s, this was the following profile for the MIT student.</p>
<p>-straight A’s in the hardest curriculum offerred by your school
-junior year, be the top student in all classes, or at least the classes you get a rec in
-math team competitions (typically at least regional awards, sometimes more)
-some kind of science competition, although not every school has these available
-750-800 range in math SAT and all science SATIIs, 1500/1600 SATI (math+verbal)</p>
<p>additionally, 2/3 of my entering class had lettered in a sport. There was some indication of well-roundedness. Qualifying for AIME was somewhat common, although a large chunk of the class had never heard of the AMC or AIME. Other academic competitions and also a smattering of ECs (maybe student council, community service). </p>
<p>In terms of math + science competitions, shooting for state distinctions was sufficient. Intel Semi-finalist was good enough too.</p>
<p>Er, how I did it…</p>
<p>1) Took the most interesting subjects my school had to offer, which tended to be APs. Get mostly A’s, with a handful of B’s in classes that bored me. Perfectly content with my grades.
2) Had a lot of fun horseback riding, flying, acting, doing karate, finding whatever I loved to do. Overall, fill my life with as much adventure as I could, coincidentally learning a lot about hard work along the way.
3) Find out what MIT was at the end of my junior year of high school, and fall in love with MIT’s culture. Spend a few months handwringing and wondering if, had I known about MIT sooner, I would’ve done the “right” things to get in.
4) Apply EA.
5) Hear happy news in December ^^</p>
<p>This… is not necessarily the traditional route into MIT. I’m glad it happened the way it did, though - I was able to have a stress-free attitude towards life in high school and really able to pursue what I wanted.</p>
<p>But basically, my vote is to pursue interesting opportunities around you. I didn’t have opportunities like science competitions (I first heard of olympiads when I was applying to MIT), or AP Computer Science (wait, you can actually program on your own computer? Who knew!), or lab research. But I did have a stable nearby and a small airport a little farther away. So I took advantage of those opportunities and had an amazing time ^^</p>
<p>My point with saying all this is that… everyone’s story is different. MIT’s not looking for cookie-cutter people, but smart/passionate/creative people from a variety of backgrounds who can inspire and learn from each other. Don’t try to mold yourself to others. Pursue what you love - and whether or not you end up at MIT, you’ll be on a good path.</p>
<p>I did provide a list of typical (and I think close to required) charcteristics of MIT admits when I was applying. However, I think the typical attitude was that people were reaching for something much higher, but that they made sure of course they cleared all the remedial tests of excellence. For me personally, my feeling was that I wanted to do great things in science in the future, and I absolutely did not want to be wondering whether my foundation wasn’t even slightly faulty as I moved onto more advanced material. Therefore, I sought to absolutely crush my classes. Also, on a basic level, I wanted to get as much out of each class as I could.</p>
<p>Frankly, it mystifies me why people ask if they need to get an “A” in a “tough” precalc class to get into MIT, which is the topic of another thread. It makes me wonder why they want to go to MIT in the first place. Everyone is capable of making mistakes; however, it’s weird to go into a basic class with a defeatist attitude. If your goal is to solve the world’s scientific problems, create an engine that runs on water, eliminate the hole in the ozone, cure disease, why are you going into high school classes with the attitude that maybe it’s too tough to get into the top half or third of the class? I wonder if these people have a passion for science or whether they just want MIT on their resume’.</p>
<p>
This sounds ridiculously close to my profile (not in the details, but in the general attitude), except I applied RD since I’m int’l. And haven’t gotten any acceptance yet. Here’s hoping :)</p>
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<p>I feel the same. I would find the question more reasonable if it were asked after the person tried hard at the next level, but not if going in itself there is that sort of attitude.</p>
<p>I actually found that my performance relative to those around me steeply improved as material got more advanced. To this day, conic sections are scarier to me than most other things :D</p>
<p>I think learning a laundry-list of things you can do to solve a problem can be very frustrating, whereas once it’s clear why stuff is being approached the way it is, things become more manageable. And sadly, perspective as to why more basic material is done the way it is tends to become clearer only after it has already been taught.</p>