MIT Advice with EC's and chances :)

Hello everyone! This is my first post on here, so bear with me if it’s a little rough. I have a few questions, particularly about MIT.

  1. If I have a (kinda) STEM background but I do swim competitively, should I try and go for athletic recruiting or is there any downside to that?
  2. If I have clubs and EC’s all over the place, but have a focus on STEM in the events that I do, is that okay?
  3. This might be a really dumb question. I saw rankings of how good EC’s are on another thread, and got super discouraged. If I’ve got no major awards (no international Olympiad medals, no major science fairs), is there still as good of a chance for me?

This post was edited for privacy.

You’re Asian, so the bar will be higher for you. Missouri gives you a little bit of an edge. You’re not the typical New Englander they are so used to seeing. They like applicants from the Midwest. It’s good to have a number of ECs including swimming. You can reach out to the swim coach and see what type of swimmer they are looking for (butterfly, back stroke etc.). See if they have an athletic recruiting page on their website to get a call from a coach. My best advice is to start the app process early, and work on polishing your essays. MIT as you know has its own app, and there are a lot of short essays that require a lot of thought. Good Luck!!

Thank you!

Try to be an athletic recruit. That’s the easiest route for you. Contact the swim coach and say MIT is your first choice.

Emphasize your accomplishments in the math and science competitions. Your doing many different activities wont help; it may hurt by detracting from your passion for STEM. Try to whittle down a couple so that you have time to shine in those you keep.