MIT App Questions- Activities, Honors, etc.

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Hi there!

For everyone else out there struggling to choose 4 activities to list on their MIT apps-- how did you choose? I understand that the purpose of the activity limit is to see what matters to us most, but it is still hard to choose xD. Some of my activities overlap (for instance, math team and science bowl are both STEM-related). Is it worth trying to list the things that are more “different”? Sure, I can mention them in my short answers but I’d rather work on conveying myself than my activities in those.

Or even, does anyone suggest grouping activities?
For example, Activity 1: math/science teams (and then describe them separately?) I feel I would risk minimizing the importance of each activity though.

Also, when it comes to scholastic distinction/honors, what counts as an “international” title? For example, would AMC 12 Honor Roll be considered an “international” distinction because students from all over the world are in contention for it?

How welcoming is MIT with abbreviations for their activity/distinction titles? I am managing to fit in everything within the character limit, but I worry that my abbreviations make things too informal or not understandable.

Thanks in advance for any advice! :slight_smile:

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I can’t speak on behalf of the admissions committee, but I can try to help.

First off…whoa, they’re cutting it down to 4 activities? I chose what was most meaningful to me; it’s as simple as that. In high school, it might be easy to be a “jack of all trades,” but as you get older, you’ll begin to realize that you can only dedicate so much into whatever you do. Many of my college friends say they participate in around 5 activities (coincidence??? I think not), and they dedicate most of their free time into one–maybe two–rarely three. Think really hard; if you could not do XYZ for the rest of your life, would you be sad? okay? That’s a good question to assess whether or not you truly love something.

Feel free to group things, if you’d like. I don’t think “STEM-related” is a group, though. Something like, “Spanish learning,” which encompasses trips to Spanish-speaking countries, Spanish class, a club, etc. is appropriate. In my opinion, STEM is too diverse to just lump together like that. After all, you’re applying to MIT, a place that boasts 1389471398735 different STEM majors (I exaggerate a bit).

I think it’s up to your discretion to choose what “level” an award is. Remember that no one award–international, national, local, or whatever–will get you into MIT. Also know that admissions officers have read a…lot…of…applications, so I’m sure they’ll know the difference between AMC 12 Honor Roll vs. IMO Gold Medal, both of which are /technically/ international awards. In short, be honest with yourself.

Bouncing off of my last answer, the admissions officers have read many, many applications, so they’ll probably recognize most abbreviations. If not, since everything’s done electronically now a days, they can easily Google whatever your activity/distinction is.

Feel free to pm if you have any other questions. I’m headed off tomorrow, so it might take me a bit. But I’ll get back to ya; don’t worry.

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Thank you so so much for your detailed advice! :slight_smile: I really appreciate it.

I was surprised when I saw that they had cut it down to 4 activities! But with your advice in mind, I think I have narrowed it down. I guess having to choose only 4 activities to report really says a lot about a person.

Are you attending MIT? @Newdle

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I’m not sure how much the admissions committee appreciated it, but there’s a “is there anything else you’d like to tell us?” section at the end, and so if I had a lot distinctions in a category, I put in the main ones, wrote “see additional section for more” and then put in a few more into the additional section. That way, I didn’t have to abbreviate (and everything made sense)