<p>They’ve had the same essay questions for a couple years now, if not longer. The what you do for fun one has for sure been there for 4+ years.</p>
<p>Do not ask how I know that last bit.</p>
<p>It doesn’t mean just describe one thing you enjoy doing. They just want to get a whole picture of who you are. Try to tell them something you haven’t really highlighted in the rest of your application. I pretty much just listed the things I enjoy doing the most and apparently that was fine, since I got in. That question isn’t there for you to spend hours on.. that’s for the other questions. The admissions committee just wants to know who you are.</p>
<p>Oh, and regarding the something you do for pleasure-</p>
<p>This has been mentioned elsewhere, but those 100 words are pretty much worth gold to you. Don’t screw them up. Honestly, just choosing one and talking about that one thing and why you love it in depth would be more effective than a detailed listing of time devoted to each of your leisure activities. That, and the second would be horribly boring.</p>
<p>So while you can talk about more than one thing, you’re honestly not going to have the room to do both of them equal justice. Quality over quantity.</p>
<p>I suggest going in depth about one thing you enjoy doing. Make sure you highlight something in this short answer that isn’t mentioned elsewhere. Try not to keep repeating certain activities. Rather, use every part of the application to elaborate on something else so that you can convey as much as possible about you and your life. </p>
<p>The application hasn’t changed too much in terms of content. The online portal is nicer and easier to use in some respects. There will also be a nice addition coming along shortly that I cannot get into too much detail about. The astute can find it on my blog though :p</p>
<p>that what-do-you-do-for-fun essay is kind of like a short response, right? i think it’s much more realistic to SHOW how and why you love doing just one thing in ～100 words (i think i wrote mine in 150), so i agree with bballdude on the depth.</p>
<p>(Completely Optional) No admission application can meet the needs of every individual. If you think additional information or material will give us a more thorough impression of you, please respond below. (Please limit your answer to 500 words or fewer.)</p>
<p>Do most people answer that optional essay? If so, with what?</p>
<p>Yes!!! I agree with bballdude that you should use every part of the application to express a different part of yourself. It is so key to express who you are.</p>
<p>To answer Walton12’s question, probably not. I didn’t answer it. I don’t know anyone who answered it and got in. (I am NOT suggesting any causation.. or even correlation.) If you have something important to say though, by all means say it!</p>
<p>I answered it and got in, but that’s neither here nor there. If you have something you’d love to use for it, do it! But if you can’t think of anything, don’t add anything.</p>
<p>Could you answer it with another thing you like to do, that did fit in the first question (100 word limit).</p>
<p>What did you guys talk about in this question, if you answered it?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t use that extra space to surpass the word limit of another question. Yeah, yeah, cheating the system is one thing. Annoying the ad-coms is another. The word limits are there for a reason.</p>
<p>People often use the extra section to explain an exceptional circumstance (“I had a really rough semester here because…”) or list self-studied classes or explain something about their school’s grading system or classes.</p>
<p>As with the other optional sections of the application, I don’t think most people utilize it, just people who have something to say there.</p>
<p>I actually used the extra space for a couple of things- I sent in a Boggle scorecard from that summer on which the only words I had won on at nerd camp were uber, actin, and ides (I love languages, biology, and literature) and then wrote a letter to MIT about how much I wanted to go there (The amount I knew about this school even then was mildly ridiculous). And then I sent in a home-made resume just to explain a few things- like community service that didn’t really fit in anywhere else, summer trips that I had to explain because they didn’t sound that great without some sort of context, that sort of thing.</p>
<p>I’m not saying you should necessarily do all this, because I kind of went overkill on the supplemental material in retrospect. But at the time it all seemed totally vital to my application, and I was not going to screw it up.</p>
<p>What you use that space for is entirely up to you- some of you will opt not to send anything in, and others of you will go all crazy applicant on the application and will send in everything but your birth certificate. With every piece you consider sending in, just ask yourself what it adds to your application and if it contributes to the adcom getting a clearer picture of who you are and how you’d fit into MIT. If it doesn’t do either, then reconsider.</p>
<p>But doesn’t MIT say to refrain from sending in a resume?</p>
<p>"We know that many of you participate in more than five activities outside of class; however, we are interested in hearing about the five that are most important to you. Therefore, please do not submit a r</p>
<p>I think it’s fine to send it in addition, just not in place of filling out that section.</p>
<p>The application makes you consider the activities that are really most important to you- what they don’t want you doing is sending a list of 12 instead and saying “well, these all are of equal importance to me.” A resume that only lists the same 4 or 5 you did on the application, plus things in areas that didn’t exist on the application, is perfectly valid, IMHO.</p>
<p>However, I’m just a meek prefrosh, not an admissions officer. Take what I say with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>S did something similar to ducktape. Sent a supplemental resume with everything (but he listed the five most important ones on the app form), Add’l Info was a brief blurb about course placement and offerings that was not covered in the school report (S checked so that so he wasn’t duplicating/providing conflicting info). Supplemental essay was about his research experience (and, frankly, was the MIT essay he spent the most time on). Did NOT send his research paper.</p>
<p>Pay attention to ducktape, seniors! She rocks!</p>
<p>I feel like making you pick 4 or 5 is actually forcing you to look better in MIT’s eyes - I think the laundrylist approach would be bad =).</p>
<p>I used my extra section on none of the above. I think I must be an oddity - I wrote it the night before (thinking I wouldn’t write the optional essay until that point) when I suddenly got the urge and inspiration.</p>
<p>My supplemental essay was about gremins and Bolivia. It was totally random. In a stroke of irony, I am now temped in Random. </p>
<p>Anyways.</p>
<p>Oh yes, I also sent a supplemental material: a vaguely bizarre drawing of a sea anemone that equally vaguely corresponded to my essay about my life and times (option B for the long one, I think.) Unfortunately, I kind of forgot what some of the interior portions were called, or was too lazy to write down the biologically correct names, so a lot of bits were labled “nasty oozy stuff” and suchlike. I honestly don’t know if this drawing ever reached our friends on the admissions committee. </p>
<p>Upon reflection, it probably didn’t, or I may have received a referral to the Funny Farm instead of the Tube in December. </p>
<p>So, the moral of the story is, '13s, open a dictionary, pick your favorite number of words (although, if your favorite number is complex, that might make things tricky, ROFLOLZ) and string them together in one very, very, long sentence that is approximately 500 words. Also, get perfect SATs. That helps. I scored 800 on reading and writing, and 850 in math.
(…wait…)</p>
<p>Good luck, and good night.</p>
<p>in part 1, the application allows you to clarify any of your answers…what sort of information deserves clarification?</p>
<p>oh and for part 2, if you have math/science high school credit courses that were taken earlier than 9th grade, how would you fill in the form?</p>