I want to know whether or not I am on the right track on getting accepted to MIT.
GPA: 103.21
Rank: 2 out of 860
SAT: 1600
ACT: 36
AP Courses: World History (4), AP Computer Science (4)
Awards:
UIL Number Sense Region Qualifier
3-time District Band and Region Band Member, and 2-time All-Area Band Qualifier
ECs: Math Team (10-11), Science Team (10-11), Band (9-11) First Chair for 2 years, Mu Alpha Theta (10-11), National Honor Society (11), Spanish Honor Society (10-11)
Summer Experience:
PREP (Math, Science, and Engineering Camp) 3 years
Race and Gender: Asian Male (Sucks)
Current course load:
AP Chemistry
AP Calculus BC
AP Statistics
AP English Language
AP Physics 1
AP U.S. History
Band
Interests: Astronomy and Physics
I am planning on studying astronomy on MIT OpenCourseWare
I do believe that I have little to no chance. However, I would like to know what you guys think. I am prepared to get disappointments.
Your GPA/scores/rank put you definitely in range, and your course load seems really heavy. EC’s are a little basic, but if they’re something you really love, it’ll shine through in your essays. Definitely put energy into your essays. Good luck.
I know this is cliche and could be annoying advice but: it’s all in the essays. Seriously. Once you get above a minimum scoring and GPA threshold (which is definitely a high threshold but you have obviously reached that point) to make sure you would be capable of handling MIT, then the rest is essays. On your essays, I recommend to just be yourself, sometimes painfully honest and sometimes like a quirky nerd… I’m going to be honest with you, one of my essays was about eating pizza and playing trivia after swim practice. Had very little to do with the typical “save aftica, cure cancer, etc” where you try to sound like you belong- they can read right through that as fake and a façade-instead you have to be the genuine you and then if you belong and fit in, the AdComs will notice and you will receive an acceptance letter.
Your test scores are amazing, and I assume your GPA is good (I am not familiar with your school’s scale), but your ECs aren’t as strong as most MIT applicants. You might want to strengthen ECs before applying.