MIT Class of 2023 Discussion/Decisions

@rajam how is it possible that your D got a full ride to Santa Clara? They don’t even notify semifinalists until March…

@Schuh07 and others: I’ll be starting a new thread about interviews for deferred students.

I got accepted and I CANNOT BELIEVE ANYTHING THAT IS HAPPENING!! This is so surreal, and I only just woke up enough to post it! Congrats to everyone who got in early and good luck to all future applicants!!!

What sport?

@MITChris Hi ! My D’s optional reco evaluator isn’t able to get the recommendation link that she assigned. He says he can send the reco to ask@mitadmissions.org. (He said he has done that before). Can u pls tell me if that’s acceptable? Thanks so much!

Hey Guys. So I looked up on last year MIT forums and saw that application had to be submitted before 10th December for Interviews (for International). So I did it.

But now, I have gotten a few very significant awards and published a few research papers as well. Would it be fine to put it in the February Update? I mean, how will I prove it to them? Will they ever doubt my claims?

Also, will I get an interview after I put forth my February Update form?

Anyone has any idea when MIT provide financial aid estimates to the EA admitted students? What is estimated cost where parents earning 100 to 120 k with limited assets

@saadpk67 when I went for MIT visit, they said for income above $90K, expect to pay 10% of income. I am curious to see what you will receive if you can share it.

We received financial aid info already - 1-2 weeks ago. It was no surprise. Based on FASFA our EFC was 6 digits (!) and we will receive no aid. Determining need is more complicated than just 10% of income (our income is nowhere near the number needed for 10% to cover the COA), so I think that comment is a bit of an oversimplification.

We were notified by email to my daughter that the information was available and the info was in her admissions portal.

Any Indians applying?

I applied to MIT regular decision in late December. I live in Los Angeles, California. I still have not gotten an interview request. Is this normal?

@LincolnsGF ya. I didn’t get an interview from Yale, Princeton, or Columbia and I’m in Orange County

@compSciLover I got interviews from Princeton and Yale. But I also didn’t get one from Columbia :-?

@LincolnsGF oh well. I think the interview system is random cuz I sent my Stanford, MIT, and Harvard apps in way before the deadline and I got interviews but I sent the rest in on the day of and I didn’t. They say not getting an interview doesn’t hurt your chances so we should be fine. Best of luck to you with your applications!

In previous years MIT applicants would initiate contact with their assigned EC for an interview. The student was provided the ECs contact info and did not need to have their application completed before setting up the interview.

The system changed this year in that the EC initiated contact once the application was complete. Those that got their applications in at or near the deadline caused a log jam of interviews that needed to be done in a short window. For the EA cycle I was swamped at the last minute and did two interviews some days. I am retired so I had time to do so. Not every EC has that much time.

I used to have a coffee mug that said “A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part”. Not directly applicable here but you get the message.

I have a question on the weight of alumni interviews in decision making… My D was interviewed along with 4/5 students from her high school by an alumni who graduated recently (last 4-5 years). It seems interviews were scheduled back to back with those 4 or 5. Interviewing alumni member was majoring in Biology and my D wants to do Engineering and Business. He is a video gamer, my D is nature and national parks and Harry Potter. Needless to say, not much common topics. My D felt interviewer didn’t seem much interest in the topics or conversation. A week prior she was interviewed by Stanford alumni where she really enjoyed the conversation. So with that context, please help me understand how important is MIT alumni interviews…, much appreciated.

Hard to say exactly how much the interview plays a part in admissions. In the materials for the ECs, MIT says the interview is “invaluable”. That would mean it does carry some weight.

The purpose of the interview is to put a human face on MIT, gather information on the applicant’s personal qualities and offer guidance and reassurance to the student. I think of it as trying to answer the question as to what kind of person do we have here. So, it doesn’t matter that much if there was a difference in major. But the EC should have shown an interest in what the student had to say.

Until this year, I was always able to do only ne interview a day with several days between interviews. With the new system I had to do 2 in one day twice and a couple were back to back days. 4 or 5 in one day sounds too many to me.

@HPuck35 Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Yes, I also felt 4/5 interviews back to back is lot and I hear all of the 4-5 are from the same school. It may be unfair for the interviewer to genuinely stay focused and interested that long on kids from same school and probably talking similar stories/clubs. That is the reason I was wondering how MIT values these interviews…

Whoever is on the committee reads our interview reports (we’re graded on our communication and on our insights) – so the interviews are not a perfunctory checkbox. I try to shoot for 1.5 hours (+/-, can go up to 2 hours), I probably spend an hour on the report. I am also available after the interview to answer any questions via email.

MIT (in their Common Data Set) reports that the interviews are “important” (ref: http://ir.mit.edu/common-data-set-2018 ), along with a lot of other things.

I generally try to raise up things that aren’t easily communicated in short essays and in the applicant’s letters of recommendations, and I try to weave it into a narrative, a story.

It is fine if someone doesn’t share a lot of similarities with me. I have run into very different people (some applicants have had broken families, most have parents still married, one’s dad abandoned his family, some are first-generation immigrants, some are very well-off, others are not, most know what major or majors most interest them – and usually different than mine).

What I do believe MIT is interested in are various red flags (e.g., no social skills, no passion, no extracurriculars, no curiosity, no study skills despite decent grades, did not do research to see whether MIT was really a fit, etc.) which I happily raise up if I run into these. Fortunately I have only mentioned the lack of study skills once. In addition, MIT is very interested in fit. They have a page dedicated to it. They’re very transparent with this.

I also encourage questions and answer them as much as possible (e.g., how does financial aid work? what kind of person would love/hate MIT? Why does MIT have the unofficial acronym IHTFP? etc.)

@agapetos Thank you very much for your detailed inputs!! I should have looked at the Common data set as that had the answer on Interview importance.