Hi:
Anyone know about financial aid? for a family have 200K annual income , one kid, is there any chance to get the any financial aid from school? I am trying to find out if it worth to apply the fin aid? Thanks!
I wanted to correct my earlier statements regarding 4-5 student interviews back to back with MIT alumni. It was 3 students back to back. Overall 4-5 students from her high school and the other 2-3 students had interviews earlier. So those 2-3 interviews impact shouldn’t matter on how well interview can stay focused. I misunderstood my D. My apologies for any confusion. Also Stanford alumni has very similar background like MIT alumni and age group. Bio-Chemistry/Biology major and currently doing PHD and out of Stanford 4-5 years back. One obvious difference was Stanford alumni was She, while MIT alumni was He.
On a different note, my D had a fantastic Penn M&T alumni interview and she is super happy about how the interview went. Penn alumni is 40+ years old and is in technology industry at a C-level position. It seems he was genuinely interested what has was to doing and how she was doing and what she has to offer to Penn and what does she want from Penn.
That’s awesome 
Only one month left! A lot of my friends have also applied, so we’re all waiting together.
With minor fixes…
I wanted to correct my earlier statements regarding 4-5 student interviews back to back with MIT alumni. It was 3 students back to back. Overall 4-5 students from her high school and the other 2-3 students had interviews earlier. So those 2-3 interviews impact shouldn’t matter on how well interviewer can stay focused. I misunderstood my D. My apologies for any confusion. Also Stanford alumni has very similar background like MIT alumni and age group. Bio-Chemistry/Biology major and currently doing PHD and out of Stanford 4-5 years back. One obvious difference was Stanford alumni was She, while MIT alumni was He.
On a different note, my D had a fantastic Penn M&T alumni interview and she is super happy about how the interview went. Penn alumni is 40+ years old and is in technology industry at a C-level position. It seems he was genuinely interested what she was doing and how she was doing in high school and what she has to offer to Penn and what does she want from Penn.
Generally speaking an interview is supposed to augment the Applicants persona as portrayed in the application. Whatever the outcome of an interview is, (unless the applicant cant speak coherent english/is very rude/curses etc.) it doesnt push the applicant off either edge in decision makin’
Alum interviews are not weighted highly by any school. It would make no sense for them to be right? Validity of interviews is not strong to begin with. Now imagine what it would if hundreds of interviewers with little training are each conducing 3-10 a year. Every aspect of reliability would be low-except if there were some very salient aspects of the interview-that would be rated by everyone the same way because it is so extreme-like if the interviewee took put a joint and started to smoke it during the interview (that would be a decline).
The interviews help applicants feel there is a connection to the school-and probably elevate the probability that an accepted applicant will choose to attend. Probably more importantly, it keeps alum connected to the school-some thing that can be very valuable (donations) to the school over time.
@lostaccount Your statements augment my claims. I 100% agree with you.
I disagree, While a good interview report will NOT send an applicant to the admit pool, a bad/tepid/meh one can sink an application. For example, this from Yale: https://asc.yale.edu/samplereports
When an Admissions Officer reads an interview report like those above, it’s going to give them doubts about the merits of admitting those students over someone with a glowing interview report. If everything else in an application is terrific but the interview report, an AO may ask for the applicant to be interviewed a second time, or they may contact the GC and ask specific questions about the applicant. IMHO a good report is meaningless, but a “meh” will tend to stop an applicant from moving forward in the process.
@gibby I agree with the last aspect. I forgot to add that in. Suspicious behavior during an interview, and putting up a non-matching persona will really push the application over the wrong end.
Thanks for adding the point in.
What do you mean by “non-matching persona,” @TheGuy1? My understanding is that interviewers don’t actually see the application materials–is that true? Or are you saying that the interviewer’s report should line up with the picture of the candidate that comes through in the rest of the application?
My own concern about interviews is that extroverts have a built-in advantage. Since my own son’s a nerdy introvert, I was pleased to read in some of the Yale examples that interviewees with shy personalities sometimes still really impressed the interviewers while some with really outgoing personalities didn’t.
(As a side note, I was also pleased to see that even Yale grads/interviewers aren’t always quite as smart as they seem, as one of them used the word “enervated” to mean the opposite of what it means: “She was totally enervated by the design and implications of the experiment, and seemed eager to design new experiments that built upon what she had seen.”)
In the MIT common data set rubric for what is important for admission, interviews are in the “important” column. In that column are also GPA, test scores, application essay and recommendations. In fact the only item in the “very important” column is “character / personal qualities”.
I’m sure there is a wide range of quality in the interview reports. But so would there be in the recommendations. That is what makes the admissions officers job “fun”!!! One would think that if any one of the interview / recommendations is inconsistent with the others, that it would be held in some disregard.
I have been in engineering management and had to deal with all kinds of personalities. Introverts are quite common in engineering. As a manager, you want to get the most out of all your staff, so learning to deal with introverts is very important. You have to make them feel comfortable and give them opportunities to speak (i.e. quiet the extroverts). I would expect most interviewers would have had similar experiences. I have had very few real quiet introverts in my interviews. Some have taken a bit to really open up and start talking, but I think I’ve gotten a good idea of the person I’m dealing with in each case.
MIT ECs are graded on how useful their interview reports were to the admissions staff. We get that grade for each report we write sometime after the admittances are announced for RD.
@TwoHearted My God… it’s clear that the interview report goes to the AdCom? and they have that and your other app components to judge you on after? Im sure the tally there. This is basic logic.
I’m slightly considered about interviews being put in the “important” column. I was never asked to interview for MIT.
@LincolnsGF Well then, your interview should be waived with no negative effect on your overall app. Then ‘important’ should become ‘not considered or N/A’ since there exists none to begin with for the applicant
Hope this helps.
Do MIT decisions come out on Pi Day? I have heard in the past they have but I wasn’t sure if that was just a rumor.
Yes!
Have any internationals got an interview?
BTW, what’s the process? I think it has changed this year. I don’t see an option to contact an interviewer in my MIT Portal. Do they contact you or what?
Also, is it too late to get an interview now?
@whatsmypassword They contact you. The applicant is at no fault for not getting an interview, nor at any disadvantage. Declining the interview offer is seen badly though.
You could email the interview committee, and its still very much possible. It’s not that late. An in-person seems shifty due to the EC availability in the place, but an online one could be arranged. This depends on where you live (population/geography/returning or working alums/etc.) though.
Thanks.
Thanks for the clarification mate.
I’ll contact the office and check up if one is possible.
Nope… didn’t get any affirmative mail…
“We understand that most students would like to have an interview, but, unfortunately, we don’t have the capacity to interview every applicant. Your interview was waived and your application will not be adversely affected.“