<p>MIT has announced its schedule of regional information meetings. </p>
<p>Those meetings are cool, and they are a great opportunity to meet an MIT admission officer, possibly one of the blogging officers, and to gain information about MIT. If you're going to the meeting in my town, be sure to say hello.</p>
<p>Rats, they're not even coming anywhere NEAR me this time around. Last year they had one right down the road but now it would be a 2.5+ hours road trip.</p>
<p>:(</p>
<p>Anyways, to anyone who's on the fence about attending, these meetings are really awesome and you'll walk out even more in love with MIT. Trust me on this one (<a href="http://www.xanga.com/shmor/530448717/vanilla-pudding.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.xanga.com/shmor/530448717/vanilla-pudding.html</a>). That's my blog entry on the meeting around me last year.</p>
<p>Ann Arbor huh? what about detroit!?</p>
<p>Oh well, ducktape, at least there is someone out there courageous enough to even tour michigan in this day and age. We should be thankful for that.</p>
<p>I wonder if some of the cities missed by the fall travel will be visited during spring travel.</p>
<p>Ahh, Matt won't be doing CA anymore!?!?! Blasphemy.</p>
<p>I think all the MIT admission officers mix up every year what regions of the country they visit. So far my state has been visited by a different officer each of the last four years.</p>
<p>Why does every college that "recruits" in Maryland end up in Bethesda!</p>
<p>
[quote]
Sunday, September 9, 2007, 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Bethesda - Chevy Chase High School, Auditorium
4301 East - West Highway
Bethesda, MD 20814
Admissions Representative: Bryan Nance
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yay!</p>
<p>Hmm. As far as I can remember, Matt visited CA in 2004 and 2006. I don't know about 2005.</p>
<p>I saw Matt McGann when he visited San Jose, CA in both 2005 and 2006, so that combined w/ static's info means he's done CA from 2004-06 at least.</p>
<p>I guess California is lucky. :)</p>
<p>What are some of the questions about MIT that you will ask at the information sessions?</p>
<p>I see MIT regional information sessions </p>
<p>begin within a week, and I hope visitors to those sessions will report here on what they learned. I will try to post a visit report in this thread after the MIT representative reaches my town.</p>
<p>Matt just blogged about the MIT recruitment travel. </p>
<p>How early would you suggest kids start attending these local information sessions? Are they only for juniors and seniors?</p>
<p>There are a few younger students in attendance at these sessions, but the vast majority (of what are sometimes huge crowds) are juniors and seniors. I don't think I would encourage my child to attend much before that.</p>
<p>They are not only for juniors and seniors in response to the question about when to attend. Some of the information sessions that I attended with my eldest child took place after freshman year of high school. It is really up to each child. Sometimes hearing what colleges want early on can provide the encouragement that a student needs to carry a particular courseload while in high school. I recall one admissions officer from another top tier university lamenting the fact that students don't think about college early enough in their high school career. </p>
<p>We attended two MIT sessions - junior year and senior year. We attended another school's info sessions - after sophomore and junior year. Application/interview at said school took place senior year. There was no need to attend the info session that senior year because it had already made my child's rough cut.</p>
<p>Hi, everyone, </p>
<p>My wife and oldest son are back from the MIT information session at Sabathani Community Center in Minneapolis, presented by admission officer McGregor Crowley and several members of MIT's team of Education Counselors (ECs) (a.k.a. alumni interviewers). I am referring to their notes and to a conversation with a local friend who also attended the session for this description of what was said there. </p>
<p>Last year the information session was in a suburban location within walking distance of my home; this year it was in the heart of inner city Minneapolis, within walking distance of where I lived when I was last a student. My wife estimates there were about 180 people in attendance in the auditorium. McGregor Crowley introduced himself to the group and said he had a particular interest in applicants from low income brackets or who are the first in their families to go to college. The "take home message" is the vibrancy of MIT. </p>
<p>MIT is interdisciplinary, connecting the unconnected. The problem sets are collaborative and promote working as a team. MIT's mission is to solve problems involving energy, the environment, cancer, poverty, and education, among other issues. </p>
<p>MIT has five different schools offering a wide variety of majors. There are schools of engineering; science; management; humanities, arts, and social sciences (HASS); and architecture. MIT has classes at a variety of levels so that all students can take classes at their own level of ability. </p>
<p>The MIT motto is "mens et manus" (mind and hand). Hands-on research experiences are available at MIT through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), which can be paid, volunteer, or for course credit. A majority of MIT students participate in UROPs. </p>
<p>MIT has many student organizations. [Those are enumerated by category in the handouts from the session.] </p>
<p>In your application, make it fun to read for the admission officers by talking about your passion. Students sometimes design their own research projects, so take student interests seriously. Include information in your application about your activities and how you achieve balance in your life. Set up an interview: it's a chance to talk about your life, about you, and about your goals. You will need letters of recommendation from a math or science teacher and from a humanities teacher. You will also need a guidance counselor letter. </p>
<p>You will need test scores from the SAT I with writing or the ACT with writing, and two SAT Subject Test scores from one of the two mathematics tests and one science test. SAT scores of 600 or higher are sufficient--"We have never made a decision based on test scores [alone]." </p>
<p>MIT offers a nonbinding early action admission option. </p>
<p>MIT is looking for young people who </p>
<p>1) have a sense of mission who want to do something, </p>
<p>2) have perseverance to take an idea and work on it, </p>
<p>3) have a collaborative spirit for helping others, </p>
<p>4) have initiative and curiosity, </p>
<p>5) are risk-taking, resulting in taking hard classes, (Many MIT students are solid B students who take the hardest classes they could.) </p>
<p>6) are hands-on doers, </p>
<p>7) have character, who have an obligation in life such as baby-sitting, </p>
<p>8) have balance. </p>
<p>After the main talk the local educational counselors (ECs) who attended the meeting introduced themselves. Most typically interview students from the same group of high schools each year, becoming familiar with those schools. They advised making your application memorable, using anecdotes rather than adjectives. Tell your story. One of the ECs, in one-on-one conversation with my wife while serving juice after the meeting, said that it's a good idea for a student to ask adults who know the student, "What do you notice about me?" Many times students are too casual about activities they do that make the adults who know them go "wow," so it is important for the student to get a sense of what activities make each student unique. </p>
<p>In the United States as a whole, about one applicant out of every six or seven will be admitted. The base acceptance rate is higher for Minnesota applicants. The ECs said there is no significant difference in acceptance rate between early action application and regular action application. </p>
<p>Someone asked about transfer admission, and the reply was that odds for transfer admission are very poor indeed. One transfer applicant who was successful recently was an International Mathematical Olympiad gold medalist who didn't find a good fit in his first college.</p>
<p>Has anyone else gone to one of these meetings?</p>
<p>yup!! this sunday ! the one with Matt McGann in San Jose! ( Too bad he didn't decide to visit my school this year. He did visit a nearby private school)
There were a LOT of people. It was a great presentation. However, since there were soo many people I didn't really get to talk to the alumni as I have for the Caltech one. they were all ECs and were surrounded by people trying to set up for interviews. They didn't really get to talk about their experience at MIT, which I was kind of disappointed .</p>