<p>I does seem kinda like a pointless question, but do supplemental materials really help?
How many people submit supplemental things?</p>
<p>It depends totally on you! If you feel that your supplemental materials will help in shaping up the real you much more clearly, by all means send them ... but sending material for the sake of it is not good at all. Many people do not send anything at all and get in, and many who send in a lot don't ... so you get the point, don't you??</p>
<p>There is no available data on the number of applicants who send supplemental material, nor on the acceptance rate of applicants who send supplemental material vs. those who don't.</p>
<p>My feeling is that sending material which presents a more complete picture of you as an applicant and as a person is helpful. Sending supplemental material by itself, without regard to the story it's telling, is not. Quality, not quantity.</p>
<p>I participated in a research project over the summer with a few other high school students and we were all authors on a technical paper. Could I send that as supplementary material even though I am not the sole author?</p>
<p>I think that would be fine, eire, as long as you don't claim sole authorship =).</p>
<p>Quality, not quantity!
Ahaha
I get it. Thanks.</p>
<p>about recommendations... When asking for recs do i give my teacher just an envelope with mit's address stamped and with my return address so they know it from me? Is that it?</p>
<p>
You can absolutely send the paper, although it may be more useful to discuss the research in the application somewhere else and/or send just the abstract. Matt says:</a>
[quote=Matt McGann] I think research papers are best talked about in the completely optional essay ("about something that you have created") or in an extra recommendation from your research mentor. It is unlikely that if you submit a complete research paper that we will be able to have it properly evaluated during our process. We'll be most interested in your research experience: how you got interested in the field, how you acquired your research opportunity, your results, what you learned, how this experience influences your future plans, etc.
</p>
<p>
It can be helpful to your teachers to provide them with a little bit of information about you before they write their letters. Check out CalAlum (MIT mom '11)'s great post [url=<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060887888-post3.html%5Dhere%5B/url">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060887888-post3.html]here[/url</a>].</p>
<p>As long as you have your full name and date of birth on every piece of the application, MIT will know it's from you.</p>
<p>Can the interviewer ask technical, scientific questions? "Like: Applying to MIT eh? Haha! Prove the theory of relativity using Euclidean geometry on the tissue paper!" Sorry, if that was not funny at all ... but you get what I mean, don't you?</p>
<p>They shouldn't ask any technical questions. But I'm wondering if they just let you talk, or will they question your ideas, like "how do you know you want to be an engineer if you've never engineered something?"</p>
<p>Each EC has a different approach to interviewing. </p>
<p>I haven't heard of anyone asking technical questions in interviews (except maybe out of interest in research you've done or something you've built, perhaps), although an EC could very well ask you to defend your thoughts and ideas. Interviews don't tend to be a very confrontational experience, overall. ECs are not trying to be adversarial.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot!</p>
<p>Three questions:
1. What kind of information to ECs pass on to admissions officers? Do they just say something like "good match, hard-working, smart, etc." or would they include specific information like "his/her experience working in a research lab was very impressive." Basically, do they include specific info that may not have fit into the application?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>For those who have gotten in to MIT and thought your essay wasn't too great: what else do you think made you get in? Is it possible to stand out from 10,000+ applicants when your essay isn't very special (not necessarily terrible)?</p></li>
<li><p>Are there any statistics for how many non-internationals had interviews, and of those how many were accepted? I'm interested to know if over 90% of the applicants are very serious and competitive (great academics and extracurriculars), or if it is maybe only half.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I'll leave it to Mikalye or one of the other ECs around here to write a fuller description, but the ECs do write a detailed, specific report to the admissions office.</p>
<p>Ben Jones, who used to be an admissions officer (and post here on CC), always gave the ballpark figure that about 70% of applicants were qualified according to MIT's criteria. I've never seen interview acceptance percentages broken down by domestic or international, but MIT says that 15% of those who interview (or have the interview waived) are accepted vs. 5% of those who don't interview.</p>
<p>@dean5150 : Instead of trying to create a thesis on stats of acceptances, etc, better concentrate on your app and interview. Prepare urself better. Forget about who got in and who didn't. Make sure u do. (No hard feelings)</p>
<p>
[quote]
1. What kind of information to ECs pass on to admissions officers? Do they just say something like "good match, hard-working, smart, etc." or would they include specific information like "his/her experience working in a research lab was very impressive." Basically, do they include specific info that may not have fit into the application?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Basically we write an interview report in the form of an essay. Mileage will vary but I usually write some 1500 words per candidate, which is enough room to get into specifics. Frankly statements like "hard-working, smart" are almost totally useless, particularly given that in the interview, I cannot really access how hard-working you are. If I want to say ""his/her experience working in a research lab was very impressive," then I better be prepared to explain why I thought it was impressive, what was impressive about it, and why.</p>
<p>Basically, the EC is there to identify those things that aren't going to show up elsewhere on the application. Therefore, I am not going to ask about test scores or classroom performance as I am pretty darned sure that that is covered elsewhere on the application. </p>
<p>Occasionally, and very rarely, a strongly negative interview reports is based on a problem that is obvious at interview but not on paper. For example, consider a hypothetical candidate who seems to have never encountered soap. Someone who has strong personal hygiene problems is unlikely to work well with others in the collaborative learning environment that MIT fosters. That does not auger well for success at MIT, and it may well not show up elsewhere on the application. Another such example would be trouble understanding spoken English.</p>
<p>The opposite can occur as well. As an international EC, I encounter candidates who are not sure how to present themselves on paper for a US university (different standards apply in different countries), including one a few years back, who left off some very impressive achievements, as "it would be wrong to brag". I convinced them that a US university application was exactly the right environment in which to brag, and got them to send proof of those accomplishments as a supplemental submission, while I warned the admissions office that these were coming and why.</p>
<p>There isn't really a formula. Every interview is different. Every interview report is different. I usually spend about an hour in the interview, and about three hours on the report, but of course, your mileage may vary.</p>
<p>Mikalye, thanks so much for your response. Judging by how much time it sounds like goes into the interviews, I should probably try to schedule it soon, since I will try to apply EA. My only concern would be that I wouldn't get to talk about some things that I will be doing early in my senior year. I suppose it wouldn't necessarily help me in an interview to say "I'm going to be working on this project soon" when I don't even have too many specific details (but it might fit on my application or as a supplement).</p>
<p>For the supplemental recommendation, just my name and DOB at the top corner of the page would do, right? Should I mail it to the admissions office or fax? Or perhaps scan it and send it via email? And should the recommender put in personal contact details too?</p>
<p>That information is nothing if not covered on the application instructions. Mailing and fax are both appropriate, though either one should be done by the recommender. E-mail is never normally used, though I actually did it for one of my non-supplementary recommendations because it was apparently lost in the mail and the admissions office asked me to e-mail a scanned copy. As it stands, e-mail is basically the last resort.</p>
<p>Just don't forget that you're not supposed to view your recommendations. If you're the one taking action with faxing and the scanning, your view waiver is likely being compromised.</p>
<p>S had one supp rec sent in directly by a a prof; the other one gave S sealed/signed envelopes which S sent in along with other printed materials with his app. Note: This is not to say you should send in multiple supp recs. He had two that spoke to significant experiences that happened outside of the classroom -- one which resulted in dramatic personal growth, and the other one about his research.</p>
<p>S saw his research mentor's rec after the admissions process was over -- it was short, sweet and gave specific, detailed examples of how S made his mark. For example, the mentor discussed S's understanding of the field by describing the independent work S had done prior to beginning work w/the mentor, the types of papers the mentor had S read, and the methods by which he (the mentor) had S demonstrate his understanding of that material, and concluded by desctribing how S compared to his PhD students. The entire letter was about 3/4 of a page, but it was a perfect example of "show, not tell." He has never seen the other three letters.</p>
<p>S had his MIT interview at an area bookstore. The EC saw several folks that afternoon. She talked to S mainly about his other ECs, not the ones which an applicant might assume would be the object of MIT's interests. This particular EC was brought up at almost every interview he had -- we concluded that it was an unusual EC for someone of S's specific interests.</p>
<p>No questions about test scores, grades, APs or awards.</p>