<p>Would all B’s (on all years except senior) on a very rigorous math curriculum affect my chances? I’m international, so we don’t have separate courses for each math field or whatnot - and we don’t have AP’s. This year we covered everything from limits to derivatives/antiderivatives, functions, trigonometry (way past the basics), space geometry, and much, much more. There’s very few A’s on the whole. I would say somewhere beneath 10 students (like 7 or 8) in a grade of 160 students.</p>
<p>Till my sophomore year, I used to play a lot of soccer. But I didn’t play on any varsity team, I played on the streets and on the fields mostly with my neighborhood boys. Will this qualify as an extracurricular activity? I know that this will not improve my chances should I even bother to mention this? I only played for fun, not for impressing adcoms 
.</p>
<p>Is it possible to schedule an on-campus interview?</p>
<p>
It certainly could, though it depends, as always, on the content of the rest of your application. You can check out the results threads from the past few years, which are stickied at the top of the forum, to see what types of international students have gotten into MIT in recent years.</p>
<p>
Anything you do outside of school is an extracurricular activity, and if it’s important to you, you can write it on the application. The trick is to put your application together in such a way that all the things that are important to you make a cohesive whole.</p>
<p>
No, all of MIT’s interviews are done by Educational Counselors (ECs), alums who interview applicants in their home areas.</p>
<p>I have an interesting recommendation letter question. You say no one from Middle School but in my school district middle school is 7-9 and high school is 10-12(physically, not on paper). I would like to ask my ninth grade English teacher who I had a great relationship with. We still talk quite often and she shows a side of me that none of my high school teachers have seen. Would it be acceptable to ask her?</p>
<p>Also, when it comes to extracurriculars there is a noticeable difference(I went from 10-20 hrs of Theater a week to 20-30hrs of Robotics a week, it was a transfer to a school that wasn’t the one my middle school poured into, so new people, new interests) between 9th and 10th grade. Is this an acceptable thing to note, or will it be obvious through the GC’s letter? </p>
<p>Thanks in advance for answering any questions. The name molliebatmit seems to have become synonymous with helpful answers/advice.</p>
<p>^ Given that most high schools are 9-12, my guess is that that would be completely acceptable. I would ask Admissions just to be sure, but my guess is that it would be fine.</p>
<p>^My high school is also 10-12 only, 9 is excluded. </p>
<p>My question is, does MIT still need to see my 9th grade grades? I’m an international.</p>
<p>I’m 100% sure they will need to see those grades as it is part of high school. Although there are certain schools that will disregard those grades. I think Princeton is the big one I know of.</p>
<p>It kind of stinks though because 9th grade in our district isn’t taken seriously and you are only able to take the classes the middle school has. I hope this falls into the “context” bit that adcoms are always talking about.</p>
<p>Luckily they are changing it this year so we’ll be the first class of seniors to have new Sophomores AND Freshman.</p>
<p>I have a question about SAT II’s. Two are required, but does that mean having more than two will increase your chances? Also, is it important to diversify your subject tests, because I only have Math and Chemistry. Like should I take humanities subject tests, or will it not matter?</p>
<p>^ so long as you have the math + science required by MIT, any other SAT II’s you send can be anything (i.e. no, diversification will neither significantly hurt nor help). Sending more doesn’t necessarily increase your chances (especially if the scores are comparable to your required two). I sent in Math II (650), Biology (730), Physics (640), and Chinese (730).</p>
<p>^Mind if I ask for the rest of your stats? I just noted you got accepted and your stats seemed a bit (forgive me) below-par for MIT.</p>
<p>^ Two of those scores meet the 700 mark, so those two were probably considered by Admissions. (I’m not certain Admissions takes the top two SAT II’s, but it seems possible - and I’m sure they do something much like it.)</p>
<p>^They require Math and Science SAT II.
The math doesn’t cross the 700 and the Bio at 730, while it falls into the middle 50% of acceptees’ statistics, still seems a bit low. I think the science SAT II is 750 = golden rather than 700 = golden.</p>
<p>Ah, right, the math. But as you said, it falls into the middle 50%, so I don’t know why you consider it “below-par for MIT”. It certainly may be low for your expectations of MIT, but the numbers say it fits.</p>
<p>What’s your reasoning for thinking 750 instead of 700?</p>
<p>The Math II isn’t in the middle 50%, that’s the science. I think the middle 50 for the math is like 720-800 but I might be wrong. At any rate the lower end is definitely above 700 and the higher end is definitely 800.</p>
<p>My reasoning is the percentages. The SAT II has such a lenient curve that I think 700 is like the 70th percentile, which, by MIT’s standards, should be a bit below par. I’ve read what Chris has written though, and a 750 and an 800 on Math II makes literally no difference. I’m not sure as to the difference between a 700 and 800, and it’s probably not THAT huge, but still.</p>
<p>Ah, I see. In any case, a small blemish on an otherwise strong application is not going to keep someone out of MIT :)</p>
<p>I haven’t heard Admissions say anything about needing 750+ on SAT II. I’ve only heard them say they stop caring after 700+ for SAT’s because their success model doesn’t change much after that. I’m uncertain if that only applies to the SAT I, but would think they would’ve mentioned if their SAT II cutoffs were different. </p>
<p>I could’ve missed it, though, and would welcome anyone pointing out where they did say this. But until then, I’m going to trust information that came straight out of the horse’s mouth :)</p>
<p>
I’m one of those examples to which people point when they say, “It’s not all about the numbers.” 
A few of my other stats:</p>
<p>Asian-American female
SAT: 2210 (690 CR, 720 M, 800 W)
ACT: didn’t take
GPA: 5.35/6.00 W, 4.00 UW
Rank: 4/497
Reported APs:
- World History 4
- Eng. Language 5
- French Language 3
- Eng. Literature 5
- Macroeconomics 4
- US Government 3
- Biology 5
- French Literature 4
- CompSci A 5
School: non-competitive, lame public high school in Cedar Park, TX (effectively Austin)
Extracurriculars: I run an international singing organization, dance for 10 years, theatre, NHS (gag me with a spoon), Key Club, some other stuff I don’t remember
Recs: glorious (I asked my research mentor and my econ teacher to write them)
Essays: one about physics, one about how life is a masquerade
Awards/honours: science research all four years, winning first or second at regionals + state each year; Intel ISEF 2008 (eventually 2nd in category, although I couldn’t have known this at time of application)
Proposed major at time of application: course 6 (I am now a 14/15)
Umm… anything else you wanna know?</p>
<p>^ Ah no thanks that’s it Your EC’s and research/recs/essay/awards must’ve done it. Your GPA and class rank are excellent anyway, it’s just your SAT’s that are slightly low, and even then they’re still excellent and all clear the 700 mark except the Math II and CR (but a 690 on that is practically a 700 so that doesn’t count.) As PiperXP said, it’s just one blemish on an otherwise excellent application 
Congrats on the acceptance
By the way, just so it doesn’t seem like I was belittling you or something (I really wasn’t) I was just curious to know.</p>
<p>Nah, no worries about it =) Glad to help!</p>
<p>Since you guys offered, could you tell me the essay-questions of MIT’s application from last year, please?</p>