<p>Upon reviewing the MIT CDS I noticed that the only category marked “Very Important” in section C7 is “Character/personal qualities”.</p>
<p>With that in mind, my question concerns how much effort is made (by MIT admissions) to flag potential character issues, and whether inauthenticity is even considered a flaw in character for admissions purposes. The question stems from my time on CC and the inescapable impression I have gotten that many of the most accomplished high school students put as much effort into ‘gaming’ their college applications as they do their actual studies. With that introduction out of the way, here is my question…</p>
<p>Do you try to identify, and thus devalue for the sake of admissions, applicants whose passion(s) are manufactured simply for appearances (either by choice or parental fiat)? If so, how?</p>
<p>I mean in your application you can feel free to mention (in an essay or supplemental section) that you told me about it on CC. Oftentimes folks who aren’t as tech-savvy will give me apps of developers etc to read anyway :)</p>
<p>If comparing to US students SAT data published in MIT’s website is useless for us international students, then how can we know what scores/GPA/accomplishments make our applications competitive for the international pool?</p>
<p>^I would argue that the SAT data published on MIT’s website is useless for just about everyone, unless their SAT scores are very low (which doesn’t describe very much of the applicant pool).</p>
<p>You can certainly look through the CC stats threads for international admits.</p>
<p>I have a few questions;
1, if i was in a summer program at mit, would that give much help in admissions.
2, if i was moved into ap calculus in march(and got a 4) would that be just as weighted as a 5 if tere from the start?
3, is a 33 on the math ok? My friends are telling me 800 is unwritten rule but he had. A 2030 second time. I had 2020 but 50 less in math first time.( he had 790) </p>
<p>If my comparisons seem abstract, they are made since he was accepted for fall of 2011 ed</p>
<p>I guess they do (emanate) sometimes, maybe in the essays and teacher recommendations. </p>
<p>We tell kids to be themselves but they sense thats a bunch of boloney. Just look around CC, they dont believe us. Why? Because they see kids from their schools getting accepted and rejected and they can figure out the difference. The prestige obsessed kids (and the kids of prestige obsessed parents) seem to make up the vast majority of non-hooked admittances at highly selective schools. Why? Because they become the most accomplished. I’m not sure this perception is that far off the mark.</p>
<p>There are more brilliant kids out there than there are spots at these colleges, and the colleges themselves will obviously take in the most accomplished applicants. I understand that. The whole thing is just a little discomforting, that’s all. There is a very strong urge to put your kid on the bandwagon.</p>
<p>How much do you (admissions) know about web development and design ?
For instance, if an applicant designs a major website for a company hand coding
rather than using an editor or software-generated code .
I mean, the difference is huge; sometimes hundreds of hours, as in my case, not to mention skill involved.</p>
<p>Thanks Chris.<br>
One more thing. If a program that I wrote, say a game bot for a MMORPG, shows of advanced knowledge, but is technically unethical, should I send the code/program for MIT to evaluate?
I mean, it’s pretty cool stuff, just not really something that game makers want people to have.
I’m asking hypothetically, of course…</p>
<p>Weighted GPA is calculated based on “weightining” of classes. So lets say you have two classes. 4 hours of Math and your grade is 4.0. 2 hours of Physics and your grade is 3.0.
In unweighted system, its simply the arithmetic average, (4+3)/2, so your unweighted GPA is 3.5.
In weighted system, you multiply each grade by the class’ hour and then take the arithmetic average. So ((4<em>4)+(3</em>2))/(4+2), so you weighted GPA is 3.66. The weighting system may change from school to school, I believe. One may favor the hours, other one may favor another criteria(like rigor of the course).</p>
<p>ROTC is in almost every single US university and it isn’t unique to MIT, so its rules doesn’t depend on MIT(if thats what you meant by MIT ROTC?). ROTC requires applicants to be either US citizens or Permanent Residents, that are going to apply for citizenship when their time comes. With a non-imigrant visa, I do NOT believe that you are eligible for applying to the ROTC program. But, I have heard of cases where people were able to join for 2 years(starting from freshman year), and then adjust their status(become a permanent resident) and be able to continue. However I do NOT know whatever if that was a previous protocol or still in effect. Your best chance is to actually CALL the ROTC office in MIT to learn the exact policy.</p>
<p>If you are thinking about applying to ROTC due to financial support, MIT Financial Aid is already very generous for both domestic and int’l applicants. As I understand, the basic policy for FA is, whatever you can pay, you pay, the rest is covered by the Financial Aid. Of course, you must note that what you calculate as “you and your parents contribution” may differ from what MIT Student Financial Services will calculate. It covers more than just the tuition.</p>
<p>Will it be looked upon negatively if our involvement in mathematics and science has not been as strong as our involvement in another academic field?</p>
<p>Weighted vs unweighted actually has a different meaning. The second equation is correct for unweighted GPA that Phoestre provided which results in a 3.66 average. However that is how GPAs are calculated.</p>
<p>Weighted GPA works differently in high schools. In the same example, let us say the Physics class is an AP class and the school awards a bonus GPA point for an AP class. So the GPA for that class alone is (3+1)<em>2 = 8. So the weighted GPA is ((4</em>4)+(3+1)<em>2))/(4+2) which is 4.0. If both were AP classes, then the weighted GPA is (((4+1)</em>4)+(3+1)*2))/(4+2) = 4.66.</p>
<p>So essentially the reward from tougher classes raises your GPA much higher than 4.0.</p>