Hi not sure what you mean by proper level. Our school weighs UC approved community college classes the same as AP classes. That’s where that GPA comes from. I know every college has their own way of doing things so you are right, it could look different everywhere.
8 APs is fine. Our local public school gets one or more students accepted to MIT every year with that many APs and far fewer (sometimes zero) dual enrollment classes.
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No he is trying for the the full scholarships through the schools (like Chancellors at Pitt).
We have researched Arizona but unfortunately too expensive even with the scholarships.
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4.0/4.6 means the student has straight As with a ton of AP/honor classes. This is exactly what highly selective schools are looking for.
I think the student has the academic prereqs to apply. The extracurriculars are decent, especially with the leadership. But with 4% acceptance rate, the odds are extraordinary low for acceptance even with this profile. If he is interested in MIT, he should definitely apply.
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sent PM
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You should look at Bama with the Presidential Elite.
It’s auto so your 4.0/36 get you the four years tuition, one year housing and annual subsidy.
It’s nice to have in the back pocket as the other ones you are looking at require an application.
When you want a price point - and I don’t know what that is - there are trade offs.
Not saying it’s where you’d end up but it’s a nice to have in the back pocket.
There may be others but an auto merit gives you that safety whereas a competitive merit is still a nail biter til the last minute.
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MIT has a really detailed “What we look for” page you should check out:
If your S24 thinks that sounds like him, I’d give it a shot.
If not, that’s fine too.
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They need to excel in those many AP’s.
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it does? wouldn’t it mean 4.0 out of a possible 4.6?
I read the GPA as UW 4.0, Weighted 4.6, but perhaps OP could clarify.
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That’s how I read it too, straight A’s in all classes.
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It is 4.0UW or 4.6W not 4.0 out of 4.6
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I also read it as 4.0 uw, 4.6 w.
Yes, that appears to be the case per a different thread by OP: College list thoughts for "average excellent" S24 [$11k parent contribution, 4.0 GPA, 36 ACT]
Sorry to be confusing.
Yes, it is unweighted 4.0 (straight As)
Weighted 4.6 (according to school calculations which give an extra point for APs and UC approved community college courses)
I know that every college will calculate weighted differently
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So, from the “What We Look For” link, a couple of observations.
The ability to prioritize balance
Despite what you may have heard, this place is NOT all about work. To be successful here, you must prioritize some measure of downtime. Therefore, we like to see that you’ve prioritized some downtime in high school as well. Our application’s essay question (Tell us about something you do simply for the pleasure of it.) is not a trick question. Answer it honestly.
Is MIT suggesting that managing balance at MIT is a challenge in the face of the proverbial firehose of learning and they want students with evidence of past balance? Is this a bit of a contradiction from MIT’s firehose reputation, or does it follow naturally that they want a student who can ultimately do it all (firehose plus time for balanced activities, i.e. probably no sleep)? Might they mean they are looking for a student who can forcibly adjust the firehose nozzle down to their preferred volume and velocity? Hope you all understand what I am trying to get at.
One other observation, the second-last item listed is character and I noticed in the CDS that has the most importance among all the factors listed, which is interesting.
I read that as: MIT likes students who do more than just studying.
They want students to be able to come to campus and join groups, meet people, instead of just studying for hours/all-nighters in their dorm rooms.
MIT students are not just academically amazing, they are musicians, they are artists, they plan/organize things and get things done.
- on several blogs or videos, MIT Admissions share that they are looking for “nice people”.
People with compassion. People who will use this compassion to invent something to help others, make the world a better place, etc.
Good luck!
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So, by balance, MIT is saying it prefers students who do-it-all (academics plus immersive specific activities), vs students who balance academics with chill activities, or is that not the right framing?
At the highest level, I think MIT is trying to communicate to people they still see themselves as part of the general liberal arts tradition, which includes the idea that a residential college experience is about much more than just the classes/labs. And this feeds back into trying to discourage kids from sacrificing everything else to be what they think MIT wants, because that isn’t really what MIT wants.
But I also agree there is a subtext here which is something like, “Look, basically all the people we admit are going to be like 790/800 math folks, and conversely we are going to reject a lot of those applicants too, and you should understand that lets us be choosey about exactly which math folks we admit. And one of the ways we are going to be choosey is by picking nice math people, math people who collaborate well, math people who are also really good at reading and writing, math people who like to get their hands dirty, math people who know how to have fun, and so on. Because we can, so we will.”
And these two messages kinda work together, but what MIT is not really saying out loud here is most of the kids reading this are not going to get admitted to MIT, no matter how hard they work or what else they sacrifice, so they should not be ruining their childhoods by trying.
So yeah, I kinda think they are saying they want the math kids who can do it all, and probably get sleep too. And if that isn’t you, don’t think you can get into MIT through sacrificing your personal development, because it won’t work.
And for that matter, perhaps their target audience is as much or more parents as kids.
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I definitely don’t think that is right as stated.
I think like most holistic review colleges, MIT is putting all the academicky things in one big bucket. The main part of that is always your actual classes. But maybe you do some activities and competitions and such that go in that bucket too.
OK, then there is an entirely different bucket that is not part of the equation intelligence + effort = value. In this bucket, kindness and the ability to collaborate is valued. In this bucket, being able to relax and just have fun is valued. In this bucket, being willing to try things you are not necessarily good at and failing is valued. This bucket isn’t about proving how smart and hard-working you are, it is about different sorts of personal virtues.
I strongly suspect MIT sees it as a huge problem that so many kids who apply to MIT, and maybe even more so their parents, do not recognize the importance of this second bucket, maybe not even its existence. To them, the kid is only doing something valuable if it shows a combination of intelligence and effort. Nothing else is valued, because they don’t think it will be impressive to MIT.
And MIT is trying desperately not to ruin all these kids’ childhoods just by existing. They really want these kids and their parents to understand this other bucket does exist, that MIT does value it, and that kids should be taking the development of that bucket of personal attributes just as seriously as the intelligence + effort bucket.
Of course all this was basically laid out in the Applying Sideways blog too. In a way, this page is just summarizing a lot of what was said there at greater length.
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Thank you for this discussion of the “Applying Sideways” triad of application virtues. I remember that blog article.
(My S has not considered MIT at all, I think due to a perception involving intensity, though thanks to this thread, I just happened to look at the site and noticed some science topics of interest presented in a thoughtful way. He is undecided for major, except for it being some sort of science, and I think that has been a stumbling block in the college process. I’m hoping we can look through MIT’s grouped offerings as ideas, evidence of the sorts of options out there for his topics of interest and then look at other schools for those things. So this entire thread has been helpful, thanks to all.)