MIT grad admissions: what are my chances?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi guys, I sent in my application for MIT's Technology & Public Policy Masters in Dec '11. I have recently received the email that my application is under review and decisions will be conveyed late Feb. But the waiting is <em>killing</em> me. I'd like to know (even if it's bad news) what my chances of getting in are.</p>

<p>(FYI the officer said the particular program had an odds of 1 in 4 applications being successful)</p>

<p>Ok here's my list:
- Engineering with GPA (3.79/5): a little about this. While it's low grades, I have overloaded and done more modules than required for graduation in subjects I'm interested in, to the extent that I'm 10 credits below double degree (5yrs) requirements in just 4 years.
- a Minor in Entrepreneurship (with a startup as well)
- 88 percentile for GREs (new test) but only 4.0 for AW
- Band 9 (highest) for IELTS
- Almost 2 years worth of research experience in various labs (materials science, synthetic biology, nanoparticle synthesis etc)
- Got a gold medal for the synthetic biology research (as a team) at MIT itself
- managed to get an internship at P&G in Paris (6 months) and that was in a different field altogether (HR consulting)
- my essays have good reviews
- I asked for 4 LORs... but I think 2 of them are what you would call "good" in this forum but not outstanding. The other 2 are favourable.
- bucketload of ECs, like organizing TED-like events, MUN, debates, essays & business idea competitions etc</p>

<p>I hope I conveyed my passion in my SOP so this is really what I want to do.</p>

<p>What are my chances? I'll sleep better if I just knew.</p>

<p>PS: I posted wrongly at What are my chances? sub-forum but I guess that is mainly for undergrad admissions?</p>

2

<p>People don’t really answer chances threads here in the grad forums. Likely because it is so uncertain and dependent on so many factors. 1 in 4 is a high rate though, assuming one is qualified. How about you let us know how it went, since you will get an answer so soon, we don’ have to guess? Good luck, I hope you applied to other programs as well.</p>

3

<p>I asked my professor about grad school today, and he told me that I would have ~25% chance of being admitted to a given top20 school. So if I apply to a couple of top programs, I have a decent chance of getting in.</p>

<p>I told him my GPA was only 3.5, and he tells me research, LORs, and research match are a lot more important. GRE verbal isn’t important, or accurate for that matter because Chinese and Indians are not better than Americans in English. Average writing is 4.5 or so, and 5.5 is outstanding. I’m assuming you’re engineering? talk to your professor, if you haven’t already.</p>

<p>btw. your MIT contest/gold metal thing probably gave you some positive exposure. </p>

<p>And please do post the results. It helps us young, nervous people who are applying this coming year.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for replying :slight_smile: the results are not out yet but they’ll come in any day now. I’ll be sure to post it if I hear anything. Thanks for the moral support.</p>

5

<p>I’ve heard people say GRE verbal isn’t important, but I’m not so sure of that now. If you’re applying to science/engineering almost everyone has around a perfect quant score, so it may be they use the verbal to help distinguish. I’m getting that feeling based off of a comment one of the chemE MIT profs made to me. Writing I think doesn’t matter too much as long as it’s not too low… 4.0 is kind of walking the line imo</p>

6

<p>Which GRE section matters most depends heavily on your intended program. Writing/analysis-heavy fields such as the social sciences consider the verbal significantly more important, and really don’t care about the quant.</p>