MIT Grad School Admissions Question

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<p>Hello,</p>

<p>My name is Ryan and I will be a sophomore undergrad in chemical engineering this coming fall. Everyone tells me that I'm on track to get into MIT Grad for ChemE, but I'm hoping that someone with some experience with MIT admissions might be able shoot straight with me and let me know if I have a chance.</p>

<p>My GPA is a 3.84, but I am going to be doing everything I possibly can to bring it up >3.90 so that I can graduate Summa Cum Laude. I have already taken a teaching assistantship position starting this fall. It is for an introductory engineering seminar (will have a rec letter from the prof.). I am the recruitment officer for AIChE and am more than likely in line to be the President. The faculty advisor for AIChE is an MIT PhD, and I should be able to do some undergrad research for him in a couple semesters (also to get a rec letter from him). I am going to have a tutoring position in the math department (Calc I-III for now). And starting junior year I will begin starting an Omega Chi Epsilon chapter at my school. I have a few other projects (math competitions, engineering expos, etc.) up my sleeve, but these are sure to be on my resume.</p>

<p>The problem is that I'm attending the University of Illinois at Chicago. Barring consideration of standardized scores and the rankings of my undergrad college, what are my chances of getting into MIT?</p>

<p>Also, I will be applying for the AMGEN-UROP program at MIT and other schools. This should help me to do research for more renowned faculty. What are my chances of being accepted into this program? Will it help my chances, and if so by how much?</p>

<p>Thanks for all the help,
-Ryan</p>

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<p>It will help a lot. I know a guy with a 3.9/4.0 GPA from U. of Michigan chem E. He did research in that program for the summer before senior year. His advisor, a chem E prof, told him that he could come back and work for him as a grad student. This was before he applied. Of course, U. of Michigan’s chem E program is a little more reputable than UIC, but still you can see that doing research helped a lot.</p>

<p>They won’t care about your AICHe involvement really. Go ahead and do it, but just know that this isn’t like undergrad admissions. It’s all grades and research. Absolutely keep your grades perfect, especially in engineering classes. You need to be obviously the best student coming out of your program.</p>