<p>@Raith</p>
<p>Your swimming stats are pretty cool. What is the competition like on a tiny island like that? How does it compare, do you think, to larger countries?</p>
<p>Here’s another Aussie.</p>
<p>Country: Canada
Intended Course: Course 8
Number of applicants you know from your country: 100s ?</p>
<p>Indian for course 6(sigh!). Too many candidates to count!</p>
<p>@hennebou: I live in Tunisia, My dad is tunisian but my mother is lebanese ( and I was born and raised in Senegal ) so 3 nationalities :)</p>
<p>Has everyone had their interview? How’d it go?</p>
<p>I feel like the most competitive international applicant pool for MIT would be among Indians because of their cultural(?) passion in engineering.</p>
<p>I think ‘forced aspiration’ seems to describe it more. The harsh reality is that, in India, if you’re neither a doctor nor an engineer (maybe a lawyer), you’re immediately looked down upon.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say that today at least. The environment however is is STILL conducive to these three.( I am one of them, but I actually do love the field)</p>
<p>@imo404 : Nice ! You have diversity on your side too, then.
Btw, be careful, it’s really easy to get your identity from what you said…
And you should also submit your IMO 2011 score, to show how you improved it !</p>
<p>And yes, that’s the sad thing about India (and Asia, in general), pressure to succeed is very high there, so you don’t really end up doing what you love.</p>
<p>I’m applying from Asia but I’m going for Econ n politc sci studies in MIT. MIt also has strong social science programs! I don’t know why they would force children to be engineer especially. In Korea, more people are drawn to Econ and business for higher pay (although I’m passionate in Econ n politics genuinely). I’ve watched the Indian movie three idiots so I know what the forced aspiration is about. But I’m not sure how much of them would be successful as engineers.</p>
<p>In the movie girls=doctors boys=engineers were the formula for forced aspiration 
I know the remnant of cast system in India, and I understand why parents would do such. But I still don’t know why doctors and engineers are the most popular. My Chinese friend told me doctors in China are quite disenfranchised, not many people like the career. I see tons of Korean peers in my Canadian high school who are planning to major business just cuz they don’t know what to do but want to make some money. I saw most of them ending going to McGill UBC and UT</p>
<p>I love that movie!!! ‘Pursue excellence and success will most surely follow’.</p>
<p>I’m not really a fan of Ballywood movies but I love that movie too. It gained lot of Asians’ empathies, including me.</p>
<p>I am an Indian applicant to MIT for computer engineering.</p>
<p>Quite frankly, I do not have a 2300 SAT, have average grades and don’t have any International awards as such. My essays are probably decent but nothing extraordinary. I don’t have any hopes and only applied for that one in a million chance. Its like buying a lottery ticket. </p>
<p>To other applicants, I do not want to give you any false sense of hope. MIT is extremely competitive and its even worse for International students. But I personally know one guy who had a 2040 SAT and above average grades. He just started his first year at Harvard Business school.</p>
<p>So anything is possible. Apply and give in your best. Study hard for your mid year exams. Even if you don’t get in, you shouldn’t have any regrets.</p>
<p>garggaurav, I’m similar applicant too! I have high SAT, but not 2300, good grade, rec, ECs and essays but nothing extraordinary or special. I also applied MIT in a hope of winning the lottery. Let’s cling to our small hopes till the pie day. Jeez, I see so many Indian applicants to MIT in CC. I’m not sure if this is a tip of an iceberg that implies lot of Indian applicants or just doesn’t reflect the general international applicant pools.</p>
<p>Admissions officers should read all theses post to know who really loves their school and won’t doesn’t…
I mean, we’re not so much here around CC, and we’re mostly here because, well, we’re in love with MIT (I’m also applying to Stanford, CMU and a couple Ivies, but I never go to their forums, because the school I truly like the most is MIT).</p>
<p>Same thing in the comments on the Admissions blogs… They should reject everyone who keeps asking in the comments “My documents are not showing up on the checklist !!!” for the 10th time when the blog post is indeed about the Mail Pyramid… If you can’t even read a blog post before commenting it, it’s that either you don’t care or you’re stupid…</p>
<p>To all Int’l applicants, why do you think you should be accepted ?</p>
<p>Hmm…
Because I truly love MIT (hope it shows in my essays). </p>
<p>Because of my research projects and my inventions (I linked videos in the applications).</p>
<p>Because of my diverse EC’s (I’ve done 2 varsity sports for ~10 years, several medals; some community service [Did this along with my varsity team, like volunteering for referee for championships, talking with old people…]; one internship and, of course, a lot of work related to the field I want to study [self-learned a lot, took part to contests, etc.]) : I’ve seen a lot of people with only field related EC’s (like math club, science club), and I think they may want some diversity.
Also, my EC’s don’t look as “done on purpose” as they may for some people, because,-and I explain this in my essays-, I didn’t know I was going to apply to an American University until 3 months ago (I knew about MIT, it always was a dream to go there, but I didn’t know they were accepting international students), and universities/"pr</p>
<p>great idea imo404!!!</p>
<p>well here goes… </p>
<p>I was reading my favorite magazine, WIRED. I came across an article entitled ‘The future
of 3D-Printing’, I was hooked. I saw the applications of 3D-Printing and it’s potential
to revolutionize every imaginable industry. I started a petition to campaign for my school
to purchase a 3D-Printer, and I won. While setting up the 3D-Printer, the head of the
school’s engineering department told me about MIT and how it is ‘the place to be’ if you
want to be a part of the 3D-Printing revolution.
I pleaded, I begged and finally convinced my parents to let me visit MIT, I had to find
out whether what I had been told was true. In visiting MIT, I was also able to stay
overnight with a Senior in Random Hall. He was a computer science major, an admin of SIPB and one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. I asked him all of the questions I had
about 3D printing and MIT’s potential in that area. He told me that “If you go anywhere
else in the world for university, you will get a great degree and then be able to enter
the illustrious world of 3D Printing. But if you come to MIT, you can, potentially in your
freshman year, work with a leading researcher who’s in love with 3D-printing, get some
awesome original research experience and get paid for it.” I was sold. Then the
festivities began; I found myself in the middle of a LARPing session; my team was shot
numerous times with Nerf guns until I found a Nerf shotgun with which I could avenge my
fallen teammates. It was during this that I had one of those slow motion moments in the
movies where you realize that you’re in your element and having way too much fun. MIT is the place for me.</p>
<p>This was an additional essay on my app which pretty much sums up why I belong at MIT.</p>
<p>I disagree with qualifying yourself for MIT on a grade-basis as they don’t care about your academics once you show that you can handle the work (pretty low threshold tbh…). But for what it’s worth, my grades are perfect. I have got an A in every class for 4 years. Moreover, the classes in the UK are way more advanced than those in the US, so by the time I come to MIT, I would have done all of and above their freshman math, physics and chemistry courses. </p>
<p>My SAT 1 is pretty good, 2160. 800M 650CR 710 W (I hate CR…) and my SAT2s are also pretty good (800M2, 730 Chem (SAT material doesn’t align exactly with my syllabus))</p>
<p>As far as recommendations go, I think they were stellar. One was from my physics teacher who is also my mentor in an international competition and I also went surfing with him over spring break, so his recommendation KICKED ASS. The other was from my latin teacher, I wanted this one to show my academic diversity in studying classics so I chose her. I was easily the most proficient in the class so her rec was probably awesome. I also have done tonnes of hours of volunteering at a youth group (like a thousand+ hours) so I got the head of the youth group to write me a recommendation and it was Pretty Sweet.</p>
<p>As far as ECs go, most were international and national which are what MIT really wants from their international students as these accomplishments often show drive and passion in the respective areas of involvement. Most of these recognitions stemmed from my invention, an automatic champagne pourer (my interviewer loved this aswell…) and I think I showed how my drive and passion took me to these competitions and conferences. I also was president of my school’s math society, vice-president of the engineering society and team-captain of the UK CanSat team. As hobbies, I play Jazz piano (played at numerous functions, wedding receptions etc.) and play badminton up to county level.</p>
<p>I bring a heck of a lot of multi-culturalism to campus. I love cooking oriental dishes, indian delicacies (this was my first essay on something you do for fun). I speak, read and write French, Italian and Spanish, my parents are indian but grew up in Malaysia and Zambia respectively. </p>
<p>I think my interview exponentially increased my chances of admission. Me and my interviewer clicked instantly when we started talking about my Jazz Piano. His daughter had gone to the Stanford Jazz Camp at the same time that I went to Berklee’s Jazz Camp. I showed him my invention and talked about how I loved MIT’s culture of innovation as well as their entrepreneurial spirit. I showed him my 3D-printed stuff that I do almost every lunchbreak, I had printed Escher’s impossible triangle in a rotated frame so the impossible frame was recreatable through monochromatic depth reduction. I also printed a cool iphone case that has interlocked gears on the back, which he liked a lot. I think I showed him that I did stuff that I loved and I excelled at it. </p>
<p>I LOVED THE ESSAYS!! they were great and much better than the common app!!! I was totally genuine and honest in my essays and I think I made them pretty creative (One of my additional essays was ‘Describe the contents of your wallet as if you’re the guide on a desert safari’ <---- my favorite essay BY FAR!</p>
<p>I’ve been blessed to have gone to a really prestigious school but I showed MIT that i took advantage of all the opportunities that were offered to me. I know I am a great fit for MIT, i’ll just have to wait until March to see if they agree!!</p>