<p>All my documents have been received, but I don’t know if they’ve got my supplemental recs and docs</p>
<p>You can’t say there is no difference between 750 and 700. That’s a claim of fact. Why would admission officers explicitly say 750+ is good enough in SAT1/2 that they don’t have to take it again? Why not 700+? Perhaps, you wish that 2100+ is treated equivalent to 2300+, but in fact, it’s not. There is quite a bit of difference between 2100 and 2250, and I believe the admission rate for students with different scores prove it. Your ‘claim’ that SAT fails to measure one’s ‘success potential/ academic prowess’ really made me laugh. Of course the test dosen’t measure one’s potentials and academics prowess. It basically tests your level of English, vocabulary, grammar, analytical skills and basic math capability.</p>
<p>U.S colleges, including MIT, don’t make a ranking list. Hardly any of them does. But schools like MIT expect international students to be bright, passionate, but at the same time, they expect applicants to have great essays, transcript, scores and ECs. I understand how you feel about SAT and I agree to some of them. But it is very clear U.S colleges use SAT score as one of the most important factor in the admission.</p>
<p>‘Everything in context’ doesn’t justify relatively low SAT scores. I personally didn’t have a chance to get an effective tutor or lesson for SAT and failed to break 2300, but would admission officers put such ‘lack of opportunities of tutor’ in consideration? I don’t think so. When I mention MIT students from my country, I was referring to actual people I met with. Among 3 of them, the one with lowest SAT score was 2320. I’m not saying scores are everything or it is going to be the most influential factor in the admission. However, I don’t think the fact that SAT score is an important factor is arguable. </p>
<p>I don’t get your last question. SAT certainly qualifies one if one does exceptionally well on the test and it can disqualify someone who had done poorly. I don’t see anything wrong with that?</p>
<p>I’m very interested to know more about the ‘guy’ you refer to. Is he an international student in MIT? What was his overall SAT scores, GPA, ECs? I honestly find it hard to believe.</p>
<p>Well guys…thank you but rajoftheUK I did totally “bomb” my SAT and got a 2050. I am not worried cause English was never my piece of cake…and besides I have better interesting stories to tell.:)</p>
<p>Mine haven’t reached yet!</p>
<p>GUYS!!! i FORGOT to ask you this. What do you think the impact is going to be with my low sat score, I however in my app added that the language at home was not english, I was honest:) Do you think that’ll compensate??:)</p>
<p>I think rajoftheUK is totally right when it talks about SAT scores.
Let’s just send the link to the post to an admission officer/MIT student to see what they think ?</p>
<p>@gargau : My recommendations have been received (It took ~4 weeks so you should be fine). I don’t know about my supplemental rec neither, gonna call them to check later in February.</p>
<p>@quiverfox : I don’t think it will hurt to much ! Try to retake it if you can…</p>
<p>@HateSMUS : Admissions officers told you shouldn’t retake when you have 750, because they said that if you can’t get at least 50 points more, then it’s useless (implying that there’s no difference between a 750 and a 780, or a 730 and a 750). They didn’t say that you should retake it when you don’t reach 750.
The rule should be : if you believe you can get more (and really more, not 10-20 points more), you should retake it if you can afford it. That’s it.</p>
<p>what about non-native English speaker who only took TOEFL with SAT II? How do they compare to those submit SAT I and II? I do not think there is a way to really compare each other because everyone has different background.</p>
<p>Yep carl you’re right.
Btw, is the TOEFL hard compared to the SAT/ACT ? I prepped a bit for the reading/listening questions (those are really easy) but I wonder how they score the writing and speaking parts.</p>
<p>No, actually TOEFL is easier. Much easier. It is a language test for non-English speaker. MIT only has requirement for TOEFL, which is minimum 90, recommended 100.</p>
<p>You can disagree with me, but I think MIT gives imternational students the SAT I/TOEFL option for their convenience; but either is just a language test in this case.
There are unis that REQUIRE SAT 1 for intl’s and it’s safe to assume that for them SAT matters in academic terms. But I don’t think it’s the case with MIT.</p>
<p>^ that’s a cool observation!</p>
<p>I hope that this is true:)</p>
<p>@nefliege,
While the practice of allowing non-native English speakers to skip the SAT does suggest that MIT doesn’t concider it a critical part of your application, a good SAT score would still go a long way in your application. MITs high average SAT does suggest that they do weigh it as more than a mere proficiency test.
If you do not submit the SATs (which can either be because you wouldn’t do/didn’t do well in them, or were unable to take them) I’m sure that you would need to make up for it somewhere in your application. MITs policy sounds a lot like: unless you CAN’T take them (non-native English speakers) make sure you take them.</p>
<p>@jak321,
Well, writing “international” I meant non-native English speaker. That’s not always the case, that’s true. I assume for the native speakers SAT is as important as for the US students. Still… MIT often makes the point of telling people that above a certain score SAT doesn’t differentiate applicants - and why not believe them? Why would MIT lie?</p>
<p>I do see the logic in their approach myself; while SAT is the only means for MIT to compare the applicants on common ground (a test that everyone takes, unlike school rigor or EC’s), it IS faulty, it’s not always accurate. Is it safe to assume that a student who got 750 in CR has a better grasp of English than a student who received 550? I think, yes, so it makes sense to differentiate between these two results. Is it safe to assume that a student who got 800 in CR has a better grasp of the English Language than a student who received 780 or 760? I think not.</p>
<p>@nefliege
I completely agree with you. I was just curious as to how they could adopt such a holistic process (SAT consideration is kept at a minimum) and still have such good average SAT scores. It’s the same as with UChicago.</p>
<p>Also good luck to everyone here! (Esp my fellow Indians)</p>
<p>@nefliege : Yeah you’re right. I’d like to had that even someoke with a 500CR can learn english very fast, as long as he has the motivation to do so (being admitted at MIT would be a good enough motivation, I guess). I know an american girl, who didn’t speak a word of french a few years ago, learned the basics in 2 weeks, got admitted to “Science Po. Paris” (one of the best universities here for political studies), and is now perfectly fluent (in fact, she’s also the n1 of her class, which shows how she masters the french language, as the exams consists of 8hour long essays and 20min long speeches…).</p>
<p>I thin that the fact MIT still have such high stats for the SAT is just pure coincidence : they tend to admitt very good students (top 5% of their school), and these kind of people usually have good scores (but not always, and that’s why there is a lower 25th percentile… I mean, if scores were used as a cutoff, people with perfect scores wouldn’t be rejected, and people around 2000 wouldn’t be admitted).</p>
<p>Hi, let me add myself here too :D.
It looks like a very awesome mix of cultures here <3.</p>
<p>Country: Germany
Intended Course: Computer Science - I can’t wait for seeing the CSAIL from the inner side 
Number of applicants you know from your country: 0 (hopefully it might change now :P)</p>
<p>Well I got a mail from UIUC telling me to come for english classes before the classes start as i was an international…so I guess IT couldn’t matter too much right:)</p>
<p>You were accepted to UIUC ? What was your TOEFL/SAT/ACT score you sent them to show your proficiency ?</p>
<p>yup:) EE!! I sent them my 2050 SAT score(630 CR)…but the mail is for all international admitted students i guess</p>