<p>Hey am Rohan , Yesterday i had my interview with MIT EC.First he asked my school,my marks and after that it was a career counselling session.He said me not waste my 75$ in MIT App cuz i won't get admitted.At last I had to interrupt in between to say that I had already applied.Then under compulsion he had to ask me my hobbies,why mit etc.Just AAfter 2-3 questions he went quite.I realized the interview said him thank you Sir and left.Guys I am really worried about what he will say! Morever i was so enthusiastic but with such a
disinterested man i couldn't say my heart out.I don't know what he will suggest about me.What should i do????</p>
<p>You know your marks. You know your scores. You know your chance. You don’t need the MIT counselor, me or anyone else to tell you if you will be accepted or not. If you cut the threshold (which no one can define exactly for you), then it is just a matter of selling yourself. I agree that your interviewer was not diplomatic, but considering that he was an MIT alumni who is doing good enough for himself to be considered responsible enough to conduct prospective student interviews, he might have seen something extremely poor in your record - something not explainable/excusable.</p>
<p>You should know that best.</p>
<p>^ Agreed with Tizil.</p>
<p>However, if you feel he was offensive then I suggest you contact MIT admissions about it and try to request another interview. </p>
<p>I sort of appreciate his candor but no interviewer should predict and comment on an applicant’s chance based on subjective data. An interviewer is supposed to find out more about you, not to corner you with offensive questions and remarks.</p>
<p>roharoselle, you have nothing to lose and if you have time, you should follow spawnus’ advice and write a letter or email to MIT about this interviewer. MIT should get these jerks off the interview circuit. Unfortunately, there are too many of them out there.</p>
<p>after what point exactly did he say that? Just after the grades/scores part? So are your grades/scores too low? Even if they are, he isn’t supposed to say that.
So mail MIT and tell them exactly what happened. Don’t tell your own version of the truth, be honest and ask for another interview.</p>
<p>If you have applied, you cannot do anything but wait. At the least, take the counselor’s comments as a suggestion for what you should improve on…but do not take it to heart. Sure, they have an expectation and a good eye for what they are looking for, but that does not mean that you should be discarded. Interviews do not factor as much as your essays and apps; hopefully, they will work some charm at MIT or another institute. You have other prospective colleges that I am sure you have applied to. Take the interview as a practice for something more important.</p>
<p>I’m assuming you are Indian. Just for your knowledge MIT accepts only 4 Indian nationalites who are Indian residents as well. So even if someone gets there grades high it all comes down “luck” factor. Almost 500+ indians apply to mit each year. </p>
<p>P.s What is the name of your EC?</p>
<p>From what my EC said, I think there are guidelines that ECs are supposed to follow. It doesn’t sound like yours was a particularly good representation of MIT and I think that’s the kind of thing that they would want to hear about. I would send an e-mail to someone letting them know that you had a very uncomfortable time at your interview because your interviewer was not very professional.</p>
<p>If you know that your application was competitive, I wouldn’t worry too much about the interview. I’ve heard that the only way it can really hurt you is if you don’t have one (or are terribly rude or something, but I don’t think that’s usually an issue).</p>
<p>OP, you sound like you were offended by the interviewer’s behaviour. You have every right to complain. Taking on the attitude that you can not do anything about it is a sign of weakness. You will be doing a favor to MIT and future interviewees if you lodge a complaint. Karan got it right.</p>
<p>Wow I’m offended for you! </p>
<p>I told my EC… my grades sucked and she said, not to worry and good luck… she didn’t tell me I had no chance! … That’s horrible</p>
<p>Forget about the interview and complain to the admissions office if you’re up to it.</p>
<p>But now you just have to focus on your application and making yourself seem fit for MIT… and get your teachers to write you amazing evaluations… and then what will happen will happen. But forget about the interview…</p>
<p>Honestly speaking there is no point applying to MIT unless you’re an olympiad winner or have atleast cleared the regional rounds.</p>
<p>Thats blatantly false.</p>
<p>^ Agreed</p>
<p>The percentage of Olympiad medalists at MIT is quite small. MIT cares about raw passion for math and sciences. While olympiads are a good way to show that passion, there are other ways to do that as well and still get accepted.</p>
<p>My TOFEL ibt Score is 105 and SAT 2 scores are M3-740 C-770 P-760.However as English is my second language and I live in small place my SAT scores were very low(CR-530 CW-520 M-690).However I have a passion for science and enjoy reading them.I love science but never tooks exams as much seriously.I have always been in top 10 but never first.As soon as I said my marks , he started all this.Thank you guys your response has been overwhelming and encouraging.Thank you once again.</p>
<p>MIT says that they take kids with passion for Maths and Science, which is true to some extent. Almost always, they judge your passion by your performance in competitions and whatnot. Those olympiad medallists have got something to show for their passion. Entry purely based on passion is impossible. Thousands of kids in India say that they have passion, but all of them can’t be admitted. MIT believes that if you go to a decent school in a decent city, you should take the olympiads and prove your passion.</p>
<p>And the number of people at MIT who are olympiad medallists is low, but look at the number of INDIAN residents at MIT who aren’t medallists. You’ll hardly find any. It’s a game of numbers. MIT is going to take <10 students from India each year. There will be 5-6 olympiad medallists applying too. Figure out your chances. Although there have been some cases that MIT has taken average grades, low SATs, no olympiad kids; there’s a reason for that. Google Anshuman Panda. You’ll find that his father earned INR 3500 a month. He applied using a borrowed computer. He suffered from an illness. He overcame all of that and took the SAT and applied. He didn’t have opportunities like you and I have. That’s why MIT too k him. </p>
<p>Still, all of this reason is no reason for you not to apply. Write honest essays that show you really really love maths and physics. Write a mail to MIT about your jerk interviewer and get a new one. Some chance is better than no chance, and if you don’t apply, you have no chance. Good luck</p>
<p>Karan, can you, for me and the countless others here, post those 7 tips which Goluhaque shared with us? I think it will stop these threads of panic and misinformation. It will really save us replying to all of these threads individually :p</p>
<p>I think it was informative enough to be read by everyone.</p>
<p>^Ok…I’ll make a new thread.</p>
<p>For some reason Tizil7, I don’t agree at all with the 7 pointed letter that guy wrote to golu. He was being extremely wrong on the part that adcoms without any reason just by looking at your SAT scores will throw your app out! It doesn’t work that way…</p>
<p>Oh of course not Phr34k. What I believe he is talking about it the ‘threshold factor’ for a ‘general applicant’.</p>
<p>You can have all the optimism in the world, but at the end of the day, a kid with 1800 SATs from India’s best school with 80% average in 9th, 90% in 10th, 80% in 11th and 88% in 12th just won’t get into MIT (or Stanford or Harvard or Princeton…)</p>
<p>Unless, of course, you went through extenuating circumstances under which the preceding scores would be viewed as excelling under pressure.</p>
<p>PS. No, the above scores aren’t mine. It’s just hypothetical. Tbh, and as bad as it sounds (and it is not directed towards anyone on this board), MIT (or …) will literally not give the application a second glance. (please don’t take second literally)</p>
<p>I’m talking about Indian kids who’ve been accepted to MIT in the past. But then again I wouldn’t know better because I’m just hypothesizing by extrapolating from past trends.</p>