MIT-Tips

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

Hello everyone I am posting here on behalf of my parents and younger brother. My younger brother will be a freshman in high school in the coming year and he is determined to get into MIT. He wants to be a Robotics Engineering major and is very passionate about it. He would really appreciate if anyone could offer him tips on how he can make himself a competitive applicant for the institution and how he can better prepare himself for that major in general.

Me and my mom and dad are wondering what is the best way we can support him as a brother and parents.

Thank you for the replies and advice. :slight_smile:

2

First thing he needs to learn about colleges - find out where his major is available for undergrad. MIT is not one.

http://mitadmissions.org/discover/majors

3

He wants to work with robotics as a career, but is willing to do alternate majors like electrical or mechanical engineering for example to reach that goal. Sorry I should have worded my post differently to make this more clear.

4

Before looking at college applications he should first focus on doing well in high school. Look for activities where he can explore his interests further. Don’t focus on one college only. Explore what different schools have to offer. Also parents should think realistically about what amount they are comfortably able to pay for a college education especially if they have to put several kids through college. Another area of focus would be to prepare well for the PSAT, ACT, SAT, Subject Tests. A lot of things can change in the next 3 to 4 years. He may discover he has an interest in some other area. Most importantly he should make the most out of high school years academically and socially. Don’t just look at it as a means to an end.

5

^^^ Totally agree. A Prince Charming fixation on a single school is unlikely to foster the best high school experience and will probably not result on admission to MIT; it may have the opposite effect actually. Good luck to all.

6

Good points above. Run a net price calculator now. If your family falls in that income bracket where you really can’t afford to pay 60K, but a school like MIT is telling you you’ll need to pay 60K, it will be a huge shock and disappointment.

Also, I guess there are some kids who get into MIT that have had their eye on MIT since they were knee high (slight exaggeration), but I’d bet there are actually more than a few kids, like my son (a rising senior at MIT) that didn’t even think about applying to MIT until their senior year.

My MIT son never thought about making himself a competitive applicant for any college, ever. Period. He just did what he loved to do, and I, as a parent, tried to help feed his love of learning. (We homeschooled, and he was dual-enrolled from 7th grade, so our situation is a bit unique).

One common theme I find in my son’s friends is that they are all really interesting people! They are also people that seem to care about other people, people that seem to have a lot of energy, and people that have multiple interests and deep passions. Now, that’s a big generalization, but I’m always amazed at the diversity of interest and talent in my son’s friends. Did you know there are around fourteen A Cappella groups at MIT? That one can become a pirate at MIT? That there are some top athletes at MIT? That there are kids who love to act, dance, sing, play music, learn foreign languages, etc. at MIT?

My point is, yes, your brother should dive into his STEM interests with gusto, get good grades, get good test scores, have good relationships with teachers to get good recommendations, but if your brother likes to do other stuff, that’s great, too!

My son has abundant energy (and adhd) and in high school, he had multiple non-academic interests in addition to his deep love of math and physics (he did math and physics competitions in 10th-12th grade, and stumbled into some physics research): he was a competitive chess player, a strong baseball player, and an excellent musician that did unique things (played in two rock bands as a violinist, played professionally in weddings, etc., and did a lot of community service with his music). He was very involved in our youth group, and he worked since age 13 as a violinist, violin teacher and tutor. I know one of his friend built an almost life size trebuchet in high school!

Your brother should just do what he loves. Honest. And you and your parents can help find opportunities to support those interests.

7

Hello everyone thank you for the replies so far.

Money wise we should be fine as our parents have been saving since day 1 for college.

My brother is the type who enjoys working with his hands. His interest started with Legos and it just grew from there. We don’t want him to spend all his time working with technology out of a concern that he might become anti-social so we do try to encourage him to do things like band and drama club where he has a good support group of friends. In the end we just want him to be happy and guide him right towards his goals. He knows MIT is a large jump but his logic is that he should aim for the best. That way even if MIT rejects him he will be qualified to get into another good school.

I agree that an obsession with a single school can be an unhealthy mentality so we will do our bests to make sure he stays open minded over the years and doesn’t forget there are other good schools out there.

What kind of STEM activities are available for students? The high school he is attending in our district opened only ten years ago so i’m sure there’s some stuff we don’t know about yet that’s out there.

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“Me and my mom and dad are wondering what is the best way we can support him as a brother and parents.”

You should also make sure that his use of proper grammar is better than yours.

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“Money wise we should be fine as our parents have been saving since day 1 for college.” - Hmmm… fo many families, that does mean that $60K/year is affordable. Certainly that will need to be discussed over the coming years.

I agree with the comments about not focusing on one school, especially when it is a school that accepts fewer than 10% of applicant. For now, he should just focus on learning and enjoying hs. There are MANY fine engineering programs.

.

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It’s premature, but all of you should read http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways.

He’s young. He will probably change his interests. Everything in that link applies to other selective schools also.

Good luck. I hope he posts here, but not for another couple of years.

11

Re. STEM activities: I think it depends on where you live. Some off the top of my head that my two older sons have enjoyed:

AMC/AIME math competitions
Physics Olympiad
Physics Bowl
Math Circle
STEM classes at local colleges or online through places like AoPS
FTC Robotics (And there’s the bigger bots, FRC)
Research at local colleges
National STEM video game challenge

Other kids I’ve heard of do:

Science Fairs (and all the higher level science research competitions)
Quiz Bowl/Academic Bowl
Chem/Bio/Computing Olympiads

I’m sure there are oodles more. But I agree with everyone else; don’t focus on getting into MIT. Slowly learn about all the great colleges out there that might be good fits. MIT is not the only game in town.

12

Also, if he’s into programming, have him check out USACO. They have open contests during the school year that he can do on his own. They also provide training.

I agree with @sbjdorlo - just encourage your brother to follow his passion. Don’t push him into activities to make him look better or more “well rounded”. Follow his lead. The trick is to find ways to support and encourage his efforts without pushing. To be honest, it’s okay to spend time on “technology”.

13

Hi! I’m MIT Class of 2019, so I just finished the MIT application process last year.

Firstly, DO NOT USE THE MIT NET PRICE CALCULATOR!!! That thing is almost never accurate. It told me I would have to pay $50k/yr and I paid significantly less than that and I’m an only child (schools adjust if you have siblings). Almost everyone else I know from my year didn’t end up paying what the calculator said. And that goes for my friends at other schools like Princeton, Duke, Caltech, and so on. That being said, depending on many factors, definitely consider finances. And way to go for your parents for saving! That’s awesome!!! :slight_smile:

Secondly, it’s not too early to start thinking about particular colleges, but tread carefully. While your brother and your family shouldn’t fixate too much on MIT (as stated in the past comments and you yourself agree), it’s ok to get into it. MIT itself is all about appreciating learning and doing amazing things to better the world and who doesn’t need to be exposed to that?!

Personally, I was one of those knee high kids mentioned previously; I fell in love with MIT at age 8 and it became an obsession. I’m a first generation college student, so my parents were panicked because they never saw MIT in the cards for me. My family was so sick of me talking about it that when I actually got in MIT was made a taboo word in our house and now it’s just “my college”. But they’re super happy I got in. And they knew more MIT facts than any of the parents at CPW because of all my ranting! :slight_smile:

By the time my senior year came, though, I was more realistic and I found that I was ok with not getting in (fortunately I did), because I would end up somewhere great. A lot of people I’ve met have expressed this sentiment, so as long as you and your family support him, he’ll be fine. When the actually time to apply comes around and when it’s all over and done, you feel a lot more calm than you’d expect. Sure, tears might be shed, ice-cream will be eaten, but you can still have a great senior year and can still go somewhere great. A lot of my friends had this experience. My physics lab partner was gunning for Stanford since freshman year and rejected, but he fell in love with Carnegie Mellon and is counting down the days to go there.

As far as what to do in high school, passion is key. And it doesn’t have to be STEM, necessarily, but you need something that you’re very dedicated to. His interviewer should be able to tell he loves it. And he will find this thing on his own. Trust me.

I wasn’t involved in a ton of STEM stuff, my school wasn’t strong in it, but if he’s into robotics there’s a lot of inexpensive kits and projects you can do. Lego robots, Scratch, Arduino come to mind, but there are more. Also Coursera and Codecademy are fun and free! And MIT OCW! The point; MIT (or any other selective college) would never punish an applicant for not having activities available to them, but taking initiative is important in college admissions and in life.

And while I know you’re going to want to support him (and that’s super cool btw), he does need to do a lot of it on his own. He needs to put in the extra time and effort to find activities and opportunities and things to learn and grow upon. He needs to know what tests to take, discipline himself to study, make appointments with his counselor to arrange a challenging and engaging schedule, etc. Furthermore, research is key. mitadmissions.org is an amazing and must read resource for people who want to know more about MIT; he should definitely read the blogs and follow the links to the various MIT group sites and lab projects to see if he really likes the community there.

So as far as supporting him; be open and accepting of whatever he’s passionate about. Make sure he knows he will be fine no matter what happens and make sure he eats breakfast before testing because being that kid with a stomach growl during the ACT is not cool!

Good luck to your brother!

14

Add to Post # 10

FIRST Robotics same as FTC Robotics - http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc

Also Science Olympiad has a bunch of events, one of which usually involves robots, and there are always several engineering ones. http://www.soinc.org/

If he’s interested in robotics Carnegie Mellon has a good program. Their school of Computer Science has a robotics program and a human-machine interaction program along with the regular CS degree.

The MIT Admissions website is one of the best out there, good advice for any school. They are looking for well-rounded students not ones who do only science.

15

Some people say that getting in to MIT is somewhat down to luck once your grades and test scores get in a certain range. The mindset that I’m taking into applying this fall is that once my test scores are in the acceptable range, most of everything else rides on writing a kick-a s s essay (which you don’t need to worry about at least until the end of his Junior year).

Something super concrete and planned out that he can do is prepare for the standardized tests. I took each test once without studying to get a baseline and then studied only what I needed to. Just expose him to the questions as much as possible. Patterns will emerge and he’l quickly realize that it’s kinda like a game. The more time he has with the tests, the better he’ll do.

Other than that, just keep a high GPA and explore his passions! Until application time comes around, don’t freak out too much about college. He’ll want to enjoy high school while it lasts!