<p>Hey guys have any of you applied for financial aid? It says that your parent’s income tax return was due on 2/15 but since my country’s income tax return forms are available after mid March, I wasn’t able to send it, and it totally slipped out of my mind till now. I’m kind of thinking that the fact that they didn’t send me an email requesting those means that I got rejected. Or should I send it now even at latest? (I did send them an email but haven’t got replies yet)</p>
<p>I believe financial aid and admissions are handled by two completely separate offices. I don’t think they affect or predict one another.</p>
<p>Here’s the international transfer financial aid site: [MIT</a> - Student Financial Services](<a href=“MIT Student Financial Services”>MIT Student Financial Services)</p>
<p>It wouldn’t hurt to send the documents now. As mathbro said, admissions and financial aid are totally separate. They admit first and then work out financial aid.</p>
<p>So, everybody, what are your stories? What did you write your essays about? Why do you want to go to MIT? What makes you awesome? What are you passionate about?</p>
<p>
I wrote mine about various challenges throughout adolescence such as parents not enrolling me in high school, having to relocate several times due to domestic issues, and falling way behind in academic progress due to the above, and how discovering my passion for software engineering motivated me to give academics a second try away from home.</p>
<p>
In general? It seems like there is an attitude among the MIT student population of not just wanting to acquire knowledge, but wanting to contribute to the collective knowledge base and further advance the STEM fields. I really want to be in an environment where this is the prevailing mindset among students, and not just faculty. I like that MIT facilitates this through UROP’s, and I like that MIT has historically turned out a comparatively high number of entrepreneurs.</p>
<p>
Lol, it’s always hard to answer questions like this… I suppose I’ve always valued being able to use quantitative skills creatively, and not just analytically.</p>
<p>
Specifically: mobile computing, sensor fusion, GIS, augmented reality, and integrating all of the above.</p>
<p>
On the odd chance we both get in, would you be interested in skydiving? I’ll be looking for buddies to go with wherever I end up.</p>
<p>I’d be down</p>
<p>I wrote about my experience of how I borrowed a pair of shoes from strangers when I had no other choice to solve my problem… Although my chance of getting in to MIT is very slim, at least it’s an amusing little piece of read for the AO lol</p>
<p>What are your responses to those questions, atari?</p>
<p>@joey
(okay, kinda long post, sorry 
)</p>
<p>For the main essay:
Essentially I wrote about how I got my philosophy on life. My mom walked out on the family the night before the 4th of July, after having a huge fight with my dad. Eventually both of them left and I was alone in the house with my sister, because we rode it out together. I just looked into her eyes and saw the worst sadness, because we could hear the sound of people setting off firecrackers and having barbecues with their families. So I took her outside, and we just told ghost stories and played in the woods most of the night and eventually had a great time. I wrote about how despair is a choice, that I can use humor to make the best of any situation, and that my goal for each day is to make at least one person laugh. </p>
<p>For the “why are you transferring” part:
Put simply, I want to follow my heart and do what makes me happy. I wrote about how my class visited a vocational center during my sophomore year in high school, and how it was completely love-at-first-sight when I saw the student auto shop. I knew I wanted to be an engineer, but I was afraid of my parents’ disapproval, because I’d previously had the intention of being a surgeon. I knew in my heart it was the right choice for me, because I can’t watch human suffering or treat a person as just some object on an operating table. So basically I ended it with “The short answer is that my school doesn’t have an engineering program. The long answer is that I’m not afraid of who I am anymore”. </p>
<p>Just as a side note, my mom and dad aren’t helicopter parents; it’s just that neither of them went to college and they were excited because I was the only one of their kids who had dreams of pursuing higher education–and who would pay the bills. lol</p>
<p>For the “why MIT” part:
I wrote about how I built my own hybrid car. I basically converted an old diesel car (not too hard to find out here in rural Ohio) to run on waste vegetable oil. It was a kind of crazy idea that had risks, but I wasn’t afraid to take them, because I’m a strong environmentalist and an avid tinkerer. I wrote about how I feel I belong at MIT because it is both a challenging school and a community of people who care about each other and the world.</p>
<p>Other odds and ends:</p>
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<p>Yeah…so some of this might be pretty cool, but I’ve got nothing against people applying from STEM powerhouses with perfect or near-perfect grades and test scores, with fancy international awards and such, who went to good high schools and have the whole “ultra-student-with-everything” gig going on. </p>
<p>It would be awesome if I get in, but I’m certainly not entitled to admission, and if I get rejected I’m not going to go around bellyaching on CC about how I should have gotten in. I’m tired of people who think they’re entitled to admission because they won some competitive award or whatnot, and then go hating on minorities and women for “taking up spots” and go out of their way to find reasons they think these students are unqualified.</p>
<p>@atari that’s pretty awesome about the engine. I take it you are applying to mechE?</p>
<p>Where else did everyone apply?</p>
<p>I figure I should elaborate too:</p>
<p>My hook is that throughout high school I intended to be a music major. In high school I was #1 in the state and #1 in the country for my age group. Eventually I was 2 of 300 people who applied to a music school in New York City who were admitted and went there. When I got there I realized I was more interested in the prestige of being the best than in music itself so I promptly dropped out and found a new path for my life, a path that consisted of something that was actually a passion and not just the field I was the most talented in. </p>
<p>I found math, and have been using up every opportunity possible to make the most of where I am. I have a 4.0, Lead a robotics team, write a mathematics blog, take upper division mathematics courses at the local UC (I’m at a CC, I enroll through cross-enrollment), and have an internship doing applied mathematical research at the local UC. I"m very active in extreme sports and encourage many of my friends to set their goals higher than they think is possible (from my experience people who set higher goals are generally surprised when they achieve them; we tend to low-ball our own potential). </p>
<p>MIT is my top choice because of the professors who work there whose books I have read and appreciated. I also am very keen on the UROP program and the greek system. MIT’s putnam team generally scores top every year and that’s a big goal of mine for the next two years. </p>
<p>When I lived in New York City I visited boston for a weekend and fell in love. I would be so lucky if the MIT admissions office decided to give me the opportunity to study there.</p>
<p>I hope my unique background in music will be a diverse addition to the community; someone who has had experience performing on blockbuster soundtracks and in carnegie hall.</p>
<p>@joey
I couldn’t make up my mind between mechE and EECS. Study all the things!</p>
<p>@mathbro
That’s awesome. I have so much respect for someone who can turn down prestige to do what they love. I have a friend who knows a guy from a really rich ritzy east-side Cleveland private school who turned down admission to Harvard because he knew he only got in because his dad was an alumni.</p>
<p>
Which did you indicate on your application was the department to which you intend to transfer? </p>
<p>
Another reason why I have more respect for MIT - they don’t do legacy admissions.</p>
<p>@joey
I just wrote “course 6.2 or course 2 (I can’t decide)”, because I am genuinely undecided. I may end up studying both wherever I end up transferring. I love programming and physics, I love AI, and I love getting inside engines/machines to see how they work.</p>
<p>Hey all!</p>
<p>I’m also a transfer applicant waiting impatiently for the decision date to be announced. I hope we hear something this week.</p>
<p>@atari I’m also a programmer who chose engineering because I love physics so I totally understand your dilemma between MechE and EE. Did you ever consider robotics? It seems to me to be the perfect combination of programming and physics. Design the machine AND program its intelligence!</p>
<p>Best of luck to everyone!</p>
<p>Ahhh, I am so excited to hear back from Transfer Admissions! 
I hope they release the decision date soon…it’s been a long time coming!</p>
<p>^ Welcome to the thread :)</p>
<p>Hopefully we will get the decision date announcement email (if there is one) by the end of the week.</p>
<p>Apparently, they are still working on it.</p>
<p>[Decision</a> Day Eve | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/decision-day-eve]Decision”>Decision Day Eve | MIT Admissions)</p>
<p>It shouldn’t be long. On one hand, I’ll be glad to know the wait will finally be over and I can have closure. On the other hand, I’m afraid of what I’ll see in that decision email, even though I’ve been preparing myself for rejection all along.</p>
<p>Well, I suppose the best part about being a pessimist is that I am always either well prepared when I am proven right, or delightfully surprised when I am proven wrong.</p>