<p>Hi everyone. I'll be blunt: I want to go to MIT. But I don't know how to get there! Here's another problem: I want to transfer there. Why is this a problem? If you haven't noticed, MIT's transfer rate is infinitesimal, to say the least (Not sure why, perhaps someone could explain?). Currently, I am out of high school. I'm going to be attending the University of California, Irvine this fall. So I want to ask you MIT-goers: What do I do to help my chances of transferring successfully? My major, currently, is Mathematics, but I am EDIT: changing it to Bioengineering with premed. </p>
<p>Why do I want to go to MIT? First of all, its one of the best (if not, THE best) schools for engineering. Second of all, my best friend Jordan is going, and I don't want him to have all the fun. Third of all, its always been my dream to go to a top-notch school like MIT. So I'm going to do what I should have done earlier: ask for advice. I'm starting off with a clean slate in college, and I want to start making the right choices early on. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>You might want to check out [MIT</a> Transfer Admissions](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/admissions/transfer/apply.html#q2]MIT”>http://web.mit.edu/admissions/transfer/apply.html#q2)</p>
<p>I think your chances will be best if you demonstrate that you’re making the most of your college experience (acing all your classes, taking interest in professors’ work outside of class, doing research, etc.) and that your current college just cannot contain your awesomeness.</p>
<p>Best of luck! But I hope you can be happy at UC Irvine too, if this doesn’t work out. Remember that there’s always grad school…</p>
<p>About the whole research thing: My friend Jordan has told me about that. What exactly is it? How do you get into it? And thanks for your advice! Yeah, I know transfer admissions site backwards and forwards now, haha.</p>
<p>Research: another word for science. MIT is pretty big on undergrad participation in research, through the UROP program. [MIT</a> UROP: Basic Information - What is UROP?](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/urop/basicinfo/]MIT”>http://web.mit.edu/urop/basicinfo/)</p>
<p>Usually undergrads aren’t experienced enough to think up, get funding for, plan, and carry out their own experiments, so the undergrad’s experience in science usually involves getting latched onto a grad student or postdoc in the lab. You will either help them with their projects or, if you’re lucky, you’ll get your own project and they’ll teach you what you need to know to successfully complete it. In many fields, once you finish the project you’ll write a paper about it and submit it to journals for publication. Getting published is awesome. Getting published as an undergrad is really awesome.</p>
<p>Go to your favorite (science) professor and ask them what they do (like, for real–not teaching). If it sounds interesting to you, ask if you could work in their lab (make sure you’ll be doing science, not dishes). If they say yes, awesome! Work in the lab, learn awesome stuff, do science, maybe even do science that gets published. If they say no, repeat with your next-favorite professor. And again. And again.</p>