<p>Jamaicans don’t really fall into he categoy of nativ Americans Hispanics blacks or Asians sooooooo</p>
<p>Hello All,</p>
<p>I am a student who participated in MITES during the summer of 2008. Recently someone asked me a question about the program and I thought it would be useful to provide the question and answers to all the prospective students on this forum.</p>
<p>
I think from reading the other MITES threads its quite clear that not every applicant has a 4.0 GPA or a 240 on his PSAT. These statistics are really just parameters which the MITES admissions committee uses to make sure youll be able to handle the MITES course work. The assumption is if youre doing poorly in high school you will probably do poorly in MITES. However, the reverse assumption is not necessarily true and its still possible to do poorly in MITES although youve done well in high school. This reason, along with some others, is why the application doesnt merely ask What are your statistics?; there are many other factors which serve as indications of competence.
The essays are rather important. They can really make or break your application so it is a good idea to spend most of your time on them. My advice for the essays is to focus on qualities which make you unique and demonstrate your interest in science.
I think MITES has helped many students have the confidence to apply to schools they wouldnt have even thought about otherwise. Also, the recommendations provided at the end of the program are useful in providing supplementary personal information when you send in your college applications.
It appears as though most of students who complete MITES do end up applying to MIT in the fall and many of them are admitted. This information is based on what Ive gathered by talking to students and instructors in the past few MITES classes so it should be fairly reliable. In the MITES class of 08, a few of the students also applied to Harvard and a few of them were accepted but it seems that no one has decided to enroll. But there are MITES students who have enrolled in Yale, Caltech, Columbia, and UPenn. In general a considerable portion of MITES students eventually go to MIT but there are still many other universities where MITES alumni decide to enroll.
The statistic fits quite well with what I said although Im doubtful that the other 36% only went to Harvard, Columbia and Stanford. A better estimate would be that Harvard, Columbia and Stanford were popular choices for the other 36% while there were students who chose schools not in that list.
It seems as though MITES has this stigma of being the fast track into MIT or the fast track into any other seemingly prestigious school that you wish to add to your resume. Admittedly, many of the students who get through MITES go to MIT or other impressive schools but that is not really the purpose of the program. I am not part of the admissions committee and I am in no way affiliated with the MITES programs besides my participation in the session during the summer of 2008. But I dont think Ill be too far off in claiming that the true purpose of MITES is to cultivate an interest in science in areas of the population where that interest is usually absent. This is perhaps why there are mostly minority students in the program. Another sense I got from the program was it allowed many intelligent students to come together to obtain a feeling of youre not alone in that there are other students who come from similar backgrounds and who are just as interested in science and technology as you are. The fact that many of these students end up in good schools is more of a residual effect of the program rather than the only purpose.
This is more of a general college question than a MITES specific one so anyone can answer it. Generally, Ive found that all admissions officers are easy to talk to and really want you to be interested in applying to their college. Also, during MITES there are special dinners where students are allowed to ask admissions officers questions about college. These dinners are explained more below.
Im not sure what this question is asking but if its referring to the availability of college counseling during MITES then yes there is. Besides the fact that youll be surrounded by college students who will be able to readily provide firsthand experience and insight into the college application process there will also be so called Admissions dinners where five or six students at a time get to sit with a few people from the MIT admissions committee. These dinners occurred during the summer of 2008 and Im not sure if they were exclusive to that year (I have no reason to believe they were) or are just a general feature of the MITES program.</p>
<p>^Good information.</p>
<p>Great answers thank you. My next question is: do the ppl that get into MIT harvard Stanford etc are extremely geniuses? Or are they a passionate student that has a story to tell because of the urm status</p>
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</p>
<p>Its perhaps fair to say that many of the people who are admitted into good colleges have shown an intellectual capacity to handle their universitys curriculum. Outside of academic competence, I assume (because I am not in college yet) the students are fairly diverse in terms of hobbies and activities and of course arent only minorities. So, the last part of your question confuses me. Its possible that students admitted to these schools are passionate and have various stories to illustrate their interests but I dont think that has anything to do with whether they are underrepresented minorities. Also, this question seems fall in the category of general college questions. Im probably not the best person to answer these types of questions so you should check the appropriate forum.</p>
<p>Ok thanks mi vida. Could you talk about the leisure activities you guys do. The web stays you go to six flags take tours etc. Also how cool are the prof at mites. Easy to talk to ? Have a convo? …</p>
<p>
We essentially had activities throughout the week. Usually these activities centered on a speaker from some part of MIT who would talk to us for an hour or so before we rushed off to class. We also had a major activity almost every Saturday. I cant remember all of the activities only that they were usually time consuming. We did go to Six Flags as a break and in the last few weeks we had a mini dance cruise on the river.
The teachers are all very approachable and enjoy talking to the students. A few even made a consistent effort to eat lunch with us throughout the program.</p>
<p>Im planning on applying to mites and I plan on taking my psat this october so far my score is a 180 but I know I can get a 220 so how do you guys think the 180 sounds for a beginner and btw in my home country we didnt learn or know of any tests like these.</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>^ are you an international?</p>
<p>I am from jamaica and am a soon to be us citizen, but as of now I am a permanent resident and I have a green card and etc</p>
<p>Hey guys, MITES 09 here. I can talk a little more about leisure activities because it’s fresher in my head I guess. Every Saturday we went somewhere, like we went to a couple of design challenges, we did a boat cruise, and we had this competition with the Interphase kids which was really cool. One thing that I really want to tell you guys is that even if you have doubts or you think you may not get in, apply anyway. I didn’t think I would get in last year, but I did and I had an amazing summer. Even if you don’t, it’s good practice for next year.</p>
<p>what are your stats:)</p>
<p>I believe at the time I had about a 3.85 GPA and a 66CR/65M/73WR PSAT. I was in a few clubs and had done a few other summer programs, but nothing too mind blowing.</p>
<p>MITES 09!!!
yess apply anyway. don’t let the statistics of acceptance rates stop you from applying. i seriously didn’t think that i would get in since i’m asian to top off everything… </p>
<p>umm… i had a 4.0/4.0 gpa 64CR/79M/69WR. all my activities were all centered around music, i did a summer program before that, and i taught taekwondo. if you have any other questions feel free to ask :D</p>
<p>MITES '06 alum here… check out the Wiki page about the MITES program <a href=“MITES - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MITES</a> I updated the section titled “college matriculation” with some stats from my year. I hope it’s helpful! :)</p>
<p>MITES 09! :)</p>
<p>Don’t be afraid because of the stats- they really are looking at you as a whole instead of numbers. (And it worked, we had a great group)</p>
<p>I had 3.9ish GPA/4.0, don’t remember the exact PSAT subscores, but it was 215 total, and my school ECs weren’t too special, but I did start my own small business over the internet. </p>
<p>Basically, here’s what we covered in my classes:</p>
<p>Calc 2:
From vectors through double and line integrals of multivariable functions and basic differential equations. We covered most of what you would get in 18.02 at MIT, actually. It was pretty fun.</p>
<p>Physics 3:
God, this class made my brain explode daily. We started with a mass on a spring, added friction and a driving force, made it 2 masses, then 3, then n masses, then infinity masses, then zoomed out and called the masses atoms and we were just barely starting quantum by the end of the 6 weeks. It was intense. This was equivalent to 8.03 at MIT</p>
<p>Biochemistry:
We started at amino acids, worked through DNA, RNA, and proteins including their structures. The class was interesting, but not as intense as Physics or Calc for me. Lots of memorization, including all the structures for amino acids, etc.</p>
<p>Humanities:
We read 4 books and discussed in class. Some people pretended to read 4 books and discuss in class, but that wasn’t the best strategy. The class was divided in half: 1 half racial issues: Books were: Obama’s Dreams from my father (interesting, but very very dense and slow reading) The absolutely true story of a part time native american (a fun, light read)
and 1 half science and morals: Copenhagen (I found it interesting, some people disliked it) and Saturday (The slowest read ever! 30 pages to narrate the main character getting up and going to the window. It gets quicker later on, but it starts off so slow that I had trouble making myself read it.)
We had to write two papers (5ish pages? I can’t remember) and a few short 1 page responses. </p>
<p>Engineering design:
Build a robot that competes with other robots to do things. It was not much work, until the last night, when we pulled an allnighter. It was pretty fun. (Nicoliolioli really really loved it… :))</p>
<p>A sample MITEs experience: You had your physics PSET due today, so you’ve slept about 3 hours and haven’t started on your final essay. You get to the dorms after school, eat (the summer food at simmons is horrible, by the way, more at the end), and are told that everyone has to watch a movie today at 8:00 (minority report) because it’s part of the science and technology issues. You get done and back in your room by 11:00, and then you have to start your final paper.</p>
<p>Then, to make things worse, I know some people had to read the books, and THEN start their final papers. </p>
<p>Looks like another allnighter. But it’s not so horrible, because you go to the lounge and work next to friends in the same situation as you, and you all take a small break to watch the sun rise, and then keep working on those papers. </p>
<p>It’s intense, but not so bad because you’re with others.</p>
<p>Food at simmons is served sun-thurs dinner. It is horrible. They can’t cook spaghetti, burgers or hotdogs (and even I can make a hotdog, so it isn’t that hard).
We got $70 a week to spend on breakfast/lunch and weekend dinners. Most people had it last them pretty well, unless they brought too many snacks and junk food for PSET groups.</p>
<p>Summary for the people who skim long passages:</p>
<p>You will do allnighters.
You will feel bad when you get your midterm grades. (Class average in physics 3 was a 19 percent. That was a doozy.)</p>
<p>You will improve, and become much better than you thought you could be. (Class average at the end of physics 3 was actually passing, so we almost quadrupled the average grade. The best improved guy went from an 6% to a 98% on the final…)</p>
<p>If I could do it over this year, I would in a heartbeat. So yeah, apply.</p>
<p>Cool info guys thanks. Are some ppl at mites insanely intelligent? Like the ones taking physics 3 and calc 2?. I guess those are the kids that get accepted to other ivy league institutions correct?</p>
<p>Trust me, no matter how insanely smart you may be, MITES can (and will) make you feel dumb.</p>
<p>It’s what it’s there for.</p>
<p>Some people were crazy good at biochem, but were in physics 1, and almost everyone in physics 3 was in calc 2 (because you needed the calc for physics. I completely and totally worship those who managed to survive physics 3 while only in calc 1 in MITES 09)</p>
<p>Most of the people at MITES in past years tend to do pretty well when applying to colleges: <a href=“http://www.mit-mites.org/alumni/profiles.pl?year=2005[/url]”>http://www.mit-mites.org/alumni/profiles.pl?year=2005</a> has a list where you can browse and see where people went from each year. Most MITES alums will end up at MIT or another top school/ivy.</p>
<p>Edit:
Remember, if you don’t get into MITES it does NOT mean you won’t get into MIT. MITES is actually more selective than MIT. (We took 70 out of 1000+ applicants for MITES 09)</p>
<p>…stop scaring them… geez…
ok… so the 3 hours is basically reserved for ppls who got in physics 3 which is approximately like… 15/70 students. lol I had the exact same classes except different humanities teacher.
If you are very good at time management then you will be able to go to sleep for 8 hours. It is possible since it was done by a friend of mine (but he didn’t have physics 3…) and he was like amaaazing in the program. </p>
<p>It’s a given that everyone is smart but it’s not like insaaanely smart. There are always going to be some people who are really good at certain subjects because their school offers a very good course or they are just naturally talented in that subject. In comparison there are students who come from schools which don’t even offer that many AP courses. MITES measures how much you work if anything. It doesn’t matter how much you learn going into it. It’s about who you are and what you have learned when you come out. </p>
<p>Plus you shouldn’t measure “smart” by what class you got placed into since it depends on previous experience in the subjects. Plus that doesn’t mean those people have stupid moments. I experienced quite a few… daily… </p>
<p>kevmus got it right 
my robot was the best 
my favorite class is still physics though <3</p>
<p>How do you get into physics 3? a placement test? Also did you guys have free time like inthe afternoon to idk walk around talk with friends? go to boston etc?</p>