<p>Unfortunately I have not been selected for any team to represent my country in any International Olympiads. I am a international applicant from India.</p>
<p>Will MIT now remain just a dream for me?</p>
<p>Please honest answer , I am so tensed of the college process :(</p>
<p>I have said this many times earlier and I am going to repeat it. Please do not get emotionally attached to any one college. Make a list of your good “fit” colleges. And they all should be those you would be happy to go to. Also that is a list of about 10-15, narrowed down from a choice of over 50 if not 100 best colleges in your major preference. So one more time, spread your options. In the end, all things being equal - SAT, GPA, Essays, Rigor of Curriculum… college admission are a lottery.</p>
<p>To be harsh and brutally honest, probably… but anialway’s advice is the best. Please apply though. You never know. :)</p>
<p>anialways is absolutely right in her advice. Don’t get attached to any one college/university.</p>
<p>I may (will) sound harsh now. Forget about MIT unless you have something extraordinary! You don’t have Olympiads and just decide for yourself whether you have anything outstanding to be one of the 4-6 students who get into MIT.</p>
<p>Also, the recent trend followed by MIT is “n-1 out of n admits from India are International Olympiad medalists”. So this gives you just one spot to compete with (how many other Indians?). This is just an observation though.</p>
<p>But seriously, who can stop you from applying?</p>
<p>Few people have got in MIT without medals( like Amol Bhave,Ishan Chugh, B.Sagar and a few more).If you have something that sets you apart from the majority of applicants(like me…just joking),then you have a chance(not 100%).</p>
<p>^B.Sagar as in Basant Vivek Sagar?</p>
<p>MIT does not care about all this… All it cares about is the overall combination of your marks, EC’s and SAT and SAT II scores… Thats it… Even if you dont participates in new fews. Things it wont matter really… Just give ur best shot and wriite good essay’s and personal statement :)</p>
<p>^No offense to you. But seriously?? You need all those for sure! There’s no doubt about it. Very rarely does MIT accept someone with a low SAT score (It generally happened with the non-medalist admits). But an International Olympiad medal has become somewhat a requirement to get into MIT. I guess you know very less!</p>
<p>I had the same reaction hopingforbetter! Then I went and read her threads. She’s a Class of 2018 applicant. She’s not all that experienced. :)</p>
<p>Ok! I’m gonna be blunt.
Out of the 4 people i know who got into MIT, 3 were having international medals. The other one was better that the rest. So, you can imagine what the admission scene is like at MIT. If you don’t have an international medal, your chances are automatically reduced by 75%. And the Indian pool is too cut-throat. So, you need to be a prodigy to get in.
Period.</p>
<p>Don’t blindly believe on what the website of the Univ. says.</p>
<p>Please do not apply if you do not have medals, additionally you should have them in class XI. Clearing first and second round of nsep, nesec or incho, inpho do not help at all.</p>
<p>Honestly, it is a waste of time applying especially because of their extremely short word limits on essays. You cannot borrow any of your other schools’ essays and edit. It takes huge amount of time too. Sincere advice…drop the idea.</p>
<p>A few years ago competition was much lower, but now it is really bad.</p>
<p>
Oh this 18’er will come to know after she completes her admissions season!</p>
<p>Another one of these…why does the same thing start off each year 
Anyways, nobody can stop you from believing that you won’t get in. But heed experience as it teaches you a lot…especially ‘first hand’ experience :)</p>
<p>Actually you need only focus on your domain and be the best in that(hopefully STEM)…As long as you have decent ( on average) scores they will never stand in your way. Work on 1 great achievement…</p>
<p>Oh and please do enjoy the application, one of the better ones :)</p>
<p>Guys @firefliesdance, @hopingforbetter…remember last year :p</p>
<p>^I do!! I will probably remember it forever! :p</p>
<p>Why you all discourage her? Out of many applications, MIT application is different and if she is rejected, other applications will take her to her destination. Encourage her to read all the Thesis/Writings written by MIT Admission People, and apply to MIT. At best she will lose some $, but she will get the best experience of her life.</p>
<p>^Writing a whole new application from scratch, i don’t think this is the ‘best experience ever’ from any angle. Correct me if i’m wrong.</p>
<p>This is a melodramatic thread…I wish people really knew what they were saying on most occassions. While MIT is a dream for many, international olympiad is not the end all be all. The US is not composed of only MIT, as Britain is not just compiled of Cambridge. There is much greater selection and campus view is much more appealing. To get into a technological school can mean various different routes. You could do a project, present it, and carry it to an international platform. If you have an international recognition and more “wow” stuff attached to it, you will be good. To put all your eggs in one basket by saying that once you get into intl olympiad you will get into MIT or elsewhere is nonsense. A sensible kid is one who realizes that everyone is different and special in his or her own way.</p>
<p>
This is what anialways said in the first reply to the OP’s question. </p>
<p>
We would be pleased to know about all such opportunities. How many? One? Two?</p>
<p>
This is great!! You have opened our eyes very wide!</p>
<p>
Nobody here said that an int’l Olympiad medal can get you into MIT. All we say is that those who get into MIT from India are mostly int’l Olympiad medalists.</p>
<p>
And you said this!! Funny!! Too funny!</p>
<p>@hopingforbetter, it is clear that you want to argue with me but I am politely refraining from that offer. Please don’t bash my statements out of context, I only want to boost the poster’s morale. So what if I repeated something anialways has written before? It will only confirms that life is not horrible without your dream school’s acceptance. Rather it is more valuable coming from a current undergrad. The post is exaggerated and I will not contest this. I don’t even think about intl olympiads because universities such as MIT will not penalize you if you have some other intl recognition. Yes, they will expect to see some proof of your intelligence but does it have to be the olympiads? absolutely not. Statistics get boring after a while and universities may follow a trend for some years but will occasionally have students come from diverse backgrounds and recognition.
I was never rebuking anyone’s response to the poster but solely the poster’s statement. You can tell that I did not read any of the responses and was more keen to add my own experience and knowledge.
In terms of project, I would recommend finding a professor and explaining to them that you would like to work with them. Usually you will find many that will turn you down but if you’re lucky, they may offer some basic work for you to do. Rarely, it is hard to find a project that you can work in with deep knowledge. If in case you jump this obstacle, you can publish that work with your professor if it is a project that you become extremely invested in. However, research is not easy to handle with coursework at a high school age if you do not understand it. So I would be wary of the challenges and sacrifice you will have to make accordingly.
Also most people do not start their senior year in HS doing this but rather much earlier into their high school year. Also as you can tell, one is quite enough since dedication is more important than the quantity of labs you have worked with. Through one lab, you’re able to make much greater impact logically. My point is to provide the OP with a sense of accomplishment that can be equal to the intl olympiads. There are many paths to go with this; hence, one must not be discouraged no matter what others may say.</p>