<p>So, there's this half day program that focuses primarily on math and science I just learned of that is located 20 miles away from my town. If I do get in, they provide you free transportation. However, there a lot of problems if I do attend the program. First is how my district school weighs the grades I get in the program no matter how rigorous it may be (such as AP Bio), as a a level 2 class which is in other words a really easy class and the kids that are less smart are in. This will cause me to have a much lower weighted GPA and rank. The second problem is that due to scheduling issues, I might not be able to take non math and science AP classes such as APUSH, and AP English. Is it worth it to go to the program because of their more vast selections of classes in math and science than my district school or should I stay in my school? If I don't apply to an engineering school, how badly would it affect my chances? Would MIT understand these circumstances?</p>
<p>You should go to the program only if you’re really interested in the topics and you feel like it would enrich you as a person, not just on paper
I think that even though MIT is STEM based, they are looking for someone who is well rounded, not just identical math clones. AP English and APUSH are also looked very favorably by other colleges. And the GPA sink might not be worth it. Remember that MIT is just one great university out of many.</p>
<p>If you’re looking for more science and math, try looking into summer programs (Off the top of my head: RSI, PROMYS, Ross, BU Rise, etc. there are entire forums for this) or programs that don’t interfere with school, such as online classes (OpenCourseWare) or something like MIT Primes</p>