Official MIT 2011 EA Decision Thread

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
101

<p>Decision: Deferred</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<ul>
<li>SAT: 2380 (780CR)</li>
<li>SAT IIs: 790/Math II 800/Chem</li>
<li>APs: Calc BC/Euro/Chem/PhysC 5</li>
<li>GPA: 4.00 (unweighted)</li>
<li>Rank: 1/~230</li>
<li>Senior Yr Courseload: Still rigorous, mostly college classes at local univ</li>
<li>Number of Apps from Your School: Just me</li>
</ul>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<ul>
<li>Essays: I thought they were good, my English teacher said they were excellent</li>
<li>Teacher Recs: Both "best of career" types...math teacher said it was the "longest dang thing [she'd] ever written"</li>
<li>Interview: I thought it went well...</li>
<li>Hook (if any): none that I know of.</li>
</ul>

<p>Location/Person:</p>

<ul>
<li>State or Country: IL (but ~330 miles south of Chicago)</li>
<li>School Type: Public</li>
<li>Ethnicity: White</li>
<li>Gender: Male</li>
</ul>

<p>Other Factors:</p>

<ul>
<li>Extracurriculars:
Lots of Quiz Bowl awards (all-state, etc)
Band stuff (all-state trombone, etc)
President of Key Club
Leads in school plays
..I thought they were good.</li>
<li>Why I think I was accepted/deferred: Umm...admissions are pretty random..</li>
<li>Other thoughts: Disappointed, but the biggest blow is the sheer amount of work I neglected to do on my other apps :(</li>
</ul>

102

<p>Decision: DEFERRED</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<pre><code>* SAT: M710 CR780 WR800 (2290)
* SAT IIs: Math 2 730 Physics 700 World History 780

* GPA: 3.98 weighted
* Rank: Top decile
* AMC/AIME/USAMO: No
* Other stats: AP exams 5 on World, American; 4 on English, Comp Sci A; 3 on Physics B
* Senior Yr Courseload: Calc BC, AP Eng Lit, AP Chem, req'd Government class, French Honors
* Number of Apps from Your School: 2, me and a girl who was also deferred
</code></pre>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<pre><code>* Essays: Pretty good but were written for the common app, so not exactly meeting the prompts
* Teacher Recs: Solid, one from a Pre-Calc Honors teacher, the other from an English teacher
* Counselor Rec: Not amazing, counselor didn't know me well or particularly care for me
* Interview: Went very well, nice old EC, had a real rapport
* Hook: Entrepreneurialism/started own business, stand-up comedy hobby, Wikipedia administrator, resume on website (myname.com)
</code></pre>

<p>Location/Person:</p>

<pre><code>* State or Country: Suburban New York, USA
* School Type: Competitive public
* Ethnicity: Jewish
* Gender: Male
</code></pre>

<p>Other Factors:
* Extracurriculars: Debate, mock trial, chess, quiz bowl, Science Research class (but no awards), own business, Wikipedia, stand-up
* Why I think I was accepted/deferred: More of an English person, didn't have the raw grade & stats in science and math areas. Applied under "Business" but maybe I should have put English or a more humanities major.
* Other thoughts: I wouldn't be surprised if I got in 2nd round on the strength of my extracurriculars/hooks and interview, but I applied early to Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science and will hopefully be attending.</p>

103

<p>DD Decision: ACCEPTED</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<ul>
<li>SAT: 2400</li>
<li>SAT IIs: Math 2 800 Chem 800 French 740</li>
<li>GPA: 4.0 uw</li>
<li>Rank: Top 3%</li>
<li>AMC/AIME/USAMO: 129/9</li>
<li>Other stats: AP Calc BC, US Hist, Chem, French, Eng Lang 5
EPGY: Multivar Calc, Linear Alg</li>
<li>Senior Yr Courseload: AP/IB courses</li>
</ul>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<ul>
<li>Essays: </li>
<li>Teacher Recs: </li>
<li>Counselor Rec: </li>
<li>Interview: </li>
<li>Hook: Research with college prof, summer math programs, national/state level math awards, regional orchestra principal</li>
</ul>

104

<p>Eeerm...I think I should calrify my previous post in this thread</p>

<p>I was actually Rejected.....But I really, really hope adcoms got to look at my application, and did not simply throw it away when they saw 580 on CR</p>

105

<p>Why is there something suspicious about 04 and 06 for USAMO? I'm just wondering, though I Mopped 05. </p>

<p>Btw, this is white<em>horse</em>king88 from Aops. Don't know why I'm using another username.</p>

106

<p>Deferred</p>

<p>Gender: M
Race: Colombian
College Class Year: 2011
High School: Public
High School Type: sends many grads to top schools</p>

<p>Academics:</p>

<p>GPA - Unweighted: 3.70
GPA - Weighted: 4.60
Class Rank: top 10%</p>

<p>Scores:</p>

<p>SAT I Math: 800
SAT I Critical Reading: 730
SAT I Writing: 800
SAT II Math Level 2 (IIC): 800
SAT II Biology - M: 800
SAT II Spanish: 760
SAT II Spanish with Listening: 800</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Significant Extracurriculars: Director: A capella group (recorded professional-level cd, has tracks in the running for a spot on best of high school a capella)
Co-President:Minority student out reach group (will be doing a significant project this year sponsoring an elementary school science fair)
Varsity Cross Country
School Musical
Leadership positions: Director of a capella group
Co-President of Minority Outreach group
Athletic Status - list sport and your level: Cross Country Varsity B
Volunteer/Service Work: Worked at Georgetown University Medical center every day of the summer (I stayed home from my family's vacation and ) in the CSD.</p>

<p>Worked at a middle school helping a school supplies drive
Honors and Awards: AP Scholar with Distinction
National Hispanic Scholar Finalist (missed merit semifinalist by 2 points)
24th in state for UMD math competition (i havent done many math comps this is the only one.)
All-State Choir</p>

<p>school: highly highly competitive specialized math science magnet</p>

<p>aps:
BC Calc: 5/5
AP Comp Sci (the harder one):5
AP French: 3
AP Lang: 5
AP US Gov: 5
AP Bio: 5
AP Spanish: 5
AP World: 4</p>

<p>Interview for MIT: Talked for 2 hours, , he started telling me why I should choose MIT over "the other elite universities I would get into" ... :(</p>

107

<p>I've never heard of a 2 hour interview lol. I have 720, 800, 800 and mine went 1 hour and 15 minutes lol.</p>

108

<p>Neah, interviews do not have anything to do with scores...
Mine went for 3+ hours, and, as you can see, did not bring me anywhere =)
(Of course, there is no one to blame for this, but myself)...Still...</p>

109

<p>


</p>

<p>Yes, why are you using a different username?</p>

<p>Because it was easier to USAMO in 05 than 04. Because he was a frosh in 04 and a sophomore in 05. Because supposedly the sophomore year is supposed to be the easiest to USAMO (stupid AIME floor, ugh) period.</p>

<p>And you know, 2005 AIME was a pretty big disappointment. Besides, once you get in a year, you're kind of "expected" to continue qualifying. Of course, some people do slip up...but it doesn't look too good if you do.</p>

<p>I don't think it's a huge issue though, whk. He'll be the first person they admit in regular.</p>

110

<p>Heh, yeah, I don't think interview time has much to do with anything, especially not SAT scores. My interviewer didn't even ask for them. Plus, I know people with 45 minute interviews who got in as well as people with 2+ hour interviews who also got in.</p>

111

<p>
[quote]

Because it was easier to USAMO in 05 than 04. Because he was a frosh in 04 and a sophomore in 05. Because supposedly the sophomore year is supposed to be the easiest to USAMO (stupid AIME floor, ugh) period.</p>

<p>And you know, 2005 AIME was a pretty big disappointment.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I'm pretty sure AoPS pays much more attention to the difficulty level of these things than MIT does.</p>

112

<p>Decision: I "stood out...in one of the most competitive applicant pools in the history of the institute."</p>

<p>Gender: M (ouch)
Race: Chinese (yikes!)
School: Homeschooled (oh bugger)</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<pre><code>* SAT: 2360 (800M 760CR 800W)
* SAT IIs: 800 Math IIC, 800 Physics, 800 Chinese w/ List. (also Literature and US History)
* GPA: N/A
* Rank: N/A
* AMC/AIME: 137 AMC 12, 11 AIME
* 13 AP tests (8 11th grade, 5 10th grade) - all 5's and 4's. All self-studied, except Physics C: Mech. (via MIT OCW)
* Taken about a dozen (and counting) college (and a few law school) courses through Harvard, Stanford EPGY, Rice University, MIT OCW, and Houston Community college in addition to local homeschool programs and museums.
* Avg. 11 courses per year, most self-taught.
* Emphasized that education was extremely independent. Sometimes collected resources from various sources instead of using a textbook.
</code></pre>

<p>National/International Honors, Awards, and Programs:</p>

<pre><code>* 3-time USAMO qualifier
* MOsP
* Asian-Pacific Math Olympiad for USA (which most MOPpers are invited to take)
* AHSIMC national 4th place team (didn't really help app, just sounded good)
* ARML Texas team - we won team awards! yay!
* Conference on National Affairs - speech program. Texas delegate, 25 per state.
* 3rd place at an international Chinese essay competition whose name in english I don't know. Sponsored by the Chinese Education Ministry and other major education and media groups. Over 100,000 submissions every year, almost all of which are from native speakers, most of which are national Chinese students. Probably one of the largest (if not the largest) essay competitions in the world.
* Canada/USA Mathcamp
* Beijing Language and Culture University summer study program (recruits students internationally)
* Internship at China Daily (Interns recruited from premier universities around the world among language arts majors. I got lucky.)
* National AP Scholar, National Merit, and some other standardized-testing stuff.
* Moderator (for 3 years) on Art of Problem Solving. (See advertisement below.)
</code></pre>

<p>Published Articles in:</p>

<pre><code>* People's Daily (Ren Min Ri Bao) - One of the largest dailies in the world. Has a circulation almost the size of that of the USA Today and NY Times combined.

  • Highlights for Children (long time ago) - Oh come on, we've all read this one when we were kids.

  • China Daily publications - Only national English-language newspaper in China. Primarily read by the well-educated, expatriates, businessmen, and politicians. Own many publications, only one of which is the daily paper.

  • One other international magazine whose name escapes me and a few local papers.
    </code></pre>

<p>State/Local Awards/Honors/Programs:</p>

<pre><code>* "Extensive" awards in math competitions
* Same for participation and awards in debate, speech, and politics stuff.
* Houston Youth Symphony (Cellos rock :D)
* 1st place for two years in Chinese speech competition
</code></pre>

<p>Other Stuff that I think MIT considered:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Leadership in various regional homeschool organizations. Volunteered extensively: from aid packages for soliders in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina (I'm located in Houston...eh) relief, fundraising for MD Anderson cancer research ...to working in local libraries and co-organizing for a Chinese school fundraiser and other stuff.</p></li>
<li><p>Taught a competition mathematics class for 2 years. Tutored. And aided students on a voluntary basis.</p></li>
<li><p>Assistant on the best middle school math team in the nation. They had all 4 of the kids on the 2005 Texas team that won MathCounts.</p></li>
<li><p>Played 5 different sports regularly, not competitive basis.</p></li>
<li><p>Piano. And cello. Mostly cello. I'm a stereotypical Asian. :)</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<pre><code>* Essays: -.- Started 18 hours before the deadline. (Hah procrastination!) cough That was a mistake, but I think it was okay. (Ask Nevermore if you really want to know how they were. She's read them. And I'm giving you permission to bug her.) I didn't write the optional ones.

  • Hook (if any): After making USAMO freshman year, I decided that I needed to diversify - for example, taking a newspaper internship where I could write and interview and edit instead of going to a research program and doing a project for Siemens or Intel. I think that's going to help for the other colleges I'm applying to. Dunno how much it helped on MIT. And it's probably not a hook. Sorry. </code></pre>

<p>Recommendations:
This came as sort of a problem, as it usually does with homeschoolers. Our interaction with teachers is fairly irregular. Here's what I chose...</p>

<pre><code>* Math/Sci Rec: Very experienced physicist with over 3 decades in research and one and a half in teaching college physics. Taught me during sophomore year.

  • Humanities Rec: Lifelong lawyer who graduated from Northwestern and UMichigan Ann Arbor. Great teacher, very knowledgable in her field. I had a great time in her class. Problem was she's one of my teachers this year and class started in September. So that wasn't very much time for her to get to know me. But eventually, I think it turned out all right. MIT didn't get her rec when she mailed it and then faxed it. So she hunted down someone in admissions and got it to them by faxing it while on the phone. :-) Lawyers are efficient and productive. Yes they are. </code></pre>

<ul>
<li><p>Other Rec: MathCamp mentor, very experienced in competition mathematics. Has taught many mathematics students who compete nationally and internationally. Also emphasized the time we spent doing a puzzle hunt and other activities (hiking, movies, rafting...) together. Currently at UC Berkeley. (Fabulous letterhead they've got over there.)</p>

<ul>
<li>Open Reference letter: Editor and Senior Columnist at China Daily. Recommended me as "one of the best interns they've worked with" and noted that they had interns from prestigious universities from across the world.</li>
</ul></li>
<li><p>Counselor Rec: Noted in school profile that neither parents nor other counselors were actively involved in my education. Submitted blank, but I write that the school is free to contact me if they would like me to find an appropriate adult to write the evaluation. Didn't hear from them.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>I asked recommenders not to share their letters with me (except for the last one) so I can't really say how they were. I'm told that the math/sci rec said I was the best student he ever had. Similar language in a previous rec by the third evaluator. Didn't see the humanities rec, but her eagerness to help suggests it was pretty good. Besides, lawyers make things sound good. It's what they do.</p>

<p>Other Factors:</p>

<pre><code>* Extracurriculars: Already covered the major ones.

  • Interview: About 25 minutes long. Guy asked what he needed to ask. I answered. I asked a few questions. We called it a day. And then he started interviewing someone else like 4 minutes later. Totally efficient.

  • Why I think I was accepted/deferred: I don't know if it was any one particular factor. If I had to point, I'd say 3 years of USAMO was the big one. 3-time USAMO qualifiers are likely to have a 100% or close to 100% acceptance rate at every school, at least for now. So if you don't compete in the AMC series, get started. :)

  • The most important thing for MIT: I think the best piece of advice they give you (something that is consistent for all the accepted students whose profiles I've read) is to exhaust every opportunity you have. Then look for new ones. If there aren't any, make some. Find some. Get yourself some. Bother other people for some. And if that means doing something outside of school or something no one you know has ever done, so be it. All the better. Then tell MIT about it.

  • Other thoughts: I love to read college essays if anyone wants to share. :) And you can read mine too. ^__^ AIM me.
    </code></pre>

<p>Shameless Advertising:
I'm not the best person to be making this statement, but if you're 13 and you want to go to MIT...or you're the parent of a 13-year-old who wants to go to MIT...or your best friend/sibling/neighbor/cousin, twice removed/mom's friend's niece is 13 and wants to go to MIT...go to <a href="http://www.artofproblemsolving.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.artofproblemsolving.com&lt;/a>. And tell that 13-year-old. Tell him/her to get active on AoPS. (AoPSers, support me here!) Because in 4 years, chances are if you've been active on AoPS and explore your opportunities, you'll find yourself accepted to MIT (Class of 2015).</p>

<p>How can I be sure? Because MIT love AoPS. Matt McGann (from MIT Admissions) actively recruits on AoPS every year. That's how I know MIT loves AoPS. And AoPS loves MIT. :)</p>

113

<p>Wow, deja vu. I had practically the exact same problem with my humanities recc, MithsApprentice.</p>

<p>They finally got it 3 days before decisions were released. :D</p>

114

<p>^^ you are freaking amazing</p>

115

<p>
[quote]
* The most important thing for MIT: I think the best piece of advice they give you (something that is consistent for all the accepted students whose profiles I've read) is to exhaust every opportunity you have. Then look for new ones. If there aren't any, make some. Find some. Get yourself some. Bother other people for some. And if that means doing something outside of school or something no one you know has ever done, so be it. All the better. Then tell MIT about it.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>This is so very true. :)</p>

116

<p>Deferred</p>

<p>Gender: M
Race: Asian
College Class Year: 2011
High School: Private NYC</p>

<p>Academics:</p>

<p>GPA - Unweighted: 4.0
GPA - Weighted: not sure
Class Rank: top 10%</p>

<p>Scores:</p>

<p>SAT I Math: 770
SAT I Critical Reading: 700
SAT I Writing: 650
SAT II Math Level 2 (IIC): 790
SAT II Chinese with Listening: 800</p>

<p>Major Extracurriculars:
Captain V XC
Captain Math Team (1st place regional competition and other math awards)
President of School Admissions Ambassador Club (recruitment school's official club)
Principle Violinist Chamber Ensemble</p>

<p>and some competitions</p>

<p>AP Calc BC 4 AB 5
AP Physics C Mech: 5
AP US: 4</p>

117

<p>I saw your post and wanted to offer some advice. Your passion for filmaking was very interesting and should have given you an edge. Did you indicate you were going to major in comparative media? I do not know if that is an interest of yours. If it is, then they would have possibly seen your film experience as something you might bring to add to the college community. If not, then perhaps it did not play as big a factor as you would have liked.</p>

118

<p>MithsApprentice, only a 2360?</p>

119

<p><em>beats Qwertz82 up</em></p>

120

<p>I'm posting a friends stats (with permission), just to show you that "normal" people do get in.</p>

<p>Decision: Accepted</p>

<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT: 760 M / 720 CR / 700 W (2180)
[</em>] SAT IIs: 800 Math IIC / 730 Physics
[<em>] GPA: 4.0
[</em>] Rank: 1/375
[<em>] AMC 12/AIME: 100.5 / 3
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Essays: Very polished, but nothing special
[<em>] Teacher Recs: Great I'm sure
[</em>] Counselor Rec: See Above
[<em>] Hook (if any): Perfect attendance since Kindergarten
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country: Oregon
[<em>] School Type: Public
[</em>] Ethnicity: White/Caucasian
[<em>] Gender: Male
[/ul]Other Factors:[ul]
[</em>] Extracurriculars: Band, some small math competitions
[<em>] Why I think I was accepted/deferred: He's shown a lot of interest (and I mean a lot)
[</em>] Other thoughts:
[/ul]</p>