<p>My interviewer sent me this, which was sent from the admissions office.</p>
<p>"In this class there are professional magicians, a DJ ("Radio Zoe"), the
overall Siemens Competition winner, the overall Intel Science Talent Search
winner, the number one gold medalist in the International Biology Olympiad,
the fastest female cross country runner ever recruited by MIT (a
valedictorian with a perfect math SAT), multiple conservatory level
musicians (including a prodigy who soloed at the U.N. and the White House),
students who have started businesses, quadruplets, and the world champion
Speed Cuber."</p>
<p>This has been posted elsewhere, and was removed because of privacy concerns for the individuals listed. If you could edit your post, I'm sure it would be appreciated.</p>
<p>i think the fact that people are acting like hopelessly didn't get in because a URM took his place is ridiculous. there are plenty of seemingly less qualified asian males who got in.</p>
<p>Well, I see what you're saying, differential. I was a lot like that too, only I was disciplined enough not to let it hurt me grade-wise. And it helped that often the things that I thought about was math and science that was way more advanced than what I was learning in school. </p>
<p>However, for anything to be an advantage in admissions it should be somewhat verifiable. If you've built a radio from scratch, you should have one of your teachers look at it so they can write that you did this. It doesn't necessarily have to be a competition. If it is sufficient to just say that you did this in an essay, then that opens up a Pandora's box of problems, though. People could exagerrate or just make it up. </p>
<p>There are a couple of prominent cases where people with the tendencies you describe didn't have a stellar record in high school. One was an artificial intelligence professor at Carnegie Mellon--he went on Oprah after he was diagnosed with cancer so his life story has gotten a lot of publicity. His SAT's were not that great (~1200/1600) and I don't think his grades were that great either. But his whole room was wired up as a kid. Another example was the Stanford physics professor that recently won the Nobel Prize. He described being obsessed with tangential subjects and letting his classwork go as a high school student. His brother had the highest GPA in the history of his private school, but didn't do anything that important later. So I understand your point. However, I think basing your selection system on trying to get these people can get pretty dicey. And I wonder if those people would have benefited from MIT's firehose style of curriculum. Would their fundamentals have been solid enough to survive, let alone also have time to think on their own? I think the only way for demonstration of interest above and beyond classwork should help you is through a recommendation. And like I said before, I do think recs that say the student goes far and above the call of duty should be valued.</p>
<p>Besides this, because subjects in math/science build on each other, it is very important that people's fundamental's are A-level. Otherwise, you are in for a rude awakening at MIT.</p>
<p>Yeah I got a phone call from Paul. It was exciting.</p>
<p>Tubes are for the EA people to feel good since MIT does not have much to send them that early in the admissions process. They definitely get the job done too! haha I read that somewhere a couple days ago (the blogs perhaps?). </p>
<p>The RA people get very thick packets and paul said something about there being a surprise for us in there. I guess we'll have to see. I just want a poster :-).</p>
<p>Ew, please no more insinuations that women and URMs are getting accepted only because of "sparkling personality" and great recommendations and community service activities. The academic standards went for us too, okay? Let's leave it at that, I feel guilty enough. There's already all this stigma attached to the spot and I haven't even gotten my official letter in the mail yet. It's leaving a bad taste in my mouth. =[ </p>
<p>That aside, I'm also going to have a hard time picking schools. I love MIT a lot, and I can't wait to get up there and visit the campus again to remind me just how much I did like it.</p>
<p>differntial, AMEN to your post about taking time to think and create. All too many kids in this country are overprogrammed with activities, and I think that important things get lost in that process. </p>
<p>My S talked in his essays about how sometimes his research and ideas took him away from his schoolwork -- he was quite upfront about it. He has always been one who enjoys teaching himself. Learning was more important than grades. Fortunately for him, the results of his daydreaming and thinking produced tangible results. MIT liked that; Caltech didn't seem to like the tradeoff in grades.</p>
<p>Would love to talk about this more, but I'd be giving too much away.</p>
<p>The academic standards went for you too, but you see, the standards are much, much, much lower. A URM female can literally recieve a 2000 on the SAT and low scores on math and science SAT IIs, while, say, a white or asian male must recieve 2350+ on the SATs, 800s on math and science SAT IIs, and be involved in an inhuman amount of math and science competitions.</p>
<p>It goes like this:</p>
<p>IMO, Siemens, Intel, USACO, USNCO, USABO</p>
<p>To get into MIT:
URM Female: Pick one, but if you don't really want to, it's fine.
White/Asian Male: Pick all six, and do it for every year since seventh grade.</p>
<p>No, I don't want to go to MIT, considering I've realized the immense academic load required. Yet, the truth is clear in many ways from simple comparisons. It's a shame that such an academically elite school makes it so clearly obvious in many ways that they discriminate very harshly.</p>
<p>My friend got into MIT regular!
But she's not going there, she's going to the Air Force Academy haha.</p>
<p>Since there is obviously bitterness toward URMs, women, athletes, etc who got into MIT, I thought I'd add to the bitterness.</p>
<p>My friend who got in is:
1. half black
2. Track Star Athlete (MIT coach kept calling her)
3. girl<br>
4. ~ 2100 on her SAT, no academic national/state awards or anything, but 4.7 gpa and #1 in class<br>
5. Started her application the night it was due and submitted it at 11:59 PM ! </p>
<p>But how would you prove if a person was day-dreaming and learning various subjects on his own? Only the student would know this, and who knows whether he is lying or telling the truth when writing on the app?
However, with the USAMO qualifier title, a student can prove he is good in math.</p>
<p>Ok, so although girls might have it easier than boys in admissions, some girls worked really hard in high school, and as hard as boys. Although there is an advantage to being a girl applying to MIT, that doesn't necessarily go for all schools. </p>
<p>After I got my acceptance letter (and screamed for 20 minutes-an hour), I realized how many boys got shafted, and it really made me feel guilty. However, I can honestly say that I worked REALLY hard in high school and really hard on my essays. And besides, I assume that any girl who wants to apply to MIT really knows that engineering/sciences is what she wants to do, and she would be pretty damn good as well.</p>
<p>^^^ Everyone always says this. MIT female admits will claim that they know how hard they worked in high school and how hard they worked on their applications. However, it's not just about working hard. It's also about results. Lots and lots of people work hard and then don't get into MIT. Just because you worked hard doesn't mean you are better than thousands of asian guys who worked hard and got shafted because of race/gender disadvantages (and I say this as a girl, not a guy). I am a girl, but I don't buy the idea that the bar for girls to get into MIT is the same as that for guys. Once they get in, can they do the work? Yes. But the problem is, most elite schools believe that they could admit a student body three or four times their capacity and every student would be capable of doing the work. Quite a few of the students MIT rejects are capable of getting high GPAs at MIT. Maybe some of the guys MIT rejected in favor of slightly less qualified girls would have done better than them at MIT, even if the some of the girls there do excel.</p>
<p>Will there be examples of girls helping guys at MIT with their classwork? Duh, obviously. Will some incredibly smart girls be in the MIT student body? Yes. But none of that proves that the bar for girls is as high as that for guys. And, again, as a female, I'm saying that the standard for admission just isn't as high, and it's a bit unfair for the guys.</p>
<p>I don't believe that all girls applying to MIT are completely set on engineering. I don't think the self selection for females is as extreme as people might believe. And there's no reason why any girl who wants to apply to MIT "would be pretty damn good as well."</p>