Official MIT Class of 2012 Regular Action Decisions Thread

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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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.

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This can be shown to be patently false by perusing the rest of this thread.</p>

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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.

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I have to drag this statistic out every time we get into one of these arguments, but female MIT students actually graduate with higher GPAs and at a higher rate than male MIT students, regardless of major. I'm not necessarily implying that the females admitted to MIT are in fact academically superior, but I think it does speak to the argument that the women are sad sack cases admitted out of pity.</p>

<p>The women at MIT outperform the men at MIT in terms of grades and graduation rates. Which part of that fact implies that the bar for girls is set lower than the bar for guys?</p>

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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."

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Work with me here. The female acceptance rate at Caltech, in the total absence of gender-based affirmative action, is ~1.5x the male acceptance rate. So the women who apply to Caltech are, on average, apparently more qualified than the men -- that is to say, they have a less extreme left tail of qualifications. This is likely to also be true of the MIT applicant pool, but MIT has many more female applicants than Caltech.</p>

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<p>I think the women are just as qualified as the men. The only thing about the admissions rate though is that it is nearly twice as high for women since MIT tries to make it a 1:1 male-female ratio. Since less girls apply the percentage is higher. But it does even out I think, since women who really are interested in MIT are going to be good students.</p>

383

<p>lutz and everyone else, the MIT admissions people have directly addressed this in their blogs numerous times--e.g., Nance's blog MIT</a> Admissions | Blog Entry: "It's All About The Process" .</p>

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[quote]
For many there is a perception that the only way to increase diversity is to 'relax the standards'. I can't speak for other Colleges/Universities, but that is not the case at MIT. Everyone had to withstand close scrutiny and examination before being admitted. PERIOD.

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<p>MIT admissions is pretty clear about their admissions policies--enough people apply to MIT that I'm pretty sure they can be as selective as they want to be. Is it really that difficult to believe that there could be enough qualified URMs to admit without lowering the standards?
Maybe confusion arises because being 'successful' doesn't just mean being able to rack up the most points on the olympiads, and this applies for all applicants, not just URMs. If everyone at MIT was there to score highest on the Putnam, I think we'd have a pretty boring place. Besides, like people have said before, it's not like MIT has to sacrifice its 'Putnam-ish' aspect.</p>

384

<p>Worriemom,
It was apparent to my son's teachers that he had been working well beyond the curriculum. The sophistication of his work, the methods he used in solving problems, the books he carried around in his backpack, the competitions he participated in, the awards he won for his research, the letters from his teachers and mentor, his ability to teach difficult material to high school students -- all pointed to intense independent work and thorough understanding of the material. </p>

<p>When a student has taken three years of math beyond BC Calc, whether or not one qualifies for USAMO is somewhat irrelevant.</p>

385

<p>MollieB! MOLLIeB! MOLLIEB! :):D:) Great Post!</p>

<p>itsaclassic...WOW and now girls who can do 60 push ups in
a minute....could have asked your friend to help in the dunking-in-the-charles
of non-believers at CPW</p>

<p>:p</p>

386

<p>WOW.. that's the most idiotic thing I've ever read lutz.... I have a brother that is a National Merit Finalist... none of these IMO , Siemens stuff because our school is not only no longer accredited but doesn’t offer any of this... a Gates Millennium scholar ... a Prudential community Scholar State honoree... and a slew of stuff... he played basketball... could have gone to Duke for free.. was third in his class.... held down a job to help the family (20 hours a week) and we still live under the poverty threshold... and he still was waitlisted at MIT 2 years ago…please.. I thought this was supposed to be about the accepted students and congratulating them not blowing up your own ego by belittling everyone who got accepted that didn’t reach you "bar" of excellence...</p>

<p>Is every single person at MIT an IMO, Siemens, Intel, USACO, USNCO, USABO participant... of course not.. maybe a large percentage of them.. but not every single one... "shame such academically elite schools... its a shame that you would make such an assumption....the people on CC need to realize not only is this a small proportion of the entering class... but also sometimes... these posts can be lies and that has been proven time and time again....
The next time you wish that you were a URM so you would "easily get into an ivy" or that you wish the standards were higher... try going into a supermarket in a rich neighborhood and constantly being stared at to make sure you don't steal something.. or wait in line and have your question dismissed just so that someone of a lighter complexion who has the same question can have it answered... try going to a college and have everyone think your either a. an athlete.. b. the result of AA.... or c. a rich snobby black kid who abuses AA.... then you can talk....</p>

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<p>What annoys me more than anything is to see these racist comments being posted. Anyone who gets into MIT totally and completely deserves to go there. There are too many reasons to create metrics for admissions, so anyone who says that MIT's admissions policies are wack can go suck a lemon. If MIT was to not consider quotas, gender ratios or urms, see how you would enjoy being part of a enormous graduating class, a skewed gender ratio and possibly not many international/urm students. </p>

<p>To say that URMs are not as smart as chinese, indians, or whites is disgusting. Nurture is more important than nature, and maybe many urms just don't have the opportunities like other minorities have. And this is from personal experience. Engineers are supposed to build better technologies to improve our futures, but how can we possibly help those in need if the idiots who are so full of themselves think that some races are superior to others?</p>

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<p>I got accepted after being deferred EA.</p>

<p>35 ACT (12 WR); 2340 SAT; 800/800/760 Chem/MathII/US History SAT II; 4.69 UW GPA; Rank 1/1000+</p>

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<p>I think lingotjuice (#386) really got the point across, particularly at the end. There is a reason colleges take into account an applicant's environment. The process not only gives him a fair shot, but helps the dominant ethnicities become more open-minded, which is VITAL in a multicultural society! Awesome post!</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Nurture is more important than nature,

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<p>...which is why "URM" status should be allocated based on socioeconomic factors, not race.</p>

391

<p>

I disagree. Four-period ellipses make him sound incoherent. </p>

<p>Ligot, by citing the example of his brother, was trying to show that AA does not help as much as you might think. Unless you view waitlisting an amazingly (economically) disadvantaged applicant as "a fair shot", I think you misunderstand the post. Ligot complains about the stigma attached to race-based AA that causes people to look down upon URMs. That ligot is an URM seems to show that there are even minorities who resent the presumptions of AA. AA is bad, therefore, because it enhances racism. </p>

<p>Lutz's arguments are exaggerated. Nobody really thinks everyone at MIT did these national competitions.</p>

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<p>I don't see any surprises in my package. =&lt;/p>

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<p>sorry....
or sorry... =}</p>

394

<p>Yeah paul said he might be wrong. I'm disappointed, but that's alright I guess.</p>

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<p>All I can say is the Fin Aid sent by MIT <strong><em>ROCKS</em></strong></p>

<p><em>----:D----</em></p>

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<p>All I can say is the mail man hates me and lost my letter again!.... everyone else from my area got their letter already... </p>

<p>T_T</p>

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<p>No letter yet. Crossing my fingers for today!</p>

<p>Did finaid packages come with the letter? I doubt I got mine since I didn't send in my 2007 tax returns till earlier this week through IDOC since my parents had problems with filing this year. I hope that doesn't hurt me too much.</p>

398

<p>Do you think MIT will go to the waitlist this year?</p>

399

<p>^ In reply to the waitlist Q:</p>

<p>MIT</a> Admissions | Blog Entry: "Q&A for the Waitlisted"</p>

<p>Even Mighty Matt doesn't know; it all depends on us prefrosh deciding to enroll, or not. Because of the shifting EA/ED policies of many prestigious schools this year, the guesstimation of waitlisted students is even more impossible to guess than usual.</p>

400

<p>Actually she is a friend of mine, how she got in is very interesting. I bet her SAT score is among the lowest of people admitted.
Something to note: SHE GOT REJECTED BY UIUC</p>

<p>Accepted</p>

<p>Stats:[ list]
[<em>]SAT: Math: 800 CR: 440 Wr: 480
[</em>]SAT II: MathII: 800 Phy:800 Chem:790
[<em>]ACT: None
[</em>]GPA: Not sure
[<em>]Rank: One of the best of her school
[</em>]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 5 in all AP, IOI SILVER MEDALIST
[/list][ b]Subjective[ /b][ list]
[<em>]Essays: Very good
[</em>]Teacher Recs: Very good (A female IOI silver medalist)
[<em>]Counselor Rec: Very good
[</em>]Supplementary Material:
[<em>]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): [/list]IOI Silver Medalist with 1 point below gold medalist[ list]
[</em>]Location: South East Asia, International Student
[<em>]High School Type: Best high school in her country
[</em>]Ethnicity: Asian
[<em>]Gender: Female
[</em>]Extracurriculars: IOI
[<em>]Awards: IOI Silver Medalist
[</em>]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: It is very interesting that she got into MIT but not UIUC. Seems like MIT care alot about major academic acheivement for international students where 3 people who got accepted this year from my country are 1) IBO Gold Medalist Ranked 1st in the world (male) 2) IBO Silver Medalist (Female) 3) IOI Silver Medalist(Female, this girl I am talking about) where 2 other people who got waitlisted are IOI Gold Medalist (male) and IMO Bronze Medalist (male) [/list]</p>