<p>cammac-
to be honest, there are probably at least 20-30 other applicants with similar qualifications (excluding the page) applying to MIT alone. given that about 7000 people score 2300+ on the SAT (excluding superscores) each year, a class president w/good athletics, academic EC, and career-oriented work is probably not uncommon given that those categories generally overlap with top applicants.</p>
<p>so essays/recs/interviews need to make the person stand out. and really, its quite the crapshoot</p>
<p>I know someone in my school who has a 4.0/many APs/2350 SAT/and has VERY generic and typical ECs for an applicant applying to MIT. He’s very science/math oriented and is apart of robotics and some other clubs like such. And he does some math competitions, but they aren’t national or anything. I’m sure there is more to him than I know of, but it’s so surprising that he got accepted.</p>
<p>I know a guy who was accepted - he was top 16% senior year, though top 5% sophomore year (needless to say, a decreasing show with grades) and was pretty horrible in college freshman year at school here (we take freshman year college in school, after senior year school, then apply to college.) He was like in the bottom half of the class when he sent in his midyear report. No hooks. I’m not joking.
He had US citizenship but lived abroad.
Discuss.
You know, if you feel like it.</p>
<p>the bottom line is what i posted in my “chance” thread. often people can’t make sense of decisions from what they, personally, know, because so much that is in an application (LORs, interviews, the broader applicant pool, etc) are unavailable to them. </p>
<p>seriously, don’t try to make sense of it. not because it is a random, nonsensical process, but because the reason it doesn’t make sense is because only the admissions office has all of the data needed to make sense of it.</p>
<p>^What about the applicant (considering he/she managed to take a look at the recommendation forms before they were sent in)?
I guess subjectivity factors in there.</p>
<p>applicant, no. many teachers do not allow students to look at the LORs. and he or she cannot see the interview report. and even then they cannot see the broader applicant pool against whom they compete. </p>
<p>really, there is a reason i posted that “chance” thread - only adcoms can make sense of this because only adcoms have all of the relevant decision making data.</p>
<p>So how did Midterms/midyears go for everyone? I can sadly confirm that there is no way in hell I am going to be admitted. I ended up with a 77 in Calc, despite all my efforts, trying to learn from this teacher who I just can’t understand, getting burnt on a partner project. </p>
<p>I got all A’s. I can sympathize with you in Calc. I barely got A’s in Calc BC when I took it last year. Now I am in AP Statistics which is ridiculously easy. I haven’t sent in my midyear report yet because of our upcoming state Academic Decathlon championship next weekend which I want to be on it and a few other awards. I was really obsessed with MIT, but being deferred has definitely been a good thing for me I think. I am really considering my other options now, and I am no longer stressed about getting in or not. We will see what happens in March. Good luck to everyone, especially deferred students</p>
<p>I got A’s and A+'s in the toughest courses, but got B+'s in all the electives and regular classes I took. I don’t know how colleges will look at this; I just can’t stand boring classes where the students aren’t motivated and don’t know why they’re there.</p>
<p>How is it even possible to get 100, let alone straight 100s? Sounds like gigantic grade inflation to me. I also hope to be the first student from my school to make it to MIT. I don’t know if it is going to happen though; I was deferred early action.</p>
<p>In our school, AP/IB gets 3-5 extra pts added to final grade. So basically, I jst need to make 95-97 to get 100s. Nevertheless, <10 kids maintained 4.0 by the end of junior year. This is my first all 100s report card ever tho, so I pretty satisfied…it doesn’t matter that much tho. I jst wanna learn for its sake, especially in math and bio/physics. Ima prolly independent study more math and chemistry over the summer, wherever I end up.</p>
<p>So since I don’t really want to make a new thread about this I’ll just put this in the admitted thread. I’m guessing that most of you have at least thought about my two points:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If I can pass ASEs, it will be a lot smarter than studying for APs that aren’t accepted/are only used for electives (which I would like to do at MIT.) Other than OCW and MIT departmental sites with recommended books and problem sets, has anyone found any resources from, say, someone who did ace the ASEs? Or does any past/current MIT student have tips?</p></li>
<li><p>The majority of UROPs seem to require programming. I only took an intro programming class freshmen year, and forgot pretty much everything. Since you guys are undoubtable amazing, what would you recommend? Dummies books? AP CS study books? Some tutorials online? OCW? I tend to get distracted and would rather be doing it myself and understanding if that helps…</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Here’s to trying to not get our admissions revoked,</p>
<p>Not an MIT student yet (admissions decision is in a month+ :O, so take my advice with a grain of salt</p>
<p>I’m basically in the same sitch at you. My school does not even offer programming at all and I’m taking a virtual school class on the subject right now (doing well, but it’s really basic/easy)</p>
<p>If anything, MIT does offer basic programming class in IAP (the inter-semester break). That’s when I plan on taking an intro class in a useful language (C, C++, MATLAB) for use in UROPS. Personally, I will not do a UROP my 1st semester because I want to get used to the school environment, so this plan works perfectly for me (UROP 1nd semester hopefully).</p>