<p>I'm a high school senior looking to apply to MIT. I'm extremely interested in aerospace engineering, more specifically designing space vessels. This stems from an immense interest in the wonders of space - I love watching Micho Kaku's shows about the universe - and I would love nothing more than to take part in developing the relatively fledgling field of astronautics by being working in it as an aerospace engineer. I'm so passionate about this that anyone who I divulge it to will tell me so, only encouraging me further. I would love to go to MIT because I feel like ill have the best shot at accomplishing my dreams there, with its lavish opportunities to meet smart people and find people who share your interests in tech.</p>
<p>My question is if this sort of passion will make up for other deficiencies. My SAT score was 2090 with 670 in math (retaking it though), and my unweigted gpa is 3.67. My class rank is top 4%. I don't have any EC other than three years of engineering club (we couldn't do robot competitions until my senior year because of a lack of student interest and the teacher having cancer though) and volunteeing at the local food shelters. I've never competed in math, physics, or science, though I've got good grades in all of them.</p>
<p>On the plus side, Ill have taken 10 AP classes by the time I graduate, and I'm a first generation Russian immigrant, which is somewhat unique. I can also count on strong reccomendations.</p>
<p>The question is, if I can convey my immense passion for accomplishing my dreams with engineering during my interview and through my essays, is there a chance that MIT would overlook my lack of grades/awards/being president of five clubs and instead see me as an addition to the community?</p>
<p>Okay. I have a strong feeling you have been looking at some people chance me threads on this forum. You dont need to have a laundry list. Correct me if im wrong, Im pretty sure the new common app only has 5 spots to add ur EC’s so i dont see how 50 ecs are going to even fit. Also, the most important factor MIT looks at is character/personal qualities. Everything else including grades and test scores are below that.</p>
<p>I’m just worried that a lack of ECs displaying leadership would overshadow my character and personality, no matter how good of a fit I might be in those respects. Just how much value does MIT put on personal qualities?</p>
<p>Academics (grades, classes, ap’s, etc.) only go to show that you are capable of making it through MIT. Assuming academics, passion is what gets you in. However, merely wanting something is not good enough. You need to demonstrate what you have done to realize that passion. How are you going to show that?</p>
<p>MIT wants driven kids who go the extra mile to realize their dreams. MIT does not want kids who expect things to be spoon fed to them.</p>
<p>MIT says to think of the group they will admit to be like selecting a group of hikers to climb a mountain. They dont want everyone to have the same skill set. They want people who will contribute something unique to the group. </p>
<p>I’m hoping to stand out by the fact that I have a relatively clear dream defined in terms of what I actually want to do with my career, how I plan to change the world using my education at a university. I think of that as being unique because I’ve yet to meet a single student at my high school (and I talk almost exclusively with other AP students) who plans to do something great with their career. most just have vague ideas of the fields they’re interested in, like “I want to be a psychologist”, nothing “I want to be a psychologist and open up a chain of centers to help teenagers struggling with emotional and identity issues”, I imagine the latter being more attractive to a university. Correct me if I’m wrong though and 99% of MIT applicants also have clearly defined career goals</p>
<p>MIT doesn’t expect that an 18-year-old kid will know exactly what they want to do with their life. People mark that they don’t know what they want to major in on their application all the time, and many get in! And huge number of the people who do “know” what they want to major in end up choosing a different major. </p>
<p>You are unnecessarily down on action. No one wants the student with the laundry list of activities done just for the sake of getting into college. But this is very different from the ideal student, who sees (or makes!) interesting opportunities and pursues them (whether or not it goes to some ultimate career goal). As far as I can tell, you haven’t done much. </p>
<p>So I would think: What kind of projects can you take on right now? How can you show your passion instead of just watching TV and talking about it?</p>
<p>However, merely wanting something is not good enough. You need to demonstrate what you have done to realize that passion. How are you going to show that?</p>
<p>A large part of all this is “show, not tell.” I agree with OperaDad and Piper.</p>
<p>Any idea how many kids say their passion stems from tv and their first set of Legos?</p>
<p>I was thinking of getting into homemade rocketry actually. I’d find it fun, but would it help to prove that I’m actually into aerospace? I remember reading an article about how a kid who made a nuclear reactor in his garage didn’t get in, which doesn’t sound encouraging to d-i-y projects.</p>
Well, just to provide a single data point, my husband included both model rocketry and R/C airplane-making on his application, and he was accepted. (…And now he essentially builds R/C airplanes as a career. Nice work if you can get it.)</p>
<p>MIT accepts all kinds, though – people like my husband who had a very strong idea about what they wanted to do, and did ECs in high school related to their academic interests, but also people like me, who knew what they wanted to do, but didn’t have any major-related high school ECs. Not to mention a large helping of people who don’t know what they want to do in college. It’s not as though there’s some narrow list of acceptable ECs – you should do whatever uses your talents and makes you happy. And whatever that is, you should do it to the utmost.</p>
<p>I was initially agreeing with two others who pointed out that it is not just about what you say you want, but also how you can show how you then took some steps. In any competitive pool, actions can show more than words. Not a “laundry list” but some initiative related to the “passion” OP asked about.</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking about model rocketry for a long time, I just had work and figured I’d start that in college where I would have access to decent tools. I hope it wouldn’t look as if I did it just for MIT if I started early senior year. Thanks for your input everyone, very helpful, sorry if my naiveness comes off as trolling!</p>
<p>That is not a “can do” attitude. You don’t need $100,000 tools to build model rockets. A few hand tools you can buy cheap at a garage sale, or less than $100 for them all new at your local big box hardware store, is all you need to start.</p>
<p>Start by building a model rocket from a kit.
Graduate to a payload that can glide to a landing (I think there might be Shuttle kit for this too).</p>
<p>Take it to the next step by building a payload that can use GPS to land at the launch site (or some other pre-determined spot). That is a prospective MIT student level challenge.</p>
<p>A graduate level challenge would be to build a payload that uses inertial navigation to land at the launch site.</p>
<p>I heard rumors about the guy building a nuclear reactor. Did it ever occur to you that, at best, it was a non-working model? So, what did the guy prove, other than he can put together pieces. He never showed that it could work (can’t buy fuel for the reactor). A lot of the challenge of building a reactor is designing the fuel/core (which he could never test). The rest is well known engineering (transferring heat, and using it to produce electricity).</p>
<p>One could argue that if you are really passionate about Aerospace, you would apply to places like Univ of AL. Places that have strong intern relationships with local aerospace companies.</p>