<p>Graduation Year: 2010
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Asian (Indian)
State: Oregon</p>
<p>School: Small international school
GPA: 4.0 (unweighted)
Class rank: 1 out of 20
SAT: 2400, 12 essay
ACT: 35 composite, 8 essay (I think most schools will disregard this in favor of the SAT score?)
SAT Subject Tests: Math 2, Chemistry, Biology (I plan to take these soon)
Courses: IB diploma candidate</p>
<ul>
<li>IB English HL</li>
<li>IB History HL</li>
<li>IB Biology HL</li>
<li>IB Math HL</li>
<li>IB Chemistry SL</li>
<li>IB Mandarin SL (I've heard that this makes my application unique... does it?)</li>
<li>(IB) Theory of Knowledge</li>
</ul>
<p>Recommendations: At least good, probably pretty good.</p>
<p>Extracurricular activities:</p>
<ul>
<li>Model United Nations - 4 years - Founder, President/Ambassador all four years</li>
<li>Student Government - 3 years - Founder, Public Relations Officer</li>
<li>Boy Scouts - 7 years - Eagle Scout</li>
<li>Jazz Band - 3 years</li>
<li>School Newspaper - 2 years - Founder, Editor-in-Chief</li>
<li>Interact Club - 1 year - Founder, President</li>
</ul>
<p>This summer, I will be working at a renewable energy company. I will also be working as an intern at Portland State University, researching solar energy.</p>
<p>I know that MIT's admissions are tough, and that I will be competing with some of the best students in the country. Please give me your honest appraisal of my chances. Thank you!</p>
<p>it’s my philosophy that any decently qualified person can get in if you demonstrate that MIT can benefit from you and you from MIT. Show it in your essays.</p>
<p>However, you say international school. It’s like 329834109823 times harder for international applicants to get in, or so I hear.</p>
<p>@Puzzle - I think you misunderstood what I meant by “international school”. It’s actually just a public school in Oregon. Our focus is international - meaning that we host exchange students, hold intercultural events, promote internationalism, etc. I’m still a US Citizen.</p>
<p>my apologies. My school hosts many exchange students as well as promoting diversity/multicultural events, yet I did not ever consider it as falling under my definition of an international school.</p>
<p>But yeah. your stats are pretty much flawless and your ECs are also strong. But MIT isn’t going to accept you if you aren’t a good match… or at least if you don’t pretend to be one.</p>
<p>The name of my school is actually International School of Beaverton. One other thing that makes us unique is that we’re one of the few schools in the US that hosts the MYP (Middle Years Program) in addition to the DP (IB diploma program). I don’t personally thing that we’re all that special, though, and I don’t think I’m going to use the “international school” concept in my applications.</p>
<p>What do you think is the main difference between a “good MIT match” and me? What do you think I could do to improve?</p>
<p>You are from Beaverton. MIT’s mascot is the beaver. You spent your formative years watching nature’s engineer, the beaver, doing work in its natural habitat. It has shaped you into the man we see today. </p>
<p>All your essays should emphasize this topic.</p>
<p>oh i’m not trying to say you’re not a good match. I apologize if that’s how it sounded - i’m just saying that one of the key things MIT seems to emphasize is being a good match, so it would help your application a lot to emphasize that in your essays, etc. ;)</p>
<p>Grades and Test Scores alone will not get you into MIT.</p>
<p>They LOVE crew. We had 3 people go to MIT because of crew while keeping decent grades etc.</p>
<p>Make sure to stand-out in your EC’s. Also, get extremely good recommendations from “important” people like maybe a high level staff member from Portland State/the Company youre working for.</p>
<p>Do you do anything else? Like sports? Or Instruments? Or any other languages?</p>
<p>@Heplayer92 - I’m not really familiar with the MIT application. So it is possible to get recommendations from adults who are not high school teachers?</p>
<p>I play tennis, but only recreationally. I do play guitar - both in jazz band (listed in original post), and independently. Guitar is something I’m really passionate about. It’s rare for me to practice less than an hour every day. </p>
<p>In addition to learning Mandarin, I speak Hindi, and I know a little Spanish.</p>