Please give me your honest opinion of my chances!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>Here is some information about me:</p>

<p>Graduation Year: 2010
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Asian (Indian)
State: Oregon</p>

<p>School: Small international school in Oregon
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 2 790 (I might retake), Chemistry 790
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: Good at least, probably pretty good.</p>

<p>Extracurricular activities:</p>

<p>My school was new when I started there, so I had the opportunity to start a lot of clubs/organizations.</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>Awards:</p>

<ul>
<li>National Honor Society</li>
<li>Eagle Scout</li>
<li>AMC 10/12 school winner - 3 years running</li>
<li>National Merit Semifinalist (PSAT 223)</li>
</ul>

<p>This summer, I am working at the Green Building Research Laboratory at Portland State University. You can learn a little more about it at greenbuilding.pdx.edu. I am doing some testing with phase-changing materials, as well as green roofs. This is the kind of stuff I am really passionate about, and I hope to help develop alternative energy sources in my career.</p>

<p>I also love playing the guitar. You could call it my passion. I haven't won any major awards or anything, but it's something that I spend a lot of time doing and will pursue throughout my life.</p>

<p>Please give me your honest opinion of my chances of admission at MIT! Thank you!</p>

2

<p>Um… so I just don’t do chances threads (honestly, don’t know enough to even start with them). A couple of comments though. First, DON’T RETAKE THE SATs!! Honestly, that’s just a plain old waste of money. 790 == 800, that’s it (and I got MUCH lower than that and still managed to get in). Also, I’m not sure about other schools, but MIT just looks at whichever is higher between SATs and ACTs.</p>

<p>The internship this summer looks really cool though, just keep doing what you love! Good luck!</p>

3

<p>I too have been laying off the chance threads (and would prefer they stop altogether), but I absolutely agree with Star. Admissions is not going to care about a 790 becoming an 800. Your grades are decent enough. The rest of the application will or won’t get you in.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for your input! How do you think my application will fare, specifically in terms of my extracurriculars?</p>

5

<p>My advice: stop asking to be chanced. Get good scores, let yourself shine on the other more important parts of the application, and apply. There are no guarantees so us chancing you is basically worthless.</p>

6

<p>um…I also don’t do chance, just looked at this thread out of curiosity. I think ur activities and grades are fine. don’t worry too much about small differences in SAT or ACT scores. they don’t matter that much. write a really passionate and strong essay in ur application.</p>

7

<p>I’d say you’re better than the average MIT applicant, but you don’t have any uber ECs like intel, USAMO, etc. to set you apart from the crowd either. Also, you should take a literature SAT II, most top colleges want you to have at least one of those.</p>

8

<p>Most top colleges might want a literature SAT II, but not all (MIT only wants a math and a science :slight_smile: ). Check the schools you’re applying to, because you don’t want to waist your time taking it if you don’t need it.</p>

9

<p>i disagree about needing the literature. it says explicitly on the MIT website that 2 and only 2 sat iis are needed: one math and and one science. so you’re all set. and seriously, don’t retake the math sat… they could care less whether you were one question short of a perfect score</p>