<p>This is my first post here. After reading so much here and I kind of knew (being American Chinese) that my son will get a rejection letter. Well, it came today.</p>
<p>Here's his background:</p>
<p>4.3 GPA
2390 SAT I
800 on all 4 SAT II (Physics, Math, Chem and English)
All 5's on 6-7 AP
Speed and debate team
Several first and second places at regional and State level Science Olympics
National Merit finalist and President Scholar Candidate...</p>
<p>I guess this is not good enough for MIT. Well, I guess he will ended in UCB's EECS, which is not that bad. That also make me think whether this is reason why the places like UC Berkley are so competitive because they end up with whole bunch of supper smart,less polished kids who will show their true color later in their life.</p>
<p>"I kind of knew (being American Chinese) that my son will get a rejection letter." I don't often comment on this sort of thing, but I'm sorry to say I don't understand your logic - though I am saddened by the accusation you are (implicitly) leveling at the MIT Admissions Office. Should I go tell all my American Chinese friends they were actually rejected? Whatever reason your son was not admitted, it wasn't because of his race.</p>
<p>You know what? my school got 4 kids into MIT this year.. and all of us are of American Chinese , or well some are just Chinese.
the 2 guys who got in didn't even have to wait till March to get in, they got in December.</p>
<p>When you read through posts here, you are just reading words.When people mention certain activities, you can't really know how much time , effort, mental stress they put in it nor how passionate they are about it. </p>
<p>We all know that MIT don't admit by numbers. There are many "American Chinese" from my school who apply to MIT. Yes they have good grades, good scores, but many don't have leadership positions. Some with the leadership positions don't care for it other than to be able to write it in one's college app. Things like that shows in one's application. That might be partially why they didn't get accepted. There is also many factors like teachers recommendation letters, the essays, the interview, activities.... there are just so many factors. You can't just say "he had these scores and I guess a 2390 isn't enough".</p>
<p>sfan, please don't open up this argument again. I'm sure your son is highly qualified and WILL succeed later in life. However, MIT chose who they chose for their reasons. Can we not assume these reasons involved race?</p>
<p>sfan, I sympathize with you because you are clearly in a moment of frustration and anger. </p>
<p>However, please understand that MIT is known for making a lot of "weird" decisions in the sense that they let nontraditional math and science people in over traditionally qualified people like your son. It is nothing personal: it is just how they operate, for better or for worse.</p>
<p>In the 2007 US News rankings, the percentage of Asian people at MIT is 27%(Please post if you know what the current number is now). I can assure you that at 27%, MIT definitely gives Asian people a fighting chance. While certain schools have been suspected of keeping their Asian percentage low, MIT is not one of them.</p>
<p>I think you should get over it and stop trying to point fingers.... MIT can definitely stand by all of its decisions. Everything happens for a reason and your son will be absolutely fine wherever he ends up.</p>
<p>"Well, I guess he will ended in UCB's EECS, which is not that bad." </p>
<p>Professor Peter Fisher, who is currently teaching an undergraduate physics class at MIT, told his class that he did not get in to MIT as an undergraduate. He went to Berkeley instead. Hmmmm....what can we conclude from this? That he got a second-rate education at UCB? Hardly!</p>
<p>I'm biased, as you can probably tell from my screen name. I have 3 degrees from Berkeley. I took my 16-year old son on an admission tour this spring, and we were informed that the admit rate of Berkeley's EECS department is just 6%. That makes it even more selective than MIT overall. Berkeley's science and engineering courses use the same texts as MIT courses and Berkeley's students end up just as sleep-deprived because the coursework is just as rigorous.</p>
<p>If your son has a Berkeley admission, he should be quite happy. I'm sorry he didn't get into MIT. At this point, I've met three students (whose stats match or exceed those of your son) who didn't get in either, and believe me -- race or gender were not factors. There simply isn't enough space for students with the qualifications you mention.</p>
<p>CalAlum: "admit rate of Berkeley's EECS department is just 6%"
Is it really true? That is scary as my daughter wants to apply to EECS at UCB, and it seems she can only apply to 1 program. So it is either EECS at UCB or it is UCSD.
In this case UCB should allow students to apply separately to College of Arts and Science and EECS.</p>
<p>^^That is what we were told on a recent admission tour at UCB. I suggest you visit the EECS website to get contact information of someone who could answer your specific question.</p>
<p>@Arpmom2009--
The Office of Student Research at U.C. Berkeley pesents data that supports the figure given at a recent admission tour (<a href="https://osr2.berkeley.edu/)%5B/url%5D">https://osr2.berkeley.edu/)</a>. If you follow the link to "Institutional Data", you can see that UCB's EECS department matriculated 150 new freshmen in 2007 ("New Freshmen by College and Major". Another table showing applications by college and major indicates that 2,241 students had applied. According to my calculator, that's a matriculation rate of about 7%. </p>
<p>I think your daughter could apply to the School of Engineering as an undelcared major (admit rates are higher)...but don't take advice from me on this. Please call the department to confirm that she could declare EECS as a major after enrolling this way. </p>
<p>APOLOGIES to the MIT community for this detour into UCB territory!</p>
<p>Getting back to the original focus of the thread.....there is nothing you can do to guarantee admittance to MIT, and in fact those with the highest scores seem to be getting rejected at a much higher rate than those with lower ones. Many of the most qualified candidates in the country are being rejected for no apparent reason, even those who have great EC's, recs, and essays in addition to perfect or near perfect scores.
It doesn't really make sense, so it won't do any good to try and figure it out.</p>
<p>The "admit" rate does not equal and is greater than the "matriculation" rate. And, you cant evaluate selectivity without looking at quality of the applicant pool. UCB's not shabby. But MIT is better.</p>
<p>I don't think people realize that SAT/AP scores, GPAs, etc. are NOT the main focus of the admissions process. As we hear all the time, you are more than your numbers. Just because you happen to have high numbers and qualifications doesn't guarantee admission to any college. If anything, it is standing out and being different that I believe produces the greatest impact on admission officers.</p>
<p>Your son should have applied to Caltech. They typically admit students who "deserve" it. (high test scores, show they love math and science, etc.) As BPKO43 said, MIT admissions are wacky and not always merit-based. Truly, there's more affirmative action for blacks and hispanics then "direct" discrimination towards whites and asians. I met one of these such students when I visited Boston. His mother also happened to work at MIT. (not as a professor, however)</p>
<p>
[quote]
I don't think people realize that SAT/AP scores, GPAs, etc. are NOT the main focus of the admissions process. As we hear all the time, you are more than your numbers. Just because you happen to have high numbers and qualifications doesn't guarantee admission to any college. If anything, it is standing out and being different that I believe produces the greatest impact on admission officers.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What's your point? I was about as personable and unique as it could get in every part of the process with MIT (moreso than any other school), and I still got flat out rejected. Not even a simple waitlist.</p>
<p>I agree with jsd472. I know some kids rejected by MIT are accepted by Harvard, Princeton and Yale, while others accepted by MIT are rejected elsewhere. One of my friends told us he blogged into MIT last year, and he knew how much MIT people pay attention to this forum. He has one of the most frequently seen userids here.</p>
<p>
[quote]
One of my friends told us he blogged into MIT last year, and he knew how much MIT people pay attention to this forum. He has one of the most frequently seen userids here.
[/quote]
Haha, what? I can assure you that nobody gets into MIT on the strength or weakness of their postings on College Confidential or elsewhere on the internet.</p>
<p>"Your son should have applied to Caltech. They typically admit students who "deserve" it. (high test scores, show they love math and science, etc.) As BPKO43 said, MIT admissions are wacky and not always merit-based. "</p>
<p>Well, I agree Caltech admissions is more merit-based. But I think MIT admissions is still more merit-based than HYPS admissions. Certainly it is not worse.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Haha, what? I can assure you that nobody gets into MIT on the strength or weakness of their postings on College Confidential or elsewhere on the internet.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Lol, true, but admissions officers seem to pay a decent amount of attention to this forum... Ben Jones figured out my real-life name, which makes me wonder if maybe the love I displayed for MIT here had some effect. I mean, I'm sure it didn't get me in--I'm qualified in my own right--but maybe it proved on some level that I was a nice person/the kind of person they want at MIT? That kind of stuff can be hard to get across on a college app.</p>