Question to Prefrosh, Students and Admissions Officers!

Colleges & Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>The pressure, competitiveness, and stress etc. of math competitions have been a recent killjoy. If i were to study casually new material and score fairly well on AMC 12, will I still have a chance for MIT as compared to if I tried constantly placing in Mathematics Competitions through the year through constant and stressful practice that will ultimately kill my joy for math yet make me a better mathematician as compared to the other option*?</p>

<ul>
<li>keeping all stats, rank, gpa, the same</li>
</ul>

2

<p>Obviously the first one. Losing your passion for math doesn’t seem like a very good idea to me…</p>

3

<p>The AMC isn’t until February, and all supplemental stuff should be in before that, so I don’t think that doing well will help you.</p>

4

<p>just fyi, I got into MIT (and so did others) who had never even heard of such math competitions prior to logging onto CC… Just show your passion anyway you can, and if that means competitions, go for it, but don’t do it just because you think it will get you into MIT, and don’t become so focused on competitions or whatever so much to the point that it isn’t fun anymore…</p>

<p>just my 2 cents</p>

<p>GOOD LUCK :)</p>

5

<p>I second what IsaacM said. (I’m also a newly-admitted prefrosh who did not participate in any of those contests.)
Don’t do something you don’t enjoy. Find something you DO enjoy and dedicate yourself to it. That’s what MIT likes to see.</p>

6

<p>Agreed with IsaacM and techogecko.</p>

<p>(I’m also an early-admit).</p>