<p>^I think Chris means that people who eventually won Rhodes, etc. did not have perfect grades/scores on application to MIT, not on application to Rhodes.</p>
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<p>This isn’t for the sake of argument, (I certainly agree that the guy with the 2200 is more impressive, and even if I did not I would not want to question an admission officer at a school I want to go to) but what more could the 2370 kid do with his opportunities? He seems to have done a lot even granted that he has great opportunities.</p>
<p>Also, out of curiosity, if their races were reversed would the admittee still be the 2200 kid (who is now Asian)?</p>
<p>^ I wouldn’t assume that a kid with a 2370 has taken advantage of all the other opportunity around him, or even done a lot at all. There are many people in the world who fixate on things like SATs and then sit at home doing not much else.</p>
<p>And yeah, “Asian” doesn’t automatically mean “has all the opportunity in the world”. The Admissions office knows better than that. The application has a lot more to it than stats and race – because Admissions needs everything to get context.</p>
<p>Chris, in this hypothetical case all other factors are equaled including taking advantage of available resources. The only differences are race, family background and scores. Both race and family background are out of control of a student. If using these factors to enhance or discount the achievement of a student, it is a practice of preference or discrimination. Your argument of taking poor minority of students because of rarity sounds like pursuing a rare commodity or a curiosity. Does this mean that an asian poor having the same 2200 score is not favored because of plenty of them? At the end, it is the race that matters. If this is not discrimination, I don’t know what is.</p>
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This is not a useful hypothetical case. </p>
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Definitely not. As Chris has said, race is only one of many factors considered by the admissions office when deciding whether to admit or deny a student.</p>
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<p>This is imaginary. It does not exist, has never existed, and will never exist. You might as well advance a hypothetical case in which one of our applicants was also a dragon.</p>
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<p>Now I am very curious as to what would happen in that hypothetical case.</p>
<p>I think I feel fairly certain we would admit a dragon so that I could ride him and burn down Yankee Stadium.</p>
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<p>Uh, Chris, there’s something I never told you…</p>
<p>oh my god!! so that’s what “wings” means!!</p>
<p>Being a pilot, being a dragon, it’s all the same nickname ^_^</p>
<p>MIT has the best sense of humor I’ve ever seen from a school.</p>
<p>How many admissions officers would come up with a theoretical dragon ride to burn down Yankee stadium? Simply fantastic. Can you bring him home to Fenway afterwards? :)</p>
<p>On the topic: MIT is in a great position as an institution where the admissions staff can get away with using a subjective process to hand-pick the incoming class. Most applicants have stellar test scores, so that’s just about a non-factor. We can cancel out your “typical” data points, like grades and scores and even AP classes, and instead, we can focus on what makes the applicant a person. Culture (aka, the world we come from) has a pretty huge impact on who we are as people. Although ethnicities and races are blending, we’re at a point in history where our racial identities still does have bearing on our lives. Why would an admissions committee overlook it? </p>
<p>Also, no two people take exactly the same amount of advantage from their opportunities. I highly doubt the committee sits there saying “Hm, we can only take one of these two, and they’re the same except for race…” </p>
<p>Very unlikely indeed. So although this was all already expressed, I’ve been listening to TED talks and I’m too awake to sleep, so, enjoy the babbling ;D</p>
<p>Cheers, everyone.</p>
<p>I accept the stated admissions policies as the absolute truth.</p>
<p>But, having said that, isn’t it a little bit curious that the latin and black percentages of the incoming classes are so remarkably constant over time.</p>
<p>@MITChris</p>
<p>I was raised for sixteen years of my life by my single mother of four children. She never completed high school and never supported me academically. However, this past year I moved in with my well educated father and step mother. My SAT scores are adequate, but they are based off of my determination to study (started off at 1700…) not as a reflection of my dad’s and step mother’s income. I guess what I’m trying to say is how can I convey they side of my life through my application when all the information asks about my father’s side? My application would look like its two people using one application!</p>
<p>@underarchiever</p>
<p>“The assumption that lower income family would have dramatic less of opportunity is quite bogus”</p>
<p>I’m assuming you don’t come from a lower income family then. Lower income families have less of opportunity because 1) the kids probably have to work jobs in order to contribute to the family (therefore not having time to do other things) 2) the parents who have low income probably were not well educated, therefore do not know of the opportunities and resources available / do not see the importance of these resources and of education in general 3) the parents probably cannot afford to pay for the child to participate in various opportunities such as sports, music, art, etc in which many skills are stemmed from and 4) children from low income families probably have more to worry about than research projects or internships when they’re worrying about having enough money to keep the heat on or take care of their siblings at home… </p>
<p>*From experience. Not saying this is true for everyone but for a large portion of low income families, some or all of this applies.</p>
<p>@StarbucksBarista - </p>
<p>Great question. These are the sorts of contexts we look for in our application. We have several essays that bear directly on this sort of thing. For example, in one essay we ask you to tell us about the world in which you grew up. That would be a good time to explain to us the circumstances you describe above.</p>