Rapid Fire College Application Advice from an MIT Sophomore

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

Here’s some awesome application advice passed on to me by a friend…

What makes for a great common essay
A good Common App essay shouldn’t be about explaining why you’re qualified for the school: that’s what the rest of the application is for. Your test scores give colleges a quantifiable metric to gauge, and your activities can be used to show intangibles like soft skills. Your Common App essay should be about telling them more about you as a person, and the best way to do that is by sharing a story which best exhibits your key personality traits.

What is MIT looking for in its supplement essay
MIT really appreciates passion and authenticity. Odds are, if you try to fake a passion in order to seem like a better fit, it will just seem disingenuous. Your passion doesn’t have to be anything crazy. It’s okay if your #1 favorite activity isn’t coding for Fortune 500 companies — but it’s also okay if it is. Personally, my response to the “What do you do for fun?” prompt was just about music. Music wasn’t something I pursued competitively, and I didn’t have any sort of accolades that would make it noteworthy. My friends have mentioned everything from weight lifting to board games. Whatever you choose, just make sure it is true to you.

How to best manage college application deadlines?
I personally used Google Calendar to keep track of my deadlines. In general, I would advise having at least one week to write your first draft, 2 weeks for review and revisions, and one week for final touch-ups to your application.

How to find time to write college essays?
Writing college essays can definitely be time-consuming, but a lot of the time I spent on college essays wasn’t even spent on writing itself. Block out 15 minutes a day for your college essays whenever you can, and, even if you don’t have any particularly good ideas, spend at least 5 minutes of that time freewriting. Your free writes might not be worked into your final essay, but they will definitely help you overcome the initial inhibition of writing. If you end up being struck by inspiration at any point in one of these sessions, keep writing. Don’t worry about grammar mistakes, as those can be fixed later.

2

Thanks so much for this! I also wrote about music in #1, I really love music (production) but I don’t really have any accomplishments either. Makes me feel better to know that not having external recognition is not a big deal :slight_smile:

3

Glad it helped :slight_smile:

4

MIT does not accept the Common Application or the essay for that. MIT has its own essays and no supplemental essays, they have their own application. One of the questions is “what do you do for fun?” It will help to answer it honestly, maybe. There are very few seats at MIT, have backup plans, its a very small private school.

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what

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MODERATOR’S NOTE:
I think what @MITChris means is that the original post is an opinion of the original poster (or in this case, the OP’s friend), and should not be construed as official suggestions or endorsements from either MIT or College Confidential. :slight_smile: Even if that’s not what he meant, well, it’s what I meant. Caveat emptor.

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what i meant is: the OP’s advice is irrelevant because we are not a common app school and we don’t have a common app supplement. it feels like a driveby OP and I’m just flummoxed.

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Yeah, I thought that OP advise was posted under the wrong college at first. I think this post should be removed from MIT section of College Confidential as it may confuse applicants.

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MODERATOR’S NOTE:

The OP is clearly targeting the message to MIT applicants since mentions MIT by name. Users can use their own judgement on the soundness of the rest of the advice, given that MIT uses its own application. Simply being wrong is not a ToS violation.