Regarding International Olympiads

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>Hi, ive searched the MIT boards and could'n't find much on this topic</p>

<p>anyways, there's two people at my school (Canada) that will apply to MIT, one's a senior and the other is a junior, </p>

<p>they seem to be worried about their application which suprises me because the first one</p>

<p>went to IMO sophomore year, came back with a bronze
went again the next year, came back with a gold
probably going to bag another gold this year :p
placed third for USAMO,
he also qualified for IPhO last year but went to IMO instead
he's ranked third in the school and has good sat's
does he really need to worry about getting in?</p>

<p>The other is a year younger, and much like the other
sophomore year went to IMO, and qualified for IPhO
this year he's probably going to go to IPhO
again good marks, assuming good sat's</p>

<p>they both lack extracurriculars, but I keep telling them they've got a good chance to go in. am i misinforming them? does the international student really cause that much of a disadvantage, considering the level they're at?</p>

<p>thanks</p>

2

<p>I thought IMO/IPhO is an EC?</p>

3

<p>yes, you could say that, but not extracurricular in the sense of school clubs, sports team, music,</p>

4

<p>I honestly don't think they should have much to worry about, but international admissions are always a mystery...</p>

<p>Also, which school do you go to? Don Mills?</p>

<p>You guys must be amazing over there.</p>

5

<p>well don mill's isn't a great academic school, just a certain program inside it</p>

<p>last year we had a guy go to mit and harvard, pretty exciting, the gifted program attracts some really bright people, though they had to put it at a bad school to boost the academics here</p>

<p>there's also a cyberarts program, physical handicaps and mental health program here, so it's quite weird here. </p>

<p>im contemplating if i should show this site to the person concerned, don't want him to waste time on the site lol, i want him to bring home a gold :p</p>

6

<p>one of the student blogs on MyMIT addressed this very thing here (about half way down) <a href="http://ann.mitblogs.com/archives/2005/10/the_not-so_secr_1.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ann.mitblogs.com/archives/2005/10/the_not-so_secr_1.html&lt;/a> </p>

<p>
[quote]
A science Olympiad medal is not a passport to MIT. Two out of eleven Thai Olypiad medalists were accepted into MIT for the Class of 2009. This is the case for other countries as well. An Olympiad medal, though a very significant achievement, then by conclusion weighs heavily but does not make or break your application. Other factors are also taken into consideration.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I think the admit rates for US students with Olympiad medals is very high, although I have heard of an occassional one not getting in.</p>