<p>karthikkito well, the funny thing is that the less days is left the less faith I have ;p</p>
<p>rocky - we evaluate international apps separately because in many cases they are quite different from domestic apps in terms of schools, transcripts, etc. I honestly don't know yet how many international applicants there are this year...</p>
<p>Many international applicants have lower SAT verbal scores if English is not their primary language. We depend more on the TOEFL score in these cases.</p>
<p>hehe,I actually got a very low TOEFL score compared to my SAT Verbal(770) and Writing (800) .I certainly hope MIT doesnt depend more on my Toefl in this case</p>
<p>Hi Ben,</p>
<p>I'm an international student from Singapore who takes the A Level examinations. However, the results of this exam are only released on about 4th March 2005 (tentatively), close to the release of the RD results. To what extent do the grades from these exams matter in the admissions process for international students in this situation? </p>
<p>Also, I sat for my school's preliminary examinations ("mock" A level exams) late last year and I submitted the grades obtained from these exams. Do the prelim exam grades matter more than the A level results since they are submitted at a much earlier time?</p>
<p>also, Ben, how do you treat the deferred pile??? are they treated the same as RDs or are they treated specially??</p>
<p>^ I think its the same as RD's, only difference is that your summary card is already ready. So it straight goes to the committee room, for a decision.</p>
<p>If the summary card is already ready, will they see my midyear report? I'm only wondering because I got a 4.0/4.0, and while mostly in line with the rest of my grades, I think it would help my chances.</p>
<p>Hey, I thought the website says they will "consider your app without prejudice" - which means new E3 card?? No?</p>
<p>Akashbansal - no, whichever tests work better in your favor are the ones we use. When we are reading, we do our best to build cases in <em>favor</em> of an applicant, not against him/her. If it were the other way around, our jobs would be pretty depressing. :-)</p>
<p>Collegebound - decisions will likely have been made by then, so the committee will use everything in your folder to make the best decision it can.</p>
<p>Lithiumbromide - exactly the same as RD's (no bias in either direction). The same summary card is used, although it will have been updated with anything you've sent to us since (or anything sent to us by others on your behalf).</p>
<p>Andy, if the committee feels that midyear grades could be a deciding factor, we'll pull them from downstairs if they're not already in your file. I've been in committee for 3+ days now and I've only seen this happen a couple of times. Usually the case is already clear enough (either way) without them. As I said in an earlier post, we expect your mid-year grades to be consistent with the rest of your application, and if your app isn't strong enough to begin with, it's unlikely that one semester of grades will "save" it. On rare occasion though, we do go after the mid-year report before we make a decision.</p>
<p>Mercurysquad - same card, but the fact that an applicant applied EA and was deferred has no negative bearing - if you read my blog from back in the EA days, you know how sad I was at many of the kids we couldn't admit early due to numbers. If anything, I am excited when I see them again in RD. :-)</p>
<p>Oh, to clarify, by "numbers" I mean spots in the class, not grades or scores. :-)</p>
<p>Oh ok, thank you for your reply =)</p>
<p>"Akashbansal - no, whichever tests work better in your favor are the ones we use. When we are reading, we do our best to build cases in <em>favor</em> of an applicant, not against him/her. If it were the other way around, our jobs would be pretty depressing. :-)"</p>
<p>Thanks a lot Ben.</p>
<p>thanks lol</p>
<p>
[quote]
the fact that an applicant applied EA and was deferred has no negative bearing
[/quote]
lol... I thought the fact that someone applied EA ought to have a positive bearing (first choice).</p>
<p>no. b/c the admission officers might may : "if we didn't accept u before why should we accept you now?" so no negative bearing is good. but of course positive bearing should even be BETTER. ^^</p>
<p>Exactly lithiumbromide - a lot of people worry that a deferral puts some sort of "negative stamp" on the application. That's absolutely not the case!</p>
<p>In terms of it being a positive, MIT's early action isn't binding, so it doesn't carry the weight that it might at an ED (early decision) school. At an ED school, if you're accepted you're legally bound to enroll there, so applying early shows the school that it's your definitive first choice. Since MIT isn't binding, we don't assume that an applicant is making a statement by applying early. Generally if MIT is one's absolute first choice, that message comes out in other parts of the app.</p>
<p>why does MIT only have EA??!!!!!!! GRRRRRRRRRR.
if it has ED instead, i would also have applied early!!!!!</p>
<p>ea - early action - NON binding, so even if you are admitted, you can explore other options</p>
<p>ed - early decision - binding, so you can only apply to that one school [edit: under an early program].</p>
<p>im assuming that you really DO want ea :-).</p>
<p>ED= binding?????????!!!!!!!!!! :eek:
yes, i do know that...
but bind by what??? bind by MIT??????OH MY GOD I WOULD LOVE TO BE BOUND BY MIT...............but the problem now seems to be ......they probably don't want me........ :(</p>
<p>hahaha...bound by mit (with a long rope, of course =p).</p>
<p>nah, as in...if you're accepted, you're required to go to that school =).</p>