<p>I go to an extremely competitive school (25+ Ivy acceptances a year).
Because the courses are so hard, my gpa is slightly low for the average Asian who gets accepted into top schools- 3.8.</p>
<p>Thus, I was wondering if MIT would consider how competitive the high school is when making admission decisions. </p>
<p>Many of my friends who applied with me to make the competitive high school eventually chose to go to their local high schools to "take the easy route" and rank in the top. Since I chose to take the more challenging route, will I be penalized for it?</p>
<p>Alright, I believe you are putting to much merit in your grades or trying to get acceptance that 3.8 is good, and have people tell you are good, but I will assume the first. </p>
<p>In the end your GPA won’t matter very much. Be yourself. If who you are is someone who is passionate about something, and wants to do amazing things, then you will have just a great a chance as any. If you don’t, I really doubt MIT will accept you, and I honestly don’t believe that MIT is the right school for you. Sounds a bit harsh right, well let me explain. Say you want to grow and just have a cozy job working for some firm doing normal people things. Then there is no reason to want to surround yourself with people who aren’t like you for 4 years.</p>
<p>Also just to answer your question, MIT will see what you do with your opportunities, and what kind of a person you become. GPA is overrated. For example, there are 2 students, one has taken every single AP, just flat out, every single AP except for the foreign language ones. Got a 5 on each one. 4.0 student. Did a bunch of EC’s just absolutely a ton, and was president of underwater basket weaving club to Mu Alpha Theta. Then there is the other kid, he has taken 2 AP’s,AP Physics C, and AP BC Calc. All of his classes revolve around Physics and Math, and he always has some idea for people to ponder. He has an internship at say some great college close to his home, and he often asked the big questions to his mentors, and made the mentors really think. He really gets everything from everything he does, and wants to change the world. I believe that MIT should choose student 2. I believe MIT will also choose student 2, because in the end GPA and AP scores are just numbers, numbers don’t make you into who you are, and it is the type of person you are that determines who you become.</p>
<p>@manwithheart I am definitely not trying to earn words of comfort from fellow CCers. I realize that GPA is not the only (or even most important) thing that colleges look at. However, it still DOES play a fairly big role in admissions. Just because I’m worried my GPA will drag me down doesn’t mean I’m not passionate about what I do. Thank you for your advice though. </p>
<p>@piperxp
(1) unweighted. My school doesn’t go by weighted because the students take college courses (so no APs) I’m not sure of the average because we don’t have rankings. I know for a fact though that 4.0s are very rare. </p>
<p>(2) I have published research, competed in Olympiads, and am very into music. Also, I have a 2400 and 3 800s on my SATs.</p>
<p>annehe18, I wouldn’t worry about your GPA. MIT will know how competitive your school is and what courses you took, and that combined with a 3.8 GPA is not bad at all. You are perfectly academically qualified for this place, so just make sure that the rest of your application shows your awesome parts, too.</p>
<p>(Of course, this isn’t any indication that you’ll definitely get in. MIT rejects top people all the time. But you are definitely competitive.)</p>
<p>The best thing you can do to figure out how competitive you are is to look at the number and profiles of people getting into MIT from your high school. They can’t take everybody from the same high school, even if there is a high concentration of talent. </p>
<p>Still, there’s kind of no point to trying to figure this out. Your academic record is good enough that it won’t be considered a red flag, and so you will be considered largely on the basis of your other achievements.</p>
<p>Just to be clear, I never meant for this thread to be a “chance me!” forum. I was just curious as to if MIT or other top schools would look at the educational surroundings when making decisions. I merely wanted facts. (Also, I would think that there isn’t basic math to calculate chances… there’s no formula). </p>
<p>However, since you mentioned that MIT can’t take everybody from the same high school, I did some searching on the admissions website and found this:</p>
<p>"Our process is a student-centered process, not a school or region centered process. This means that we do not read your application along with other students from your school or region to compare you against each other; each applicant stands on their own. We have no quotas by school, state, or region. You are not at any disadvantage if other excellent students from your school or area are also applying. "
[The</a> Selection Process | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/apply/process/selection]The”>Our selection process | MIT Admissions)</p>
<p>So doesn’t this theoretically mean that there could be many tens of acceptances in just one school?</p>
<p>Yeah, but it doesn’t work out like that. The absolute most competitive high school may have 15-20 people get into MIT, but not much more than that. There’s not an absolute quota and the number admitted may vary year-to-year, but there is a kind of subconscious one.</p>
<p>Someone asked this question once at an MIT info session. The answer included saying it could easily fill the incoming freshman class with “more-than-qualified” applicants just from Massachusetts alone. </p>
<p>That same logic extends into why filling up the class from a smaller set of only competitive high schools is not what it’s looking for either.</p>
<p>The admissions office does know, and will consider, how competitive your HS is. The extent likely varies from applicant to applicant.</p>
<p>Be aware that “more competitive” often means “more opportunities” available to you. So they will be looking to see what you personally did with those opportunities.</p>