<p>1) Is MIT all hard work and no play? I know Caltech boasts that it is, and since MIT is its rival...Well, I just want to go to a place where people have no social lives. I'd rather want to go to a place where people who party, people who appreciate various sorts of activities and study hard at the same time. I DON'T want to be around antisocial people...you know, the typical genious math guy who refuses to talk to anyone and if he did talk, he'd p*ss you off type. Well, people at school consider me really smart, but at the same time, I can mingle with freshman Algebra 1 students really well. I used to have read manga, play basket ball, play halo 3 etc...do you find people like these at MIT? </p>
<p>2) I want to minor in religious studies, but MIT doesn't have that class...Can I take it at Harvard? If I mention this in my app, would adcoms frown upon that? I heard there was an essay question on which dept you were interested in. Should I mention my interest in religious studies there...even though the class isn't offered at MIT?</p>
<p>3) I missed AIME because of ONE silly mistake (It might not be a big deal to you USAMO qualifiers, but in my school, its supposed to be a HUGE deal.....to put things into perspective, I got a 93 in school, which was second highest score.....pretty pathetic I know), so if I take it next year (and assuming I make it to AIME) can I still notify MIT? Even though deadline would have passed? </p>
<p>4) Do you think application # would increase again next year? </p>
<p>5) I asked this questions before, but just to play it safe, what are ALL the essay (short and long and optional stuff) questions I need to answer for MIT? I couldn't download the app from the website because the deadline had passed...I'm asking just out of curiosity. Its best to know your enemy before you plan out a strategy, not that MIT is my enemy of course ;)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Although there are some antisocial people at MIT, the vast majority of students are friendly and engaging. It’ll be easy to find a group of friends with your sense of humor and interests. If you want to party, I can assure you there are plenty of people here to party with.</p></li>
<li><p>They will let you cross register in classes not offered here, as long as half your classes are still taken at MIT.</p></li>
<li><p>Definitely send post-application results to MIT. However, don’t do AIME for the sake of MIT admissions. Do AIME because you love math. If you really love math, it’ll show on your application, regardless of AIME.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Hi, thanks for the answers. But should I mention the cross registering on my app essay about the departments?
And about the AIME thing…yeah, I do like math. But I need to prove to MIT that I do like math besides listing I’m president of math club, i tutor kids, i do some math problems in my free time, etc. I think being an AIME qualifier would demonstrate that I’m not an ordinary math student (only 5% of America’s hs students qualify), which is why I’m intent on this.
I’m still so mad I made that silly mistake!</p>
<p>i still think that great sat scores in math and a great sat II math score will help, as well with taking ap calc bc and ap physics will show them that you are a dedicated student.</p>
<p>about the social life, i believe that it is not “hell” which many outside students perceive (i think this is out of jealousy that they were not admitted). if you talk with current students and alumni, they work hard, but if you take the right number of classes and manage your time, then you have plenty of time to play hard.</p>
<p>4) College Class of 2013 is believed to be the peak year for applications. Application numbers (at least overall) should start decreasing starting with Class of 2014.</p>
<p>If you read the admissions blogs on the official MIT site, you’ll get a pretty good idea of the work-play balance. Many undergrads blog there, so you can see how they study and so forth.</p>
<p>P.S. You play Halo 3? Ha ha… I guessed as much from your username :).</p>
<p>Where did you get this from? I am not sure it it true. Demographically, the US graduating population is SLIGHTLY higher in 2013 than in the next few years, but it isn’t a significant percentage (1-2% if I remember correctly), whereas the MIT applicant pool has shot up dramatically in the past few years out of all proportion to demographic trends. This is largely due to the increased outreach that the web affords. Next year’s applicant pool may indeed be down somewhat from this years pool, but I wouldn’t bet on it.</p>
<p>
Admittedly it was a while ago now (just shy of 30 years), but MIT is still the only school to make the NY Times list of top ten workload schools, and Playboy’s list of the top ten party schools in the same year.</p>
<p>It depends on what you want to put into your religious studies. If you plan on taking half of your classes in this field, then you are probably not a good fit for MIT. There is cross-registration, which is easy to arrange but non-trivial for all that. For example, the Harvard and MIT exam schedules rarely line up, and you may be sitting exams during IAP. That isn’t to say that they do not work together. One of the guys in my living group at MIT graduated with his degree in Physics, and then went to a seminary.</p>
<p>Next year Harvard’s schedule is changing so their students take exams in December, like the rest of the sane world. You will no longer need to worry about sitting Harvard exams during IAP, but you may need to worry about Harvard/MIT exam conflicts! (of course, there is still always the possibility of MIT/MIT exam conflicts as well…)</p>
<p>You dont need to “prove” to MIT you love math besides being president of your math club, tutoring math, getting good grades in math and taking AP/IB courses in math. I did not to any extracurricular math activities, nor did I submit AMC or AIME scores and I got in fine and have done very well in my math courses so far. But if you do take it next year, you can probably feel free to let MIT know via e-mail of a qualifying score. It’s by no means necessary, but it won’t hurt.</p>
<p>As far as I know, MIT does not offer a religious studies minor, and even were you to take all the appropriate courses at Harvard, I am not sure MIT would be able to grant you a minor. This page has a full list of minors:</p>
<p>However, it’s still worth a shot to talk to faculty in history or anthropology and see if someone can act as a religious studies minor adviser and approve such a minor. I have no idea if this is possible, but it’s worth a shot. When the application asks for your likely areas of study at MIT, they’re pretty much referring to what you’d be majoring in (but this still has no bearing on whether you will be admitted or rejected) and unless you have a lot to talk about with your interest in religious studies, I dont think it is necessary.</p>
<p>Definitely not. Though realize that a lot of MIT students have the same impression of CalTech - I’m sure it’s an inaccurate impression there too. MIT is great in that it’s big enough for you to find a place that suits you, but not so big that you’ll get lost in the crowd. Want to party every weekend? You can do that. Hate partying, but like hanging out at cool places? You can do that, too. You can do drama, poi/other juggling, ham radio, programming, sports, roleplaying - MIT has lots of activities, and I don’t know anyone who isn’t involved in at least one or two. (They probably exist, but I don’t think they’re common.)</p>
<p>@ everyone (no, I mean everyone…not a username)
For the religious studies, I suppose I’m not so concerned about MIT granting me a minor. I wish to take it just for interest’s sake.
But thank you all.
I find it particularily amusing that no one answered question #5.</p>
You say it’s not true, then you agree with me? I merely said the overall graduating class class is decreasing (which it is) - I didn’t comment to what degree that was happening. Yes, it’s small, but it’s a decrease regardless.</p>