<p>All i can tell you is that not many people apply to MIT "for the heck of it." This cannot be said of schools such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, etc.</p>
<p>i agree with paul. that is why a lot of ratings voted MIT as the most selective school to get into because of the competitive pool.</p>
<p>The only reason Harvard gets 20K applicants is because they're Harvard. A great percentage of the pool applied...just because.</p>
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HH05, that's great that you expected to get in, but some (or should I say most) people have to put in an incredibly large amount of labour to even be able to apply. Trust me, it's not an easy process.</p>
<p>And the logistics of it apart, applying to such a high calibre school means 95% chance of getting rejected (intl). Does it not take courage to apply despite being aware of it? I mean who wants to apply "for the heck of it" ?
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<p>I've been through it before. Don't talk to me like the situation is otherwise.</p>
<p>Well, there are tons of people who apply "for the heck of it." One of them was me. I didn't really care either way, because I already got into my first choice school. I just wanted to see whether I'd get in or not (even considering how little effort I put in the app). </p>
<p>I agree with you on your other point, like I said before. I guess it does take courage for SOME people--if people around you expect to not get in, and you have little confidence in your chances. For me, and many others, that's not the case.</p>