@rhandco I haven’t seen that so thank you so much for pointing it out to me! Yeah I have looked at that. My family isn’t well-off so I am unable to pay just to visit but if I am accepted I would have a full-ride.
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My family isn’t well-off so I am unable to pay just to visit but if I am accepted I would have a full-ride.
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What do you define a “full-ride”?
One of the most heart breaking things for me to see on CC is in March/April when students (at many universities) post they will not be attending their first choice school they got accepted to because they cannot afford to.
Please do your financial aid homework up front.
I also encourage you to scan through past MIT threads on CC where financial aid has been discussed, especially for international students.
@jpm50 Thank you for bringing this up. I have looked at the threads on CC but this isn’t really a huge concern for me due to the full-ride which covers college tuition and additional fees, boarding fees, overseas exchange fees and an annual stipend of USD$25,000.
Who is providing this “full ride”? Not the college, obviously.
Stipend of 25k??
Full ride to which university?
Whoa! Who gives a 25K stipend on top of a full ride scholarship?!
Maybe the OP misunderstood and the scholarship is a “full ride” up to 25k a year max. That would make more sense.
Too much is too weird here.
@JonathanTan:
Questions:
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Are you expecting a university to provide you with a “full ride” or is it coming from somewhere else?
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You said if you’re accepted, you’ll get a “full ride” plus $25K. Does that only apply if you get accepted to MIT?
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If so, does that have anything to do with you turning down all the other schools you got accepted to last year in hopes of getting accepted to MIT this year?
I think the OP is playing with us.
Maybe he is that foreign prince who gets $200/week in spending money, as we have been discussing on the thread about the kid who blew up his mom’s credit card bill and then wouldn’t answer the phone. 
1: It's coming from an organisation in my country.
2 & #3: It applies to a couple of top universities around the world but both Caltech and MIT are part of the list so it wasn't a factor in me turning down my offers last year.
And to all others, yes, as much as its less believable in the states, its true.
Good luck with that. I have a student who is getting a full-ride from Turkey and it has been extremely difficult for him - he cannot get a grade lower than a C, he does not get the money on time so he is de-registered and has to fight to re-register without losing pace in his classes. He is constantly in a state of stress, and our college is not as competitive as Cal Tech or MIT.
The thing is, perhaps the most important thing for you is to confirm that others in the program have not had any issues with receiving funds on time and having their tuition and fees paid on time. Turkey is not the only country that has offered students free rides and puts rules into place that do not coordinate with the college.
If the program is well-known and has multiple graduates, hopefully you will be fine. But having outside funding is not easy sometimes. Get everything in writing up front, including how money will be transferred to the college.
The idea of turning down full ride to Berkeley (#1 in many majors, big top rate school) and Caltech (which is honestly the most beautiful campus, filled with stellar peers, small intimate, etc) for some perceived MIT upside (and magical admission chances after a gap year), we can’t believe it.
I personally have no advice, but you really don’t understand what you have been given in life and have rejected. We are mostly ordinary humans whose kids either don’t get in or can’t afford it or both.
I do hope you are not using your real name.
My son is a grad of both Caltech and MIT, tho still a grad student. So is his roommate. There are positives about being in smaller Caltech for UG. Both are wonderful. Other top contenders were UCB and CMU, where he could see himself. Hard to imagine turning down great schools for another great school.
@JonathanTan, I had several friends who went to MIT long time ago. If you really want to go to MIT, go to another good school and then go to MIT for Masters or something, or try to transfer later. Not worth it primarily because if MIT rejected you once, it’s more likely they will reject you again. No college is THAT much better than another good college for you to waste your energy like this. I am giving you this advice as an older person who went to an Ivy League long time ago. Don’t get hung up on what you want, but instead pursue opportunities available all around you and offered by other good colleges. Have a broader goal than merely getting into MIT: going there is not going to make or break your life or career goal. If you are a smart and hard working person, you will succeed even if you to another school. I seriously suggest that you change your viewpoint and think more broadly, rather than focusing on your DESIRE to attend MIT.
I will give you a simple analogy. Let’s say you like this girl but she rejected you, but in the meantime two other nice girls accepted you and want to get to know you. If you told me that you will wait around one or two years to ask the first girl out on a date, I will basically say you are not thinking clearly.
P.S. My friend who went to MIT regrets now that he should have gone to Harvard where he was also accepted to because he found that girls liked Harvard guys more than MIT guys. Lol
Sorry I randomly happened across this page and couldn’t stop reading. Can we get an update? Did OP get in? 
Who knows – OP hasn’t been online since February and hasn’t posted since last October.