<p>Hey, I was wondering how much weight, if any, being a recruited athlete would hold in MIT Admissions.
My current scores would be 34 reading 34 science 32 math 29 english (superscored from 2 tests) and I am taking one more time with my school so I should be able to improve my english and math.
SAT 800 Math 650 CR 610 WS</p>
<p>I know my scores aren't amazing, but I play volleyball and I saw that MIT has a DIII volleyball team. I was wondering how much influence coaches have on the admissions process. </p>
<p>Also does anyone have any advice on how to even get looked at by MIT scouts?
My school team is currently 13th in the nation and last year my club team placed 2nd in the nation at Junior Olympics.</p>
<p>Coaches supposedly do not have much influence on admissions, but the fact that you do play a sport and take it so seriously will be considered as a part of the greater picture of you. You should apply regardless of the weight athletics plays in admissions, though; you never know what’ll happen. The sports recruitment thingy form is here: [MIT</a> - DAPER - Varsity Sports Recruiting Form](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/athletics/www/varsity/recruit-me.html]MIT”>http://web.mit.edu/athletics/www/varsity/recruit-me.html)</p>
<p>Every student that MIT considers for admission must meet the very high academic requirements. Since so many – but not all kids-- do, you really need to have something that you can prove that you are passionate about and excel in to act as a tie-breaker, such as winning math/science/robotics competitions, or getting into high level orchestras or bands by playing an instrument or being a highly ranked debater or certifiably very good at your sport etc… That is, mostly taking the highest advantage of the environment available to you. There are many things that you can be passionate about, but it needs to be verifiable in some way by either having the coach rank you or having one of the HASS departments review a recording or some sort of portfolio, or just being from a part of the country that has little to offer, but you made things happen anyway.</p>
<p>There is no guarantee that even if you have that, that you will get in because they are also looking for the right fit and trying to gauge you as a person. But if you don’t have that, you probably won’t get in.</p>
<p>Said another way: MIT is almost the only school that doesn’t drop it’s academic standards to let in athletes. (Maybe CalTech is the only other one?..) And actually if you can’t handle the work, you shouldn’t be at MIT.</p>
<p>While it is true that MIT does not compromise its academic standards to admit athletes, it is also true that DAPER’s recommendations are considered in admissions. Being a recruited athlete will only matter in borderline cases, but it does matter in borderline cases. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that Dean Stuart Schmill, the Dean of Admissions, was previously the coach of MIT’s Division I rowing team. So he understands it from both sides. From the perspective of the coach urging the admissions office to admit certain students, and that of the admissions Dean, disappointing those coaches.</p>
<p>In the past, athletic achievement was weighted about the same as student government or other non-academic achievements, specifically as a tip factor when comparing candidates of roughly equal academic abilities. I suspect it is more important these days considering it seems like every day an MIT team is breaking an individual or team record. Still, it is far less of a factor than at the ivies. The ivies and most DIII colleges have a slot system so that basically the best X athletes who meet certain minimum requirements are automatically admitted. MIT doesn’t work like that. </p>
<p>The writing SAT section is not valued by MIT, so the OP’s SAT combined score is 1450/1600. I think the OP has a strong chance and should definitely apply, based on extrapolating what little info he/she has given us to GPA, etc… This is assuming the OP looks like someone with a strong interest in math or science (though I’m not going to define that statement.)</p>