Suggestions for MIT?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi, I'm currently a grade XII international (Indian, 17yo) student and will be applying to MIT in Nov/Dec this year. </p>

<p>My rough specs are:</p>

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<p>International Rank 9 in NCO, National 4th in NSTSE (twice!), about 10 other ranks within top 25 in national levels and about 30 within top 10 in state-level competitions.</p>

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<p>So, what are my chances of getting into MIT? What other US universities might you recommend and most importantly, what else might you suggest that I could do to strengthen my resume in the odd 6 months left?
(I'll be giving my SAT-II in Math-2, Phy and Chem in July.)
Also, I have two edx honor certificates. Would that be a significant addition to the list?</p>

<p>Thank you ^_^</p>

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<p>You are on 12th grade?</p>

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<p>Currently, yes.
Or Class 12, as we call it here. I assumed Grade XII would be the equivalent of it.</p>

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<p>Hoooooly crap that is a awesome resume yeah ur in</p>

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<p>I wish I had your optimism. Thank you. I just hope that the selection board think its decent enough.</p>

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<p>:( Suggestions? Anyone?</p>

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<p>OMG, it’s perfect resume; I’m too international student applying to MIT this year; But I’m just on X class. I’m only 16(</p>

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<p>It’s good that you have a lot of EC’s, but anyway you will have 1-2 essays to write about; On of these essays is “What do you do for pleasure” and I’m doubt that you will write about 5-10 ECs. I suggest you to be involved in 1-2 ECs which define you.</p>

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<p>Perfect? :frowning: But don’t they sure-shot candidates with Int. Olympiad medals? Thanks, anyway.
You’re applying this year? For MIT? After tenth? :o wow
Maybe the grade systems are different, I just turned 17.</p>

<p>‘What you do for pleasure.’ Hmm, I don’t suppose video games and anime count :smiley:
That will be tough, I suppose. Know anyplace to practice and assess such essays?
Also, do only LORs from school teachers count?</p>

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<p>LORs: they want one from a humanities teacher and one from a science and math teacher. You can get an additional letter but those two are required.</p>

<p>Your stats are strong and I’d say you have a shot, but you will be competing against International Olympiad medalists, and the international acceptance rate is around 3-5%. It is very possible that another student similar to yourself but with a medal or 3 will be in the pool next year. Don’t get your heart set on MIT; as an international, it’s incredibly difficult.</p>

<p>Other schools you may want to look into include Caltech, Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon University, and Illinois Institute of Technology. MIT has a set number of international students they can accept, but other schools may operate under different situations. You definitely could get into some great schools in the US!</p>

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<p>HUCicatrix# Yes, we have XI grades in my country, it means I’m junior now.
I have some math medals but only on national level, I don’t have any internationals yet :slight_smile:
Anyway medals not always lead to MIT. I know one guy from my country who had 2 silver medals on IPhO but he was rejected. </p>

<p>My advice: write awesome essays and with these stats you will get in.</p>

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<p>Could you tell me please what is NCO and NSTSE? What is KVPY? </p>

<p>Oh, yes… You are Indian, there a lot of applicants from India every year, MIT took about 5-10. I mean it will be very hard.</p>

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<h1>luisarose</h1>

<p>Thank you :D. I face a problem though. My current school doesn’t have a counselor or a humanities teacher. Are there any equivalents? Also, would it be wise to get a LOR from a teacher from my previous school or from my coaching centre?<br>
Yes, the Olympiad factor is a rather large setback. I wasn’t aware of its ( along with the AP tests’) existence until recently. Perhaps I can apply for the regionals this year and if I get selected, I can mention that I’m preparing for the second level.
There isn’t a set quota for international students, right?</p>

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<h1>Askar96</h1>

<p>Yeah, I always play a dramatic tune in my mind whenever I think about the admission essays. I’ll try my best though.</p>

<p>Oh, right. I apologize for my ignorance. NCO stands for ‘National Cyber Olympiad’ which recently became an international exam. NSTSE has a long full-form but it’s basically a national science and exam competition. </p>

<p>NTSE is a scholarship exam for Class X students by the government of India that provides upto PhD (with certain conditions, of course.) I aced it in Class VIII. </p>

<p>KVPY is the big one. It consists of a fairly difficult written round followed by a very rigorous (and for me, very fun :smiley: ) interview with top Physics ,Chemistry ,Math , Biology and other misc. subject professors from around the country. It’s another fellowship that provides till PhD and allows for grants for research. KVPY scholars initially get about 100$ per month that gradually increases (again with certain conditions). You’d also get instant admission to most of the top science universities such as The Indian Institute Of Science with a 100% scholarship.
The main draw however is that you become life-long members in almost all government-recognized laboratories and libraries all over the country (i.e. a bit like heaven :smiley: ). Every year about 200-250 students are accepted into the fellowship.</p>

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<p>looking good. As for suggestions, I’d check out Harvey Mudd as well. It’s probably on par with Cal Tech in terms of education quality.</p>

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<p>Thank you :slight_smile: Mudd and Cal Tech look great. The former seems to have the same vibe as MIT. I forgot to mention but I was wondering about colleges with good courses in CS/Physics(Particle, Quantum and/or Cosmological)/Astronomy. All three would be hoping too much though :stuck_out_tongue: That said, one of the first things that drew me to MIT was that it had its own observatory. I’m not sure if that’s common in the US or in other countries but it’s not common here in India.</p>

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<p>A humanities teacher is any teacher of history, language, art, music, etc.</p>

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<p>Oh. I had another thing in mind. Thank you :slight_smile: Is it applicable if said teacher isn’t teaching / has never taught me?</p>

<p>EDIT: In hindsight, the ‘has never taught’ was a pretty stupid question. Does CS come under that? Can I get one from an English teacher from my previous school where I studied 2 years ago?</p>

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<p>Also, #luisarose, thank you for that list of recommended colleges. I’ll be sure to look into them.</p>

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<p>Looking good in terms of grades, and you could aim for a higher writing score on your SAT. In my opinion, that’s the easiest section to improve in because of the essay. If you got less than 10 in it, check this out: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/645763-how-write-12-essay-just-10-days.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/645763-how-write-12-essay-just-10-days.html&lt;/a&gt;
I don’t know whether it’s necessary, though. MIT’s much more concerned about Math. </p>

<p>As for your application essays, if you’re having a hard time finding out what you do for pleasure, does that mean you don’t enjoy any of your ECs? It’s important that you actually love the ECs you do, admissions like passionate students, not only ones who just want to get in. </p>

<p>Anyway, I think you’re a competitive applicant. Make sure you get those essays right and you’ll be in the running. Also, if I were you I’d get recommendations from junior (11th) or senior (12th) year.</p>