<p>thanks for reposting that, mollie!
i think that once people understand that it's possible for a qualified applicant to get rejected just because of lack of space, they will feel a lot better--at first it makes you feel desperate (because it feels like the process is totally random). but then you just feel tons better because you know that you're not JUSt applying to MIT. someone who could have gotten into MIT isn't going to slip through the cracks at every other schools he/she applies to...it gives you hope</p>
<p>Thank you!! This thread definitely gives me hope. =] I'm applying next year...</p>
<p>Great post!!!! :)</p>
<p>Wow! Thank you so much for this post... I was going crazy with worry lately because I want to apply to MIT but my EC only consists of a few activities that I'm extremely passionate about (none of them are strictly devoted to math and science. More Art/design related) and not with Science olympiads and what not.
I didn't even know that there was such a thing called the AIME test until recently!!! Again, thanks a lot.</p>
<p>honestly, my biggest worry is that i come across as a stats kid, instead of someone real.... because i've got the stats... and i'm leadership in 5 clubs, which somepeople would assume are just shallow activities because i do so many of them... but i just forego sleep to be able to have time to do everything i want to do. how do i show that to the admission officers?</p>
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how do i show that to the admission officers?
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<p>Generally you'll get space to put how long you've been doing your various activities (though admissions officers realize that length of time does not tell the whole picture - you may have only discovered a certain activity senior year). If I remember correctly (I applied in 2002), you also get to estimate how many hours/week you spend on each activity (if you don't get a designated space for this, you may want to put it anyway, next to each activity).</p>
<p>You also get essays. The topics vary a bit from year to year, but you'll probably get a chance to talk about one or more of your ECs in at least one essay, and you'll get a chance to demonstrate various character traits and come through as more than a bunch of numbers in the essays in general.</p>
<p>Nice info. Very helpful.</p>
<p>I would just like to post the observation that this IS the way the Admissions Staff at MIT views applications, even though Ben Jones is now gone. If you are a "high stats" applicant next year, please do not assume that the philosophy will change, or that it will not apply to you. </p>
<p>Also, please bear in mind that the application itself (including recs, etc.) is all the admissions staff has to go by. They are trying to get at "who you are" because that's what "really matters." I do think they do their best, given their philosophy. But I'd say it's not really about "who you are," so much as it's about "who it most nearly appears that you are, from your application." </p>
<p>If you have high stats, and you want to go to MIT, you will have to make sure that your application makes your passion evident. I'd advise you not to take it for granted that it's evident from what you've done, however demanding that was. Also, make sure that your application reflects how you treat other people (at least, assuming that you treat other people "well," or better). </p>
<p>Showing how you "embrace life" or making your application "drip" . . . . well, that's just a little too far out on the fringes for me, as a scientist. But it's no doubt helpful, if you can do it.</p>
<p>High stats people should all read the section of "Surely your joking, Mr. Feynman!" in which Richard Feynman, perhaps the most distinguished MIT graduate, describes how he won the english award for his high school. Feynman despised english, and particularly despised the unnecessarily florid but unsubstantive language that seemed to be valued. The english award was judged on the basis of an essay contest. Junior year Feynman scored pretty low. Afterwards he read the winning essay that kept going on about "eddies and currents" (an example of the unnecessarily ornate language that was favored.) Senior year he wrote his essay in the same vein and won the award.</p>
<p>As QM said, you will need to present yourself in a way aggreeable to current admissions philosophies, regardless of whether you agree with them or not.</p>
<p>Wow, this thread has been revived from a while back, all right! </p>
<p>I think collegealum and QM give sound advice -- it's about dripping with passion and actually communicating + marketing it to the admissions officers. As skilled as they may be, they may not be able to read minds :)</p>
<p>Mathboy, you've posted on a number of threads asking advice about grad school and what to do to position yourself for a career in mathematics. You've got over one thousand posts in 3 months--this statistic concerns me. If Mollie scanned your brain while you were on CC, your nucleus accumbens would be lighting up like a fireworks show on the 4th of July. It's addictive and you should stay away from it. It's worse than crack. (Yeah, I know I need to get off cc too.)</p>
<p>If you need a diversion, find one that involves people and/or activities in the real world. I would eliminate cc altogether.</p>
<p>^You're right on, I guess I'm at my desk all too often. Though many of my posts came from winter break from when I was sitting around a lot. </p>
<p>Are you a math grad student?</p>
<p>EDIT: Funny thing, so I scheduled an appointment to talk to a professor of mine about general advising via email, and it turns out he revised his plans just an hour or so after I'd sent the mail. And I'd left to see him already. He remarked when he saw me that he was used to people checking email incessantly, nonstop, every few minutes, so much so that he assumed I'd gotten the message..but that it was probably a good sign that I'd not. Same idea, I imagine!</p>
<p>Hey, it's all about staying busy. :)</p>
<p>I just want to point out that the ability to market yourself and your brain does not stop being useful after undergrad admissions -- if you're going to stay on any sort of competitive career path, you'll have to be able to sell your ideas and your abilities time and time again. </p>
<p>I'm currently writing a fellowship proposal which hammers home the point that my research is useful for curing X disease; it's not a lie, but if you were to ask me what I find most interesting about my research, it's not that it could help cure X disease. The NIH and I disagree about what should get funding priority, but they have the money, so I write about X disease.</p>
<p>The degree to which certain abilities and selling points are valued varies between different competitive processes, but grantsmanship -- the ability to distill exactly what needs to be said in a pithy way -- will always be helpful.</p>