<p>I'm currently a sophomore in high school. I'm currently valedictorian in my school with a 4.0 GPA unweighted and a 5.12 weighted GPA (and it appear to be going up by a steady .12 each semester). I have very little extracurricular activities except orchestra (I'll be in varsity for the next two years). I'm going to be a future IB student (international baccalaureate) and plan to take HL math and physics (simply means taking 2 years of those classes instead of one). I want to work in an IT or engineering field (really broad, I know; trying to narrow it down) and would love to attend this school. Looking at MIT's acceptance rate though and the average SAT and ACT scores of it's applicants has me down however. I've heard that with schools that are top tier like MIT, the essay the applicant sends in plays a major role. My writing schools are sub par, and it's an area I plan to greatly improve in in the next two years. </p>
<p>In a very very broad sense, just computers. I don’t know exactly what yet. I know IT includes things like designing computer networks and info databases and all that. My thoughts on IT might be way off, and if I’m simply speaking out of ignorance, I apologize</p>
<p>I think he/she means information tech. I could be wrong, but that’s what my parents call computer science (although I believe there might be a subtle division between the two fields?).</p>
<p>I don’t suggest you build your ECs around college applications. Do what you enjoy best in the extra curricular field and you will naturally excel. For SATs and whatnot, the only solution is to practice for the tests. There’s no other way out.</p>
<p>Don’t get caught up over college admissions as a sophomore (other than SAT practice etc.), but I’d recommend you start brainstorming some ideas for essays during the summer after Junior year so that you have something under your belt when application process begins.</p>
<p>EDIT: woah, loads of people posted since I opened this page. The info tech actually refers to k43n2.</p>
<p>…yeah, so there is a difference in my mind between ‘IT’ and ‘computer science’. If you want to major in the latter, MIT is pretty much one of the best places on the planet. If you want a job in the former, you’re going to be horribly overqualified if you come to MIT and horribly bored at your job if you do it anyway. Computer science is actually extremely heavy in theoretical math, especially in certain fields. I think you need to do some more exploration and actually determine if you really want to come here.</p>
<p>My apologies, I never quite differentiated between the two. In our school district everything technology related is lumped under an IT header in the course selection guide. Math and science have always been my strongest subjects. I was looking at engineering fields for the longest time and was trying to find out more about MIT’s biomedical/chemical engineering degrees (I noticed that there was no biomedical majors I believe), and then I started to think of my heavy interest in computers. After that I started to reevaluate my major choice. </p>
<p>And I understand about picking EC activities that I enjoy. Would anyone know of any possible leads for finding some EC activities that are heavy in computers/math/science? I know there’s a Science Olympiad club at my school that goes to contests and such that I plan on joining. I know I need more than just EC relating to my major so that I appear as a balanced individual. However, at this time I need EC’s and just need a starting base. The school councilors are… lackluster at my school.</p>
<p>Oh, I’m expecting nothing to simply be given to me with no hard work involved. I’m just curious if anyone had any ideas that I could build on for EC’s. My school’s lacking in a lot of things I believe. I would GREATLY like to improve my mathematical knowledge in addition to improving my writing skills. Right now I’m in algebra 2 honors and I’ll most likely be doing SL Math Studies (unless they magically offer HL Mathematics starting next year), which includes calculus, statistics, geometry, algebra, and several other things that aren’t coming to me right now. Is there any books or websites people would recommend to really buff up my skills? In any subject, not just math/english. I’ll start to really hunt for those EC’s soon. Thanks to all</p>
<p>Sorry, haha. I meant more like I’ll start looking. I just said hunt because lately I’ve been keeping an eye out for them and nothing really popped out.</p>
<p>Hmm… the difference between Math Studies SL and Math HL is… massive. You’d ideally want to have at least Math Methods SL for a solid grounding in math for university.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the only IB Math course offered at my school at the moment in Math Studies SL. I’m going to attempt to get them to offer the course, as they have a teacher who is qualified and certified and all that, I just need to get enough students to sign up for the class</p>