<p>Hi everyone, I'm going into my senior year and am planning on applying RA for MIT. I believe my grades are strong enough and that i have a real chance of getting in, however my EC are weak. For the last 3 years and for this year i've been playing football at my high school. And it being in Texas the demand is extreme. I spend anywhere from 2 to 5 hours a day either working out for football or actually practicing. Thats just in the summer. During the school year I usually spend most of my day at school between classes and football. I've never had time to be involved in any other EC's other than NHS and StuCo. I was wondering if the lack of EC could be hurtful to me, or would the fact that football takes much dedication and lots of disipline actually help me. Also would a letter of recommendation from one of my coaches help me? Thanks in advance for your comments.</p>
<p>I think a letter of recommendation from one of your coaches will definitely help.
I think you don’t have to have tens of EC’s to get into MIT.
Also, MIT probably knows that playing football in Texas is not easy.</p>
<p>You can show how much time and work you give to be part of the team.</p>
<p>you may try to some how find a way to help your community, I think that will really help you.</p>
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<p>Yeah, it might, but I wouldn’t put too much stock into that. Every year I see at least one student with some grafted on community service work about which they are clearly insincere. I rarely if ever raise it at interview, but it is amazing that the students who care least about it, always try to squeeze a mention of it in at interview, at which point I feel quite comfortable testing that to destruction.</p>
<p>In truth, there is nothing wrong with committing yourself solidly to football. It demonstrates a number of qualities that MIT is looking for: perseverance, commitment, team-working. Last year however, I was interviewing someone with a similar sports focus and I asked him what he would do if he were ever injured and couldn’t play for a season or more. He said something to the extent of “I would probably shoot myself or go crazy”. That did not particularly help his chances for MIT.</p>
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<p>Thank you, this is what I was thinking. Football is a passion of mine, but its only a hobby. My school work is much more important to me. I just sometimes feel like I’m at a huge disadvantage when I read about these other students who have many many EC’s that look very very good, yet i can count all of mine on one hand. It gets a bit frustating. Haha the applications needs to come out so i can do it and be done with it.</p>
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I can not believe some who is applying to mit have said that!</p>
<p>Mikalye,
Can you give us some tips about the interview?</p>
<p>Thank you</p>