<p>Here I'm,technically in the last stage of my application, writing an optional essay.
My optional essay is a very critical part of my entire application as I feel the admission officers might misunderstand me from the other parts of my application, since these are mostly numbers and words of other people.</p>
<p>In the optional essay, I would like to mention my true nature of how I approach my classes.
Basically, here's the thing: I'm heavily involved in research with a professor and devote 90% of my time in the research. I spend least amount of time in my studies and thus I don't have a 4.0 GPA. I truly feel for the topic on which am researching, but I don't feel like going through classes like Philosophy, etc thus I scored average B's in them.</p>
<p>So do I mention this in my essay or shall I just fake it saying that I enjoy all of my classes, but I had 'xyz' issues for which I couldn't get straight A's in them ?</p>
<p>You shouldn’t fake anything.</p>
<p>truly just be honest… let your actions be the selling point of who you are.</p>
<p>I also feel the same way that I shouldn’t lie at all, but since I didn’t really paid much attention to my classes, my GPA suffered greatly. So will MIT think that I will do the same there (if I’m given a chance) and I won’t be able to tackle the academic load at MIT ?
Also because I haven’t bagged any Olympiads or any science competitions, but devoted most of my time to things which I really enjoyed doing. I have been doing this for all these years, but recently realized that the way I do things isn’t the way most admitted students did.</p>
<p>So umm…what do you guys think ?</p>
<p>^^MIT does not only admit straight A students. Some students, especially boys, are late bloomers. Or they are just not as mature as many girls in the same age. So, if you can show MIT your passion in doing your research, you still get a chance being admitted with relatively low GPA. But you shouldn’t lie anything or explain your grades within your essay, IMHO. You should just focus on the research part.</p>
<p>^ Thanks a lot for the moral support.</p>
<p>Focus on the positive. </p>
<p>Trying to explain why someone didn’t do well on something always sounds to me like whining. Never great.</p>
<p>Eh, you don’t really need to explain B’s. I got a few B’s in high school, being too busy enjoying riding and flying and such. When it came to my application, I didn’t talk about those B’s or try to excuse them at all. </p>
<p>Pursue what you like, give as true an application as you can to colleges, you’ll end up somewhere where the college fits you – not where you’ve pretended to fit the college ;)</p>
<p>But seriously, a <4.0 is not an issue.</p>