I am not from the U.S, in my country the highschool gives percentages in each class intead of GPAs here are they - 90% - 9th Grade, 95%-10th grade, 85% in 11th grade ( I have a genuine reason for this), and 97% in the 12 grade. As I am looking forward to choose engineering as a major here are my score - SAT 1 - 790 Maths, SAT 2 - 800 Maths, 790 Physics. AP 5/5 in Calculus BC.
My extracurriculars are as follows
1)Started A Club In School Which Helps In Revival Of Lost Interest Of Students In English And Science By Developing Various Methods Of Studying, In A Fun Way, That Not Only Helps Them Retain The Knowledge But Also Enjoy It To Its Fullest.
2.President Of Environment Club Of My School And Have Recently Started A Project In WhichI Designed Methods To Collect Aluminum Foil Waste In Our School ( I Have A Large School, Over 10000 Students So Large Amount Of It Comes Out Daily) And This Scrap Is Then Sold. The Money Raised Is Used To Help Disabled People Buy Prosthetic Limbs, Legs Etc.
I Have Also Created A Club Which Provides Students Various Opportunities To Find Their Talents And Work On Them, We Also Encourage Students To Try To Follow Their Passion And Not Careers Just For Materialistic Purposes. We Also Act As A Mediator Between Students And Children Helping Them To Understand each Other more. We try to look at conflicting situations from the perspective of both students and parents and try to solve them providing a middle path.
I Am Also The Member Of The Junior Youth Empowerment Program( JYEP or JYSEP ) And Have Served As Its Animator For More Than Three Years. Training my peers and juniors. It has played a significant role in growth of my personality, and made me look at things and life from a whole new perspective.It made me realise the importance of service in youth and for me its the satisfying experience.
I was also choisen to participate In International Chief Justices Conference Held By My School. In which we come face to face with the chief justices of different countries and can ask them questions and other important queries regarding world issues.
I have also participated in various inter-school football and swimming tournaments.
I Am Also An Active MUNer. ( Model United Nations) and have won 3 Special mentions, and one Best delegate award.
I also teach tuitions to 3 of my neighborhood children.
I also know 4 languages - English, Hindi, Spanish and German.
What do you think I lack? Does my application provides a strong academic background?
Have you taken a gap year?
How do you have your grade 12 scores?
While your school grades are competitive you need to most probably improve on the SAT
Your score converts to about 2150 on the old scale. It would be good if you could retake the SAT
Your profile is very impressive overall!
Keep up the good work in sure you’ll get into some strong engineering program for sure!
However
My advise to you is don’t depend solely on MIT
Research some more about good programs and see where you would be happy, have a fair mix of safeties and reaches
Best of luck!
Harvard’s engineering program is ranked #24, Yale # 38, Dartmouth #57. After MIT (@ #1) the next highest ranked school on your list is Cornell at #8.
So, my first question is are why are you looking at unis in a sports league? there are (obviously) a lot of unis whose engineering programs are considered to be stronger.
Second, I don’t see anything that suggests an interest in / aptitude for engineering. Because you apply directly to engineering schools within the college they will wonder why engineering as well as why their particular school.
Finally, please don’t capitalize everything! After the first letter of the first word in a sentence o,nly use upper-case letters for proper nouns (ie, an individual person or place or organization - Harvard, Boston, or the United Nations, for example, but not college, city or agency).
@collegemom3717 , thanks for your reply! Doesnt a good score in Science and Maths subjects represent interest/aptitude for a STEM field? I thought the college wanted you to do what you love, I mean I equally love studying science and maths and doing service. All I do is that I use the knowledge I gain from science fields and use it in service, like making cheap electricity generators and solar cells which I give to underprivileged people and that is what I want to use a good engineering education for.Anything you’d like to suggest that would improve my chances?
@Littlebitanxious Where do you think my application would stand among other MIT applicants?Can you suggest me some good safe and reach schools depending on my application?
No. Good scores in any subject say smart and/or studies hard and/or is good at taking tests- nothing about interest, and only some about potential aptitude for STEM. It is necessary, but not sufficient.
Then be aware that is not at all what you posted: you said that your ECs were:
starting a club to help fellow students rediscover their interest in english and science
part on an environmental club with a project collecting scrap, selling it and donating it to charity
starting a club for conflict resolution and encouragement for fellow students
part of a peer counseling group
part of a legal-oriented world issues conference
MUN
some sports
tutoring neighbor children
Nothing about building things. From your list, you sounded a lot like my Collegekid who had similar scores (and scores in other subjects) and some similar ECs- and is History + Politics student. It does not read like somebody with an interest in Engineering. Which is why I asked the question in the first place.
@Thiago99 many (though not all) international students at MIT that I know have some incredible achievement such as a gold at IMO/IPhO/IOI or something similar. So be aware of the competition you are in. What country are you from?
I have to agree with @collegemom3717; it’s not clear why you want to study at MIT or any Ivy League university, or why you want to study engineering, or what field of engineering. If you are applying mostly for the prestige, then don’t do it - you’ll be wasting time and money, and will very likely end up with rejection letters. Many of these schools do take “student interest” as a factor.
@MITChris Do you think I align with MIT’s mission, I am not a gold medalist in an International or national Olympiad but I ve been participating in numerous science fairs both official and recreational, and made things such as power sources and other equipments which can be given to people whi have no power supply in their house, I really enjoy doing such stuff. Do I really need Olympiad golds/silver to enter MIT? What do you think of my application?