<p>I know MIT looks for those nerdy/genius math/science kids. I consider myself one of them. I won the 2nd place of the Intel ISEF with an innovative invention. I am also participating it next year with a topic on biodegradable plastics. I am also an ESL; my first language is Chinese and I’ve lived in China for almost my entire life (15 years), which is why I don’t have an awesome SAT score. International students in China don’t get as many opportunities as the students in North America do. From reading other threads I realized they have much more science and math competitions and stuff. </p>
<p>So I am wondering if my life experience/setting would kind of make up for the low SAT score (for admission to MIT and Stanford, this is definitely low 25%)? How much stress do they put on SAT scores? Would a 2100 differ greatly from a 2200, or 2300?</p>