<p>As far as application wise, I talked to someone representing MIT at a college fair, he said they took a wholistic approach when judging, so is everything: tests, essay, personal achievements, grades, etc balanced equally when judging?
MIT is a very distant dream for me, personally, what do you believe to be MIT's strongest field ? (I had always had a notion that it was in the STEM field but I don't want to incorrectly assume.)
Does visiting campus when deciding whether I should apply or not help? I have heard visiting helps a lot, but it could differ person to person. I live out-of-state so I'd rather here some opinions before I decide whether or not to make a trip. Also does being out-of-state affect the application? (Is it a disadvantage?) I talked to a representative of UCLA, they said that out-of-state residents actually had an advantage, except that they provide little financial aid for out-of-state residents. Is that similar with MIT?</p>
<p>[MIT</a> Office of the Provost, Institutional Research](<a href=“MIT Institutional Research”>MIT Institutional Research)</p>
<p>Most important: Character/personal qualities</p>
<p>Important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Standardized test scores, Application essay, Recommendation, Interview, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability</p>
<p>Considered: Class rank, First generation, Geographic residence, Racial status, Volunteer work, Work experience</p>
<p>Not considered: Level of interest (haha that one’s a bummer! I guess everyone’s interested, their yield rate is like 3/4), State residency, Religion</p>
<p>So that answers your first question. MIT themselves have ranked what’s important to them. MIT’s strength is certainly STEM, some would narrow it down to Engineering but all it’s STEM programs are extremely solid. </p>
<p>Visiting will not help your chances in itself, because they don’t consider interest. However, they will know you’re a serious applicant and you will have stuff to write about and talk about in an interview. If you’re far away I’m sure they won’t count it against you. Geographic residence is “considered” and California is probably one of the more academic states but it probably doesn’t make too much of a difference.</p>
<p>Thank-you for the information! :D</p>
<p>While MITs STEM areas are outstanding, MIT also has top rated programs in the social sciences, linguistics, and business, to name a few. Its economics program is outstanding, and its undergraduate business program was recently ranked #2 (UPenn ranking # 1) in one of the polls. Many MIT students double major or minor in a non-STEM field, and MIT provides students with alot of flexibility in their curriculum to do this.</p>
<p>Oh. Interesting, I did not know that! ^o^</p>
<p>
Unlike UCLA, MIT is a private university, so in-state vs. out-of-state status is not a consideration for admission or financial aid. (Your state of residence is taken into consideration – a student from rural Montana might not have the same opportunities as a student from New York City – but the in-state/out-of-state distinction per se is not made.)</p>
<p>Oh, haha. That makes sense, thank-you! :D</p>
<p>Before I start, nyankitty0911 thank you! I was wondering the same thing!</p>
<p>Does creating a club that has won the Lemelson-MIT grant, help my chances of getting in at all?</p>
<p>I’d imagine that mentioning that in your applicatiom would help considering its definitely a merit rather than a disadvantage. Whether or not it helps, I couldnt imagine that mentioning such a thing would come with many cons. Its definitely something that you should use to your advantage. :D</p>
<p>Pretty much all the science and engineering majors are world class at MIT, which is fantastic because you can go to MIT without knowing exactly what field of STEM you’re interested in. Of course, some departments have better teaching than others. In addition to the linguistics and management departments, political science is also very good.</p>
<p>As for what is MIT’s strongest field, that is very subjective. What do you mean by “strongest”? I would say historically, physics and EECS are very famous and very large departments. Historically, physical science and engineering dominated MIT, but in recent years, MIT is putting more focus on biological and life science. I don’t know which is the “hottest” field at MIT, i.e. the department that people are madly applying to for grad school.</p>
<p>I supppose by “strongest” I mean both what they are historically known for as well as now. 
Thank-you for the reply!</p>
<p>Economics.</p>
<p>Historically, MIT is the brand name school for engineering. It is also known as the strongest school in math and science (with a few peer schools like Harvard/Stanford/Caltech). As people have said, it does have other programs which are top 10:
economics (#1)
political science (top 10–emphasis on quantitative analysis)
linguistics (we’ve got Noam Chomsky)
business (top 5 for MBA, #2 for undergrad business since most top B-schools don’t have this as an undergrad major.)
Music is also very highly rated.</p>
<p>Other humanities depts at MIT have pretty good rankings; they have good professors, but are small departments.</p>
<p>Thank-you for the info! :D</p>
<p>Thank-you, I think someone else said economics also, so I may research that now too! :D</p>
<p>It’s probably better if you tell people what you are looking for so that you can get better answers.</p>
<p>Honestly collegealum’s department rankings seem a little rosy for MIT. Like MIT econ is certainly one of the best programs and plausibly could be ranked #1 but it’s not so dominant that it’s definitely #1. I think similar things would apply to the other departments i.e. political science is a top 10 department in the sense that there are ~15 departments that can credibly claim to be top 10.</p>
<p>Apparently four departments are now tied for #1 in econ, MIT included. I am not in econ, but my impression from hearing people talk about it is that MIT’s faculty is considered the strongest in the country, with U of Chicago a close second. I agree that it’s not dominant compared to the top two or three competitors. </p>
<p>Poli sci was rated #8 by US News in the 90’s, and nearly twenty years later, it is still rated #8. That is basically what I based my statement about it being top 10.</p>
<p>I think my assessment of the business school is pretty accurate. With the exception of Upenn (Wharton), the places with top MBA schools tend not to carry and undergrad major in business.</p>