<p>ok ok i am full of a lot of anxiety waiting for tomorrow at 9. I just had a very bad thought, what if you get in and you can't hack it. I know I've read a zillion times that if you're admitted MIT has full faith that you can do the work,but what if you secretly know that all the other applicants are like crazy smart people who do really interesting things in their free time, and you're just kind of an everyday kid? yah, yah, I read Chris's post on garden variety smart but at MIT? Is there any such thing as garden variety smart? What if you got in and then were a really big disappointment to all the adcoms who were sold on you....well our models predicted she would do amazing things here and well er uhm she barely passed her calculus class.</p>
<p>Can you tell I'm freaking out? I have a big paper due tomorrow and I can't do it!</p>
<p>Watson, pass me my Elephant Tranquilizer gun!</p>
<p><em>pew</em></p>
<p>Elephant tranquilizer gun? You got one? Do you think it will work?</p>
<p>SHOOT ME NOW!</p>
<p>calm down and get out.</p>
<p>Work harder then. Being accepted to MIT is too great of an opportunity to risk failure</p>
<p>I’m positive we will talk about this a lot more in the spring, when people have multiple acceptances in hand and are deciding where to attend.</p>
<p>In short (because I have to prepare for a thesis advisory committee meeting tomorrow!), this is something most prefrosh worry about, and it’s a valid worry in the sense that MIT is tough, and most MIT students get a lot more round (as opposed to pointy) grades at MIT than they’re used to getting.</p>
<p>It’s not a valid worry in the sense that you’d be letting the admissions office down if you struggle – I mean, I love the admissions officers, but when you get to MIT, you’re doing it for yourself, not for them.</p>
<p>There are absolutely lots and lots of garden-variety smart people at MIT. I was one of them. And I came to MIT from a mediocre Midwestern public high school and my first semester smacked me right upside the head – it was hard, and I felt like I was in way over my head, and I got three C’s and a B (well, except that it was pass-no record, so my transcript just says four P’s). And then I figured out what I needed to do to get better grades, and I did those things, and I graduated with two majors and got into the top graduate programs in my field. </p>
<p>Anyway, I’m sure we’ll talk about this more later in a few months. This was just to tide you over until then.</p>
<p>Thanks Mollie, you and Chris are always so helpful. I think I am just getting very anxious and questioning everything my senior year. I’ve got some decent stats but I worked REALLY HARD for them. It just seems that there are so many students out there with great stats that don’t seem to work as hard as me. There are only 24 hours in a day, I wonder if I’d be tapped out time wise at MIT. So that is the part I worry about–great scores came with A LOT of preparation.</p>
<p>Anyway, thanks for the reply. I too appreciate all the help you and Chris (and piper) have given. You guys are really helpful.</p>
<p>I think the ability to do well at some conceptual reasoning requires a maturity which happens later for some than others. Nothing in high school is generally that hard with proper maturity…but we really do not necessarily have that. As in, there is a distinction between being able to piece lots of things together quickly and plain being able to calmly listen and get an idea of what is going on. I think maturity can be developed much more rapidly alongside direction and focus.</p>
<p>Keep finding out things you like thinking about, eventually everyone has to pick something and go into
depth, wherein lies the new game. I have not had the pleasure of having spoken to Mollie outside here, but I bet given she is a graduate student and loves research, finding that was probably very energizing.</p>
<p>If your career at MIT or wherever you go were all like frosh year, and all you had to look forward to was taking exams in general classes along extremely smart people, maybe you would stop seeing the point. But that is not how it is. Energy is worth a ton, because it lets you sit down, listen and calmly learn what you need to. The idea is you should hardly be required to take many classes that are both extremely hard and that don’t find very appealing. The moment you find stuff that is “your thing,” a lot changes.</p>
<p>
This week, I gave my entire lab Christmas tree ornaments with the expression pattern of my favorite gene laser-engraved on them. I think that says it all about me. ;)</p>
<p>limabeans, I just remembered that I wrote a [blog</a> entry](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/learning/advising_support/the_first_step.shtml]blog”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/learning/advising_support/the_first_step.shtml) my senior year about different resources (academic and otherwise) that are available to students at MIT. You can also look at [this</a> thread](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/mit-2014/1025205-wow-im-failing-mit.html]this”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/mit-2014/1025205-wow-im-failing-mit.html) in the MIT '14 forum, where zoomx3, a current freshman, is going through that first-semester “I’m so stupid” phase that a lot of people (me included) go through, and Piper and Karen dispense the wisdom of upperclasspeople.</p>