<p>This is just a curious question, but if an applicant did NOT have any math or science related EC's, would his/her chances of being admitted diminish somewhat? In other words, is having talent in the sciences a requirement for all applicants? Somebody told me this once, but I didn't believe it. I'm simply asking to confirm things.</p>
<p>Any thoughts? It would be great to get some opinions on this.</p>
<p>OK, I just read the “Guide to Chancing” thread posted in this forum, and it stated that applicants should pursue only what they love, but after looking through the actual results threads, it seemed that all those accepted had either a math or science related extracurricular…</p>
<p>CC kind of gives the impression that everyone’s doing some big science competition or research summer program or something. This is not the case for many MIT students. I had never heard of national science competitions for high schoolers when I applied.</p>
<p>I’ve met plenty of people who focused heavily on the arts before college. The science competitors probably outweigh the arts people - but not by much.</p>
<p>Certainly, you have to like science enough to get through the GIRs. But it by no means has to be your life.</p>
<p>Having talent in the sciences and having high school ECs in the sciences are not the same.</p>
<p>A lot of admitted students have science/engineering-related ECs, but I suspect this would be true whether or not there was conscious selection for them by the admissions committee – a lot of MIT-type students do science and engineering ECs for the same reason they’re applying to MIT: because they like science and engineering.</p>
<p>Like Piper, my ECs were all arts-related in high school.</p>
<p>Silly me, I forgot to mention my background. Drama, community service, horseback riding, karate - not so much with the science. I wasn’t even in science club in high school, though we had one.</p>
<p>(I got in early, too.)</p>
<p>Cool, thanks guys!</p>
<p>yea… though what your EC’s are in HS should naturally match in someway with what college you are applying to. </p>
<p>Why did you do arts stuff if you want to apply to a science/math intensive school?</p>
<ol>
<li>Most people aren’t purely science-interested or purely arts-interested. To paraphrase what Matt McGann once said, MIT accepts all sorts - from the well-rounded to the extremely pointy.</li>
<li> Opportunity isn’t there for everyone. As I mentioned before, I had never heard of those big competitions people talk about. I could’ve joined science club - I think I was technically in it - but it was a joke.</li>
</ol>
<p>
Because I wanted to?</p>