<p>I am an alumni from a long time ago. What made MIT a great school for me was the opportunities there. I got involved in the Undergraduate Student Research Program (UROP). One of the groups I was involved with even had a NASA research contract to fund the work we were doing. Cutting edge stuff and very exciting. I also learned so much from those projects, much more than just from the classroom alone. Those research projects gave me a huge head start on my engineering career.</p>
<p>Everyone at MIT will have great GPAs/SAT scores. But what seems to set the admitted students apart from those who were granted admission is that the admitted students took advantage of their opportunities in high school. They knew how to push themselves especially outside the classroom. In order words, they were the high achievers. So when you mix high achievers with almost boundless opportunities, you have a great school. </p>
<p>The intellectual environment and the students sense of achievement create an excitment that is hard to understand unless you are part of it. I toured the school with my daughter who was thinking of applying (in the end, she did not) and didn’t get that feeling. It was disappointing to me as an alumni and was wondering what happened. Some time later, I went back to my fraternities alumni weekend (my first after many years living on the west coast) and met many old and recent alumni as well as current students. Talking to them, that old feeling of excitement came back. The students were smart and engaged in lots of exciting things and showed lot of enthusiasm. </p>
<p>So, if you asking this question wondering about attending MIT, be assured it is a great school. It is by no means the only great school but certainly is one of them.</p>