<p>I am a first year Undergrad student (mechE) from India. My college is quite popular in the country but I have heard that MIT doesn't consider except the people from the IITs. Unfortunately I couldn't make up to the IITs, well, I have my reasons but that's irrelevant.</p>
<p>And I saw in other thread - they talk about research! What kind of research? I mean I am not a scientist! And research experience for PHD is what I can understand but why for Grad school?</p>
<p>And how to convert marks out of 100 to GPA? In India, we have take out percentage of our marks so..</p>
<p>What kind of extra curricular activity do they see for?
Any extra suggestion?</p>
<p>Thanks a lot.</p>
<p>Go to <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/348756-graduate-school-admissions-101-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/348756-graduate-school-admissions-101-a.html</a></p>
<p>You can find a lot of information there.</p>
<p>Research: Yes, what they are talking about is the actual research. You have to believe it. It is unknown in India but in USA. These days, research experience has become somewhat a requirement for US undergraduate admissions itself! To get into very good (awesome) engineering grad schools, you should have a hands-on experience in your intended field of study–research or internships. Your sophomore and senior year projects do help, but you need something extra.</p>
<p>Now coming to MIT, forget about it if you didn’t do research or something spectacular!</p>
<p>EDIT: I do not know how to convert % to GPA. What college are you from?</p>
<p>It’s good that you are still a college freshman. So you have a lot of time to pace yourself for top grad schools. Getting research opportunities as an undergrad in India are rare (maybe zero!). But you can find pretty good internships which are extremely competitive. I am not sure about internships for MechE students. India places a lot of weight on CS/CE majors! So internships related to CSE and ECE will be plenty.</p>
<p>Participate in tech fests and fairs, particularly the ones at the real IITs. And you can do a lot-- I don’t know, maybe like creating something which benefits the community. That creation can be a small thing, but it should make someone’s life better! Someone created a stick for blind people with sensors that can identify if something/someone is in their path. So creation can be anything!</p>
<p>Sorry if I repeated anything too much! :D</p>
<p>REMEMBER: Research and internships carry more weight if they relate to your desired graduate program.</p>
<p>Good Luck :)</p>
<p>There is another issue. If you are in a 3-year Bachelor’s program, you will likely need to take a fourth year of Masters or a full Masters in order to be considered. This is where you can possibly get the research experience that is essential to be competitive. I spent 3 years running the graduate admissions office for our IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology) and this is a big issue for admission to our engineering programs.</p>
<p>Extracurricular activities, like being involved in student professional societies are helpful but others are probably not looked at too much.</p>
<p>Finally, for an engineering program, admissions committees often look for applicants who have work experience. This is less important in sciences but engineering is a practical discipline.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your reply and all the info. Yes, in India we have a four year program for Engineering so it shouldn’t be a problem, I guess.
Thank you soo much :)</p>
<p>@hopingforbetter,
Thank you very much for such detailed answer and all the info. Ugh maybe I think I should try to do my MTech in some IIT and then apply for PhD to MIT? Your answer was very helpful :)</p>