<p>Pretty long and tiring opening, but sorry, I didn’t bother to finish reading the first paragraph. You’re having wrong attitude.</p>
<p>ummm…firstly stop berating your state…have u heard of Texas A&M? thats an awesome college for engineering- top ranked in US- n Mr Matt McGann- admissions director at MIT- personally recommended it in his Blog</p>
<p>as for what <em>U Should DO</em>- MIT has this awsome Blog archive- start reading those regularly(focus on the ones already written-<em>archives</em>- esp the ones of mr.macgann-mr ben etc)- u’ll get everything u want n more=)- rather than waiting for responses in CC…all the best for ur future mate</p>
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<p>I doubt it. Nobel laureates are as dime-a-dozen as National Merit Semifinalists these days, and curing AIDS is so played out that it might actually get you counted as an ORM.</p>
<p>^ Hey, you are degrading those who bring good things to the society. You think it is that easy to win Nobel prize nowadays? That there are many Nobel laureates doesn’t mean that winning Nobel prize or doing such extraordinary things is not praiseworthy.</p>
<p>I’m not degrading them, the college admissions process is.</p>
<p>In my school PAP is the real deal. It is a preparation for real AP classes so the rigor and speed are are almost identical. But of course it still is Geometry : /</p>
<p>^^ my school has the pre-AP designation too. it won’t hurt you.
what WILL hurt you, however, is what everyone else has been telling you - your apparent arrogance.
long story short:
spending 4 years trying to get into MIT is not the way to get into MIT.
spending 4 years doing what you love, succeeding at it, and then applying to MIT - that is how you get in.
also, i would try to avoid racist-sounding comments. those don’t help.</p>
<p>As others have probably pointed out, talking about yourself by comparing yourself with ‘the rest of the world’ or ‘normal people’ isn’t very nice. Just talk about yourself. Absolutely. Not relatively. Like ‘I did X’ as opposed to ‘I did X unlike everyone else who didn’t do it, oh I’m so much better’. That’s it. :)</p>
<p>And if you’ll say, ‘But that’s not what I meant!’, well then, the communication didn’t work, did it? If people didn’t understand what you meant, you must make it clearer. Good communication skills are essential. It’s how people know about you.</p>
<p>Best of luck. ;)</p>
<p>Wow, you wrote a lot of stuff. I bet it was really interesting and you are a really cool person, though I guess you’ve managed to offend a lot of the other prospectives. Anyway, I didn’t actually read what you wrote, because my advice is the exact same for every applicant:</p>
<p>Do what you love. High school is for having fun, not for getting into college. Get good grades, join clubs, figure out what you really want to do. Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you should do it for the rest of your life (me and biology, or one of my friends and physics, for example - we’re both actually happy computer scientists). And, of course, if you spend all of your time obsessing about getting into MIT, defining yourself by the college that you want to go to, you’ll never figure out who you actually are or what you actually want to do.</p>
<p>MIT is a great place, but it isn’t for everyone. Be honest with yourself and just let it happen. If MIT is where you’re meant to end up, you’ll get in. But, until then, go out on the weekends, sleep in on the weekdays, and dance like nobody’s watching, because no one at MIT has ever said “hey, I wish I had tried harder in high school”.</p>
<p>What magic do you think happens at MIT that doesn’t happen elsewhere? Do you think that there’s never a cloudy day at MIT and that chocolate flows from the water fountains and birds sing every morning? It’s just a college. No need to fixate on it. Do your best and see how it all shakes out.</p>
<p>There’s more to life than college. Take heed of the posts on this forum. If you center your whole high school years around college you won’t be happy.</p>
<p>If you don’t like Orchestra, don’t enroll in it next year. There’s no use using up class space for something you really don’t like. Focus more on your passions.</p>
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<p>I remember seeing an article in Newsweek about how they had to take down the chocolate fountains because of budget cuts. It’s really tragic.</p>
<p>Yes, follow the good advise above. Do what you love. Take challenging classes and excel. And don’t get your heart set on MIT… it’s really a crapshoot to get into MIT, even with the best qualifications. And if you do get in, there are no merit scholarships (only need based financial aid). </p>
<p>Many times you’ll hear people suggest “safety schools”. I think in the case of MIT upi have to treat MIT as your “bonus school” and have plenty of other good options on the table. Keep your mind open. If finances permit, look for a summer program that will help you refine your interests and/or take some campus visits. </p>
<p>Good advise for any high school student - Sign up for the SAT question of the Day on the College Board website.</p>
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Nah, that was up the river at Harvard. The MIT chocolate fountains are still going strong.</p>
<p>If you can’t make at least 95%/A+'s in middle school courses, consider taking a class on time-management and learn how to study.</p>
<p>Hey, now. The OP may be a little arrogant, but he is really, really young. He will learn. What I see is a kid who is frustrated, chomping at the bit, and impatient to get to his Home Planet, which he hopes will be MIT. Surely everyone can see this is endearing?</p>
<p>Your references to “little asian kids” is a lot less endearing, Sheen, but you’ve already heard that. At MIT you will encounter a lot of Asian kids of all sizes (and shapes, shades, and backgrounds) like every other ethnicity represented there, so your attitude improvement vis a vis Asians or any other heritage should start now.</p>
<p>It’s cute that you’ve read the MIT application, but please don’t focus the rest of your high school career on choosing activities that will best fill in the short answer blanks. You have enough interests and activities now that indicate your abiding interest in science and technology.</p>
<p>As others have said, please check out other schools, you might be surprised how much you like them! Have a good look at websites of colleges in Texas, as well as Stanford, Caltech, Harvey Mudd, Rose-Hulman, Rensselaer, RIT, Carnegie Mellon, Florida and Georgia Inst. of Tech, Cal Poly SLO, Sonoma State, and many others. Visit them if you can, or do summer programs on their campuses. A funny: one of my kids was completely focused on going to Caltech all the way through high school, we visited it twice, but when it came time to choose, he chose MIT. He applied and was admitted to many of the schools mentioned above, and would have been happy to attend those as well. It is important to develop a good list of schools that you would be happy to attend!</p>
<p>You would not be the first student to graduate from HS early and enter MIT. Many elite colleges, though, look favorably on such young students perhaps doing a gap year and working for organizations that help the poor so they get a year of maturity and real experience behind them before “hitting the firehose”.</p>
<p>One of the most difficult things for you, in fact, (although it’s hard to tell, as you’re only, what, 14 years old?) might be the rude awakening of being surrounded by people at MIT – or other elite schools known for science – who are at least as brilliant as you. You will just have to believe me when I say that some of the most incredible people at MIT or other places are the most humble. They know that even if they excel in some areas, there are inevitably areas where they will be outclassed. </p>
<p>Equally surprising for you might be the discovery that in many schools there is an active spirit of collaboration. Gaps in knowledge can be filled in study sessions and psets worked together. Organizations, volunteering, projects, hacks, LARPs, are all done in groups. Spending all your time in your room with your door closed (tinkering, as you do now), as a “ghost”, is not considered a good thing and even can be a worrisome sign.</p>
<p>If I were to give you any advice at all, I’d say start a group, club or project at school, say, a Computer Club, or a Robotics Club, or Junior Engineers, or something. My son did this, and the school donated a lot of various types of old computer stuff. He designed and built a LAN and taught his group configurations, then designed and managed the school’s WiFi, taught various programming languages, and eventually was given the key to trouble-shoot all the school’s systems. That was only one of his ECs (extra-curriculars) that showed his involvement in group projects, in management, leadership, and “giving to the community”. You can do this, too.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>At 14, you shouldn’t be worried about “giving back” unless your classes are so easy for you that you’re bored. Maybe if your career is non-technical it might make sense to sacrifice class performance for extra-curricular activities, but you plan to be an engineer of scientist. </p>
<p>The most important thing is to master your fundamentals. That means you should be able to get at least an “A” no matter who is in the class. And of all your technical subjects, math is the most important because so much relies upon it. </p>
<p>There are many reasons why this is so, but I’ll just give you one. Yeah, it’s true Einstein doesn’t have to multiply 5-digit numbers in his head instantly. It was more important that you develop creativity. However, the more automatic fundamental things are (like calculus for instance,) the easier it is to see larger patterns. If you are stuck on the details of everything because you never mastered it, it will be tough to do this. Frankly, it will probably be tough to survive many math-intensive engineering majors, especially at MIT. </p>
<p>It’s good that you have learned how to build things, but right now you need to dial it back enough that you can improve your fundamentals.</p>
<p>As for whether or not to drop orchestra, it’s irrelevant to admissions. And certainly if your going to obsess about admissions, concentrate on your class performance (i.e., grades) first.</p>
<p>I predict that this OP will not get in MIT because the OP is asking people what to do … totally not passion-related.</p>
<p>@DMOC: He/She is still young, so don’t discourage him/her like that. Everyone here is trying to point out that he/she is just in the wrong way. I think he/she has enough time to change the attitude and may someday present himself/herself at MIT :)</p>
<p>@ 12npm12: I am not that optimistic. Attitude is a difficult thing to change, just as passion is difficult to fake.</p>