<p>next best school i was rejected from? stanford, mit are the two main ones.</p>
<p>I technically only got rejected from Stanford...waitlisted at MIT and Princeton.</p>
<p>I was rejected by Princeton, waitlisted by MIT, and washed out of the Olin selection process in the final round, after Candidates' Weekend.</p>
<p>Rejected by MIT, Harvard, Princeton, UPenn-Wharton, Berkeley
Waitlist at Columbia</p>
<p>In addition to Caltech, my son was accepted by MIT, Princeton, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Harvey Mudd and Olin; rejected by Stanford. He's going to Olin.</p>
<p>Although this IS the wrong place and time, I couldn't help but notice so many of you guys are in at Cornell & CMU.</p>
<p>Just wanted your opinion, which school would you guys pick for ECE? Cornell or CMU?</p>
<p>What about Duke's ECE, Duke's turning out to be much cheaper and you know the "fame" etc. I'm having a tough time deciding!! Any opinions people!!</p>
<p>I'm running out of time folks, and unfortunately I dont have any clear winner like Caltech on my list :D</p>
<p>Stanford only. (Not a hard decision... I'd feel out of place in a liberal arts school.) I got waitlisted from MIT and I asked MIT to take me off the list.</p>
<p>Now here's the irony of ironies: I got an Axline scholarship.</p>
<p>I want to make an "Axlines who didn't get into MIT" club. I think I may be the only member.</p>
<p>hello: I would pick CMU over Cornell for ECE, but Cornell is at about the same level. I think the decision between those two comes down to location and cost.</p>
<p>Thanks sabertoothtiger even I'm leaning towards CMU right now!!</p>
<p>Wow G2sus4m6aug11b15! An axline that got waitlisted at MIT? This IS a very interesting situation. Can you elaborate a bit on why you think you were selected for an axline? I can understand that you may not want to do so, though.</p>
<p>Colorado - to avoid putting G2sus on the spot.... I know of several kids from various years who have been offered Axlines. They generally have the following sorts of things:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>medals from int'l math/science olympiads, or at least made the US training camp. (to give you some idea of how difficult this is, only 30 kids per year get invited to the math olympiad camp, out of 200,000 who compete).</p></li>
<li><p>Winners of Siemens-Wesinghouse (top 10 out of, maybe, 2000)</p></li>
<li><p>RSI (50 Americans selected out of about 2000)</p></li>
<li><p>Clay Research Academy (top 10 US math kids in the country based on advanced courses and research. Only 1-2 kids per year get this prior to college apps).</p></li>
<li><p>high level course work (like multiple university graduate courses)</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I'm quite aware of the high levels of achievement required for axlines. What I'm befuddled about is how a young person with such qualifications could possibly be waitlisted at MIT. There is obviously a disparity between what is valued at Caltech vs MIT in this case. Like I said, I can understand that G2sus4m6aug11b15 may not want to give specifics.</p>
<p>
[quote]
There is obviously a disparity between what is valued at Caltech vs MIT in this case.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I'm conjecturing here, but I think MIT is looking for a level of well-roundedness and likelihood to be part of their community that Caltech doesn't care as much about. I could imagine that someone with a lot of research experience or high level math classes, but no ECs or non-math/science activities, might be at the top of Caltech's list and not MIT's.</p>
<p>btw - how did financial aid pan out for your son?</p>
<p>" There is obviously a disparity between what is valued at Caltech vs MIT in this case."</p>
<p>Im only guessing but he must of probably came of as having no soul in his apps to have not been accepted.</p>
<p>Besides Caltech, the other schools I am considering from the ones I got accepted into are:</p>
<p>University of Pennsylvania (got into the dual degree for Computer and Cognitive Science)
Duke
Dartmouth
Cornell
Johns Hopkins</p>
<p>Still deliberating, mainly because Caltech is so far away. . .</p>
<p>G2sus4m6aug11b15 - Are you going to do a SURF this summer at Caltech?</p>
<p>Hey, sorry for the slow response... I hadn't checked back here for a few days.</p>
<p>What got me the Axline? To be honest, I didn't think I truly excelled in the criteria that the admissions people look for. Here are some things, though:</p>
<p>-Did original research on the stellar paramenters of the nova burster GK Persei and its companion star
-Also did research on the ages of select globular clusters, but that project yielded nothing useful
-Took Stanford EPGY's multivariable calculus courses (just took the final exam today!) and did well in them
-Qualified for USA Math Olympiad (but got 1 point out of 42. :-( )
-High Honors in US National Chemistry Olympiad (21st-50th place, but no summer camp)</p>
<p>"I could imagine that someone with a lot of research experience or high level math classes, but no ECs or non-math/science activities, might be at the top of Caltech's list and not MIT's."</p>
<p>You bring up a good point there. The great majority of my activities have to do with math and science in some way, but I do spend a great deal of time in my two jazz bands and this music volunteer group that I co-found and currently lead. There's other miscellaneous non-tech stuff I do, but they're not as important as the ones I mentioned.</p>
<p>"Im only guessing but he must of probably came of as having no soul in his apps to have not been accepted."</p>
<p>There might be a smidge of truth behind that. I personally thought the MIT essay questions sucked... at the same time, though, I thought I did relatively well on all but one of them, and my interview went smoothly.</p>
<p>"G2sus4m6aug11b15 - Are you going to do a SURF this summer at Caltech?"</p>
<p>Yup. I'm working at the Guggenheim Aeronautical Lab's wind tunnel with Dr. Gharib to research the effects of wind turbulence on the boundary layers of surfaces. :-D Now I just gotta read up some more on fluid dynamics....</p>
<p>LOL, g2sus, you just outed yourself in those last sentences (if not revealed now, your name will be easily found in a few months).</p>
<p>That is quite amazing that you got WL at MIT. Oh well, that place is becoming a rancid TTT. If you want diversity, you go to Harvard or Stanford. If you want the real tech experience, then Caltech beats MIT hands-down.</p>
<p>Hmm... oh well. As long as there isn't some posse behind my back trying to kill me or something.</p>
<p>G2sus - Your astronomy research sounds like the key. If that is your primary area of interest, it sounds like Caltech will be a better fit for you than MIT anyway. The Axline just makes it sweeter. Congratulations!</p>