As most of us know, MIT only allows 5 extracurriculars to be listed on their application, and most of us that are applying are involved in way more than 5, so my question is, which ones look the best? Obviously the ones that I’m most heavily involved in (DECA, American Red Cross) are the most important, but which 3 of the following would MIT want to see the most?
National Honors Society(General Member)
Computer Science Club (President)
High School Mentoring Program (Officer)
Speech and Debate(3 year varsity, Honor level, Secretary)
AP Physics Phreaks Club (President)
I’m just not 100% sure what MIT would be looking for so any help is appreciated!!
Computer Science Club (President)
Speech and Debate(3 year varsity, Honor level, Secretary)
AP Physics Phreaks Club (President)
The MIT application leaves space for 5 extracurriculars but it’s not true that they don’t allow for more. They give you additional space to add anything you feel is important to your application. MIT wants to know the real you. You can put your top favorite activities on that list or the ones that take up most of your time. There are also other places to add extra curricular activities. There is place to list summer activities and and another place to list work experience. You can list a summer internship, paid or unpaid, in any of those three places. That adds up to 14 spots for extra curricular activities. Fill them in however you’d like or leave some spots blank. It’s meant to be flexible. But there is absolutely no right answer of what MIT wants to see. If there were, you’d find that most students at MIT are clones. That is furthest from the truth. MIT makes a great effort to make a well rounded class. They pride themselves on an atmosphere that is very collaborative. Collaboration works best when there are many students with different skills and different interests.
It has to be the three of those that mean the most to you. Frankly, the activity is less relevant than what it means to you and what you mean to the activity.
For an extended example an applicant might be the President of the History club, but what does that actually mean. It could mean that you attend a history discussion after school once per week. In that context, there really isn’t a significant distinction between being President and being any other member, apart from the president calling the meeting to order. On the other hand, being president could mean that you are solely responsible for inviting relevant speakers to come to the school once per month to lead discussions. There, you might have a bunch of stuff that you can talk about at the interview or on the application. For example, you could talk about how you wanted to invite (say) a Holocaust survivor to address the club, and how you went about finding one in your community, and how you went about convincing them to come and talk, and what you learned from that experience. If your club’s faculty advisor doesn’t see you merely that year’s president, but as an exceptional or transformative president, then he/she might be a good person to invite to write a LoR.
If you have more than 5 activities where you really, truly made a key difference, then you are either truly exceptional or lying. Pick the five that most changed you.