<p>to MIT/CIT????</p>
<p>Super smart math and science kids</p>
<p>genius people who make their science teacher look like a joke. im kidding. well, i have a friend who got in by like making this artificial life stimulator thingy(no idea what it was) <---it basically showed how an animal would like like after millions of years in a climate of your choice. i thought it was impressive. yea, it won a lot of science awards in our district</p>
<p>just do a bunch of math stuff like the AP tests and definitely do well on the AMC and qualify for the AIME , and, if you truly are good at math, the USAMO. Oh, and do some reasearch project that will win you a bunch of awards...</p>
<p>Besides that....i'd say it's pretty easy</p>
<p>One of my close friends got into MIT with a decent score (by MIT standards) on her SATs and a rank of 10/480. She had A LOT of really interesting and diverse extracurriculars which I think helped her immensely. I think luck may also have something to do with it.</p>
<p>I don't know about MIT, the obvious answer is people who have excelled at math. You sure as hell don't go to MIT to study Sociology.
But I agree with Rhapsody...extracurriculars really make you stand out and not look like a boring geek. Two of the three kids I know who went/are going to MIT were both jocks (sailing, swimming, track) and also proved themselves capable in other subjects, like Latin. The other kid was a crazy-good violinist. Lastly I read that MIT looks for kids who are 'mentally sound' which, hopefully you can prove in your teacher recommendations that you are not the type of kid who bursts into tears if you get a bad grade on a test or if you have too much work.</p>
<p>sorry, I meant to say I don't know about Cal Tech. I know a thing or two about MIT.</p>
<p>Brilliant and sharp and multi-faceted. Math and science oriented. Mad EC's, tight SAT scores and baggin recs. Above and beyond the norm. Just plain extaordinary. However,I have heard that MIT has students who are not the most emotionally stable. I heard that a girl at MIT set herself on fire. Students come with a past where they have been nearly perfect in probably everything they do, so they fall apart when they realize they are not the best. MIT is the type of place where you have to be strong and resilient to the pressure. Overall, I think the students who attend MIT are very exceptional though. I don't know that much about Cal Tech, but I'm sure it is also a great place.</p>
<p>i know a crazy-smart kid with a high 1300s SAT who got into MIT. im not aware of any research he did, but it may be there i just dont know. but (gasp) he didnt even qualify fro the AIME any of the FOUR years he took the AMC (shocking, isnt it???)</p>
<p>Is it a disadvantage if your school doesnt offer the AMCs?</p>
<p>I go to a fairly crappy public school and one of my friends got into MIT this year. White male so it was pretty impressive. He had a 1580 and SAT IIs were 800, 800, 7 something. He was like 7 out of 500. ECs not to amazing (4 years water polo and swimming 2 years each varsity) but he did governor's school ( a PA thing) and his big thing was that he spent a couple of weeks at Los Alamos Labs doing research or something. I think MIT caliber wise is a lot harder to get into then like Harvard. So many people apply to Harvard, a lot of whom aren't very well qualified just seeing if they can get in. Pretty much everyone who applys to MIT is extremely qualified so I think it's even harder to get in.</p>
<p>Very true.</p>
<p>USAMO qualifiers generally have a very easy time of getting in.</p>
<p>really?</p>
<p>USAMO qualification is like a ticket to MIT?
And what if you qualify after you send in your application</p>
<p>I imagine after you send in your application you can notify them through email or some such. And yeah...USAMO is a huge hook for MIT/Caltech.</p>
<p>aren;t there like only 250 in the whole U.S., though?</p>