<p>I was browsing the EA thread for this year, and it seems that the only kids who got in were those who did "research." They seem to have deferred a fair number of kids with 2400s.
In fact, I have a friend with a 2400, who was the valedictorian of his class -- straight A's, owns his own business, placed in a national economics FBLA competititon, 800's on 3 SAT II's, President of the FBLA club in his school, plays 2 varsity sports (captain of one), started his own business club, wonderful recs, and amazing essays. Deferred. What gives? Is it even possible to get into MIT without research nowadays?</p>
<p>Of course it is.</p>
<p>The CC thread, although several pages long, is a very small sample size relative to all people who applied. I would estimate that substantially less than half of MIT admits usually have research experience prior to coming to MIT.</p>
<p>And just because you have research experience doesn't mean you'll get in either (I didn't).</p>
<p>I didn't have any research experience when I applied to MIT and I still got in. Clearly, it must have been some other criteria.</p>
<p>Research, as many have said, shows passion, and passion comes in many forms. I did 0 research, but I wrote of my passion for tinkering and messing around with electronics and mechanical stuff (no awards or anything for this). No research, and yet I got in.</p>
<p>USAMOers and (even more so) MOPpers have a great track record with MIT. :)</p>
<p>But we both know of USAMO qualifiers who don't get into MIT, and I know of at least one MOPper (from the big MOP year) who had a lot of great things on his record, and a very nice guy besides, who was first deferred, then waitlisted, and ultimately not admitted. He is still going to a great college, but MIT was his clear choice and I would have thought he was one of the top students in his state, which sends students to MIT every year. So there isn't any deterministic path to MIT, I think.</p>
<p>What is MOP?</p>
<p>MOP is the training camp of the USA math team. There's usually 55 people invited each year, 30 of which are basically the best math kids in the nation and 25 freshman who are there on a special scholarship. However, because the only way to qualify for that freshman scholarship is to make USAMO in your freshman year, basically if you get into MOP you've got leverage into any school you'd like to go to.</p>
<p>That's not to say that you'll always be accepted, but definitely 90%+ (probably closer to 95%) of MOPpers get to go anywhere they want, because most also excel in other areas.</p>
<p>If you're looking it up online, the official acronym is MOsP.</p>
<p>The "Big MOP" that tokenadult refers to is 2002, when more than 200 people were invited to MOP. Clearly, that wasn't as impressive as MOP from one of the other years. But still most of the students from that year got in where they wanted to go.</p>
<p>edited - never mind</p>
<p>everybody here seems to be talking about passion in their ec's... Do EC's need to show passion in what major I am applying for? (I.E. Will showing passion in something like tennis be of any use? or do I need to show passion in some mechanical-engineering related activity?)</p>
<p>^ Ohh, no! I, personally, think tennis is actually better! I wrote about theater, and it worked for me!</p>
<p>I don't think they're looking for textbook cases of overacheivers - I think MIT is looking for people who are passionate about their particular major. I never did research prior to MIT, but my personal essay was about growing up in my parents' labs and being enthralled by their equipment and wanting to learn more about them. I didn't have perfect SATs, GPA, or a lot of sports, but I loved what I did.</p>
<p>Heh -- my app sheet had a check box for RSI.</p>