<p>
</p>
<p>What is this? I want to participate in such an activity too!</p>
<p>exactly how important are the essays for the MIT application?</p>
<p>VERY Important
Important
Or</p>
<p>Not very important?</p>
<p>In an application process as competitive as MIT’s, everything is very important.</p>
<p>@fromaparent I think it comes down to whether or not you think the students define the school or if the school defines the students. I think that, ultimately, college is a huge factor in shaping the future of a student, and that absolute success regardless of college isn’t really possible. That being said, there are so many amazing schools out there that would do the job just as well.</p>
<p>THAT being said, 1 day 24 minutes until decisions!</p>
<p>I meant how important with respect to other colleges. (EX. UofChicago praises itself for placing extreme emphasis on its essays)</p>
<p>Where would MIT place itself? Closer to UofChicago or closer to some state school that only takes a passing glance at the essays?</p>
<p>[Extra-vehicular</a> activity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extra-vehicular_activity]Extra-vehicular”>Extravehicular activity - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Edit: @Djokovic</p>
<p>Right, that was I had in mind Mollie. I find also that there is an endless clash between folks who judge underqualification and other ones who claim there must be more to the picture that someone in admissions saw. This places plenty of faith in human beings who’re given the very challenging task of sifting through applications which, as you said, can oversell or undersell, primarily due to the students having limited resources to demonstrate potential; i.e., to give up following the model of promotion unto incompetence, we’d have to have someone go through MIT before getting there, and then admit them. </p>
<p>The way I think people in their heads compensate for this uncertainty is with the assurance that an undergraduate can have a broad number of goals, and that hopefully some subset of them is achieved in college – namely by appealing that there is no clear measure of success in college, whereby almost any decision can be justified. It’s hard to argue or agree in many cases. But at the very least, I favor being wary of the two gods that admissions debates appeal to: “the mystery of the whole application” and extrapolation via limited personal experience with admitted applicants. I also favor some degree of transparency as to what is expected of applicants, because I think sometimes the “you don’t see the whole application” thing gets ridiculous – after all, chances are many applicants have colleagues or teachers that on the whole knew them much, much better than someone far away did through a few pieces of paper, which the applicant had lots of time to craft carefully. Most especially, appeals to background would hopefully be confined to reasonable consideration of limitations arising from economic status.</p>
<p>While it’s easy to say everything is important, it’s kind of like saying nothing is important. It’s simple fact that the admission process is quite subjective and risky, to certain degree. So people shouldn’t be obsessed with scores, awards, grades, extracurricular stuff, essays (these are particularly less reliable), etc. They form a very vague set of criteria, and can’t be counted on too much.</p>
<p>…gosh…</p>
<p>Its tough working in the admittance department then eh? haha</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Darn, I don’t have any extra-vehicular activities under my belt. You think MIT will accept me if I’ve only done in-shuttle work?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yea man… I didn’t participate in any extra-vehicular activities either! Will this hurt my chances of getting in??? </p>
<p>Does daydreaming about space-walks count??</p>
<p>Daydreaming about space-walks shows an extreme level of scientific dedication, increasing your odds of MIT admission tenfold. ;)</p>
<p>That’s a hook if I ever saw one.</p>
<p>I don’t come around on these forums often, but I’m really bored after finals waiting for my plane to board, so I’ll just note that this thread is rather funny. A few things:</p>
<p>1) The kids who win IMO/USAMO/etc. We like to say “oh whatever it’s just soem or other competition.” Yes I respect your achievements, etc, but as someone who works on a daily basis with these IMO/USAMO/Putnam winners, let me say they are very smart. And not just smart in the sense of clever with the change or w/e. They take very hard graduate level mathematics courses as sophomores and juniors. They from time to time will go take graduate classes in other majors and crush those classes. They are able to very quickly absorb material and internalize and analyze it at a very deep level. They can study and explore subjects much faster than most because little things trip them up less. So doing well on the IMO/USAMO/Putnam is a big deal! Hard work is extremely important, and these people work insane hours, but no amount of work can account for the fact that many of these folks have something “special” about them. OTOH, all of them will admit that competitions aren’t the important part. The important part is the vast amount of time they poured into carefully training their minds.</p>
<p>2) It’s silly to waste your time arguing about race/miniority/etc on CC for MIT Admissions. You’d be far better off reading Euclid’s Elements or some other nice text, and educating yourself on amazing things. Otherwise that URM you’re bashing who can’t afford the internet but has a nice copy of a few classic texts is going to kick your ass and you’ll fall hard. This translates to: the world isn’t fair. It probably won’t change in the short time. **<strong><em>ing about it won’t do any good either. So just *</em></strong> and use your time productively.</p>
<p>@differential
haha, i like your post, you’re very right, but I have to ask, what was **** initially!?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No, this comes back to the previous discussion about the difficulty of measuring potential. MIT is evidenced based. It really wants to see evidence of successfully completed space-walks when it is evaluating extravehicular activities. (grinning broadly as it was my spelling check typo that started this silliness).</p>
<p>Uh…</p>
<p>If anyone wants a serious answer to this question, there is an MIT Admissions Officer right here (points to self) and I can do it for you :)</p>
<p>27% of EA’s were URMs?</p>
<p>Is this usual?</p>
<p>Chris, thanks for joining the discussion. The main question I have is that, is it possible to have good chance of acceptance if you have research that is not nationally recognized?
My school sucks and there is no motivation, however, I have been driven by my brother’s autism to get involved in chelation therapy research. I have co- founded a reading and writing workshop for autistic children in my community, as well. Autism has been the topic for almost all of my essays. Will the admission officers be impressed?</p>
<p>@lola - </p>
<p>That sort of research initiative and community devotion is exactly what we look for and prize in our applicants. It’s also what many of our applicants have. </p>
<p>We will all be impressed by your work - I’m consistently in awe of our applicants and the things they do. Whether or not your work will be sufficient to make you a part of our incoming class is another matter. It is very competitive. But rest assured - the things you describe can only help, and not hurt, your chances of admissions. </p>
<p>But even more importantly, the things you’ve done have helped your community, and have made the world a better place. And, if you take a step back from the admissions process, I think that you’ll realize no matter where you go, having improved the world is really the best compliment you can receive. </p>
<p>I know that sounds almost painfully sappy - but it’s true!</p>