<p>Hi all! I am an international applicant applying to MIT. Because English is <em>not</em> my first language, I'm afraid that I won't be able to articulate myself in the essays. The content of the essays is really really good and very personal.( I can definitely say it's not like other essays that MIT's officers read). The thing is, will I be rejected by them like: Throw his pile in rejected ones, he can't articulate himself! I do have, however, extremely glowing LOR's which read "BEST IN THE CAREER"( they are too very personal and go beyond the average LOR's).
Comments?
PS: My SAT score is greater than 2300 and my subject tests are 800-MathII, 780-Chem, 770-Physics( Took this for the heck of it!)</p>
<p>If you don’t get in because of your English, you might not have been happy here anyway. Everything here is in English. However, from what you wrote here, to us, your English seems fine.</p>
<p>Nobody can tell you without looking at your essays (and even with the essays anyone not part of MIT admissions can only guess) but why does it matter? Suppose someone could tell you with absolute certainty whether MIT will treat your essays as a net positive or a net negative. What would you do differently with this knowledge?</p>
<p>I think I was not able to make myself clear in my OP. I want to say that I do <em>not</em> have excellent** writing skills**. I have above average skills and that’s it. My English is absolutely fine, Lydia. I have 120/120 TOEFL score 
MITPhysicsAlum: I want to know: is articulation expected from non-native speakers?
Thx to both of you for your replies!</p>
<p>If you can get a 2300+ on the SAT your English is presumably both good enough to succeed at MIT and to articulate yourself reasonably well in your essays.</p>
<p>Yeah, I can do “reasonably well”, but not “outstandingly”. That’s the point of my worry…
Again," Is articulation expected from an international student"?</p>
<p>I’m not sure what you mean by articulation or writing skills. Good writing is writing that communicates what you’re trying to communicate. You don’t need anything more for an admissions essay, or for almost any other writing. (The exception is when you’re bound by some specific constraints, like in genre fiction or technical writing–then you need a little bit more than clear communication. But in this case you aren’t writing genre fiction or technical writing, you’re writing an admissions essay.)</p>
<p>Clear communication can happen in a very wide variety of ways, which is wonderful because it means we can have a very wide variety of writing styles and writing voices and hopefully a wide variety of good admissions essays so that admissions officers don’t have to get bored reading the same voice over and over again.</p>
<p>In other words, if your English is absolutely fine, I’d guess that your writing is absolutely fine as well.</p>
<p>No, they don’t have the same expectations for writing ability from internationals whose first language is not english. However, my opinion is that most colleges want very simple essays anyway, so you might have be better off being limited to simpler forms of writing.</p>
<p>Easy mate… This account was earlier used by my friend who has those scores and he DOES NOT use this account now. And something for common sense too: Why on earth would I tell LOWER scores than I have? My friend has 800 Math II, 800 Chem, and 800 Physics and has <2100 SAT reasoning score…
My scores are 800 Math-II, 780 Chem, and 770-Phy. And my SAT reasoning scores are 800-Math, 800- CR, and 760 Writing( this result came today at 5 AM EST).
Chillax! And the next time you accuse someone of something, better you confirm it yourself.
PS: No offense intended :)</p>