I love math and I’m good at it. I’m just not always the best student because I’ve always had math at the end of the day and it’s my fault for just kind of zoning out and not completing a lot of assignments. Besides why I’ve gotten them, is it somewhat of a red flag that the only B’s I’ve gotten in high school come from math classes? The classes aren’t really that hard but they are the most rigorous available at school. My science and other STEM grades are fine but just math. Everything in the standardized test department is fine and I got an 800 on Math 2. I’m currently a junior and interested in schools like MIT. Would these slightly but noticeably lower grades be important?
Background: MIT2020, International, Mathlete.
MIT looks at the whole picture, so it wouldn’t have a noticeable affect. (Can you imagine: “No, let’s not let him in because he got a B and it was in Math.”)
If you do well in math the first half of senior year, your B would probably just be taken as an anomaly. People might head tilt, but it’s not a big deal given that you are in the most rigorous math class in your school. Especially if you are above class median. (Also, this is very person specific, but if you do well in math competitions, don’t worry at all. That’s way harder than school math. (Unless you’re in Exeter or something, but idk, because it’s not like I went there) BUT don’t start math competitions right now just because of this post because you have your own ECs and it’s basically impossible to excel in a year.)
What DOES raise red flags is the “not completing a lot of assignments” . Care to expand? Because it sounds like you aren’t doing your work and don’t care about learning.
EDIT:
Huh. Just glanced at the FAQ and Mollie posted:
“I got a B/4 on the AP test/700 on the SAT! Did I ruin my chances to get into MIT?”
Probably not. MIT’s admissions process is holistic, meaning that all factors relevant to your application are considered when deciding whether or not to admit you.
Take her word for it.
A B in one math class would possibly not effect things but consistent B’s certainly might especially if there are other applicants from your school who are getting As. One of the students that was accepted from our HS was in a less rigorous math class and had some B’s in other areas BUT he had some really special and unique ECs. Another student with all A’s, more rigorous courses, and higher tests was rejected not even deferred from EA. With these type of schools there is a lot more to it than just grades and scores.
All of my B’s came in first semester, second semester I would get A’s. I guess I would try a little harder to make up for the previous semester. I wouldn’t say " I don’t care about learning" it’s just that the work isn’t necessarily stimulating and the fact that it can be easily mastered makes it less exciting. I’m just going to try and do my best the rest of this semester. Get a solid A first semester next year and put my best application to wherever I apply.
That’s a good plan. =D
Sorry if I might have sounded a little harsh, but I think I understand your situation better now. My school assigns but does not mark daily homework, and assigns periodic assignments that are marked. Not doing the tedious homework makes total sense, which from my new understanding it seems that teachers in your school mark. Huh.
Anyways, good luck!
You may be better off applying RD so they will have senior year grades to look at when making a decision on your application.
That’s a fair point, but if MIT is your dream school, I personally think the benefits of applying EA outweigh that. I doubt you’d get rejected rather than deferred just for a few Bs- only a small minority get rejected and I believe those are the ones that are clearly academically unqualified (like straight Cs or super-low standardized scores)- so either you get accepted early or they look at you again with the regulars, so no loss. However, I might be biased- I got accepted EA.
It is not true that “only a small minority get rejected”. Keep in mind that every application that is deferred will be reconsidered freshly in the regular pool. As such, MIT does not defer only those who are clearly poor. If it is the opinion of the admissions officers that a candidate is unlikely to be admitted during the regular round, then they will not be deferred, and that is holistic, not considering solely whether the applicant is academically unqualified.
That being said, to the OP’s question, a B in math is absolutely not a showstopper. A lot depends on what that grade says about you. If you have an 800 on your Math SAT 1 and SAT 2, and a B in Math one year, then that means little or nothing. I actually had a math teacher send a deficiency notice home to my parents one year, because I just could not see the point of trigonometry, and was getting C’s in that class. At that time, I was the president of my school’s math club and captain of the math team. Once I got to calculus I could see the value of trig. and really got to appreciate it. I got into MIT early with that on my transcript. What does the whole picture say about you?
MIT defers the majority of their candidates- for the class of 2019 EA applicants, 4535/6519 = 71% were deferred and 1359/6519 = 21% were rejected. Of the American schools I know of, only Stanford rejects the majority of their applicants and defers a minority. If you get deferred by them, you have a significant chance of getting in RA. If you get deferred by MIT, be comforted that you’ll be looked at again RA, but don’t get too excited because statistically, you’ll probably get rejected RA anyways, like those who applied RA.
On the other point though, I agree that MIT considers its applicants holistically, so being unqualified academically is not the only way you could be rejected EA, it was just the only one I had thought of at the time. If you received phenomenally bad recommendation letters or put no effort into your application, then you’d probably also be rejected on account of your character and attitude. I can’t think of any other reasons why you’d get rejected EA off the top of my head, because really MIT defers much more than just those likely to get in.
For the class of 2019, they admitted 248/4535 = 5% of those deferred EA. Thus, that means they deferred a lot of unlikelies. In fact, they only admitted 842 RA, so basically they deferred 5 times the number of spots left. Why do they defer so many unlikelies? I’ve read that universities use EA results to give feedback to their applicants. Getting deferred means that there is a possibility you are (or will become, in half a year) someone they (or a similar difficulty university) will accept, not necessarily that you are someone they will accept.
Just wanted to clear up some misinformation.
Anyways, the important part is: EA your dream school. You shouldn’t get rejected unless you are clearly unqualified (or highly unlikely), and even if you get deferred you’ll get looked at again with the RAs, so it’s not like you’ve lost anything.
EDIT: Here is where I got my stats: http://mitadmissions.org/apply/process/stats