Chief Delphi - I'm an MIT Admissions Officer. Ask me Questions!

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Re: I'm an MIT Admissions Officer. Ask me Questions!

Would dropping Football my senior year affect my chances at all? I have played 3 years and dropping at the last year is not really what I wanted. Seems like a necessity for me However is it true that colleges do not look at senior year as much since the students are submitting their applications during the senior year, so they already don't have a real clear picture of the senior year. My counsellor said it was fine to drop football and focus on academics. Taking tons of APs senior year won't do much will it?

I am just confused right now...

Re: I'm an MIT Admissions Officer. Ask me Questions!

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidthefat (Post 976981)

Well,

* honestly, if you're in a position to drop football, then it probably wouldn't really "help" you that much in your application to us or any school. If you were a star player being recruited to play, then it helps; if not, it's just another thing that you do.

* that said, you don't need to overload on APs either.

do what you want to do.

Re: I'm an MIT Admissions Officer. Ask me Questions!

How much does participating in FIRST boost your chances of admissions?

How do you determine if an applicant is "academically qualified"? Do you look at courses the students has taken, SAT scores, ACT scores, GPAs, etc?

Ive taken rigorous courses that are available at my school( AP Calc AB & BC, AP Physics C, AP Econ(macro+micro), AP Comp Sci, etc), but my SAT and GPA arnt the best in the school. Would I still be considered "academically qualified"?

I really want to go to MIT, but im not sure my grades are super enough to get me in.

Re: I'm an MIT Admissions Officer. Ask me Questions!

Somewhat related to the above question. I know about 15% of each incoming class are former FIRSTers (or so I've heard; true or false?). I was wondering what percentage of the applicants are FIRSTers. More out of curiosity than anything.

Re: I'm an MIT Admissions Officer. Ask me Questions!

Quote:

Originally Posted by umangv620 (Post 977792)

How much does participating in FIRST boost your chances of admissions?

It doesn't "boost" your admissions, in the sense of "oh, hey, FIRST kid, 10 points there!"

We like to see that you're motivated. We like to see you work well in teams. We like to see that you are interested in sci/tech.

FIRST is a great way to abstract out all of those characteristics of you and represent them in an activity.

Quote:

How do you determine if an applicant is "academically qualified"? Do you look at courses the students has taken, SAT scores, ACT scores, GPAs, etc?

all of the above.

Quote:

Ive taken rigorous courses that are available at my school( AP Calc AB & BC, AP Physics C, AP Econ(macro+micro), AP Comp Sci, etc), but my SAT and GPA arnt the best in the school. Would I still be considered "academically qualified"?

depends on your scores. they don't need to be the best in the school. they just need to be good enough where they predict success at MIT. if you're scoring in the 700s on each section you're fine. if you're in the 600s, we'll look at everything real closely to get a good sense with our statistical models. if you're in the 500s, data suggest that MIT is not the best match for you.

Quote:

I really want to go to MIT, but im not sure my grades are super enough to get me in.

you don't need to be the valedictorian, but you should have more vowels than consonants. look at it this way: the only way to definitely not get into MIT is to definitely not apply!

Re: I'm an MIT Admissions Officer. Ask me Questions!

How do students at MIT get involved in FIRST?

I want to continue my participation in FIRST after I go to college, but I don't know how that would work. I asked my interviewer, and he replied that he isn't sure about FIRST itself, but I could sign up for the research opportunities available that would be similar to being involved in FIRST.

Re: I'm an MIT Admissions Officer. Ask me Questions!

MIT students mentor 3 (4?) FIRST teams.

Re: I'm an MIT Admissions Officer. Ask me Questions!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Basel A (Post 977797)

I believe 11% of my class at MIT (class of 2012) was involved in FIRST. (I think I heard this number directly from Woodie at a regional last year - either Boston, Connecticut, or WPI, don't remember which.)

Re: I'm an MIT Admissions Officer. Ask me Questions!

How do you manage to always sound so happy (chipper) in your posts? Even you of all people must have bad days.

And, in the event of being deferred to Regular Decision from Early Action, or accepted, or whatever happens shy of a dragon appearing from a vortex over the city and incinerating all of Boston/Cambridge, is it only possible to update your application with new information through the mid-year report?

Re: I'm an MIT Admissions Officer. Ask me Questions!

What personalities and/or qualities do accepted students have? What made them stand out from the thousands of other academically capable students?

Re: I'm an MIT Admissions Officer. Ask me Questions!

Have you ever observed cases, and if so, a guess at how many please, where an applicant has asked so many questions of various natures that you feel like they may be obsessing over getting into MIT and maybe, just maybe, need someone to slap them back to sanity?

Re: I'm an MIT Admissions Officer. Ask me Questions!

Quote:

Originally Posted by theprgramerdude (Post 980994)

How do you manage to always sound so happy (chipper) in your posts? Even you of all people must have bad days.

Sure I do! But the truth is I really like working with applicants. And if I'm actually super-pissed, I'm generally solving the problem that's making me pissed, not posting simultaneously on CD ;)

Quote:

And, in the event of being deferred to Regular Decision from Early Action, or accepted, or whatever happens shy of a dragon appearing from a vortex over the city and incinerating all of Boston/Cambridge, is it only possible to update your application with new information through the mid-year report?

No, you can update your application at any time by faxing it to us. It just won't be evaluated until Regular Action.

Quote:

eh, I don't know if I'd put it that way. There are definitely students who, let's say, let their excitement about MIT get in the way of the rest of their application. We love students who are excited about MIT. But if you're letting your excitement shroud the rest of your application like a cloud of bees, it's probably not going to help!

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidthefat

What personalities and/or qualities do accepted students have? What made them stand out from the thousands of other academically capable students?

I addressed this somewhat in a blog post - http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/...sideways.shtml

excerpt:

Quote:

Now that you are Zen calm, liberated from the pressures of not having cured cancer by your 18th birthday, what should you do if you still want to come to MIT?

* Do well in school. Take tough classes. Interrogate your beliefs and presumptions. Pursue knowledge with dogged precision. Because it is better to be educated and intelligent than not.

* Be nice. This cannot be understated. Don't be wanton or careless or cruel. Treat those around you with kindness. Help people. Contribute to your community.

* Pursue your passion. Find what you love, and do it. Maybe it's a sport. Maybe it's an instrument. Maybe it's research. Maybe it's being a leader in your community. Math. Baking. Napping. Hopscotch. Whatever it is, spend time on it. Immerse yourself in it. Enjoy it.

If you do these three things, you will be applying sideways to MIT.

See:

If you get into MIT, it will be because you followed these steps. If you do well in school, you will be smart and prepared for an MIT education. If you are nice, then your letters of recommendation will convince us that MIT would be a wildly better place with you on campus. And if you pursue your passion, you will have developed a love for and skill at something that helps distinguish you from other applications - something that is your "hook."

But what if you don't get into MIT?

Well, you may be disappointed. But you learned everything you could, so now you're smarter; you were a positive member of your community, and you made people happy; and you spent high school doing not what you thought you had to do to get into a selective college, but what you wanted to do more than anything else in the world. In other words, you didn't waste a single solitary second of your time.

Applying sideways, as a mantra, means don't do things because you think they will help you get into MIT (or Harvard, or CalTech, or anywhere). Instead, you should study hard, be nice, and pursue your passion, because then you will have spent high school doing all the rights things, and, as a complete side effect, you'll be cast in the best light possible for competitive college admissions.

Sometimes, you really can have the best of both worlds.

Re: I'm an MIT Admissions Officer. Ask me Questions!

I seem to be quite eligible for MIT in terms of scores, 4.0 unweighted GPA, EC's, AP's, rank 1 in class, etc., but I was curious on how strict your two foreign language classes in high school "recommendation" is. Will it significantly harm my chances? Are other colleges (ex: Wash. U. St. Louis, Vanderbilt, Rice) "requirements" typically unyielding, or can they be waived if the rest of the app. seems appropriate. I'm not trying to ask for an estimation of my chances; I would just like to explain my particular case and I am curious as to how it will be viewed by the people who review my app. I would think that it would be acceptable given the circumstances, but I wouldn't know if the circumstances would be able to be expressed in a typical app.

I took one year of Latin and my district built a new high school that I was forced to attend. This new high school doesn't offer and doesn't plan to offer Latin in any form and now I'm left with two options.

I can join a program with my current school that is associated with the main engineering firm in Kansas City where I would work on projects in the biomed. engineering field; this entails group work and offers the opportunity to "shadow" engineers at the firm and doctors at the nearest hospital. The program is already accepted as credit at numerous colleges throughout the nation - just as an example to reflect what sort of work and rigor is part of the program. In addition to being able to be a part of this program my current school offers Calc. III which I would be taking next year.

The other option is to take "underwater basket weaving" and other classes of the type and attend the next nearest school next year to get my second year of Latin - sacrificing the program and Calc III.

I plan to get a BS biomed. engineering or something quite similar.

Thanks for your time!

Re: I'm an MIT Admissions Officer. Ask me Questions!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Veliace (Post 1033299)

I seem to be quite eligible for MIT in terms of scores, 4.0 unweighted GPA, EC's, AP's, etc., but I was curious on how strict your two foreign language classes in high school "recommendation" is. Will it significantly harm my chances? Are other colleges "requirements" typically unyielding, or can they be waived if the rest of the app. seems appropriate. I'm not trying to ask for an estimation of my chances; I would just like to explain my particular case and I am curious as to how it will be viewed by the people who review my app. I would think that it would be acceptable given the circumstances, but I wouldn't know if the circumstances would be able to be expressed in a typical app.

I took one year of Latin and my district built a new high school that I was forced to attend. This new high school doesn't offer and doesn't plan to offer Latin in any form and now I'm left with two options.

I can join a program with my current school that is associated with the main engineering firm in Kansas City where I would work on projects in the biomed. engineering field; this entails group work and offers the opportunity to "shadow" engineers at the firm and doctors at the nearest hospital. The program is already accepted as credit at numerous colleges throughout the nation - just as an example to reflect what sort of work and rigor is part of the program. In addition to being able to be a part of this program my current school offers Calc. III which I would be taking next year.

The other option is to take "underwater basket weaving" and other classes of the type and attend the next nearest school next year to get my second year of Latin - sacrificing the program and Calc III.

I plan to get a BS biomed. engineering or something quite similar.

Thanks for your time!

There's no question that you should attend the former option rather than the latter given its rigor and your interests. And there is certainly a place to express the circumstances for this decision on your form.

However, I would caution you on your tone. It definitely sounds like one school offers more opportunities to you than the other. But disparaging and dismissing classes (presumably humanities classes) as "underwater basket weaving" isn't going to win you any fans in any admissions office. I've heard the euphemism used myself, and realize it may not be meant with any particular negative connotation - but it can come across otherwise. Remember, at MIT you will still have to take a year's worth of humanities classes and effectively minor in a humanities field...

Re: I'm an MIT Admissions Officer. Ask me Questions!

Do you speak for only undergrad admissions or also Grad school admissions?