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

[Chris is me]

Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you were insinuating that aid was merit based (as in a higher GPA will get you a better amount of money from FAFSA or something). Deleting post...

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Petey

We don't throw students out because of minute differences. In fact, we're one of the few highly selective colleges that don't convert all of our incoming applicant's GPA to the 10.0 Exeter/Andover grading system. Many schools will just take whatever you got and convert it to that, find the top students, and go from there.

We don't do that, certainly not with grades - see my post above about our models. Once you're academically qualified for MIT, we look at everything else.

That's refreshing to hear. The point of what I said (poorly communicated, I know) is that if you're worried about number x being juuust a bit low, you should consider schools that consider you for more than that, MIT being included on that list.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Petey

but if anyone has any questions, I will try to get to them when I'm not reading cases

Not being in the market for admissions, I don't have a question, but I just wanted to take a moment and publicly acknowledge your very generous offer.

While "knowing" Petey might not influence your chance at MIT directly, advice like this is very valuable; anyone should be able to recognize that.

As for your comment that "The most important thing...should be match" is oh-so-true. You do NOT want to spend 4 years somewhere you don't like. Even if it's MIT. There are some exceptions to this 'rule', but in reality nobody cares about where you graduated from for your second job.

[Zholl]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

As for your comment that "The most important thing...should be match" is oh-so-true. You do NOT want to spend 4 years somewhere you don't like. Even if it's MIT. There are some exceptions to this 'rule', but in reality nobody cares about where you graduated from for your second job.

do you think you could elaborate on that a little bit? obviously I haven't entered the professional workforce yet, and given my dad's work history I don't think he's a great example of what you're trying to say here

also, as far as the whole "matching" thing, I'm curious as to the "feel" of the community there. specifically, I'm interested as to how crowded it feels around campus. I'm more used to large town to small city communities, and having spent time in the likes of San Francisco, Atlanta, and even Denver, I definitely prefer a smaller sized community anyway, but I'm not familiar with the Cambridge, MA area

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Zholl

do you think you could elaborate on that a little bit? obviously I haven't entered the professional workforce yet, and given my dad's work history I don't think he's a great example of what you're trying to say here

also, as far as the whole "matching" thing, I'm curious as to the "feel" of the community there. specifically, I'm interested as to how crowded it feels around campus. I'm more used to large town to small city communities, and having spent time in the likes of San Francisco, Atlanta, and even Denver, I definitely prefer a smaller sized community anyway, but I'm not familiar with the Cambridge, MA area

Warning: Long post

Well, I can't comment on MIT. I graduated from SUNY Stony Brook, and that was more than half a lifetime ago. Things change in 30 years. I did spend about an hour at MIT once, just walking around. It looks like a college campus, and across the river is downtown Boston. If I recall, it was not easy to park.

On the "matching" thing, I can only relate some personal stories:

Story 1:
When I first went to college for EE, I ended up at Wilkes College in Wilkes-Barre, PA (now a university). I was very impressed by their very modern labs and facilities, rebuilt only 4 years before after a devastating flood. There were about 50 kids in the entire freshman engineering class.

A side note on the flood: Wilkes-Barre went from a vital community of 100,000 residents to less than 35,000 because of the flood. Definitely small urban, but kinda desolate in spots.

Near the end of my second year, I came to realize that the school was too small: You knew everyone too well, and couldn't 'get away'; many of the professors were second-rate; there were so few of them the chances of having the same awful prof in several important classes was high. The conclusion was that "facilities are meaningless, focus on how good the teachers are". (Some of the teachers were outstanding though; I'll never know why someone as good as Dr Bohning chose to teach chemistry at Wilkes, but suffice it to say I got an A)

So, onward to SUNY Stony Brook, a huge suburban campus with 25,000 undergrads, perhaps 1500 engineers in my class. Stony Brook was big enough to attract Nobel Laureates, have it's own Linear Accelerator, and some of the teaching talent was outstanding (Dr. John Truxal comes to mind). Older but decent facilities, better profs. Was great for me, and I saw much better grades and was having a good time, too.

Story 2: My daughter decided to go to an urban Pennsylvania university (and got a decent scholarship), but learned that urban environments are scary for small females at night. Transfer after a year to a suburban school.

Story 3: After 15 years in After-sales Engineering (basically service and tech support) for an import car company, I decided to switch to spare parts documentation, where I made a huge impact over several years. All was well, but during that time, I did a lot of introspection, and learned some things about myself. Most important was that I really enjoyed writing, especially explaining technical topics to non-technical people. I did it for fun, after work - on forums like CD, and for some Ham Radio magazines.

So, long story short, I pursued a job in the company writing technical training, a job known as an Instructional Designer. Now I get paid to do what I really love doing, and because I love it so much, my passion and drive for excellence really shows - they like my work. And the students seem to like what I write, too, so we have a Win-Win-Win.

Does that help clarify?

[Zholl]

very much so. thank you Don. it's always nice to hear from those that have so much more experience than I do.

I've done a bit of research and some thinking, and I've decided that MIT's probably not the best fit for me, and I'll probably end up staying more local. it looks like Cambridge and the surrounding area is a lot more densely populated than it is out here, and to be honest being around lots of people really stresses me, and I think part of me really only wanted to go to MIT because it's MIT, and well, you know...

I'm currently looking at CSU in Fort Collins instead as a primary choice, where I'll probably study mechanical engineering and then master in biomechanics, which is about what I would have done elsewhere. also, I grew up in the area and the town's a pretty good fit for me, and the engineering program is still quite good. both of my parents received engineering degrees from CSU, and I know they do a lot of alternative energy research and such there as well, plus this way I get to stay closer to family

it occurs to me that the original purpose of this thread wasn't exactly what it ended up accomplishing for me, but I would like to thank the lot of you for actually making think about a bit more than the school, and maybe this will help someone else who's in the same boat

[DonRotolo]

Very wise. Having a support structure can be important for some students (others create new ones wherever they go).

Petey is dispensing advice that isn't only specific to MIT; in fact, it's quite portable to many other schools.

[Petey]

Yes, especially w/r/t match!

[KeatonM]

I'm a Junior in HS, just starting to think about college, and I'm guessing that I have NO chance of making it into MIT, but I'll ask my questions anyways.

First (haha, get it? It's not funny), I attend a fairly large high school (We have 2000+ students) and my GPA is lower then I'd like to admit. (I have somewhere around a 3.0. I'd check for exactness, but the site is down)

So, my question is, how heavily does MIT weigh GPA?

Next, ACT Scores. How heavily are those weighted? I took the ACT in 8th grade and got a 28. My projected score for this year is a 34-36. Assuming I got a 34-36, how would that influence acceptance, based on the fact that my GPA is poor?

Finally, because I'm always curious, how many scholarships do you have for FIRST Students specifically, if any?

Thanks!

[Petey]

Hi Keaton -

We don't have GPA/ACT minimums. What I can tell you is that your projected ACT score of 34-36 would be a good range, but your GPA is on the lower end. It would depend on precisely the classes and situations - we care less about the numbers than the context, a lot less - but it is low for us. Just want to be realistic.

[demosthenes2k8]

Not sure whether this post is unbiased or not (I'm a huge fan of MIT and am (supposed to be) working on my essays right now), but I feel like Zholl's question "Does it feel crowded?" was never actually answered.

I don't go to MIT, although like I stated, I'm applying now, but I've been there several times for summer/weekend programs. It's probably a bit more active during the week, but what I got was a sense of, oddly, calm. The people in the area were really friendly, albeit a little too quick to think I was a student there, and the campus is very nice-I especially enjoy Killian Court, it's great for pictures! The area felt warm and inviting, which was really funny because you can drive a block or two and the buildings are completely different. There's something thrilling about standing below the Green Building, before running down its stairs (it hurts afterwards, though), and everywhere you look there's something interesting. Remember, though, that I was only there on weekends, so what I say may or may not be accurate. Considering that there's supposed to be circa 6,000 students there, plus staff, it's reasonably sized, and feels close, especially compared to some colleges I've seen. (University of Illinois comes to mind...)
Overall, I'd say it's a friendly place, not too crowded, and different from a lot of Boston and Cambridge.

[smurfgirl]

@ demosthenes2k8 - We have about 4000 undergrads, and 6000 grad students, which is a bit over 10000 students total.

MIT housing is a bit over-crowded, but we have a new dorm on track to open in fall 2011, which will help alleviate that problem. Otherwise, I think it's a friendly place with enough people that you'll always be able to meet new people, but not so many people that you feel like you're lost in a sea of people. At least MIT is the right size school for me - other people have mentioned the "fit" of a college, and size is one of the factors that plays into whether a university works for you or not.