Anyone here got accepted at MIT as an undergraduate?

[Werg22]

I am applying there and I was just wondering if anyone here got accepted there as an undergraduate. What did your application looked like?

 

[balletomane]

I did. Uh, what do you want to know specifically?

 

[apples]

They already gave out the results for those who were admitted didn't they?

 

[Werg22]

I did. Uh, what do you want to know specifically?

Well, did you arrange an interview? How did it go? What did you score on your SAT's? What do your grades look like? What kind of extra-curricular activity did you mention?

 

[Werg22]

They already gave out the results for those who were admitted didn't they?

That's for early action. I am applying for regular action, to which they give out the decision in March, I believe.

 

[balletomane]

I'm a sophomore right now by the way.

My grades were A's. My SAT's were all in the 750's range. For extra-curriculars I wrote about Amnesty International, ballet, and my research (biology). I also wrote my essay about how I would rather have been a ballet dancer.

My application was a little weird.

Good luck!

 

[CPL.Luke]

yeah from my understanding mit looks for quirky science oriented students.

 

[Werg22]

I'm a sophomore right now by the way.

My grades were A's. My SAT's were all in the 750's range. For extra-curriculars I wrote about Amnesty International, ballet, and my research (biology). I also wrote my essay about how I would rather have been a ballet dancer.

My application was a little weird.

Good luck!

Are you a girl? If so, that must have been a plus, since I heard a good female application has more chances than a good male one...

 

[verty]

Why is getting into MIT important?

 

[ranger]

Are you a girl? If so, that must have been a plus, since I heard a good female application has more chances than a good male one...

I don't think the success of an application is based on sex.

 

[Werg22]

I don't think the success of an application is based on sex.

To a certain degree it does play a role... at least from what I read. Apparently they get more male applicants, so standing out for a guy is harder than for a girl, since they to have to keep a certain male to female ratio.

 

[Serbian.matematika]

MIT meant nothing to my father and I am happy I did listen to my father.
Two years ago I was accepted to MIT Electrical Engineering with a big scholarship and my father told me if I go there that he is going to die.
I did not go, instead I stayed in Toronto and I am sooooooo happy here in my 2nd year of EE.

I just knew my father wouldn't be able to cope with me being in America without him, since I am a girl and my father thinks being 17 years old was too young to be alone in engineering, far away from parents and in M.I.T.

 

[Werg22]

MIT meant nothing to my father and I am happy I did listen to my father.
Two years ago I was accepted to MIT Electrical Engineering with a big scholarship and my father told me if I go there that he is going to die.
I did not go, instead I stayed in Toronto and I am sooooooo happy here in my 2nd year of EE.

I just knew my father wouldn't be able to cope with me being in America without him, since I am a girl and my father thinks being 17 years old was too young to be alone in engineering, far away from parents and in M.I.T.

I see... kind of a dilemma if you ask me. I don't think I have a relationship with my parents as good as yours, so getting away from here looks appealing to me. I applied to the UT, so who knows, might go there.

 

[verty]

Two years ago I was accepted to MIT Electrical Engineering with a big scholarship and my father told me if I go there that he is going to die.

That's why I dislike parents. You should have let him died, if it came to that. I don't believe him anyhow.

 

[J77]

I just knew my father wouldn't be able to cope with me being in America without him, since I am a girl and my father thinks being 17 years old was too young to be alone in engineering, far away from parents and in M.I.T.

I thought one of the best parts of going to university was getting away from one's parents

 

[abdo375]

That's why I dislike parents. You should have let him died, if it came to that. I don't believe him anyhow.

That's a very cruel response, If going to a certain college is more important to you than your loved one's, then maybe you should restructure your priorities.
The reason you would like to go to a prestigious college in the first place is to to get a good job, good graduate school, etc..., all of which is to make you happy and fell good about your life.
Going to MIT isn't the goal itself, it's the road to get to your goal, and your goal is to lead a happy life, maybe it's just me, but being around my parents (when they are a live) makes me a hell a lot happier than going to MIT, or getting a better starting salary.

 

[verty]

Don't you think it is selfish of her father to ask her to give up her MIT shot? That's what I find cruel.

 

[kdinser]

Parents often have a harder time letting go of their kids then the kid does letting go of the parents. The parents, being the more mature party, should realize what an opportunity going to a top ranked school is and shouldn't hold the child back because they can't deal with the emotional strain of being separated.

 

[budala]

I think her father is a smart man. Upon graduation from MIT she would not be better off in Ontario than when she graduates from any other university in Toronto; like University of Toronto or Ryerson University.

 

[Werg22]

I think her father is a smart man. Upon graduation from MIT she would not be better off in Ontario than when she graduates from any other university in Toronto; like University of Toronto or Ryerson University.

Who said she wants to remain in Toronto?

 

[tim_lou]

I did not go, instead I stayed in Toronto and I am sooooooo happy here in my 2nd year of EE.

She did agree to her father's suggestion and felt happy about it. Anyway, I think we should stop discussing about others' parental relationship and stay on topic. Bottom line is, different family values different things.

 

[leon1127]

17 girl alone in boston isn't that safe I think....

 

[JasonRox]

Two years ago I was accepted to MIT Electrical Engineering with a big scholarship and my father told me if I go there that he is going to die.

I would have said "Well, I'm going to miss your funeral because I'll be in Boston."

That's not a good way to convince your son to stay home. It might have been the right decision, but your father took the most immature way possible to convince. That is pure lame.

 

[Helicobacter]

I'm a sophomore right now by the way.

My grades were A's. My SAT's were all in the 750's range. For extra-curriculars I wrote about Amnesty International, ballet, and my research (biology). I also wrote my essay about how I would rather have been a ballet dancer.

My application was a little weird.

Good luck!

I wish I could get ~750 on the Verbal without understanding contractions.

 

[BryanP]

MIT meant nothing to my father and I am happy I did listen to my father.
Two years ago I was accepted to MIT Electrical Engineering with a big scholarship and my father told me if I go there that he is going to die.
I did not go, instead I stayed in Toronto and I am sooooooo happy here in my 2nd year of EE.

I just knew my father wouldn't be able to cope with me being in America without him, since I am a girl and my father thinks being 17 years old was too young to be alone in engineering, far away from parents and in M.I.T.

Childish act by your father.

Go where you want to go.

 

[theperthvan]

That's why I dislike parents. You should have let him died, if it came to that. I don't believe him anyhow.

That is bad but very funny.

I don't think the success of an application is based on sex.

As in how much you've had?


Anyway, I want to do postgrad at MIT

 

[balletomane]

I wish I could get ~750 on the Verbal without understanding contractions.

Fortunately reading and writing aren't prereqs for being an MIT student.

 

[whitay]

offtopic, you guys should come to Australia, all you need to do is get a good number ie straight A will get you something like 98-99 on national ranking and you can apply to any university in Australia and it would be highly likely that you would get in. I mean all they do is compare your score to their cut-off score and if you are meet or beat the cut off, you're in.

 

[Stepontheboy]

Responding to original post:

I was accepted into MIT EA. SAT: 2300, GPA: 4.4ish W, 3.7ish UW, research, college classes, student of the month, school board member, etc.

 

[Plaza94]

Im a freshman in high school I am looking for tips on what i should do to get accepted. Grades arent the problem i need help on what extracurricular activities i should participate in. I am in interested in the computer science andelectrical engineering field.

 

[twofish-quant]

I got accepted at MIT as an undergraduate in 1987.

Im a freshman in high school I am looking for tips on what i should do to get accepted. Grades arent the problem i need help on what extracurricular activities i should participate in. I am in interested in the computer science andelectrical engineering field.

Big, big piece of advice, don't obsess about MIT, part of the reason is that getting in is largely a matter of luck. Also people that are rich have the ability to hire consultants and tutors that can help their kids get in easier, so they do have what I think is an unfair advantage.

Participate in whatever extracurricular activities you think will make your community and the world a better place, and don't focus too much on trying to get into a particular school. MIT is trying to brainwash you into thinking that your life is over if you don't get in, and they are doing it so that they can make money off of you. Don't structure your entire life around this sort of brainwashing. The fact is that if you are curious, motivated, and intelligent, then MIT needs you more than you need them.

 

[twofish-quant]

I can tell you a lot about what life is like at MIT (or at least what it was like when I was an undergraduate). It's definitely not for everyone, and getting rejected by MIT may be one of the best things that could happen to you. I've seen people that ended up on campus and who just totally crumbled.

Also one important thing that you will learn at MIT is to dislike (or in my case to lividly hate) MIT.

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

Where did you do your PHD, QUant?

 

[twofish-quant]

Where did you do your PHD, QUant?

UTexas Austin, which is a very different type of school from MIT. One thing that I think is good for people to go into a graduate program is to go to a different type of school as undergraduate/graduate so you that just see how different things can be.

 

[Manchot]

Also one important thing that you will learn at MIT is to dislike (or in my case to lividly hate) MIT.

Also one important thing you will learn in graduate school at MIT is to roll your eyes at the undergrads who backhandedly brag about going to MIT by saying how much they hate it.

 

[Phyisab****]

not me

 

[Quantum_Grid]

Also one important thing you will learn in graduate school at MIT is to roll your eyes at the undergrads who backhandedly brag about going to MIT by saying how much they hate it.

Or people who backhandedly brag about going to MIT by 'rolling their eyes' at anyone who has a negative opinion of it?

 

[turbo]

I would love to have attended MIT, but their financial aid package put it out of my reach. I did not apply there, but was pre-accepted though I did not apply. If they wanted me, they should have spent the effort to find out that my family was quite poor, and adjusted the aid offer accordingly. They wanted me in the math program, BTW.

 

[twofish-quant]

Also one important thing you will learn in graduate school at MIT is to roll your eyes at the undergrads who backhandedly brag about going to MIT by saying how much they hate it.

MIT is a really, really crazy place.

It's part of the culture, since I've never heard someone from Harvard talk about hating Harvard. I think part of the psychology is that "I hate MIT, because MIT was so painful and nasty, that it must say something good about me to have survived it." or "I hate MIT, because MIT taught me that I must have certain ideals, and I've learned that MIT does not live up to those ideals." One of the things that MIT teaches you is that it is really, really, really bad thing to admire someone from MIT because they went to MIT.

The reason I ended up hating MIT was that I spent a lot of my undergraduate years focusing on humanties and teaching, and then I got this nice big rejection letter from MIT graduate school. It left be deeply angry and cynical, but I suppose it's a good thing.

 

[twofish-quant]

Also I think hating MIT is a psychological defense mechanism which you really need to learn if you want to survive there. MIT is a tough, hard, brutal place where you get dumped with tons and tons of facts and knowledge. You will be overwhelmed, overworked, angry, frustrated, and exhausted. If you don't learn to hate MIT, then you will start hating yourself or specific people, and that usually turns out to be really, really, really bad. If you direct your anger and frustration out at the Institute, that let's all of that frustration out harmlessly so that you can continue to be productive.

What's weird is that people hate MIT, but people fall in love with specific parts of the institute. While hating MIT, people end up developing very, very strong attachments with people and groups within the institute, and you have a coalition of people that are just united in how much they hate "the Institute." It's a really weird, weird form of school spirit (or rather anti-spirit). People are *proud* of how much they hate their school.

Harvard doesn't have anything like this, but apparently Columbia does.

 

[flyingpig]

MIT meant nothing to my father and I am happy I did listen to my father.
Two years ago I was accepted to MIT Electrical Engineering with a big scholarship and my father told me if I go there that he is going to die.
I did not go, instead I stayed in Toronto and I am sooooooo happy here in my 2nd year of EE.

I just knew my father wouldn't be able to cope with me being in America without him, since I am a girl and my father thinks being 17 years old was too young to be alone in engineering, far away from parents and in M.I.T.

What a terrible father, dragging his own daughter to hell.

 

[Anonymous217]

I got accepted EA in MIT, but I don't really think it matters in terms of this thread since it was made about 3 years ago. But yes, it requires great stats AND a great attitude/ECs to get in. I might not be able to afford the school even with the financial aid package they're going to offer me though so I won't be able to go.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Also I think hating MIT is a psychological defense mechanism which you really need to learn if you want to survive there. MIT is a tough, hard, brutal place where you get dumped with tons and tons of facts and knowledge. You will be overwhelmed, overworked, angry, frustrated, and exhausted. If you don't learn to hate MIT, then you will start hating yourself or specific people, and that usually turns out to be really, really, really bad. If you direct your anger and frustration out at the Institute, that let's all of that frustration out harmlessly so that you can continue to be productive.

What's weird is that people hate MIT, but people fall in love with specific parts of the institute. While hating MIT, people end up developing very, very strong attachments with people and groups within the institute, and you have a coalition of people that are just united in how much they hate "the Institute." It's a really weird, weird form of school spirit (or rather anti-spirit). People are *proud* of how much they hate their school.

Harvard doesn't have anything like this, but apparently Columbia does.

That reminded me a little bit of a Facebook group I came across: "UCLA: Where Your Best Hasn't Been Good Enough Since 1919"

 

[story645]

One of the things that MIT teaches you is that it is really, really, really bad thing to admire someone from MIT because they went to MIT.

I think hanging around any prestigious program or elite school teaches you that it's all sort of meaningless in the long run. I've done the shiny honors thing far too long, and usually the most successful kids are the slightly jaded ones.

I didn't get in*, but liked applying anyway 'cause my interviewer was fascinating. She was this little old lady who had been at MIT decades ago and had all sorts of cool stories to tell. Actually, that may have been the best part of college applications-talking to people about their experiences.

*I wasn't the strongest candidate by any means, killed my chances by doing miserably in calculus, and I told my interviewer I wouldn't go if the financial aid package wasn't decent. It worked out for the best 'cause I have a love/hate relationship with my current school strong enough to keep me hanging around for grad school.

I did not go, instead I stayed in Toronto and I am sooooooo happy here in my 2nd year of EE.

Congrats! Out of curiosity, does being in your hometown help you deal with the crazy gender imbalance in EE, or do you think it wouldn't have mattered even at MIT?

 

[Bourbaki1123]

What a terrible father, dragging his own daughter to hell.

I don't think U Toronto is exactly hell... Talk about hyperbole. If she really wanted to got to MIT no matter what she would have gone. Some people have different priorities, just because your worldview might be totally myopic or you might be single minded in your pursuit of academic repute doesn't mean that if someone else isn't as vehement about it is less happy. In fact, I would argue for the contrary in most cases I have seen.

This goes for all the other 'terrible father' B.S. I guess you know these people and all of the intricacies of their lives so well that you have the penetrating foresight to know that they made the wrong decisions? What melodramatic foolishness! It seems like there are quite a few people who have this distorted world view that you cannot be happy if you don't got to the right set of universities, or that you can't achieve any academic success if you don't follow a very narrow and artificial path.

That being said, I do have relevant input. I have two friends that applied to MIT and are good examples of why it can be a crap shoot especially if you don't have any research or unique experiences under your belt:

1) The first guy graduated one year early, did some of the Duke Tip program stuff way back in late middle and early high school such as a programming camp etc. and scored a 34 or 35 on his ACT (in the Midwest, so ACT is better known than the SAT, but it might have affected his chances, I don't know). He took plenty of of AP courses and had a very high GPA and was in the top ten of the class. He was rejected from MIT.

2) This guy graduated Valedictorian and scored a 35 on his ACT sophomore year. Also did the Duke Tip program and had scored in the high twenties on his ACT (almost 30) when he was in 7th grade. He had a number of extracurricular including doing well in the regional science Olympiad and being on the math team and doing well regionally in that as well. No highly unusual extracurricular activities or achievements. He was rejected from MIT.

So simply being a top student is not necessarily enough to get you into MIT. It seems like you need to show a strong outside interest in some specific academic area, and research is a great way to show that.

 

[twofish-quant]

I don't think U Toronto is exactly hell.../QUOTE]

Which is interesting because MIT can be total, total hell if you aren't prepared for it. One thing that they don't tell you is that the alumni screening is something of a psychological screening.

So simply being a top student is not necessarily enough to get you into MIT. It seems like you need to show a strong outside interest in some specific academic area, and research is a great way to show that.

First of all, there is a lot of randomness in the admissions process. There just are too many applicants and too few spots, so a lot of the process is pretty random. Second, the absolute main thing that the MIT admission people are worried about is that you won't self-destruct when you get onto campus. People have, and it's really, really bad when it happens.

So you have straight-A, you are president of fifty different high school clubs, you have great recommendations, you have high school research out of your ears, you make it onto MIT, you are two thousand miles away from your parents, and for the very first time in your life, you are *failing* a class. You are going totally crazy trying to absorb the material, and it's just not coming together. Now the first semester of MIT is freshman pass/fail, so no one is going to know if you failed out of 18.01. The trouble is that if your entire life is based on doing well in classes, what do you do when you are just doing badly in them?

What the admissions people *really* are worried about is that you don't self-destruct at that point, because people have, and it's very unpleasant. One of the good things about MIT is that for a lot of people, they are in a situation where they are *average* for the first time in their lives, or worse yet *far below average*.

If getting into MIT or some elite university is the most important thing in your life, you are probably better off *NOT* going to MIT.

 

[twofish-quant]

I think hanging around any prestigious program or elite school teaches you that it's all sort of meaningless in the long run.

It's not all meaningless. Some things are important. Some things aren't. One thing that you have to ask yourself when you are doing some extracurricular activity is to what extent it's just to have something that looks good on a resume. Are you willing to do something that doesn't show up on your CV? Are you willing to do something that *hurts* your CV?

At some point in your life, some committee is going to take a big rubber stamp and stamp the word *FAILURE* on your forehead. Figuring out what to do in that situation is pretty important. At that point you try to figure out what's really important and what isn't.

I've done the shiny honors thing far too long, and usually the most successful kids are the slightly jaded ones.

One thing that helps me is that I'm a lot less afraid of getting the words *FAILURE* stamped on my forehead than I was when I was 17.

Congrats! Out of curiosity, does being in your hometown help you deal with the crazy gender imbalance in EE, or do you think it wouldn't have mattered even at MIT?

There's really not a huge gender imbalance at MIT.

 

[hellbike]

It all sounds like MIT is run by Satan himself!

 

[Vanadium 50]

Satan couldn't get in. Not enough extracurriculars.

 

[story645]

There's really not a huge gender imbalance at MIT.

School wide no, but I remember back when I was talking to the interviewer that comp sci was only about %20 female, which makes me think the gender imbalances in the majors are pretty consistent with everywhere else in the states. It'd be weird if they suddenly had enough qualified female students to suddenly make EE, which is about %15 female, %50.

Are you willing to do something that doesn't show up on your CV? Are you willing to do something that *hurts* your CV?

It can actually be quite liberating to do something that doesn't show up anywhere. I'm borrowing lab facilities but I don't really need support or a rec from the professor running the lab, so I have all this great freedom to pretty much do what I want so long as I don't break anything.

t's not all meaningless. Some things are important. Some things aren't.

Yeah, I'll rephrase that: Figuring out what's important, what's not, and how to play the game are really worthwhile, but it's just as important to realize that opportunities don't magically appear or disappear because of a program's status. It still all boils down the person.