Anyone here got accepted at MIT as an undergraduate?

[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.

 

[twofish-quant]

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.

Interesting. It looks like from the statistics that this is what is happening.

 

[SrEstroncio]

To hell with MIT and Caltech.
I got 800 in my phyiscs SAT, 770 on the math II one
95/100 GPA, I got 40 on my IB programme diploma, I was in the national mexican physics olympiad, took part in the math one, I was also in a latin american olimpiad (plus spain and portugal), I was student of the class in my HS and they rejected me last year.

sucks not being born in the US.

I know another mexican guy that scored lower on almost everything on that list and got accepted.

 

[twofish-quant]

It all sounds like MIT is run by Satan himself!

It's an incredibly fun place if you go there with the right mind-set. One thing that is cool is that you can deal with the fact that you are at the near the bottom of the class without falling apart, you end up learning a whole bunch of neat stuff. Also, you get to play with a lot of toys a few years before anyone else does. One of the big attractions of MIT for me was that everyone got an e-mail account, internet access, and there was a campus wide instant messaging system, which isn't a big deal, except that this was in 1987.

As far as who runs MIT, it's the military-industrial-economic power elites that run everything else in the United States. (Read Chomsky).

One thing that's fun is that you walk down the halls and then suddenly a door will open up and you see some well-dressed 50/60-year oldish people coming out of a meeting, and if you peek inside the room, you'll see a *nice* meeting room, so you wonder what they were meeting about, and then the theme from the X-files plays in the background. One weird thing is that some of the professors and administrators seem like models for characters from the X-files, and I don't think it's a coincidence since it turns out Chris Carter's older brother is a professor there.

Now I don't think that there is an agreement by the military-scientific elite with space aliens to enslave mankind. However, I'm pretty sure if there *were* such a conspiracy that MIT would be in the middle of it, and that if you agreed to get the requisite alien implants in your brain, you could probably talk your way into an undergraduate research project in Area 51.

However, one thing that you end up learning that is really, really scarier than finding out about an alien conspiracy, which is that human institutions are run by *people*. *Shudder*

 

[MapleQQQ]

To hell with MIT and Caltech.
I got 800 in my phyiscs SAT, 770 on the math II one
95/100 GPA, I got 40 on my IB programme diploma, I was in the national mexican physics olympiad, took part in the math one, I was also in a latin american olimpiad (plus spain and portugal), I was student of the class in my HS and they rejected me last year.

sucks not being born in the US.

I know another mexican guy that scored lower on almost everything on that list and got accepted.

Too bad it's not about the scores. I bet that "other mexican guy" had a much better personality/attitude, and that is why he was accepted. I made an account JUST to post this, so other people that come by won't keep thinking that everything is a crapshoot just because of apparently random score/grade differences of those accepted and those rejected.

 

[bleedblue1234]

We had 3 kids go last year...

2 were athletic recruits with worse stats than me...

1 was an outstanding student (4.4+ GPA, 35 ACT (4 times), good subject tests, a large number of good EC's..)

Where you go to school is not irrelevant but so much of a crapshoot that I wouldn't put weight into it...

Look at college confidential and the number of perfect SAT's/ACT's getting rejected from Y/S/M etc. Just do your best and you will be fine.

 

[twofish-quant]

Too bad it's not about the scores. I bet that "other mexican guy" had a much better personality/attitude, and that is why he was accepted. I made an account JUST to post this, so other people that come by won't keep thinking that everything is a crapshoot just because of apparently random score/grade differences of those accepted and those rejected.

I know people that review admissions for MIT and what they tell me is that a lot of this *is* a crapshoot. What happens is that MIT (and the other major schools) try to distribute admissions evenly across the United States, so they arrange admissions so that now everyone comes from the same state. So if you have a quota of N students, and you have 5*N good applicants, it becomes a lottery.

Also MIT *will* give preference to American citizens.

So what happens a lot is that you have too many good candidates, so people get accepted and rejected by more or less random criterion. People that I know that help review admissions tend to hate the job because they have to reject too many people that are qualified.

You could probably triple the size of MIT without lowering the quality of students. It really stinks, but it's not an easy problem to fix. Also "to hell to MIT" is a pretty good attitude in dealing with getting rejected by MIT. MIT stinks.

One of the things that you learn at MIT is that you should hate MIT. It took me a while to figure this out, but learning to hate MIT is an essential part of the MIT education, because if you don't learn to hate MIT then you don't have the motivation to fix its flaws and make it better.

IHTFP!

 

[shravas]

MIT does not recruit athletes.

 

[Dembadon]

MIT does not recruit athletes.

Mathletes, perhaps?

 

[Vanadium 50]

MIT does not recruit athletes.

Depends on what you mean. MIT is NCAA Division III, which means no scholarships. However, it does field more athletic teams than any other school in the country, and if you were an exceptional athlete in high school it will look good on your application.

 

[jtbell]

It probably also looks good if you're an exceptional musician. I have some recordings of the MIT Symphony Orchestra that were released commercially, not "vanity" productions by any means.