Cbray said:
Yes. Because practicing olympiad questions for hours and hours a week means you're the best at physics.
It doesn't matter. What matters is that it works. You have a gold medal at the IMO, then your odds of getting accepted at a selective school is much higher than next guy's.
There's also no formula to get into MIT. Or any highly selective school. What's generally advised is doing well at school (i.e, GPA and SAT at or above 75th percentile of school), and then doing things one likes, and attempting to do them at the highest possible level. You like to write? Then write. Send your poetry to competitions. Win them. Get published. Rinse, repeat. You're a great debater? Win every debate at school. Be the best debater your school has had. Debate on national TV. Community service? Get your picture with the governor at some fancy event where you're being honored for your great service on the local papers.
Then show, through an essay, what it is about you that makes you special. Why should MIT or Columbia want to have YOU walking around their campus? How could your being there contribute to the academic and social environment of the school?
That's kinda how you have people like the Gyllenhaals going to Columbia, Emma Watson at Brown, Brooke Shields at Princeton, and Natalie Portman at Harvard. Sure, they're probably smart people, but the fact that they're famous people helps. And hey, they satisfy the criteria of "doing something you like/are good at, and doing it at the highest possible level."
You could do all of the above and not get in. And that would be just fine. Why? You still accomplished a great deal. And the best part? You did something you had a hella fun doing.
If I could do it again, I'd have put more effort into my writing, debating, and done just enough to be "above the 75th percentile", in terms of grades. God, high school was boring.
By the way, MIT's acceptance rate for international students is roughly 3%. So, OP, here's what your "chance" of getting in is.
@Thread - Why do you want to go to CalTech/MIT? Do you actually want to do a PhD/research or do you want to do the same undergraduate courses that every university does but for 50 grand a year?
MIT offers excellent financial aid for everyone, including international students. One's ability to pay does not factor in the admissions decision either. They're "need blind." Money shouldn't be a reason to not apply. Apply to a dozen schools, look at the finances, and then figure out where to go.
I have, however, seen a thread on SomethingAwful Forums where someone who worked in the admissions office of a so-called "need blind" top 25 (somewhere in that range) liberal arts college, where he said that if they're on the fence on whether to admit an applicant, they'll look at their address and see if they're from a rich neighborhood. Technically, it's still not considering the family's income, but oh wait, it is.
jtbell said:
So you guys have grade inflation, too?
It's not so much grade inflation, as much as it is easier to score an A in 2013, than it was in 1999. Back then, the exams were linear. One studied for the O-Levels/GCSEs for two years, and then took all the exams in one go. Same for the A-Levels.
Now, A-Level science subjects are split into six "modules", and humanities/social sciences into 4. One can take any number of modules, provided the time table allows it, at any exam session (2 per year, I believe), spread over two years. If one didn't do well in one module, one can resit just that module. There is an AS-Level component, and the A2 component. AS+A2 = full A-Level. Generally, half of the A-Level = AS-Level.
There are also various bodies that administer the A-Level. The CIE, which is an international exam board, still uses the linear system. I had 13 exams across three subjects (4 for math, 4 for French, and 5 for physics) to take in one session.
That said, the CIE does offer the possibility to take the exam in a slightly less rigid way. It's still harder than the UK way, though. Essentially, one can take the whole of the AS part, and after that, the whole of the A2 part. It's flexible, but not as flexible as taking/resitting any module one wants. If one wants to resit a paper, one has to resit the whole AS or A2. The exams have to be within 13 months of each other.
Bottom line: No grade inflation as far as I'm aware. It's just easier to get As than it used to be. The A-Levels are fairly standardized.
Personally, I'm a huge fan of the US model. I love the flexibility, the "liberal arts" approach that seems present in high schools. The big focus on extra curricular activities. (FIRST robotics, varsity sports, etc) Cross registering for courses at the local U/community college.
It works incredibly well in a smaller environment. I'm guessing that's why the people at the elite schools (i.e, Andover, Stuyvesant, etc) do so well. Their student body, I would imagine, is of a similar academic level, which makes for more optimized (maybe I used the wrong word here) learning/instruction.
I don't know too much about this QuestBridge thing, but it looks pretty interesting.
