College Confidential - View Single Post - Why would you turn down other schools for MIT?

CalAlum · 04-26-2009, 01:22 PM

My daughter turned down several top-tier schools for MIT. She was fairly certain about her choice going in to April and absolutely certain after CPW. It's hard to explain, but I'll try with a little story.

As a parent, I attended an August event where president Susan Hockfield was to speak to an audience composed of students and parents. As students streamed in to the auditorium and we waited for the event to begin, Hockfield said something like, "The students aren't waiting to meet me. They're waiting to meet each other." Now, these are probably not her exact words, but the truth of this statement hit me at the time. My daughter found the most exciting aspect of MIT to be the students themselves.

Somewhere on this board a current MIT student wrote something like, "If you come to MIT, we'll welcome you with open arms." I've also found that to be true.

I do think a specific kind of person self-selects to enroll at MIT, and if you're a great fit, you'll know it.

04-26-2009, 01:22 PM	#14
CalAlum Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 480	Turning down Yale, Duke, Stanford, Berkeley, etc. for MIT My daughter turned down several top-tier schools for MIT. She was fairly certain about her choice going in to April and absolutely certain after CPW. It's hard to explain, but I'll try with a little story. As a parent, I attended an August event where president Susan Hockfield was to speak to an audience composed of students and parents. As students streamed in to the auditorium and we waited for the event to begin, Hockfield said something like, "The students aren't waiting to meet me. They're waiting to meet each other." Now, these are probably not her exact words, but the truth of this statement hit me at the time. My daughter found the most exciting aspect of MIT to be the students themselves. Somewhere on this board a current MIT student wrote something like, "If you come to MIT, we'll welcome you with open arms." I've also found that to be true. I do think a specific kind of person self-selects to enroll at MIT, and if you're a great fit, you'll know it.
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