toughman

Please if anybody knows help me about this topic. molliebatmit, you have always helped me by your comments and you almost know everything so if you help again, I will be abundantly pleased. On MIT Admissions Page, it is said that "be sure that your name exactly matches on tests etc". However, I have two names and they are different on various data. For instance, (I've made up the names) I'm seen as Jack Sam on high school transcript and Jack S. on the SAT and Sam J. on the TOEFL. I have registered MyMIT with the name Jack Sam ( which legally writes on my US Passport ) and chose Sam as preferred first name. Would this dual name situation cause trouble? Does MIT's system check data meticulously, letter by letter or would they have no problem identifying data that belongs to me? Because everything except the names will match identically like my surname, birthdate and social security number. THANKS IN ADVANCE!

molliebatmit

There is a lot I don't know contained in that "almost".

My suspicion is that having different names in various pieces of your application will complicate matching pieces of your application to each other, but I doubt it's a fatal problem -- it's not uncommon, especially for international students or others with non-American-standard nomenclature, to have this issue. So resolving the issue and getting all of your application pieces matched to each other may require a bit of communication with MIT, but I don't think it will be a big problem.

PiperXP

Call the Admissions office, tell them your situation, ask what information they have on your file (ie, if they have the scores for that SAT test you took). Sometimes two folders can be opened up for the same applicant, but you can combine the materials easily.

They do check for these sorts of things, but it won't hurt to give them a heads-up to expect the mismatched names.

toughman

Thank you very much! I appreciate your comments! You're right because in my country, your given name is called second, like if your given name is Sam, it is written as Jack Sam. But it is completely the opposite in U.S. ( which is more logical) therefore I get complicated while registering for places. That's why there is a name clash between my high-school records and standardized tests. So you are suggesting that after informing MIT Admissions about this issue they will be aware, right?

Mikalye

There are two types of material that make up the universe. There is "matter", and then there is "doesn't matter". Confusions on name that you can explain, and should be obvious enough to MIT fall comfortably into the category of Doesn't Matter. If your name is Jack Sam and it appears on your standardised tests as Sam Jack, you should not fret. If your name is Jack Sam and it appears on tests as Claudette Framboise, then you have a bigger problem.

toughman

Thank you very much for your advice which also made me crack. Your first two sentences will be my life perception from now on. I feel much better now