Consolidated EA/RD 2012 results thread

[flyguy_]

Accepted

Stats:

• SAT: 2220 (Math: 800, CR: 700, W: 720)
• SAT II: Physics: 750, Math IIC: 780, French: 700
• ACT:34
• GPA: 4.6 Weighted, 4.1 Unweighted
• Rank: N/A
• Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): IB HL: Physics, Math, Art. IB SL: Eng A1, Geography, French

Subjective

• Essays: I thought they were excellent but who knows
• Teacher Recs: Don't know
• Counselor Rec: Don't know
• Supplementary Material: Great!
• Interview: Murh... I thought it was just okay
• Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): ??

Personal

• Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
• High School Type: American International School
• Ethnicity: Malay (from Malaysia)
• Gender: M

Other

• Extracurriculars: Soccer team, MUN Chair, NHS Secretary, and a whole bunch of little ones
• Awards: Gold Honor Roll every semester of junior/senior years
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: HELL YEAH I GOT INTO MIT!!! If you guys didn't get in don't worry... life goes on.

[talkloveplay]

Accepted

Stats:

• SAT: Not taken.
• SAT II: Chemistry: 710, Math IIC: 690, USH: 650
• ACT: 33 single sitting // 34 super scored
• GPA: 4.1 Weighted, 3.7 Unweighted
• Rank: N/A
• Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): IB HL: None.

Subjective

• Essays: I thought they were really good-- I sent an additional letter after getting deferred.
• Teacher Recs: Decent I think.
• Counselor Rec: Pretty good I think.
• Supplementary Material: Great!
• Interview: It was decent, ok I think.
• Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): Athlete

Personal

• Location: SF, CA
• High School Type: Private Catholic Competitive
• Ethnicity: Chinese
• Gender: F

Other

• Extracurriculars: Crew, Student Ambassador
• Awards: Honor Roll/Dean's List, Coach's Award, Scholarship to study in Japan
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: I SO DIDN'T EXPECT TO GET IN!!! OMG!!!

[NeobiuM.90]

Accepted

Stats:

* SAT: 1940 (Math 720, Critical Reading 650, Writing 570)
* SAT II: Chemistry: 800, Math IIC: 730, Physics: 740
* Rank: 1 out of 71
* Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): IB HL: None.

Subjective

* Essays: I think they are nice enough -- 1st about my parents, 2nd about a situation that changed my life
* Teacher Recs: They must be really good.
* Counselor Rec: Don't know.
* Supplementary Material: Great -- Chemical Reactions
* Interview: no interview
* Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): International Chemistry Olympiad - Bronze medal (2006), Silver Medal (2007)

Personal

* Location: Osh, Kyrgyzstan (Central Asia)
* High School Type: Private
* Gender: M

Other

* Extracurriculars: Athlete, President of Class
* Awards: Honor Roll/Dean's List, Coach's Award, Scholarship to study in Japan
* Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: Passion!

[mirihadalillamb]

Sigh... here we go:

Rejected

Stats:

• SAT: 2230 - 800 math, 750 writing, 680 reading
• SAT II: 770 Math II, 770 Math I, 710 Physics, 790 Korean, 690 Lit
• GPA: 3.92 UW
• Rank: n/a... but around top 5 or so out of about 300
• Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 5's on three, 4 on one

Subjective

• Essays: was very confident about my essays. essay writing is my forte
• Teacher Recs: both awesome
• Counselor Rec: great
• Supplementary Material: art/painting cd
• Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize):

[ b]Personal[ /b][ list][*]Location:[*]High School Type: Public[*]Ethnicity: Korean (Asian)[*]Gender: F[*]Applied for Financial Aid: Y[/list]Other

• Extracurriculars: a lot. painting, literary mag (editor), newspaper (editor), orchestra (principal cellist), amnesty international (president), science olympiad, student gov't, key club, spanish honor society, national honor society, international club, etc.
• Awards: nmfinalist, umich award in english composition, 1st place state pta visual arts, high honor roll
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:

another great school awaits me!

[t3h_l337_n3wb]

Rejected

Stats:

• SAT: 2290 (800M, 760W, 730CR)
• SAT II: 800 Math 2, 780 Chem (2 tries), 760 Physics (3 tries -_-)
• ACT: n/a
• GPA: 3.87ish UW, 4.3-4.4 W (don't remember, our school's weighting system is really weird), 3.97 with only senior year grades weighted (this is our "official GPA")
• Rank: Top 5% weighted probably
• Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): AMC12 - 105, AMC10 - 117, 2 x AIME qualifier (1, 2), AP Physics B, Calculus BC, English Lit/Comp, European History, US History, Comp Sci A + AB

Subjective

• Essays: Probably pretty bad. I wrote about something math-related...
• Teacher Recs: 1 very good, 1 not sure
• Counselor Rec: We have 4k kids in our school so it's probably not important.
• Supplementary Material: None
• Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): Football/Track Video manager (sorta "athletics")

Personal

• Location: IN
• High School Type: Competitive Public
• Ethnicity: Chinese
• Gender: Male
• Applied for Financial Aid: No, missed deadline

Other

• Extracurriculars: Orchestra (violin), Piano, Senior Connects, Amnesty International, Musical community service, Computer Consultant job
• Awards: World Piano Competition Semifinalist, National Merit Finalist, National AP Scholar, National Honor Society, Scholar Athlete, Various regional/local programming and piano awards
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: Well, I expected to get waitlisted/rejected, so it's no surprise to me. College admissions are such a crapshoot...

[cheerchen]

Accepted

Stats:

• SAT: 2260
• SAT II: 720 Chemistry, 760 French, 800 Math Level2
• GPA: 4.0/4.0
• Rank: 1/130
• Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 5 Microecon, 5 Macroecon, 5 Calc AB

Subjective

• Essays: Not mind-blowing but I wrote about something original (not math/science related). I sent in an extra personal essay (even though it is frowned upon) because I felt my app was missing something without it.
• Teacher Recs: One was really good because it went into detail about how the teacher knew me. The others were bland.
• Counselor Rec: Nothing special.
• Supplementary Material: Art portfolio.
• Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): No clue.

Personal

• Location: Midwest
• High School Type: Small public
• Ethnicity: Asian
• Gender: F
• Applied for Financial Aid: Yes

Other

• Extracurriculars: Yearbook, newspaper, NHS, varsity tennis
• Awards: AP Scholar, National Merit Finalist, State Academic Scholarships
• Advice: Keep it real. Don't write about math or computer science in your essay just because you think that's what they want to hear. Write from the heart.

[wyldeone]

Wait-listed

Stats:

• SAT:
• SAT II: Math 2: 700, Bio M: 730
• ACT: 33 (R35, E35, S30, M33)
• GPA: 4.17 weighted
• Rank: no clue
• Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): CompSci AB: 5, US History: 5, Music Theory: 3, Latin: 3

Subjective

• Essays: I'm a good writer, but my MIT essay wasn't that great.
• Teacher Recs: I haven't seen them, but I'm guessing they were very positive
• Counselor Rec: I haven't seen it, but she assured me it was very good
• Supplementary Material: classical violin, science fair project
• Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): none ,really

Personal

• Location: California
• High School Type: small private
• Ethnicity: Caucasian
• Gender: Male
• Applied for Financial Aid: Y

Other

• Extracurriculars: classical and folk music, programming, ultimate frisbee
• Awards: 4th place at ISEF, amongst other things
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:

I was preparing myself for a rejection, so I'm ok with being wait-listed. I know my chances are miniscule of still being accepted, but at least it gives me faith that I will get into my other top choices, which are (slightly) less selective than MIT.

[Quantumlight]

Rejected



Stats:

• SAT: 2290
• SAT II: Math II - 800, Chemistry - 800
• GPA: 4.0?
• Rank: 23/460
• Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): Chem AP - 5, Physics B AP - 5, Calculus BC AP - 5, Economics Macro & Micro - 5

Subjective

• Essays: dunno.....so so I guess, not about math/science though
• Teacher Recs: one good, one bland
• Counselor Rec: generic
• Supplementary Material: a portfolio of drawings I made of engineering stuff
  and supplement essay on chemistry related thing
• Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): guess not...

Personal

• Location: Canada
• High School Type: Public
• Ethnicity: Asian
• Gender: Male
• Applied for Financial Aid: Y

[ b]Other[/b]

• [ *]Extracurriculars: leadership positions in School Reach, Junior Achievement, Volunteer Club, Tutorial Leadership, SUCCESS Tutor, Stock Exchange Club, Violin Orchestra and Ensemble outside of school
• Awards: Hewlett Packard Global Business Challenge - first in canada; Canadian Physic Olympiad - 16th; UWaterloo Chem 13 competition - 49th; UBC Physics Olympiad - 16th; School Reach - 5th Province; National AP Scholar; a bunch of miscellaneous awards in Social Studies, Writing, Math, and random stuff from ministry of education.
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: I always wanted to go to MIT, guess I won't be able to now.

[kcb452]

Accepted

Stats:

• SAT: 2170 (750M, 690W, 730CR)
• SAT II: Math II - 760, Physics - 710
• ACT: N/A
• GPA: 3.7 UW/4.1 W
• Rank: 11/360 (top 3%)
• Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 2's on us and world hist. 3 on english lang.
  

Subjective

• Essays: i put more work into my MIT essays than any other. the only person who proof read was my mom. the small essays didn't even get proof read. but they were more or less grammatically correct and reflected my personality well
• Teacher Recs: my physics teachers was BS and made me out to be a better student than i am... my english teacher put alot of work into hers.
• Counselor Rec: average?
• Supplementary Material: i sent in a picture of a fractal i drew as part of the optional essay. i don't think it particularly helped or hurt my app.
• Interview: it went really well but it was only 30 min. i felt good about it.
• Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): N/A
  

Personal

• Location: suburbs in Texas
• High School Type: public
• Ethnicity: URM - mexican american. don't speak spanish though
• Gender: F
  

Other

• Extracurriculars: i work alot. about 25 hours a week through junior and senior year. i did choir on and off. did some dance team. some academic competitions..
• Awards: National hispanic scholar...
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: well i'm a URM. i figured i had about a 50/50 chance...
  MIT has been my dream. but i also don't want to graduate with a ton of debt. so i'm still thinking about it... i'm confused.. it's really a mixed blessing..

[akybaky]

well i didn't post this before so i guess i'll do it know...

Accepted

Stats:

• SAT: ehh 1870..bad day...bad day lol
• SAT II: math II 760, chem 710, USH 770
• ACT: 34
• GPA: 3.93/4.0 UW
• Rank: top 1%
• Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): i got 5's on Calc AB, Comp Sci B, Phy. B, Chem; got fours on USH, Econ, English Language
  

Subjective

• Essays: great; i'd say they got me in.
• Teacher Recs: one said "the best she's seen in 10 years." other was from my calc teacher who is an MIT alum so i'd say pretty good
• Counselor Rec: I'm her only student :-D
• Supplementary Material: no
• Interview: Went GREAT!
• Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): MITES, URM, All-American Soccer Player
  

Personal

• Location: NYC
• High School Type: Private
• Ethnicity: Black
• Gender: male

Other

• Extracurriculars: soccer, started my own company, play music, some other stuff...they were all good though
• Awards: National Merritt, some other regional and state things
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:

i'm just excited right now i have to go celebrate hehe lol

[dewran]

Rejected

Stats:

• SAT: 800m 770cr 710w
• SAT II: 780m2 770bio 800chem 760physics
• GPA:3.5
• Rank: school doesnt rank prob low tho
  

[ b]Subjective[/b]

• Essays: average
• Teacher Recs: prob not bad
• Location:nj
• High School Type:magnet
• Ethnicity: middle eastern!
• Gender male
• Extracurriculars: varsity lax and a couple insignificant clubs
• Awards: uspho quarterfinalist
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:*sob*

[mammall]

D was rejected - her credentials:

SAT 2400 (one sitting)
ACT 36
SAT IIs (Chem, Bio, Math II, LIT - all 800s)
First in an unranked class of 150 - hs sends about 15% to Ivies each year (D is the only unweighted 4.0)
National AP Scholar by end of junior year (calc, bio, chem, us hist, econ, eng lang, eng lit, spanish, psych - all 5's)


Awards/Honors

Don't want to say because it will blow the cover - 2 nationally ranked and respected top academic competition awards, Pres Scholar Candidate, NMF, Harvard Book Award, Numerous elected leadership positions in hs

Volunteering/Interning - Sustained, altruistic and scientific - resulted in poster presentations and published research reports

recommendations - superlative

essays - not so good, she said the essay prompts sucked

why she was rejected? Hell if I know. She and we don't care that much. MIT seems to be kind of weird in who they admit. The proof will be in the pudding - how their graduates affect the world in the next decade or so. I think they are playing games with admissions and their product will reflect this. But then I'm a protective mama bear. Good luck to all - the next few weeks should be interesting.

[westsidewolf1989]

Rejected



Stats:

• SAT:2340
• SAT II: 760 MII, 760 USH, 720 PHY
• ACT:none
• GPA:3.93 UW, 4.4 W
• Rank:7/1007
• Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB):Five 5s on AP Tests, One 4

Subjective

• Essays:I thought they were good
• Teacher Recs: Not mind-blowing, but I'm sure they were good
• Counselor Rec: Probably pretty good
• Supplementary Material:None
• Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize):Nothing

Personal

• Location:TX
• High School Type: Public-Competetive
• Ethnicity: White
• Gender: Male
• Applied for Financial Aid:N

Other

• Extracurriculars:I felt I was dedicated to them. But they are probably what got me rejected. I didnt do Intel/Siemens, any research. I just sang in my church choir every week for 4 hours, did AcDec for 1 year, ran track for 2, and did annual mission trips. But i guess it wasn't "mathy" or "sciency" enough for MIT.
• Awards: School and Church Awards, nothing national
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:

Ummm yeah, load yourself up with a bunch of ECs, do science fair, research, AMC, all that stuff. And maintain really good grades and scores.[*]Why I got rejected? ECs most likely, but MIT seems really fickle on who they let in. I'm not really sure if I could have done more EC-wise and still maintained my grades. Had no "real" leadership positions, probably didnt stand out from the crowd. Whatever.

[Vivi]

^ are you a Westwood student :O

Okay guys. I am living proof that it IS possible to get into MIT with low SAT scores.

Accepted

Stats:

• SAT: 690 CR, 720 M, 800 W
• SAT II: 710 Chinese, 700 Biology E, 640 Math II, 650 Physics
• ACT: didn't take
• GPA: 5.35/6.00 W, 4.00 UW
• Rank: 4/497
• Other Tests: AP WHist 4, AP English III 5, AP French IV Language 2 (sick on test day), will be taking this year:
  AP Physics C, English IV Lit, Macroeconomics, US Government, Calculus AB, Biology, French V Lit, AP CompSci A

Subjective

• Essays: one about how I came to love Physics, another about my different personalities; I'm a seasoned essayist so I'm fairly confident these were nice.
• Teacher Recs: extremely excellent - my Economics teacher gave me highest marks on the questionnaire, my Biology teacher has been my science fair mentor for four years
• Counselor Rec: no idea, I didn't get to see, I don't think it was that good
• Supplementary Material: none at all
• Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): Science fair all four years, attended State Scifair (Exxonmobil TSEF) all four years (placed twice), Intel ISEF Finalist this year (if there's any of you out there, see you in Atlanta!)

Personal

• Location: central Texas
• High School Type: public
• Ethnicity: Asian-American
• Gender: Female
• Applied for Financial Aid: yes

Other

• Extracurriculars: I run an international singing organization, dance, theatre, French club, NHS, Key Club, some other stuff I don't remember
• Awards: just the science fair ones:
  - Behavioral & Social Sciences Regionals 2005 - 2nd place
  - Behavioral & Social Sciences State 2005 - participant
  - Microbiology Regionals 2006 - 1st place + Navy award of excellence
  - Microbiology State 2006 - 3rd place
  - Microbiology Regionals 2007 - 2nd place
  - Microbiology State 2007 - honorable mention
  - Behavioral & Social Sciences Regionals 2008 - 1st place, American Psychological Association award, Best of Fair
  - thus, Intel ISEF Finalist 2008 =)
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:
  My mother is kind of against me going because of financial issues. I've already been accepted to Dean Scholar's and Turing Scholars at University of Texas Austin (Natural Sciences and computer Sciences honors, respectively). It's cheaper to stay at home, and I already have so much going for me here. I want to go to MIT for grad school for sure. How is the admission at MIT for grad school? What are chances that undergrad students can stay there for another four years?
  
  But why am I complaining, seriously.
  OH MY GOD. I TOTALLY DID NOT EXPECT THIS. My SAT II's sucked. My AP's sucked. My ECs sucked. The ONLY thing I really had going for me was all my science research.
  
  This is proof that dreams can come true.
  It also makes me feel bad to talk to friends who weren't accepted, so I'm kind of keeping low profile about this =/

[tapedDuck]

Rejected

Stats:

• SAT: 2220 (740 M, 800 W, 680 CR), 2330 (800 M, 790 CR, 740 W) = Superscore: 2390
• SAT II: 800 Math Lvl 2, 770 US Hist, 740 Physics, 720 Chem
• ACT: 35
• GPA: 3.85
• Rank: 5 out of 249
• Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 8 APs - Five 5s, Three 4s

Subjective

• Essays: Spent a lot of time on them - I thought they were pretty good
• Teacher Recs: Good
• Counselor Rec: Good
• Supplementary Material: Sent in college transcript with over 100 credits of classes taken
• Interview: Not bad
• Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize):

Personal

• Location: MN
• High School Type: Public - not competitive
• Ethnicity: Asian
• Gender: Male

Other

• Extracurriculars: Decent (Speech, Math League, Academic Decathlon, NHS, LINK Crew, Hospital volunteer...)
• Awards: Lots of regional awards, few state awards, National AP Scholar
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:

I think the ECs are what hurt me - not enough leadership. MIT was my #1 school, but life goes on. Congratz to all accepted!