Hypothetical-ish Chances for MIT

Jobbin · 10-30-2009, 10:22 PM

Quick Version:
White, male, CA, large public school
Rank 1/500, GPA 4.0, hardest classes
SAT 2400, SAT II Chem 800, SAT II Math2 800, ACT 36
APs 14x 5 (several self studied)
AMC 150, AIME 15, USAMO 7
National AP Scholar (national)
National Honor Society (national)
California Scholarship Federation (state)
AMC/AIME/USAMO Awards (school, national, w/e)
2nd Place Presidential Cup (soccer) (national)
1st Place Regional Cup (national)
1st Place State Cup (state)
1st Place League Cup (state)
1st Place CIF Soccer (regional)
2000 hrs soccer (9-12)
300 hrs community service (children art program) (9-12)
50 hrs community service (habitat restoration) (11-12)
400 hrs animation (Adobe/Macromedia Flash) (9-12)
300 hrs programming (Python, Java, AS2) (9-12)
100 hrs internship w/ programmer (11-12)
Essays phenomenal
Recommendations great
***Perfect scores/essays, weak ECs

-Separate Question: Can I put those animation/programming/CS hours under ECs even though not in club, or should I put under summer activities or something?

Thanks for comments.

lidusha · 10-30-2009, 10:28 PM

I think you're doomed. MIT only takes people with 2500s. 2400 is too low. =p

Just be yourself and everything will work out fine. =)

Jobbin · 10-30-2009, 11:05 PM

All I do is study now that I'm a junior. 6-8 hrs for normal classes each weekday, and, if I can pull myself together, another 2 for AMC, SAT, or self-studied APs because I want to do super good on these tests because its too late for me (junior) to get involved with some good ECs and if I could I wouldn't know how. It seems my only option is to do great on tests, and write essays that stand out (hook) for me to have a chance at MIT. How can I be myself if all I do is study

.

d'smom · 10-30-2009, 11:08 PM

Excellent Chance and my hubby went there.

Elanorci · 10-30-2009, 11:11 PM

so you're a junior?
if so, all i can say is that i'm glad you're not my competition.
for serious. you're more than fine. congrats on, like, your life. :P

molliebatmit · 10-30-2009, 11:12 PM

Why wouldn't your soccer-playing be a great EC?

The return on having perfect test scores, versus getting out and doing something you enjoy, is not favorable enough to justify studying 6-8 hours a day.

You should do what will be worth it to you if you don't get into MIT -- MIT's a long shot for everybody.

Jobbin · 10-30-2009, 11:26 PM

molliebatmit I'm a little confused with what your saying. Basically, I shouldn't be wasting so much time studying when I should be spending it on something I love? Or 6 hrs of fun/EC > 6 hrs of study for high scores?

Also, weird way to think about it, but in a way is perfect scores kind of a bad thing? Because they see you as a robot with no life. My solution is to do fantastic essays to sort of "balance" the fact that you're a robot, if that makes sense.

Also, hah, I didn't really make it clear, but it says in the title- I haven't actually gotten these scores, they are hypothetical. But I would be willing to spend every second of this year working to get them if it meant MIT. I just don't want to go crazy studying for perfection and then not get accepted.

molliebatmit · 10-30-2009, 11:42 PM

Quote:

I just don't want to go crazy studying for perfection and then not get accepted.

Then this is your answer. Statistically speaking, most applicants will not be accepted to MIT. You can't live your life doing things you don't want to do for a very slim chance at being accepted to a particular school. You should do what you want to do and worry about college decisions when they come.

Having perfect stats will not get you into MIT. They're not a negative, either, but test scores are just not important enough to justify spending so much time on them.

Matt McGann says here (in an entry that should be required reading):

Quote:

People make a big deal about test scores. No one seems to believe me when I tell them that when I'm reading an application, I just glance at the test scores to get a sense of them before moving on to the more important parts of the application -- that is, who you are... I don't think I have ever in my summary of a student used high standardized scores as an argument to admit that student.

And Ben Jones, a former MIT admissions officer, said here on CC that

Quote:

We don't distinguish between a 750 and an 800 on any single test. Period.

lidusha · 10-30-2009, 11:43 PM

Jobbin, in all seriousness I would cut down a bit on the studying and dedicate some time to volunteering. (Oh wait, you already do that....) I'm really into kayaking, so I've been teaching canoe camps the past few summers. Try starting something like that, and it's even better if you start something new.

But really, I don't know what to say. You seem...perfect.

Maybe chill. Watch some Star Trek. Sleep. Be happy. Sleep. MIT actually seems interested in people who are amazing socially as well as academically. It feels like given a choice between someone with amazing scores and amazing friends vs. someone with perfect scores but no apparent social life I think they'd chose the former. I'm not saying you shouldn't keep doing what you're doing, just that you should make sure you're still leaving time for yourself. Opportunity cost increases as you increase your workload.

But you'll be fine. Just do what you love and everything will work itself out.

Hang in there.

neongreen · 10-31-2009, 12:50 AM

Let me point out either a flaw in your mathematical ideas of a day's time value or simply one of the most unhealthy lifestyles I've ever heard of.

((2000/4/365))=1.369 hrs soccer/day
((300/4/365))=0.205 hrs art service/day
((400/4/365))=0.273 hrs animation/day
((300/4/365))=0.205 hrs programming/day

[((50/2/365))=0.06 hrs hab. restoration/day]
[((100/2/365))=0.136 hrs intern/day]

for simplicity's sake, exclude the numbers for the 11-12 commitments (the 150 hours)
now, add in; "6-8 hrs for normal classes each weekday, and...another 2 for AMC, SAT, or self-studied APs"

So at a minimum that's 6hrs, at a max. that's (8+2=10 hrs)
add 10 hours to the sum of the other daily activities
adds up to 12.052 hrs per day

school is most likely out at 3pm
so you theoretically stay up until 3am everyday
on an extremely light day (min.6 hrs study, no test studying) you stay up til 11pm

This excludes transportation, meals, and hopefully after so much soccer, showers. Allot 1 hour for a shower, dinner, and transportation, and you stay up until 4am (hypothetically).

Unbelievable. Super human.
Q.E.D.

Hhaha what I spend Halloween on

Jobbin · 10-31-2009, 01:06 AM

@mollie:Thanks again for comments, but also

it seems like I need to have some awards or a good position in a club for the admissions to know that I am "passionate" about something. In my first post I mentioned i had a few hundred hours of flash animation on my own. Under MIT's extracurricular section they say to list any "hobbies, interests, sports, clubs, projects, etc." that you have participated in, and they leave a big space for a description and your "role." Well, in animation I don't have a role, I just do it for fun (not really doing any more, b/c focusing on school, but anyway). Will it look bad if I just say I do it? Is a good position on a decent animation website the equivalent to that of a club at school? And how will they even know if I say I do it 50 hrs/wk? As for starting an animation club or something at school, a) I'm pretty sure no one at my school is interested, b) I feel kind of awkward starting a club and I don't know how anyway, c) it's kind of late (as a junior). Also, do I provide an example of my work to the admissions people? What if they aren't familiar with the flash animation community's standards so they can't judge a work of mine?

@neongreen
Hah, yah I guess I rounded a little up

. But actually, I didn't really mention it, but it's really only this year that I'm spending that much time studying, and the other activities are more of summer activs. (And I don't have school on weekends btw). But honestly, most days I get out of school at 3 and do homework/studying until like 11pm-1am, if I get tired then I wake up extra early (6am) and do work while getting ready, eating breakfast, driving to school, and during school (Lol!, I'm a nerd).

bunsofsteel · 10-31-2009, 01:22 AM

That's just crazy... Is it even possible to have 14 AP's in Junior year?

lidusha · 10-31-2009, 02:14 AM

@buns I had 11 APs junior year, and a big chunk were self-studied. I'm sure that if I weren't also Science Olympiad captain I could easily take on a few more. So yes, it's do-able.

oasis · 10-31-2009, 04:26 AM

@ Mollie:

I should pm you, but I'm too lazy to so I'm going to post it here.

I think it would be an amazing idea to compile a "Required Reading List for Applicants to MIT" comprised of past blogs on application topics and/or pertinent CC posts made by Ben.

I mean, you whip these entries and posts out left and right (some that I haven't read either) and I think these would be invaluable resources for applicants if they were consolidated in one place. And this also holds more "credibility" than FAQ threads by CC members, since these are actual blogs posted by Ben and Matt on the admission blogs, and their word, for all purposes of admissions, is like the Word of God.

Of course, if you feel inclined to, that is. =p

molliebatmit · 10-31-2009, 10:55 AM

^I have a good memory.

And I hand-edited all 1400 of the entries in existence during the summer of '06 for the migration to mitadmissions.org. I don't have as good a handle on the entries that are more recent. But I can definitely think about adding a post with links to my most-frequently-cited blog entries. If anybody else wants to come up with such a list, of course, they're more than welcome.

Quote:

it seems like I need to have some awards or a good position in a club for the admissions to know that I am "passionate" about something.

Definitely not. This is a case where you want to "show, not tell" about things you're interested in. You can send the admissions office a sample of your work (there's a place on the application to give a link to material you've created), and although they're not professional animators, many of them did graduate from MIT. They're familiar with evaluating supplemental programming/web design work.

It's not all that unusual to be in your position, as a lot of MIT applicants and students do work like this on their own time. My husband, for example, built rockets for fun as a high school student. This is something MIT looks favorably upon.

There are a lot of ways you can incorporate your interests and hobbies into the application. You can, for example, talk about them at length during your interview. You can submit a supplemental recommendation from a teacher or mentor who's familiar with your work. You can write an essay about them ("something you've created" or "what you do for fun"). You can send them as supplemental material. You absolutely do not have to do something conventional like make a club about them.