GAC1107

Stop being lazy and go to the website. You can't expect ppl to do all of your work. It's not that hard: type in google mites program.

GAC1107

Sstewart-

Jamaicans aren't really I minority persay. Minorities include African Americans native Americans and Hispanics. Idt jamaicans are considered Hispanic or African american. Asians are not considered minorities in college admissions

fairy_dreams

Jamaicans are still a minority. So are Eskimos, African Americans, and Asians.

Asians are just an "overrepresented" minority in college admissions. Caucasians still make up the majority.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=MITES+summer+program

fairy_dreams

^Oh. And I didn't mean to be a jerk by posting that link up there. I've just always wanted to try it :]

kere

you have to send in 4 essays, report cards, transcript, and some other documents as well.

GAC1107

Jamaicans don't really fall into he categoy of nativ Americans Hispanics blacks or Asians sooooooo

!Mi Vida!

Hello All,

I am a student who participated in MITES during the summer of 2008. Recently someone asked me a question about the program and I thought it would be useful to provide the question and answers to all the prospective students on this forum.

I think from reading the other MITES threads it’s quite clear that not every applicant has a 4.0 GPA or a 240 on his PSAT. These statistics are really just parameters which the MITES admissions committee uses to make sure you’ll be able to handle the MITES course work. The assumption is if you’re doing poorly in high school you will probably do poorly in MITES. However, the reverse assumption is not necessarily true and it’s still possible to do poorly in MITES although you’ve done well in high school. This reason, along with some others, is why the application doesn’t merely ask “What are your statistics?”; there are many other factors which serve as indications of competence.
The essays are rather important. They can really make or break your application so it is a good idea to spend most of your time on them. My advice for the essays is to focus on qualities which make you unique and demonstrate your interest in science.
I think MITES has helped many students have the confidence to apply to schools they wouldn’t have even thought about otherwise. Also, the recommendations provided at the end of the program are useful in providing supplementary personal information when you send in your college applications.
It appears as though most of students who complete MITES do end up applying to MIT in the fall and many of them are admitted. This information is based on what I’ve gathered by talking to students and instructors in the past few MITES classes so it should be fairly reliable. In the MITES class of 08, a few of the students also applied to Harvard and a few of them were accepted but it seems that no one has decided to enroll. But there are MITES students who have enrolled in Yale, Caltech, Columbia, and UPenn. In general a considerable portion of MITES students eventually go to MIT but there are still many other universities where MITES alumni decide to enroll.
The statistic fits quite well with what I said although I’m doubtful that the other 36% only went to Harvard, Columbia and Stanford. A better estimate would be that Harvard, Columbia and Stanford were popular choices for the other 36% while there were students who chose schools not in that list.
It seems as though MITES has this stigma of being the fast track into MIT or the fast track into any other seemingly prestigious school that you wish to add to your resume. Admittedly, many of the students who get through MITES go to MIT or other impressive schools but that is not really the purpose of the program. I am not part of the admissions committee and I am in no way affiliated with the MITES programs besides my participation in the session during the summer of 2008. But I don’t think I’ll be too far off in claiming that the true purpose of MITES is to cultivate an interest in science in areas of the population where that interest is usually absent. This is perhaps why there are mostly minority students in the program. Another sense I got from the program was it allowed many intelligent students to come together to obtain a feeling of “you’re not alone” in that there are other students who come from similar backgrounds and who are just as interested in science and technology as you are. The fact that many of these students end up in good schools is more of a residual effect of the program rather than the only purpose.
This is more of a general college question than a MITES specific one so anyone can answer it. Generally, I’ve found that all admissions officers are easy to talk to and really want you to be interested in applying to their college. Also, during MITES there are special dinners where students are allowed to ask admissions officers questions about college. These dinners are explained more below.
I’m not sure what this question is asking but if it’s referring to the availability of college counseling during MITES then yes there is. Besides the fact that you’ll be surrounded by college students who will be able to readily provide firsthand experience and insight into the college application process there will also be so called “Admissions dinners” where five or six students at a time get to sit with a few people from the MIT admissions committee. These dinners occurred during the summer of 2008 and I’m not sure if they were exclusive to that year (I have no reason to believe they were) or are just a general feature of the MITES program.

Harambee

^Good information.

GAC1107

Great answers thank you. My next question is: do the ppl that get into MIT harvard Stanford etc are extremely geniuses? Or are they a passionate student that has a story to tell because of the urm status

!Mi Vida!

It’s perhaps fair to say that many of the people who are admitted into good colleges have shown an intellectual capacity to handle their university’s curriculum. Outside of academic competence, I assume (because I am not in college yet) the students are fairly diverse in terms of hobbies and activities and of course aren’t only minorities. So, the last part of your question confuses me. It’s possible that students admitted to these schools are passionate and have various stories to illustrate their interests but I don’t think that has anything to do with whether they are underrepresented minorities. Also, this question seems fall in the category of general college questions. I’m probably not the best person to answer these types of questions so you should check the appropriate forum.

GAC1107

Ok thanks mi vida. Could you talk about the leisure activities you guys do. The web stays you go to six flags take tours etc. Also how cool are the prof at mites. Easy to talk to ? Have a convo? ...

!Mi Vida!

We essentially had activities throughout the week. Usually these activities centered on a speaker from some part of MIT who would talk to us for an hour or so before we rushed off to class. We also had a major activity almost every Saturday. I can’t remember all of the activities only that they were usually time consuming. We did go to Six Flags as a break and in the last few weeks we had a mini dance cruise on the river.
The teachers are all very approachable and enjoy talking to the students. A few even made a consistent effort to eat lunch with us throughout the program.

sstewart

Im planning on applying to mites and I plan on taking my psat this october so far my score is a 180 but I know I can get a 220 so how do you guys think the 180 sounds for a beginner and btw in my home country we didnt learn or know of any tests like these.

thanks

GAC1107

^ are you an international?

sstewart

I am from jamaica and am a soon to be us citizen, but as of now I am a permanent resident and I have a green card and etc