<p>That data from MIT is a perfect example of junk data without any context, and as a researcher, it makes me twitch. </p>
<p>Let’s leave aside international representation for a moment and just focus on the US state data. </p>
<p>You can’t make ANYTHING out of the number of students at MIT from Rhode Island without knowing “what % of the total MIT applicant pool is from Rhode Island” AND “what % of the (college-age) population is from Rhode Island.”</p>
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<p>So, then write the compelling essay about failing at something that was meaningful to you. The point isn’t the absolute significance of the event being discussed. The point is what your reaction to it and what you were willing to learn from the experience reveals about you. And that can be insightful whether it was burning the apple pie or in winning only silver and not gold.</p>
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My theory is that they are mistaking them for Pacific Islanders, and then lumping them in with Asians. 
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<p>I remember some episode of Law and Order CI where a scientist in a wheelchair killed another scientist over some recognition. Maybe that’s what they’re worried about.</p>
<p>On a serious note, I think the inventor of FM killed himself because he went broke battling the radio corporations over acceptance of the newer broadcasting protocol. But he went to Columbia. ;)</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, in post #1058, you comment on a “very reductionist, linear and literal way of thinking about life.” I don’t think about life the way I think about admission to MIT. Actually, I don’t even think about admission to Harvard the way I think about admission to MIT.</p>
<p>Perhaps the source of the difference in our views is my belief that MIT had a strong tendency to under-rate the importance of “brainpower” for success in science and engineering, when the admissions office was led by Marilee Jones. I don’t think they have recovered 100% from that yet. Other things being equal, I have no problem if they narrow the selection based on students’ favorite authors (trying to cover a wide spread of literature), accuracy of student-built timepieces, submission of an original work of art in any medium (including literature, theater, and dance), or shoe size. But it seems to me that at MIT, other things are not actually equal. Otherwise the outcomes that a few on this thread have attested to, and others known to me, would probably not have happened.</p>
<p>In my opinion, if MIT selected people based on sheer “brainpower,” they would still obtain a really interesting mix of personalities and interests. Knuckle-headed nerdism would not be the only characteristic represented.</p>
<p>Regarding the MIT essay, I am not sure why so much dissection and analysis is needed. Just as the students who are confronted with a really simple task, I think people overthink. When it comes to essays, we all have opinion that have various degrees of speculation, but none of us really know what the adcoms are looking at, and in particular when the adcoms work at schools that try or pretend to be different and … uncommon. </p>
<p>In the case of MIT, I do not understand the issue with a question that asks to discuss a failure as it does not seem really difficuly to address, as long as one does fall in the trap of thinking it needs to be deeply introspective or … even worse to show some high level of those pretentious elements some love to call gems of intellectualism. In this regard, why find fault in the benign MIT question when that famous school in Illinois went out of his way to craft silly and nutty essay suggestions only to see the fans of such questions try to outdo themselves in even more silliness and nuttiness and display that high level of intellectualism that we know is such a common attribute among the 16 to 18 years old! </p>
<p>My opinion, and it is only an opinion, is that the essays are overly dissected and almost always a part of the overcomplication of the application process. The essays are simply the best opportunity to present a candidate in his or her own words, and the opportunity to do that in a very simple way. And example of this is the Stanford request to write a short note to the future roomie. What should be a simple note seems to terrifies the applicant more than any part of the application!</p>
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<p>We know grades and test scores have predictive power. What is the evidence for the predictive power of “challenge” essays? One reasons admissions officers like to look at subjective factors is that it makes them feel more important than applying statistical models would.</p>
<p>The problem with essays about apple pie and such is that they are far too easy to cheat/ fake/ buy.</p>
<p>No one is saying these essays are predictive of anything, Beliavsky. Why do they need to be? As Pizzagirl says above, you can surmise that someone can handle the rigors of a curriculum based on a number of objective factors. Maybe you want people who are objectively well qualified while also being able to write an interesting essay about a challenge. I am curious why you feel you can state with such authority why admissions officers like to look at subjective factors. That’s your opinion. It may be true in some cases. I doubt it’s categorically true.</p>
<p>With regard to cheating/faking/buying essays: Well, sure, sorghum. So what? People can cheat/fake/buy their way through a lot of things. That doesn’t mean everyone does or even that most people do. There are a lot of aspects of life that are on the honor system.</p>
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<p>Students who score above 700 on the math or verbal section of the SAT can join the Study of Exceptional Talent (SET) by submitting scores to the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins. Students could list SET membership on their applications, and colleges could verify such assertions by contacting the SET.</p>
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<p>It is a lot harder to cheat/fake/buy real achievements, such as a math Olympiad result, or running 100 meters in X seconds, or getting great test scores.</p>
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<p>Good grief, they’re not trying to “predict” - they’re trying to figure out who is most interesting! I swear - do you go to a cocktail party and try to “predict” who you are going to like by assessing them on a bunch of statistics, or do you just … talk to them and figure out who you like?</p>
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<p>But that’s duplicative, and pointless. They see the scores; what’s the point of listing membership in something which is a function of those scores? It’s like joining the “Perfect Score Society” and thinking it’s additional information to your 2400.</p>
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<p>Unless the CB changed the reporting policies lately, the scores earned before HS are wiped out, and one needs to ask for such scores to be maintained on the record. So, there is no automatic process. Once preserved, however, the record should also have the date of the tests, and most adcoms should be able to figure out that a test taken years before the application must be based on a high score from middle school. </p>
<p>Also, and again, if they did not change the policy, there is a maximum number of SAT that are reported as only the last six scores are (or used to be) reported. To the great satisfaction of the serial testers who decided or were forced to make a testing place their favorite Saturday morning destination.</p>
<p>There are plenty of colleges in the US where admissions are essentially numbers-based. However, this is not the case for the most prestigious colleges in the US. So why, exactly, would the most prestigious colleges want to become more numbers-based?</p>
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<p>Humm, getting great scores might depend from where you live, whom you might know, or the number of outfits that specialize in organized cheating and the fabrication of “awards.” And it is not restricted to the “usual” suspects in the exotic countries, you might add places that a train ride away (and dollars and connections) to the Siemens and Intel factories. </p>
<p>Real achievement is a concept that remains in the eye of the beholder.</p>
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<p>Qualifying for the SET means that you earned those 700s before the age of 13, which signifies more intelligence than getting the 700s at age 17.</p>
<p>Haha, here we go again. Despite great efforts by TCB to move away from those “intelligence” measurement claims, some still cling to those crude concepts. </p>
<p>While it is true that a very intelligent middle grader could score high on the SAT in the seventh grade, there are a number of students who could score just as high if … they cared enough or were trained to focus on the test at that early stage. </p>
<p>And, fwiw, it is not hard to see why some are sufficiently intelligent to understand what those programs are all about, and know their irrelevance for most!</p>
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<p>Writing a good essay is a “real achievement,” even if it’s easier to buy an essay off the Internet. The fact that there are people who cheat is a different problem.</p>
<p>Qualifying for the SET means that you have a lot of intelligence, no question, but it almost always also means that you have parents who think that’s an appropriate thing to do. Two of my kids’ friends qualified for SET in 7th grade, and they were very smart, but hardly the only smart kids or the smartest kids. What they were was the only smart kids whose parents thought it was remotely appropriate to have them take the SAT in 7th grade. When I heard about it, I felt like calling Social Services on them.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s different in other communities, but in my community of college-educated, elitist parents, having your kid take the SAT in 7th grade was seen as fringe craziness. Especially since no one was wanting for intellectual stimulation. It was nothing but a form of bragging.</p>
<p>I spoke with one of the kids a year ago when he was home for a few weeks before starting his high-powered consulting job. He had become profoundly anti-intellectual; it was pretty upsetting. Very little intellectual curiosity, although still clearly with a heck of a processor between his ears.</p>
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<p>Completely agree. Eyeroll-worthy.</p>