Chance me, MIT

Colleges & Universities Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>Female
Asian
How many more of these can you handle?!?!</p>

<p>ACT: 35
SAT Math II: 800
SAT Chemistry: 790</p>

<p>Intended Major: Electrical Engineering (or Architecture)</p>

<p>GPA: 4.0 / 4.0
No ranks. All my classes in 11/12 are taken at a major University under a special program where I get my HS diploma while taking university classes. There are about 200 students in this program in my class. No APs are offered, and the credits i get here may not transfer to all private universities, but definitely public ones.</p>

<p>Classes:
Pre 9th - H Alg 1, H Geom, French 1
9th - H Geometry, H English, H Humanities, H Biology, Orchestra, Webmastering, H French
10th - H Precal, H English, AP Geography, H Humanities, H Chem, Orchestra, H French
11th - Calculus I + II, H English, General Chem, H Biology, Art 2D Design, Violin
12th - Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations, H English, H Physics, Political Science, Art 3D Design, Physics special problems Research (under mentor)</p>

<p>ECs- (Not great)
Violin - 8 years
Math Club/Mu Alpha Theta - Secretary, Publicist, Webmaster - 9-12th (6hr/30wks senior year)
HOPE 11/12 - Community service: 150+ Hours (+ 50hrs from 9/10)
NHS - 9-12th
Science club 9-10th - Vice President - 9th
Residential Computer Consultant - 11/12
French Club 9/10
Art Club 9-12th (only artistic EC, I know…No great art clubs anywhere.)
School Ambassadors 11/12</p>

<p>Weird hobbies -
Rubik’s cubes</p>

<p>Awards-
Orchestra - Texas All State Violinist, 5 time All-Region
Math - AMIE Qualifier, Ranked in Mandelbrot, McNabb, TXML
Web Design - 3rd place in State for education web design
Science Fair - Dallas Regional honorable mention</p>

<p>Will be submitting as supplements:
Portfolio that contains: Paintings, Photography, Architecture</p>

<p>Will be interviewing (tomorrow, actually! <em>bites nails</em>)</p>

<p>Question: Does MIT like well-rounded or narrow-minded? (Like Stanford… single passion DOES equal narrow minded, in my opinion)</p>

2

<p>My interviewer talked about how MIT loves unique kids with passions rather than well-rounded applicants. He didn’t just mention it. He focused on it.</p>

3

<p>They like narrow minded. The thing is that if you are well rounded, you might know a little bit about everything, but you won’t be exceptionally good at anything. And nobody is going to comment “well so and so seems to know a tad about everything,” they are going to talk about that #$#$)@ kid totally pwned exam and broke the damn curve, what a badass.</p>

<p>While being exceptionally good at something isn’t a requirement when you get into MIT, by the time you leave MIT you better be pretty damn good at something. This place definetely is not a liberal arts school.</p>

<p>Granted, being narrow minded here doesn’t mean you don’t have breadth. Compared to most students at many university, you’ll probably end up knowing more.</p>

4

<p>“narrow-minded” is an awfully loaded way to describe people with deep passions.</p>

5

<p>I dunno the rubiks cube seems kinda like a thing that might be chill at MIT lol</p>

6

<p>If you think you have a weak set of ECs, I’d like to see what your idea of a good set would be. Bonus points if it doesn’t require the addition of a 25th hour to the day.</p>

<p>I can’t really speak from experience, but I’d think that MIT prefers those that have a narrow focus. Striving to be “well rounded” is like putting up a banner that states “I don’t know what I want.” Being well rounded takes effort, but takes very little in the way of drive, discipline, or experience. </p>

<p>Good luck on the interview!</p>

7

<p>

</p>

<p>This is not a particularly useful question, nor are the responses to it particularly useful. Which is really the fault of most people having a distorted idea of what well-rounded means. If you’re a little bit good at a lot of subjects and not sure yet which you prefer, which some here are decrying and saying MIT doesn’t want (I would say I’m a counterexample to that), you could be a kickass innovator in some bleeding-edge interdisciplinary field (e.g. mechatronics, bioelectrical engineering, sensor engineering), or something less bleeding edge but still important (e.g. science policy, science journalism, weapons systems analysis). Well-rounded doesn’t mean that you have one sport, one leadership activity, one service activity, etc. And having all these things doesn’t mean that you’re not the sort of passionate kid that MIT likes.</p>

<p>So the answer is that it depends on your individual situation. In high school, I was an academic generalist who did Science Bowl and ISEF for years but also took a college creative writing class and took most of my APs in humanities subjects. I did varsity cross country for four years, worked with the ACLU, and was a volunteer springboard diving judge. I got in. You shouldn’t come off as resume-padding, or flighty and overly-directionless, and you should have evidence that you’re capable of sustained commitment (I’d say your violin does that) but it’s okay to care about several things and not have one academic subject that you’re absolutely committed to.</p>