Hello, someone applying to MIT here. I have been writing my supplementals and found some advice online with examples mentioning specific classes. I feel like this is a very performative act, and as someone who doesn’t particularly keep up with the coursework of a college I’m not currently at I’m not sure if I could mention anything like that in a natural way. Especially for the MIT prompts, they seem more geared towards the person than asking what the person thinks about the college. The only one directly mentioning MIT in the question portion is the why major prompt:
What field of study appeals to you the most right now?*
Tell us more about why this field of study at MIT appeals to you.*
Do I have to prove that I’m really interested in attending the college by researching things and somehow inserting them into my supplemental?
My kid (S25) only represents a sample size of one…but he did do this. I think for him, he put things in he found genuinely interesting. He had started with a very long college list and did a ton of research into the departments for the major he was most interested in. For the schools he actually applied to that had a question like this, I think he had something to say about each one of them. Some of this info was gleaned on visits as well. For example, he sat in on a class at one school, and then mentioned that class “and others like it” on his essay. For others it was professors that had research interests that he found intriguing. MIT was one of only two schools he didn’t get into of the ones he applied to, so I can’t say it helped him there!
I am not an expert on MIT undergrad admissions (I attended MIT, but it was for grad school). But since my own daughter is applying, I did read the web site. When she asks me this kind of question about the essays, I refer her to the admissions page about the essays, specifically this quote:
You should certainly be thoughtful about your essays, but if you’re thinking too much—spending a lot of time stressing or strategizing about what makes you “look best,” as opposed to the answers that are honest and easy—you’re doing it wrong.
So I think MIT would agree with @blossom that if it feels performative, don’t do it.
Also, I do not think you should worry about how to prove to MIT that you are really interested in them. MIT doesn’t need to practice yield protection
Forgot to add- every inch of real estate on an application (for any college) should be about YOU, not about THEM. They can read their own website. They understand what their core curriculum (if they have one) entails. The focus should be on the STUDENT.
A majority of apps I read do mention a specific class/es, a prof who is doing research of interest to the applicant, and/or clubs the applicant would like to participate in on campus.
If you don’t want do that it’s fine. Perhaps you have current research you can clearly connect to career goals of yours, to take one example. Did you do an MIT admissions session? Did they give any guidance during that?
The question is pretty typical; it is just being asked in an MIT kind of way - like all of their questions. They are just asking what you want to major in, why, and why MIT? As far as research goes, since you can pretty much do anything at MIT you likely don’t need to do tons and I agree on saying that you want to take Mr. X’s class on AI is a little lame anyway. On the other hand, you need to answer the questions very well so what do you have in mind?
I’m going to take a slightly contrarian view. I don’t know how you the answer the “Why MIT?” question without mentioning specific classes and/or programs and/or professors. What else are you going to talk about? The campus? Location? Brand? Food? That stuff is even worse.
So while I agree it’s performative (which is why I think it’s a stupid question generally) I cannot think of a better way to answer it. Certainly my kid, who goes to an Ivy, answered it that way.
You can write about IAP at MIT and wanting to take a class on the chemistry of pastry baking because you have perfected a chocolate croissant and want to expand into Babka. You can write about a video you watched of a “trash competition” as teams competed on the Charles River to race boats made out of garbage. You can write about the pranks (try not to focus on ones which are either dangerous or illegal), the collaborations between MIT and under-resourced high schools in the area, your interest in getting certified and then serving as an EMT with the Cambridge Fire Department. If any of these are "authentic”- then write about that. What is performative is finding the most “famous” professor of physics off the website and writing about how much you love physics and would love to take a class with him or her. EVERYONE will take physics at MIT; sometimes you’ll get ‘famous professor” and sometimes it will be “obscure professor” so namechecking the famous professor doesn’t tell the adcom’s ANYTHING about you.
My opinion is the supplement is stronger if the reader feels the student knows and is excited about THEIR university. I wouldn’t write anything that doesn’t feel genuine as that will come through. Why ARE you excited about MIT. I sat through way too many admin talks with my two kids and it was described several times as would the reader know you’re talking about their school without the name in the first line. Or similarly, if it sounds like it could be turned into all 10 schools on your list, you haven’t moved the needle for the reader.
The format is a dropdown of the majors at MIT with the essay directly after. though it would be fun to write about i think MIT traditions don’t answer the question
I’m going into mathematics, and have written about my own unique(?) view of why i like mathematics because of the inherent creativity in the subject (though i probably won’t mention it explicitly as i already have another supplemental that talks directly about the creative nature of math research and my experience with it).
If I must mention a specific program, do you think that maybe mentioning some research would be okay? I’ve done a lot of time scales research already, and i know some people at MIT have publications on it, but I think it’s also an option to mention a broader amount as I really want to expand my math research on various applied subjects in college (for example, as the mathematician in ecology research in costa rica, based off of a study abroad i had to there in which i noticed they were using really arbitrary statistical analysis there).
The issue is, there are not many words, and I feel my description of my view of math research is valuable enough that I don’t have much room to properly introduce what I would like to do in MIT.
I don’t think you need to mention specific programs, classes or professors. Just answer this short question authentically. I have read many essays for the “why us” or “why this major” prompts and I do think for many of them, it is clear they used Google or the website and some of it does come off as performative. In any case, this won’t make a huge difference either way in your application.
i think this may also be true as MIT seems to have changed this prompt from “tell us what program or department at mit most interests you and why” to this new version of “why does this field of study at mit appeal to you”. it feels like they intentionally made the essay into something more of a why major instead of a why MIT.
You are obviously very intelligent, but MIT is, too. Theat MITpart is deliberate. While math and ecology research in costa rica might work fine, why is MIT the place for that and you will be ok IMO. As an aside, I was on campus last weekend for a tribute at a soccer game, and the student passion for area of interest and MIT came out in 100% of the conversations I had.
Well to take this further, when helping some students apply to college I simply ask. “why this school “. If they can’t answer that, than maybe shouldn’t apply. It is amazing how much comes out of their mouth naturally when not under pressure…
In our case both of our children at very different types of universities/colleges actually had meetings /conversations with heads of departments or certain professors. They gained a wealth of information. Did they cite those people in their essays? You betcha they did.
