<p>If I were applying to MIT as an Intl applicant once more, I’d take what Mikalye said to heart. </p>
<p>@ ttyl8, </p>
<p>imho, being female alone just doesn’t make it more easier, maybe if your a female like Celine Dion, then probably yes. As in, if you show that your better than the male applicants in academics/personal strength/talent etc. </p>
<p>@forum</p>
<p>And not to sound pessimistic, but, I think its pointless to apply if you haven’t got anything above above-average. I speak from personal experience.
They pick just 123 people from 3000, obviously…they’re all <em>the best</em> internationally.
I know several people who’ve applied to MIT from my region (same as Mikalaye’s 
)
and they were the top 1,2 or 3 in their school. And the closest someone came to attend MIT, was that they got on a waitlist. Haha! The reasons why I and some others applied were that we felt given our circumstances, we had done well and we did WAYY better than the others in our school anyway. So we applied ‘hoping’ for the best, and note none of my classmates were national (let alone internationally) accomplished. I repeat, we were just the top from our school. (And note: that school may not be very competitive, hence anyone who works a little hard may be at the top)</p>
<p>On an another note, I dont care what they say about financial aid, but if your an international with sufficient means to just afford the minimum (like transportation, and books), I’d recommend you not to apply for aid (not more than 1000$ anyway). Coz, also note that a lot of internationals (lets say 100(?) out of 123) are fully capable of paying.</p>