Hello everyone,
I dream of one day leaving this boring high-school.
Therefore, I take a decision to Apply to MIT so I would like to know the easiest way to be a student at MIT as soon as possible.
I want to learn from your experience:
What are the requirements, and the best strategies to achieve my dream!
My background:
Gender: Male
Country of Residence: Algeria
Grade: First year of hs
Age: 15
Skills:
Some Programming
Some Graphic Design
Achievements:
Certificate of middle school score: 18.19 (90.95%)
The first quarter of my first grade hs: ~16 (~80%)
I’m studying for CLEP exam (College Algebra) but the MIT doesn’t accept this Exam…
If you have any tips,I want to contact you,
I will never forget how you have helped me!
Second, it is brutally difficult for international students to be admitted. To put it in perspective, MIT admits only about half the applicants that were among the very best math students in their country.
So instead of focusing upon MIT at this point, I instead recommend that you focus upon doing the best you can in high school, and ask us again for college advice at the end of your junior year, at which point we can offer more detailed advice on which colleges are a good fit for you.
There is no easy way to gain admission to any college that has as low an acceptance rate as MIT does.
Listen to what @hebegebe wrote above. I fully agree. I will add, you need to look for colleges other than in the United States where your chances of gaining admission to an affordable college are…low.
It is fine to try to get into MIT, which is need blind for international students so if you have financial need, it would be a good choice.
But it is very hard to get into so have safer choices as well, whether in the US or Algeria or elsewhere.
You are only 15. Please do not stress over something that is still far away, and enjoy high school! Take challenging courses, in math and science especially, maybe engage in some competitions or internships. But understand that our life will not change for the worse if you don’t get in to MIT.
easiest way? Be better than the best you have ever seen.
One of my former students is at MIT now. She was better than almost all students I’ve ever seen. The ones I can’t say that she was better than went to Harvard and Stanford. Better in a way that she kept challenging herself, overcoming bigger and bigger obstacles, failing and growing again and again.
One of my current student was just deferred by MIT. He is our valedictorian, academic competition team leaders for both computer science and history, and plays a sport at the highest level available locally.
The major difference between these two was the second one rests at being the best while the first one pushed herself beyond the best.
On the other hand (it’s not a shortcut but may increase your chance), if you participate in FIRST robotics, FTC or FRC, be the core member, bring your team to World Fest, and win Dean’s List finalist there, then MIT will likely give you a little more attention (provided that you are beyond the best you have ever seen).
I did attend (and graduate from) MIT as an international student.
“Easy” and “MIT” do not belong in the same sentence (except this one). There is nothing about MIT that is easy… Except perhaps what you should do in order to maximize your chances to get into MIT.
What I did to get into MIT is very easy to explain: NOTHING. I did nothing at all for the purpose of getting accepted to MIT. Instead I did what I wanted to do, and did it well. This is also my understanding of the advice in the “applying sideways” blog on the MIT admissions web site (a quick Google search should find this).
I am not a big fan of jumping ahead in math. Math is an area where what you are learning today depends upon what you learned last year and the year before. What you will learn next year will depend upon what you are learning now. This means that you want to do very well in each step before you take the next step.
Also, MIT is a “fit” school. It definitely is not a good fit for all strong students. Studying at MIT has been compared to drinking water from a fire hose. It is a lot of work. The level of work does not let up for four years.
You haven’t even been in high school for a few month, and you’re already bored? Give it at least another year, and only after you have done your very best in all of your classes, and have done stuff outside of the classroom.
“As soon as possible” is after you have finished high school, have the best grades in your school for all four years of high school, have done better on the SAT or ACT than 99% of all the kids in your county, and have demonstrated academic excellence in other ways as well.
You also need to have achievements in stuff that is not classes at your high school, as well.
So no, you cannot apply to MIT any time soon.
Next - why MIT? What do you know about MIT? What do you know about any university, either in Algeria or in the USA? What do you want to do in life, and why do you think that attending MIT will help you do that?
I will give you the same advice that I give all kids in 9th grade - focus on doing your best in high school. It is wayyyy to early for you to be thinking “I want to attend this particular university”.