How to improve chances for MIT? Help shortening extra curricular list?

Rallie2 · October 28, 2013, 1:07pm

So my goal is MIT as a Transfer student. Below is… a lot about me. It’s helpful to me to get it all out.

<h2>before we start, please note that although my extracurricular activities are numerous, they’re ALL within one discipline: comp sci, which is what I want to major in</h2>

Me in a nutshell:
[ul]
[]GED at 16 (Oct 29 2011)
[]SAT (Oct 5th 2013): 690 Math, 680 Reading, 620 Writing
[]Taking Physics, Chem, and Math subject test in November
[]High School GPA 4.22, 7% in Sophomore year
[]Went to Community College near work for summer semester. 3.55 GPA, unweighted.
[]Moved from FL to NYC on my own in August for work.
[]Am turning 18 tomorrow. Would be Senior.
[/ul]
Strong suit: life since graduation
[ul]
[]Immediately went to work for innovative software company after GED.
[]Still employed there.
[]Now Lead Quality Engineer at software company
[]Also work as Software Dev at same company
[]Won yearly awards for our app in Big-Data with HANA and Most Innovative on an []international level
[]Led QA team for last two years from conception to production for custom-made apps for 4 different Fortune 500 companies. think Coca-Cola/Pepsi large
[]Worked as developer on 2/4 of those projects.
[]Worked directly with company CEO on designing the technical and usability aspects of our company’s main product.
[]Built a data generator to provide realistic big-data sets needed to demo our application.
Data generator was customizable and configurable to give you any kind of data and relationships asked of it.
[]Helped build Oculus Rift plugin for Flight Simulator.
[]Have built OSX application to integrate with our ticketing systems at work
[]Have built iOS scheduling app for personal use (I need to put this on App Store)
[]Built company website and blog platform
[]Was just published and featured on a semi-famous blog that deals with a social cause I’m passionate about.
[]Won FL State high school quiz-game competition as Captain in the JV division
[]Dance for 10 years
[/ul]
Weak Points
[ul]
[]COLLEGE PROF RECS.
I only went to that school for one semester in the summer, each class was 7.5 weeks.
I loved my teachers, and built a great rep with them, but they barely knew me.
[li]I didn’t take physics or chem in high school. In my sophomore year I was taking both, but I got my GED.[/li]I do think that because I’m taking those as subject tests, its semi-redeeming if I get good scores
[li]My SAT scores aren’t as good as they could be. They fall within the 4-10% category of acceptance at MIT. see their statistics [Admissions</a> Statistics | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/apply/process/stats]Admissions”>Admissions statistics | MIT Admissions)[/li][/ul]
Strong Points:
[ul]
[]Awesome extracurriculars.
Don’t know if they could get any better, barring National Merit and Intel winner
[]Dean’s List at college
[]Great High-School GPA and rankings.
[]I’ve taken math through calc 1 in college
[]I’ve completed English 1 and English 2 on the college level
[]I’ve completely Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 on the college level
[]Native language is German
[/ul]
My overall thinking
Because
[ul]
[]MIT requires two physics classes at the college level before transfer
[]MIT requires 1 chem class at the college level before transfer
[li]MIT requires 1 bio class at the college level before transfer[/li][/ul]
I think that I should continue at my second tier school for those classes at a minimum, trying to maybe place out of bio/chem 1 with CLEP, etc. This will also allow me to get those college professor reqs I need.

On the work front, I’m in the middle of another giant tech project, basically writing an automation test frame work for iOS/OSX and our Java server. * that is a HUGE project. It doesn’t exist yet in a usable format*

I think I have a LOT of extra curricular activities, and I don’t really know what else I could do to improve there.

Is there anything I’m missing? What else do I have to do to ensure success?

I want to go to MIT for the project-based research opportunities - the UROPs. The work I’m doing is on-par with the work their undergraduates are pursuing. This is what makes me feel like my SAT scores can be overlooked.

Rallie2 · October 28, 2013, 1:09pm

Something I want to mention: MIT has a “Maker” supplement, which I will take advantage of. I think the Oculus Rift Flight Simulator plugin is most impressive, but I’m not sure.

soze · October 28, 2013, 4:58pm

Sorry, but with those test scores MIT is not going to look at your ECs.

As good as your ECs may be, they have plenty of applicants with ECs just as good but with a 2400.

boby642 · October 28, 2013, 5:28pm

“featured on a semi-famous blog”
“Lead Quality Engineer at software company”
“at same company”
“Built company website and blog platformall”
“for 4 different Fortune 500 companies”
“Built a data generator to provide realistic big-data sets needed to demo our application”

Do you realise how incredibly vague you are being?
What blog?
What company?
What fortune 500 companies?
What application?

Sense all of these are incredibly undescriptive and leave out names it probably means that any capable reader would assume that the reason you were so vague is because you want others to just assume that what you did was important, when in reality it may not of been, also by leaving out names you make most of it unverifiable.
Also if someone really did work for some big names or did something really big, wouldn’t you think they would be specific about there achievements?

For example if someone asked me which school I was going to and I was attending caltech I would be sure to mention it, while if someone asked me which school I was going to and I was attending a California State university, I might just say “a good school near me” or something else vague which doesn’t reveal any information.

As for your test scores they are really low, if those are from your sophomore year, I would highly recommend retaking all tests. Also one year of high school is a very inaccurate gauge of your ability to perform in college, the fact you got a high GPA for a single year is likely to not carry much weight, and the time you spent at a community college seems to be pretty bad too with a 3.58 gpa.
In addition I wouldn’t necessarily consider taking Calc 1 at a community college a strong point, there are many students who have studied the same and far more ‘advanced’ topics at far younger ages.
Also Dance for 10 years? This seems like kind of an outl-lier with respect to the rest of your EC’s.

Also have you thought about why you want to attend Caltech? From what I here it is not an easy school, you will be working alot, and if you can’t maintain a decent Gpa or handle advanced courses at a community college, you will likely have alot of trouble there. Do you have ideas for what your plans are even if you do happen to attend and graduate from Caltech?

If you really do want to go and your mind is made up, then understand that I am not trying to discourage you but there are several things in my opinion I think you should really do, first increase all of your test scores and second be a lot more descriptive about your EC’s.

How to improve chances for MIT? Help shortening extra curricular list?

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