<p>I think I’ve made a lot of mistakes in MIT apllication.</p>
<p>(1) I’ve sent too many additional material,( two additional essays: one is about my volunteer experience in Ghana, another is about my goal in MIT), I think they are tooo much!
(2) I haven’t metioned any research experience in my MIT application, but some volunteer work instead. ( I think they’re boring to MIT admission officers)
I got some national math awards, but also not mentioned in my essays, only wrote in my resume. </p>
<p>(3) I’m an International student. My best two friends(both international) who also applied for MIT this year, one got the second prize in ISEF, another got the first prize in ISWEEEP, and I nearly lose all my confidence,contrast to them. MIT international admit rate in less than 3%, and I think to some conutries, like China, the rate is less than 1%. </p>
<p>It’s 4:30 am now, but I cannot sleep. I think my dream is leaving far away from me.</p>
<p>Going to MIT does not automatically make someone a milliionaire or give fame to them. What matters is how much you make out of wherever you go to.</p>
<p>Don’t worry I think you are among the tops! I can never have impressive ECs as yours. For me I like staying up all night. It feels great. It sets me think. And I usually do some readings when I stay up.
and I think those are not mistakes! AOs will understand how you dream of MIT. I was the opposite kind of applicants like you. I sent nothing additional because I am so lazy. O, you can think it this way. If not MIT, caltech, if not Caltech, UChi. You definitely can get in top schools, judging from your information given.</p>
<p>(1) I did that too.
(2) The limitation on the number of activities was a problem for me too. I chose to write about what I did on philosophy instead of math, so I totally left out the math stuff on my application. In fact I think I screwed up worse - I just compiled all my math awards in 1 gibberish sentence… and now I realized no one can make any sense about it. =/ Not even mentioned in my essays. I didn’t mention anything on philosophy on my essays either: I am hoping that my counselor wrote something about it.
(3) I’m an international student too. And I understand how you feel about those awards. But count: there are over 3000 international applicants, but there aren’t 3000 ISEF awards out there. Heck, add all the I<em>s and I don’t think there are 3000 either. You’re the norm if you don’t have one. Or in fact, how many of the soon-to-be-accepted domestic applicants are I</em> winners? Add that number to the 120+ international applicants that will be accepted. Is it possible that everyone has an I* award?</p>
<p>What I mean is, you’re in good company. There’s very little you can do now, so just have fun okay?</p>
<p>As for the 3% admit rate, all it suggests is that everyone should be prepared to get rejected (in a positive way). Think about it this way: if your doctors told you that you had only 3% chance to live past a certain date, are you just going to sit and hope for that 3% chance, or do the things expecting that 97% to happen? I think that your dream lies somewhere with what you had done - say, why did you volunteer in Ghana? You did those things because you loved them; and would have done them even if MIT doesn’t exist.</p>
<p>And you can still continue to do them, even if you’re not in MIT.</p>
<p>Edit: Oh screw my keyboard… I wanted to add a “good luck” etc. below that all then it got submitted prematurely… Meh, after I spent so much effort to build up a dramatic sounding post. :D</p>
<p>1) I can’s see the negative, it looks very positive to me!
2) You don’t have to do research to get into MIT.
3) The MIT admissions process is holistic and context-driven</p>
<p>I don’t really know why you can’t not sleep.
My advise
Proof continuum hypothesis.
Or take some sleeping bills :)</p>
<p>Thank you all ! I myself also can’t understand why can’t I sleep.Too nervous or drinking too much coffee? But I think I’m comfortable now. Yes, not 3000 applicants have 3000 ISEF, we are just ourselves.</p>
<p>Sleep now, to prepare for the decisive moment. For example, I’m gonna have the whole night long (at least it is in my place), and I really don’t want to be interrupted by an accidental sleepiness.</p>