<p>I’m a 15 year old student, and I’m studying in Hong Kong, at school called Sha Tin College. </p>
<p>In about two months, I’m going to have to pick my subjects for IB, and so far I’ve considered taking the following:
IB HL Computer Science
IB HL Business & Management
IB HL Physics
IB HL English Literature & Language
IB SL Math
IB Language B Mandarin or IB Beginner Itallian (seems interesting!)</p>
<p>Side note: All the teachers I’ve asked don’t recommend taking 4 IB subjects, because they think it’d be too hard to cope with. 3 is the required and recommended amount at my school, but the subjects I’ve chosen HL, are ones I excel in and find interesting. Problem being, I’m going to have to justify why I’m taking 4 HL subjects to our Higher Education Counsellor, haha.</p>
<p>I’ve been a computer nerd for a couple of years (that does sound strange being a 15 year old, heh), I started programming in Visual Basic when I was 11. I’m incredibly passionate about computer programming, to the extent that I’ve even started a mini web startup that has over 50ish useful web apps, including apps like: an app that sync links from your desktop to all your devices, clicking the app on any device will take you to your sync’d link. An app that helps you find things you’ve lost, based on others’ experiences and data you’ve entered, a gaming platform (devs submit games), an app that rates and suggests music based on your tastes, an app that measures your sleeping habits and helps you improve your hours, and even a social network.</p>
<p>By all those examples you don’t really care about, I’ve shown that I have a relatively creative and passionate mindset. :D</p>
<p>On that note, I plan on majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Business Management, Robotics, Astrophysics and English.</p>
<p>On to the actual question, I’ve wanted to go to MIT ever since I started Year 9, and it’d be quote the dream getting in. Although, the problem lays in the fact that I’m taking SL Math, (contains calculus), as opposed to higher math, because I’m pretty average at math, and IB higher math is said to be the hardest class at my school, no one has ever passed with a 7 in my school, and that is quite discouraging. I do understand MIT wants you to take challenging classes, but doing well at Higher Math, I don’t think that’s too achievable.</p>
<p>The actual, actual question: if I do relatively well on the SATs and ACTs (say 2100-2300/SAT and 30-36-/ACT) and pass IB with relatively high marks in the subjects mentioned above, as well as do other extra curricular actives like a weekly computer class for Year 7 Students, helping out, sports (others covered by the IB ‘CAS’ course), run my current web startup to grow even larger, etc. YET take Standard Level Math, would I be majorly disadvantaged against other students? I know MIT say that isn’t the case, but do they really care about things like that? I believe SL Math is equiv to AP Math? Or an A-Level, I’m not quite sure.</p>
<p>I love programming, it’s more than a passion, I spend hours a day writing code. and going to MIT has been a dream for about 3 years so far (when I started to care about higher education :P).</p>
<p>I have yet to take the PSAT (Thursday this week :o) or GCSEs, I got 7 A<em>s / 1 A’s out of the 8 mock exams we did earlier this year. And an ‘innovator’ level for ICT (new exam from CIE board :/) which is apparently equivalent to an A</em> at A Levels, just, attaining that achievement at Y10 (pre-GCSE level)</p>
<p>Has anyone else taken IB Standard Level Math and have some success stories they’d like to share? :)</p>
<p>Thanks alot! Apologies if the post is too long :P</p>
<p>I would really try to do HL Math. I think you could do it, and MIT might wonder why you took everything but Italian and Math HL. I also do a lot of programming, and I also got 7s in HL Math. But I couldn’t have started Visual Basic when I was eleven, that is for sure, so I think you should at least try. </p>
<p>Also, there is no shame in dropping to SL if you can’t do it, at my school, half the class does this every year, and some go all the way down to Studies.</p>
<p>Do Maths HL. It’s not worth it not to. If you’ve been programming for so long, I’m sure your analytical skills are pretty strong.</p>
<p>TBH HL isn’t all that hard, once you start working through it. Not having Math HL is probably more detrimental to your profile then having HL in Computer Science is going to be beneficial…</p>
<p>You’re stats sounds good, you will definitely be considered.</p>
<p>However, don’t EXPECT to get in, not in the derogative sense, but as in the fact that MIT admissions for International Students are extremely competitive, less than 4% get admitted. I have seen people with Mathematical Olympiad Medals being rejected and people with nothing near those get accepted. It all boils down to you’re passion and luck…how you fit with the ethos and mission statement of MIT.</p>
<p>This is just what I saw in the website, but the examples above are true, and one person that got in MIT happened to be in Shatin College, but he turned down the offer.</p>
<p>Our school mandates 6 IB’s and I am taking 7, so believe me when I tell you that it isn’t an unmanageable amount of work. I think you should for sure go for HL Math as honestly, SL isn’t that hard. Thats what I’m in and it isn’t challenging, and MIT will expect and want HL. </p>
<p>Physics HL is also a very fun subject so I recommend that as well.</p>
<p>MIT’s policies on math credit from high school math work are (18.01 is first semester freshman calculus, which covers more material than most other schools’ first semester freshman calculus courses):</p>
<p>A-Level (A or B): credit for 18.01
IB HL (6 or 7): credit for 18.01
AP BC (4 or 5): credit for 18.01
AP AB (4 or 5): no credit, but placement into 18.01A (accelerated)
IB SL: no credit</p>
<p>Note that MIT gives no credit for IB HL computer science, and only general elective credit for most other IB HL subjects. For IB HL physics, a score of 7 is needed for credit against the first physics course 8.01.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus brings up a good point, however some of the reason IB credits aren’t given as much value is that IB is a relatively new class format in the states. Regardless if you want to apply to MIT then HL mathematics is necessary.</p>
<p>In general, it appears that IB Math SL, although it includes an introduction to calculus, does not contain enough calculus for most universities to consider it to be equivalent of even a semester of freshman calculus (even though the same universities may accept IB Math HL for up to a year of freshman calculus).</p>
<p>I am that person (from Sha Tin College class of 2010). I am now a sophomore at the University of Rochester studying for degrees in math and physics & astronomy, and minors in computer science and philosophy of science.</p>
Which parts of math do you think you are average at, and which areas of CS are you interested in? My experience is that much of programming uses a type of reasoning similar to that needed for IB HL math, whereas theoretical CS is obviously proof-based and finds its roots in mathematical logic.</p>
<p>I agree with others that SL math seems a bit weak for MIT, especially since you have the option to take HL. Are you good at competition or proof-based math? This is possible even if you are average at computational math - for instance, the reasoning needed for number theory is very different from the quick computations needed for calculus. Perhaps you can show that you are competent at different types of math.</p>
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<p>For astrophysics and physics in general, IB HL math will be very useful. In fact, I would go as far as saying that within the sciences, engineering, and math, the college subject that IB HL math is most useful for is physics. Math at the college level (for math majors, that is) is disconnected from much of high school math.</p>
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<p>This sounds great. Develop these further and get some external authority to establish that your work is good through - for example - awards, media exposure, or successful commercialization. I’ve never had to program for anyone outside of my research and schoolwork, so I’m not sure what sort of software development opportunities exist for high school students.</p>
<p>Besides your programming projects, one traditional way to become a very competitive science/math/CS applicant is to do research (mostly over the summers) and either be finalists on competitions such as the [url=‘<a href="Search for Scholarships – BigFuture | College Board]Siemens[/url</a>] or the [url=’<a href="http://www.societyforscience.org/sts’]Intel[/url">http://www.societyforscience.org/sts’]Intel[/url</a>] (unfortunately both open only to US citizens), or to get published as a co-author (obviously, publishing an academic paper as the first author would be most impressive and difficult).</p>
<p>I hate these forums, so much. I just wrote an incredibly long post, which is now lost in the session hell that is phpBB (looks more like vbulliten, hmm…i think, lol). Ugh. I shall attempt to write that up again. This is probably going to be a lot shorter </p>
<p>Sorry for not replying in so long being the OP, I assumed this thread was dead when there were only 2 replies in 2 weeks, haha.</p>
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We were told that the school’s highest attained grade from an IB student for HL Math was a 6! Pssh, lies!</p>
<p>
I guess I’m better at the math that involves Algebra, Statistics, Probability, Trigonometry and Mensuration, the rest of Math, I assume I am somewhere around average. I’m not horrendously horrible, nor am I <em>wow</em> good! Math is actually one of my worst subjects at the moment, though I do plan to change that with sustained practice over the next 3 years! </p>
<p>For CS, well, depending on what you mean, for Computer Science, the theoretical part of it, I am interested in things like artificial intelligence, network architecture and efficient memory consumption of applications, I have experienced issues related to that, time and time again, which is why it looks interesting! From what I’ve already learnt on my own, things related to recursion, algorithms/functions and databasing in all sorts of means, I do find relatively useful in software development.</p>
<p>If you are talking about software development, or programming, then I would have to say, I’m more interested in the web side of things, that being: PHP, MySQL, CSS, HTML, JavaScript. I do know all those languages, as well as C++, Java, and Visual Basic. I am learning Python and HTML5 right now, but I see the web as a more interesting platform.</p>
<p>I hear people explaining the difference between the two alot, but I really don’t see much of a gap. CS are the principles of software development, and I tend to find the go-out-and-do side of things more interesting than the principles, which is what I find usually ends up slowing me down in life… :(</p>
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The issue being, how! haha.</p>
<p>
Though there is a restriction: 3 HLs are allowed, only – unless you complain to the ESF that it’s mandatory to do otherwise. Math is something I already don’t see myself very competent at (compared to my other subjects), which is why it seems less interesting. I took the subjects I did, because I found them interesting! If I do get an A* and end up loving mathematics at the end of Year 11, I’ll request a switch to mathematics HL, but I’m not sure that’s going to be my mathematical fate In all, I don’t think it’s right to judge someone down because they’ve taken the subjects they enjoy as opposed to the subjects which are common among those who attend MIT. I like business, CS, and Physics a lot, which is why I took them as HLs. The subject I’d consider switching to SL for Math HL, is Business, but I really do like it more than I do math, which raises the question as to why I’m interested in MIT at all if I’m not very interested in Math. The thing is, I plan to get better with loads of practice, but failing my Math IB isn’t something I’d like to chance with. :(</p>
<p>
That is solely the reason why I believe I have a chance! Haha. Yeah, I have heard about that, which is why I’ve planned to take my little web ‘thing’ from being a little web thing, to an actual limited company which I plan to get incorporated (with parental guidance, of course :P) in late June, where I could actually commercialize software, and if the stuff is useful enough, I might be able to pitch it to Gizmodo or another tech-news company like that, haha.</p>
<p>Mm, In terms of competitions, I’ve been missing out lately I actually joined the Hong Kong startup weekend, which was quite an interesting night, where I was the only <20 year old there, which made it a bit strange, but I ended up missing the second day of it, and couldn’t do it. But the team I committed to ended up winning, which kinda sucks that I wasn’t able to make it, but they won Startup Weekend Asia, without me <em>sobs</em> Also, there was an ICT competition for schools in Hong Kong, which I wasn’t aware of till after it happened… Oh well, maybe next year!</p>
<p>Next summer I might do something like Google’s Summer of Code, or slightly earlier Microsoft’s Imagine Cup, and I definitely will do Facebook’s Hackathon whenever it comes up again. And I am probably going to do an internship with the PolyU mLab (video game programming) in August, so that’s something to look forward to.</p>
<p>In terms of writing, I have <em>very recently</em> been asked to write a submission for the ESF Scientific Journal, which hopefully works out well, so authoring something could be a first, and I plan to do a programming project in April that involves Artificial intelligence in PHP, which might turn out to be a good research topic! </p>
<p>One more thing I plan to do, is to join the STC Student Council (you might remember, if you were an ex student, lol) as ICT and Communications. I really do believe I can actually make a change with that, the diary could be moved to the web with the new 1:1 latop program they’re introducing, which is what I plan to pitch.</p>
<p>@ironclaw, out of inevitable curiosity, what subjects did you take for IB whilst you were here? Or being less ignorant: IB or BTEC? Though I am fairly confident you’re an IB student! :P</p>
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I did start early, and I do have a logical/pragmatic mindset, where I basically can interpret any situation in code, but it doesn’t work for me with mathematics, I don’t know why, it’s like I can’t do both well The problem with dropping to SL, is that we’re only allowed to start off choosing 3 HL subjects, unless there’s a higher education clash, i.e: harvard doctors might need multiple HL sciences among others. Thanks for your answer! It was quite useful!</p>
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My programming analytical skills are quite strong, but for some reason, mathematically, they aren’t anywhere as good. Right now, I’m going to do Math SL, because I’m really not prepared for HL, either way at the moment, if that does change by the time I get to the first month of IB, I will definitely request a change! Thanks for your answer! :)</p>
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I honestly do the exact opposite quite often. I really don’t think I’m of MIT standard. Not yet, at least. Till Year 10 I used to not put in any effort to anything, at all. In Year 10, I picked up the pace, and really did start to try harder, now in Year 11 I’ve gone from literally Bs and Cs to no Bs at all! But, I do hope these stats get better by IB! I really don’t expect to get in, but I really, really, REALLY want to! </p>
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In terms of passion, I’ve got lots. I really have LOTS of evidence to support my passion. From the link you posted later on ([The</a> Match Between You And MIT | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/apply/process/match]The”>What we look for | MIT Admissions)) <– I actually have ALL of those characteristics, I’ve read that article before, which is why I became so interested in MIT in the first place, the only one I don’t satisfy, is risk taking, which is why I’m asking about SL/HL in the first place! haha. </p>
<p>@franstar
I wish I could take as many IBs, haha, I really dislike the limitations! As I mentioned earlier in response to another quote, unless I pick up in performance, I don’t think I’m capable of HL Mathematics, though if I do, I definitely will switch! Yesh! Astrophysics looks INCREDIBLY interesting! Really looking forward to it! MIT Will want HL, yes, but I’m not sure :s, math is really one of my worst subjects, and I don’t think I could do HL as of now. Though I will make sure I give math a LOT of work, and I might be allowed to switch in the first month of IB if I get a good GCSE grade for Math Thanks for your answer :)</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus,
Thanks for your links! Though, assuming you are talking about GIRs, I don’t think I’d be passing up any freshman introductory classes (assuming I get accepted to MIT in future) aside from possibly physics. Mathematics at HL, there’s no way! D: Thanks for your advice, I will consider the possibility of switching to HL if I get better in the first month of IB.</p>
<p>@deathblade127
Thanks for those links I’ve read them before, but I don’t recall the content, shall bookmark now! </p>
<p>Thanks for all your answers, and hopefully the post finally posts Sorry it’s so long! :S Have a great new year! Thanks!</p>
<p>I hope I get better at mathematics, I might just switch after reading all these responses. I guess, even getting a bad grade in HL says more than getting a good grade in SL!</p>
<p>As an IB diploma candidate, I highly recommend you take some IB courses in areas you do not necessarily “excel” in (I know that at my school, certificate candidates must take at least three courses, with at least one language/humanities course and one math/science course).</p>
<p>Though I did not take math HL (because my school did not offer it until this year, but I finished Math last year), my math IB teacher (who is now in charge of HL math as well) taught my class most of the HL concepts as well. Trust me when I say this: the HL concepts are so much more fascinating than the SL concepts (I think this goes for pretty much all IB courses). So, I really would recommend you to try HL math. c:</p>
<p>Oh, but if you only think about the marks, do not count on standardization to bring up your marks, especially in HL courses (bell curves, meaning the better you do compared to your class, the less standardization you get). Some people in my class were standardized lower than their pre-standardized mark (especially for Physics). I did not get any standardization at all for Physics. .__.</p>
<p>My advice is: do the best you can to understand. Screw the marks. In the end, your marks will reflect your understanding (but that’s in the end).</p>
<p>Looking at it from a different perspective, I guess HL would be beneficial, seeing as though I have to do Computer Science AND apply to a university like MIT, which is double the need for a HL math qualification. Even if I did get a lower grade, it’d probably be seen as more effort even though I wasn’t as confident at the beginning. I think I’m going to switch out Businses HL with Math HL. Thanks for all your answers/help/advice! :)</p>
<p>Originally Posted by deathblade127
You’re stats sounds good, you will definitely be considered.</p>
<p>However, don’t EXPECT to get in</p>
<p>Don’t interpret it the wrong way. I’m saying that international admissions are Competitive to the point that I have heard people who have obtained medals in International Olympiads even get rejected. Medals not in one olympiad, but multiple olympiads. However, whilst they may reject a high qualified applicant, they may also accept someone who simply has passion for a certain subject or is just generally an interesting person who will make a difference.</p>
<p>In terms of passion, I’ve got lots. I really have LOTS of evidence to support my passion. From the link you posted later on (The Match Between You And MIT | MIT Admissions) ← I actually have ALL of those characteristics, I’ve read that article before</p>
<p>Yes, now the key here is to DEMONSTRATE that you are MIT material. Demonstrate that through your essays, through your interviews, and then, you will have a chance. </p>
Don’t worry haha, I didn’t take that the wrong way! Yep, I do realize that! Then again, I know a bunch of medals doesn’t make me any better than any of the applicants, nor will a lack of a bunch of medals make much of a difference!</p>
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I will try and get that across in the essays, but living where I do (Hong Kong) they might not be able to offer me an interview (claim their site) unless it’s via Skype, which I assume might not be as effective. :S Though maybe if it’s the holidays at the time, maybe I’ll go on a field trip :P</p>
and going to MIT has been a dream for about 3 years so far (when I started to care about higher education :P).</p>
</p>
From what I’ve already learnt on my own, things related to recursion, algorithms/functions and databasing in all sorts of means, I do find relatively useful in software development.</p>
MIT Will want HL, yes, but I’m not sure :s, math is really one of my worst subjects, and I don’t think I could do HL as of now. Though I will make sure I give math a LOT of work, and I might be allowed to switch in the first month of IB if I get a good GCSE grade for Math