<p>I assume you are talking about the additional info section, in which case I believe you can put as long of an essay as will show up using the PDF preview. You may even choose not to put an essay in that section, but rather miscellany that wasn’t asked about in the other sections (I didn’t add an additional essay, but rather a few links). The paragraphing issue is more complicated. The tab feature apparently doesn’t work, although adding spaces may. I think you can add blank lines if you feel that they are necessary, but from what I’ve heard from MIT representatives here the formatting isn’t really important. I myself didn’t even add any sort of paragraphing structure because of the brevity of the essays. I felt that the questions were more short answer than actual three (or more) paragraph essays because I think a paragraph should have at the least five sentences so I woudn’t have more than a paragraph or two for any of my essays. I hope this clarified things, but you may disregard it if you prefer. In any case, I am telling you what I did, but I hope someone from MIT might clarify the paragraphing issue as it isn’t covered in the application or on the website. I hope this helped.</p>
<p>How much responsibility does my son bear for getting one of his Eval letters postmarked on time?</p>
<p>One of his favorite teachers of all time offered to write it for him. He gave her the forms admittedly later than he should have – October 18th, I think it was. She had already written other letters for him, to other colleges. She agreed to write letters of rec for him in July. But my son just decided last week to apply Early Action to MIT. And so, he gave her this particular MIT form later than he would normally consider “polite.” About 11-12 days ago.</p>
<p>He sent a polite and gracious email 2 days ago, reminding her of the Nov 1 postmark requirement, but he didn’t hear back from her.</p>
<p>Her letter is the only piece missing from his application at this point.</p>
<p>Is this something to worry about? If she happens to postmark her letter, say, Wednesday the 3rd, will this mean my son is no longer qualified to apply EA?</p>
<p>He and I are both hesitant to bother this very remarkable, resourceful, professional, and reliable teacher again. If it’s not necessary, he won’t! :)</p>
<p>MITChris? mollie? Any words of wisdom? (the “bothering” will probably have to take place tomorrow if it’s necessary to do so, to give her time to get it done, if it’s not already in the mail 
)</p>
<p>“And we are much more flexible with teacher recommendations that come in a little late than we are with late student application materials.”</p>
<p>Taken from the MIT admissions blog after google searching “MIT late recommendation” ;)</p>
<p>Also, just to affirm, they have both said that recommendations are fine coming in a little later, as they are still sorting stuff for a week or two. Don’t worry, haha. And tell your son good luck!</p>
<p>^Thank, Razor and tmanne! Appreciate it.</p>
<p>Good luck to both of you as well! :)</p>
<p>SimpleLife - </p>
<p>We won’t hold that against your son. Just get the letter in ASAP.</p>
<p>thanks Dkerstiens</p>
<p>also, MITChris or mollie, for the summer activities i went to a stay-over summer program for a month. do i need to put 168hrs/week or can i just leave it blank? haha or should i put like the amount of time that we worked ~ 98hrs/week?</p>
<p>also, will it hurt me that my guidance counselor sent in a resume? they just send them with every application?</p>
<p>To MITChris or Mollie, I know it’s kinda late to be revising any essays this heavily, but I can really do a high quality essay if I decide to do this.</p>
<p>In my challenge essay, I talk about a very specific part of robotics and it doesn’t describe the overall program itself. In the character trait essay, could I talk about how I’ve been on the team for 4 years and describe my dedication to it? Would it be bad to talk about the same EC in both essays, even though it’s not specifically mentioned in one?</p>
<p>Thanks guys!</p>
<p>Hi!
There seems to be some discrepancy in the status of my application! In the online application & tracking menu, it says that my secondary school report and transcript is not processed. However, under the application forms, it says that my secondary school report was processed! Should this be of concern to me? </p>
<p>Thank you :)</p>
<p>Is there a certain deadline for RD interview?</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I commented on Matt’s post about EA questions at the MIT blog, but with fear that my question will not get answered in time, I have decided to pose the question here also.</p>
<p>I was thinking about sending a 600-word essay that reveals my choppy childhood (I’ve moved between quite a few times since I was born) and a lesson I gleaned from my parent’s constant moving. The essay is something I would have loved to fit into the prompt about describing the world I come from, but I am unable to condense it to 200-250 words without compromising the meaning of the essay. What do CC members suggest I do? Thanks!</p>
<p>Submit it in the additional information/optional essay field at the end of Part 2.</p>
<p>On CSS, it asks for 2010 information and 2011 estimates. Currently, my family only has 2010 estimates, so how are we supposed to make estimates for 2011? I am applying EA.</p>
<p>First, is everybody reading the [last</a> minute questions blog entry](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/deadlines/your_early_action_deadline_que.shtml]last”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/deadlines/your_early_action_deadline_que.shtml) on Matt’s blog? </p>
<p>
I would put an approximation of the amount of time that you worked. </p>
<p>
No, it’s not a problem.</p>
<p>
This isn’t really a question other people can answer – there’s no generic answer for everybody. Read through your application and see if you feel it hits the important things about you. If it’s already comprehensive enough for your liking, then write about the same activity in two essays. Writing about the same activity in two places isn’t harmful in and of itself, but it does take away an opportunity to talk about something else.</p>
<p>
Don’t worry about it yet. See if the discrepancy still exists in a few weeks when Matt posts the “we’re through the mail” blog post.</p>
<p>
You need to contact your interviewer by December 10. He will tell you when the last day is that he’ll interview RD candidates.</p>
<p>
You can absolutely submit it in the “anything else we should know” box.</p>
<p>
Is there a particular reason you need to fill out the FA forms now? They’re due February 15 for EA admits, by which point your family should have all of the necessary tax forms for 2010 and estimates for 2011.</p>
<p>Can I quickly confirm that the only thing that needs to be posted as an international student is the school forms? My school posted them off last week so they definitely will arrive by January 1, but as I now have my school leaving exams I will be slightly off the radar with applications until they end at the end of November. By then it will be too late to post anything so I wanted to check to make sure everything else can be submitted electronically. SAT scores have already been sent.</p>
<p>“everything else” really is just is Part 2 of the application as well as Interview report by my EC.</p>
<p>Also! How do you assign the level of achievement of an activity? For example, I have my Grade 8 in Clarinet, but it isn’t like a “national” “regional” “international” etc achievement. But I have to tick one of the boxes, so which should I tick?</p>
<p>Hi, quick questions, when do early action decisions come out? and in what form? Thanks</p>
<p>I just submitted my app and I would like to thank MITChris and mollie so much for helping me personally and everybody else out during the EA season. You guys have been so much help through the whole process and I know my app wouldn’t have been as good without your aid.</p>
<p>Thanks you guys so much :D</p>
<p>
Are you including your teacher recommendations in “school forms”? </p>
<p>
MIT will announce the release date for EA decisions as soon as they’re able – in the past, they’ve announced the date in early December, and decisions have actually been released in mid-December. For the last few years, admissions decisions have been available online.</p>
<p>One of my son’s teachers handed him the Letter of Recommendation and asked him to mail it himself. Question - does it have to mailed in an official school envelope or can he just put the teachers name and school address as the return address on a plain white envelope?</p>
<p>^I don’t think it matters, Kajon, but I’m just a parent too. My current college kids’ teachers handled their letters differently. Some mailed them to the colleges themselves, some handed the letters to my kids, with no envelopes, and some handed the letters to my kids in an envelope with a signature over the seal. All letters (and kids ) were accepted by the colleges without a problem. And in all cases that we knew about, the letters were sent in plain, white envelopes with our own return address on them.</p>