<p>Sorry for the delay, guys – I’ve been in upstate New York for a knitting festival. </p>
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It will be fine to have the recs submitted through Naviance, and there shouldn’t be any need to do anything about the mit-recs account if the letters have been submitted through Naviance. I’m not sure if the GCs can see the requirement for the SSR in Naviance, so you might want to check with the GC to make sure it’s been submitted.</p>
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Mailed letters are fine, and the address is on the admissions website. Just make sure the letter contains enough information to identify you uniquely, so it can be matched with your application.</p>
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A cover sheet is always nice, for the same reason as in the previous question – you want to make sure that your documents will be matched with your application. But it’s not required. The PO box is the correct place to send the copy of the green card.</p>
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I agree with Mikalye above.</p>
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Yup, the latter – the dates that you got each highest score. They will use the highest scores in the evaluation anyway, but it helps for you to have already highlighted them.</p>
<p>@molliebatmit thanks for the help! I’ll be sure to ask my counselor. But I feel that I need a teacher evaluation to go along with the letter of recommendation (this is how it works in the common app, for example: there is a recommendation along with an evaluation that needs to be submitted to each school). The closest form I can find is a supplemental recommendation cover sheet, but this isn’t a supplemental recommendation.
Also, is there a way for me to check whether or not the letters have been received by MIT if it was not submitted through the online site? Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I am interested in studying computer science at MIT. My high school only started offering AP computer science this year (in my senior year), but my guidance counselor couldn’t let me take the course as it was a “first come first serve” setup for signing up for the class (it’s only offered for two periods). In any case, long story short, I wasn’t able to take the class not due to lack of trying. My question is, should i need to to explain this in the application? I will put down comp sci for my interested major in MIT. Will the AdCom view my lack of AP comp sci as a potential negative?</p>
Let me email Chris and get back to you. This is the first year all recommendation letters have been submitted online, so I’m not familiar with the process yet. Similarly, I’m not sure whether they’ll have application tracking for mailed letters. They have for the past half decade or more, but I’m not sure how it will work with the switch to mostly online letters.</p>
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No, the admissions office understands that there are scheduling difficulties and availability problems in many high schools. You can certainly mention it, either somewhere on your application or in your interview, but you don’t need to explain why you didn’t take a particular class.</p>
<p>@molliebatmit Thank you for your answer! A quick question…</p>
<p>When copying/pasting my essay into the text box on the application, I notice the quotation marks go to weird symbols…Should I get rid of those or should I just leave it?</p>
<p>This will happen if you copy certain symbols, especially smart quotation marks, from a rich-text editor. Just convert your document to plaintext, or edit it in a plaintext editor before pasting it into the application.</p>
<p>Thanks! And sorry to bombard you with questions…so I’m finishing up an essay, and I’m 5 words over the 250 limit…But there isn’t a word limit restriction in the box I input my essay into on the application. So, how much does MIT care about slightly going over the word limit?</p>
<p>The point of this thread is to bombard me (and others) with questions, so bombard away. :)</p>
<p>AFAIK, the current application setup will not allow you to submit if your essays are over the limit, but I don’t remember whether that cutoff is at the limit (250 words) or whether it’s at the limit plus some fudge factor (~300 words). All things considered, I’d encourage you to edit those five words, if possible, just to spare yourself the headache while trying to submit.</p>
<p>I think this question has been asked before, but, I really really just want to make sure again —</p>
<p>Our school (a public school) prefers to handle recommendation letters thru Naviance. That means they don’t like to be bothered with treating MIT as a special case when comes to recommendation letters. I know MIT wants each teacher to fill out some kind of forms and answer certain questions about the applicant. I am not saying that when push comes to shove, I won’t be able to persuade the teachers to spend the extra effort just for my app, but I think most likely they might not be willing. So—would I be at a disadvantage if I am ‘only’ submitting generic letters that I am using for all colleges I am applying to (thru naviance)? Please, please, I need an honest to God answer from honest people here:-). I will get down on my knees and beg the teachers if I have to, but to be honest, I really wish I don’t have to. The teacher have some many obligations in my school and I will really feel bad if I have to do this for MIT.</p>
<p>For the activities section on MIT, It asks me to list hours/week and weeks/year. What should I do if I have the case of one activity meeting only 3 hours/week in the fall, then 12 hours/week in the spring + over 10 days spent at competitions? Should I average them out or…?</p>
<p>Hi , sorry if this has been asked before but I have 4 questions:</p>
<p>If I am interning at a laboratory and I help in research although it is not my original research, can I include it in the research supplement? I help make the devices and test them, but the idea or anything isn’t mine, I joined in the middle of the research, so should I still include it?</p>
<p>Also, I did research for my Extended Essay since I’m in the IB(International Baccalaureate) program, can I include that? I had to conduct experiments and type a full research paper along with an abstract and everything. </p>
<p>If yes to both, how can I include both of them in the research supplement? Do I submit in 2 research supplements?</p>
<p>Can I submit extra material or edit my application if I am EA and I get deferred before the RA deadline?</p>
No, absolutely not. And not all teachers who write letters the standard way fill out the evaluation form, anyway. MIT used to have guidelines for teachers up on the website, and they specifically said that the evaluation form is a guide for the types of things they’d like to know about applicants, so if a teacher would prefer to address those points in letter form rather than by filling out the evaluation, that’s totally fine. </p>
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I’d average, personally, but you could always fill out the section with the modal level of activity and then expound in an essay or the “anything else you’d like us to know” section.</p>
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Yes, absolutely. I mean, you should be clear about your role in the project, but it’s totally normal for high school students not to do graduate-level intellectual design and implementation of their projects.</p>
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Yes.</p>
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I would try to write a two-part research supplement rather than submitting two separate supplements. The admissions site suggests focusing the research supplement on the research experience that is most important to you.</p>
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You can submit additional supplemental material, but you cannot edit your existing application.</p>
<p>Hi, I have a question regarding the maker portfolio and the regular application – I know that the maker portfolio is reviewed by the Engineering Board, but is the normal application also reviewed? I talked about some of my projects in my main essays, so I’m not sure if I should repeat information in the maker portfolio or if it is okay to assume that the main essays will also be read. Thanks!</p>
<p>Hi-
I have a question about activities and listing honors. If two of your activities happen to be Science Olympiads and Science Research and you have won awards at various regional competitions, do you list the awards on the honors page or under the description of activities box? Should you list an award like AP Scholar with distinction or will the admissions department “figure it out” because of your AP scores? Thanks!</p>
<p>Hi again, I should preface this by saying I am a very inquisitive person and ask a lot of questions and have already asked 5, so I hope you’ll forgive me for bombarding you with questions ;P</p>
<p>This past summer, I got into doing stand-up comedy and I’ve written up a few jokes, but I’ve never actually performed at a club or school or anything, just for like friends and family. So could I write my “what do you do for fun” essay on it, even if stand-up doesn’t feature anywhere else on my app? (I have other ECs with more substantial awards and stuff, so I don’t have space for stand-up)</p>
<p>Also, could I submit my script(mainly an outline of a 30 min act with 7-10 jokes) and me performing 1 or 2 of my jokes in the theater art supplement even if I haven’t performed it live in front of a real audience, or does stand-up not really count as a “theater art”?</p>
As far as I know, they only review the portfolio and not the entire application.</p>
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I would list them under “honors”, unless you want to list so many honors that you’d prefer to list them under the activities where you earned them.</p>
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You can list it if you’d like; you shouldn’t assume that your readers will figure anything out on their own.</p>
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Either have it sent as a supplemental reference, or just send one research reference.</p>
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Of course.</p>
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I can’t say I’ve ever heard of someone submitting such a supplement before, but there’s no reason you couldn’t.</p>
<p>FINAL NOTE: There are a lot of specific questions today about what’s “allowed” on the application in some sense – can I list this under x or y, can I write the essay about z, etc. In general, you are allowed to interpret the prompts and categories on the application in the way that works best for you – don’t limit yourself. You can be as flexible as you’d like with your application. I understand the anxiety, but I promise you don’t need me to tell you it’s okay.</p>
<p>My son worked in a lab doing research this summer. He would like to submit either his abstract or research paper.
I believe in order to submit it, you need to have a recommendation filled out by your research supervisor. My son is worried that if his lab supervisor has to fill out a form, it might not be good since she seemed irritated when he asked her to fill out the Intel and Siemens paperwork earlier. Do you think it’s more valuable to the admission process to have his paper submitted with a weak recommendation from his research supervisor or should he skip the paper?
I know his other recommendations will be strong, but he is really worried that she won’t give him a good recommendation since she hates to fill out forms.</p>
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