MIT Final Advice/Comments Before Early Action

Chance Me / Match Me
1

So, I’ve decided that one more “chance me” thread would be alright, seeing as the applications are due right around the corner. Though, I’d like to make this more of a “Is there anything I should fix last minute…any glaring errors?” as opposed to a traditional “chance me”. Both, however, are welcome.

Let’s get started…

SAT-(750 M/ 720 CR/ 720 W) (Low yes, but I just decided not to retake it)
Subjects: Coming Soon.
GPA(UW): 4.0
GPA(W):4.7
GPA( Harvey Mudd College): 3.73 (will increase to 3.8 after first semester this year)

Freshman year
AP Calculus BC-5
AP Physics B-5
AP Chemistry-4
Honors English
Spanish 2
Varsity Baseball

Sophomore year
AP world history-5
Honors English
Spanish 3
Varsity Baseball

Stanford Online:
Multivariable Differential Calculus-A
Multivariable Integral Calculus- A

Taken at Harvey Mudd College:
Linear Algebra- A
Differential Equations-B+

Junior Year
AP Language-5
AP U.S. History-5
AP Spanish-(did not take)
Varsity Baseball

At UCR:

Distribution Theory (PhD level class)
I couldn’t afford to take the course for credit, so I’m “auditing” the course with the prof’s permission, but still ascertaining the knowledge nonetheless)

At Harvey Mudd:
Linear Algebra and Differential Equations II (B+) (ISEF prevented me from taking the final, oh well.)

Real Analysis I (18.100B/C MIT equivalent) (A)

Senior Year
AP Micro/Gov
AP Bio
AP Lit
AP Art History
Honors Philosophy & Ethics

At UCR:
Graduate Topology. This is a year-long course consisting of Point-Set, Algebraic, and Differential Topology with topics in Homological Algebra. (18.901 at MIT + more)

At Harvey Mudd:

Graduate Analysis I (Measure Theory and Integration) (18.125 at MIT)

Haven’t decided between an easier A in Abstract Algebra or Topics in Differential Topology for semester two.

EC’s Freshman year:
Varsity Baseball, California State Science Fair- 4th in Mathematics & Software, Published paper in Undergraduate Math journal written under chair of mathematics department at UCR, Varsity Scholar Athlete of the Year.

EC’s Sophomore year:
Member of two Professional Research groups at UCR for post-docs and professors, named the "Fractal Research Group and the “Mathematical Physics and Dynamical Systems” research group. Only high school student in 25+ years of existence

Invited/attended AMS (American Mathematical Society) Sectional Meeting held at UCR by math chair.

Taught AP Calc BC- (I know this sounds strange, but I literally would teach the course for our calc teacher on days he wasn’t there. He’d excuse me from class and I’d teach for him for the day)

Tutoring of Harvey Mudd students in Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Differential Equations

Wrote a research paper used in the below seminars. (Same title)

Professional Seminars given:

“On the theory of Lures with Dynamical Action on Manifolds and Fractal Strings” part one. Fractal Research group, UCR, hour seminar

Part two, Fractal Research group, UCR, hour seminar

Varsity Baseball

Intel ISEF regional sweepstakes award- given to the best overall project in the high school division at an ISEF qualifying fair.

Mu Alpha Theta award for excellence in mathematics(x2)- International award given on the basis of individual research in mathematics.

Intel Award for Excellence in Computer Science(x2)- Given to a research project in mathematics or computer science.

Intel ISEF 2014 finalist in Mathematics

European Award for CERN Exploration: Given to 12 international students on the basis of their STEM research at Intel ISEF. Includes all-expenses paid trip to Geneva, Switzerland to tour CERN for a week.

Given an office in the UCI math department to complete research. Research would turn into ISEF 2015 project.

EC’s Junior year:

Still a member of the professional research groups at UCR.

Gave two hour seminar at UCR on this paper.

Still taught AP Calc BC occasionally.

ISEF 2015 Finalist

ISEF 2015 3rd award, mathematics.

Goethe Institut Award for German Exploration: International award given to 12 students worldwide on the basis of his/her research. Includes an all expenses paid trip to Berlin, Germany for a week to learn about German STEM culture, etc.

Varsity Baseball

RSI 2015 Scholar

EC’s Senior Year:

Baseball as usual.

Official Course tutor for Real Analysis I at Harvey Mudd. I hold weekly two hour tutoring sessions for sophomores, juniors, and seniors at Harvey Mudd. (My favourite EC)

Still a member of Professional Research Groups.

I maintain a mathematics blog here (anonymously):
erdosninth.■■■■■■■■■■■■■

Self-studied topics (misc. and just a bit here and there): homological algebra, PDE’s (a lot more interesting that DE’s lol), category theory, algebra, etc.

Athletics: I’m verbally committed to play at MIT. The coach is allowed to submit a list of prospects ranked from 1 to 25. I’ve been given the #1 spot on the list.

Letters of Rec: Glowing from a professor that I’ve worked closely with for a couple of years. My AP Language teacher wrote that I was the “most talented student [he’s] had in 9 years of teaching”.

Work Experience: Employed as an Instructor at Mathnasium for the past year and a half.

I’ll also be applying to:

Harvard
Princeton
Yale
Harvey Mudd
Berkeley

Regardless of my MIT decision.

Any comments appreciated, thanks for your time. Sorry for the length lol

2

You should obviously be in the top 1% of applicants. Just stay humble on your application - you have rare abilities, but there is always someone smarter. I don’t believe that MIT coaches have very much sway with the adcom, but I doubt it will matter in your case.

And I’m glad you didn’t retake the SAT. The math score is meaningless for you - not a game worth playing.

Good luck.

3

You definitely seem to have a passion for mathematics research and I think you have a very good chance. As renaissancedad said, stay humble about your achievements.

4

The “glaring error” is that you feel the need to post your accomplishments again. I’ve read your posts before and if anyone knows the score, you do. You went to RSI. That in itself means your Chances at MIT are extremely high even without the laundry list of other accomplishments you have. I’ll echo the previous two posters except instead of saying “stay humble” I will say “become humble”. Good luck. Hope you do great things in college.

5

@Falcon1 I have to disagree. Nothing about the above posts suggests that he isn’t being humble. It seems reasonable to ask for one more look before applying. Nothing wrong or not humble about that.

Just because he probably knows he has good chances doesn’t mean he can’t ask for advice.

I’d say he’s pretty set overall, perhaps add a bit about community service.

6

^^ Thanks. I’ll keep your opinion in mind. Good advice about the community service…

7

@HarvardMaths Yes, definitely not trying to portray a sense of hubris haha

I’m genuinely open to last minute suggestions that will help in the application process. You only get to apply once, so it’s natural that applicants are a bit on edge.

8

wow. I say you have a great shot. Be careful with MIT sports recruiting. You would be a shoe in for other Top schools that formally recruit.

9

Many of the other schools on your list have a formal recruitment process. The Ivy schools give out what is known as a likely letter, which it sounds like you would be a serious contender for. Why take the risk with MIT? What did the coaches from the other schools say? Did they offer a LL??

10

I doubt OP is taking a risk with MIT. He attended RSI and has enough distinctions to stand out. He doesn’t need to be recruited for baseball at MIT.

11

@sgopal2 MIT, though not allowed to offer things like a LL, does indeed have a formal recruiting process the same as the ivies. They attend showcases, travel across the country, have official visits, etc. Once you offer verbal commitment to a school, it is expected out of courtesy that you do not continue the process with other universities. I had offers from various D1, schools, including ivies, but I’ve since had to turn them down. Now, if I were to be rejected from MIT, it would still be possible to discuss a walk-on opportunity (or even perhaps something a bit better) with a coach at a different university.

12

As you are probably aware, your chances of admittance are much higher than most. I don’t know when you took your SAT, but it is just a little hard to believe that you are taking Phd mathematics, yet you didn’t get an 800 in the math section. Otherwise, I would say there is at least a 75% chance that you will get into MIT. Good luck and if you could, can you give me some advice on how to get better at math? I’m horrible and would like to be better for my SAT.

13

@DreamToRedeem On the version of the SAT I took, a 750 was equivalent to missing two questions. Under time constraints these things can happen to anyone really. Moreover, the material tested on the SAT is algebra II and below, often with certain tricks that one learns while learning these subjects. Things that I didn’t remember from 5-6 years prior.

Perhaps the biggest issue is that the SAT is timed in such a way that questions should be answered in the matter of seconds to a couple of minutes. This is all well and dandy if you’re used to this sort of thing. Though, when doing graduate level math, it’s an entirely different ball game. A typical graduate problem set may consist of, say, 5 exercises. Generally, one is given a week (or two) to continuously think about these 5 problems. Often, even this amount of time is not sufficient.

I often had the issue of opening a mathematics section, looking at a problem, and being extremely skeptical of the time required to solve something. When you get into the mind-frame of writing proofs, easy computational problems often become rather “difficult”. (i.e. the 4 times my professor couldn’t add numbers correctly on midterms, lol)

Actually, one of the questions I missed was:
" how many zeros does (x-1)^4 have?" this is a level 2 question.

I missed it because I immediately looked at it and circled “4”. Why? Because when you spend your time thinking about, things like “the set of algebraic numbers (solutions to complex polynomials) is countable”, your first thought is to start the argument with “well each polynomial of degree n is uniquely identified with a finite cartesian product of Z, and each polynomial has n zeros up to multiplicity…”

And suggestions for math, I’d say that what separates people in math at lower levels is their intuitive understanding of what’s going on. More often than not, high school math can be explained either with intuition or brute computation. If you can master those, you’d be golden.

14

@PurePhysics I can second that entirely. Once you get used to higher level math, high school math and the sort almost becomes more difficult…especially in a timed setting.

15

Reading you last argument, I can see that you are very smart and mature for your age!
I am pretty sure you will end up somewhere great!

16

[QUOTE=""]
I'll also be applying to:

Harvard
Princeton
Yale
Harvey Mudd
Berkeley

Regardless of my MIT decision.

[/QUOTE]

Just curious, how come you’re not applying to Stanford?

17

@WesternDigital I don’t really want to stay in California for college…I’m applying to Harvey Mudd because I’m used to it there; Berkeley because I have a large group of friends there

Nothing against stanford whatsoever, just wanting to change up the scenery

18

Good for you. That’s part of what took me from Massachusetts to Stanford, and the change in environment was an education in and of itself.

19

Just wanted to give a last minute pop in to say good luck and that you have a great deal of accomplishments. I’m very envious honestly of the opportunities you’ve had and what you’ve done with them. What do you plan to do at MIT, if you get in?

20

Yeah, changing of scenery in a part of the education in itself. How did you do on your subject tests? And if you get in EA, you’re applying to the other ones just for fun?