@kittymom1102 I agree, and I think that in many schools -at least in my area- math is not well taught in elementary school. It is much harder to catch up later.
@Poisonivy2015 I wish more MITES alumni remained engaged in CC. So, we could see where things unfold at the end. Unfortunately, if you check MITES threads from previous years, MITES admitted students mysteriously disappear (?)
I’m very curious since the only point of reference I have are the 3 kids admitted to MITES in the past few years from my son’s school. Out of the 3, just 1 was admitted to MIT. Somehow the story/essay of the other 2 stopped being compelling? I don’t know. What I do know if that their test scores where nowhere MIT’s level, MITES? Yes, MIT? No. The only one to be admitted had SAT Math ~750 with R in the mid 600’s. Obviously, his story was compelling enough for the MIT admission’s office to overlook his R. The other 2 kids couldn’t even break 700 in SAT Math. Their stories somehow were no longer compelling enough?
It is rather interesting to observe 
@ReminiscingDad Although I agree with you about most schools’ inability to teach Math, I believe that parents are #1 ultimately responsible for their children’s education. We need to pay attention to our children’s education and address any need right away. In the case of Math, because its sequential nature, little gaps in 2nd grade, if not taken care of, are bound to become craters later on.
We went through something like that with our second child, our daughter. At the end of 2nd grade, she tested in the ~50% in Math. I remember thinking, oh lord, poor thing she got my genes 
I was already assuming that she would be “not good at Math,” just like me, who, coincidentally enough, started having Math problems in 2nd grade. In other words, I was waiving the “white flag” on her
Papa was not having any of that. He would take care of it over the summer. He bought Math workbooks from Barnes and Noble and practiced with her throughout the summer. At the end of that summer, the little girl was as sharp as a butcher’s knife! Official state testing here in FL starts in 3rd grade, my daughter got a perfect score in Math that year and has continued doing so ever since. A summer focused on her Math completely changed her academic trajectory. Since then, she has excelled in Math and wins the top Math award at her school every year. She is currently in 7th grade, taking Algebra 1, alongside 8th graders, and is the top student in the class. Her teacher brings it up all the time to tease the 8th graders
I compare my daughter’s story with my own story and realize that if my parents had paid attention to my Math in 2nd grade, I wouldn’t have struggled as much with Math throughout my life A parent does not need to hold a PhD in Math to help a child with 2nd grade Math.
I think that the key is parents having a positive attitude towards Math. I’ve heard too many parents talking about how much they hate Math/trashing Math in front of their children. I’m sorry, that is not a positive message. As a rule in our house, we never, ever trash any subject. We let the kids know that every single subject they take at school makes them an educated person, therefore, every single one is important and deserves their attention.
@ReminiscingDad schools dont usually advertise these tests, but there are many resources online. I encourage you to visit artofproblemsolving.com . They offer online classes, books, and also have an online math community. The website has all past amc, aime, and many other math competitions. It is basically the holy grail of MS and HS math, in my opinion.
I dont think socio economic status matters as long as the essays are great. My sister got accepted but we have an income of around $150k
Application does not ask for your income. It asks for your parents education and occupation. Someone with HS diploma and a small business can be making over a 100k.
@seal16 I think there was a question asking if you qualified for free/reduced lunch and if your family’s income was less than $60,000, though.
MITES looks past my skin of accomplishments to see the yellow blood flowing beneath. sigh
@Newdle Yeah it was actually $50,000
@PoisonIvy20 Yah, sounds right!
@vicvicvic I don’t know if I’m reading you right, but if you’re trying to say you were discriminated against because you were Asian, please don’t. The fact that you would think that low of both yourself and OEOP can be an explanation in itself to why you weren’t selected. Now, I’m not trying to say you’re not awesome, but it’s hard to like someone if they’ve always got that sort of mentality. If I’m reading you wrong, sorry. If I am reading you right, sorry. I truly am. Everybody including you is amazing (okay, we can make exceptions like Bieber…just kidding…I don’t mean that), so the office can only accept so many people.
Hi, I (Asian) actually got into MOSTEC with just a ~1800 SAT and plenty of grammatical errors on my application (turned it in the last hour it was due), so I don’t think there is any discrimination in the selection but rather how well you capture your passion for science/math in your essays.
Why is everyone so invested in the numbers? MOSTEC with just a 169 and a 58 on math. Essays, people. Essays.
Why is everyone so invested in the numbers? MOSTEC with just a 169 and a 58 on math. Essays, people. Essays.
Brother of accepted MITES student here. He has near-perfect SATs, ECs with leadership, private school, educated, upper middle income very well educated parents. Comments from parents of other similar kids who were not selected have made him feel badly because he was chosen while, according to them, their kids were essentially much smarter, much more rich or had parents much more well educated to have been selected. A few thoughts occur to me, a college student who was not selected for MITES in earlier years. First, it is pretty obvious through all the MITES threads that different students are chosen for different reasons. There are public school kids, private school kids, rich kids, poor kids, kids with parents who never went to college and kids with parents who have PhDs from Ivy League schools, high test scoring kids, low test scoring kids, URMs, Asians and white kids. We also know that this year 4.5% of applicants were chosen for MITES and the same or a bit more were selected for each of the other 2 programs.
What can we logically conclude? 1) All different kinds of kids are chosen; 2) If you don’t apply you won’t be chosen; 3) If you apply it would not be wise to count on being selected given the low acceptance rate; and 4) there are helicopter parents out there who are so caught up in their kids lives they have to spend their time rationalizing their kids’ outcomes on a thread intended for high school kids.
For this year’s applicants who were not chosen – know that the process of writing all the essays has better prepared you for college apps in the fall and if you were confident enough to apply for MITES you can go anywhere and do anything if you stick to trying. For this year’s applicants who were chosen – do not feel you were selected only because you were too poor, too ethnic, too dumb, or too anything. You were seleced for one of the most prestigious summer engineering programs in the country, competing for a spot with the brightest kids in the context of many different backgrounds, from under-priviledged to priviledged. Your futures are bright as shining stars.
Hi guys,
I was accepted into MITES, and I’m looking forward to meeting everyone else that did this summer.
What classes did you guys choose for MOSTEC?
I am a junior looking to apply to MITES and really want to attend this program; however I am a bit reluctant to apply as the program seems to not accept that many Asian students. I have parents with good incomes and graduate degrees so I feel like this ruins my chances of being accepted into the program. Can any MITES alumni or anyone really comment on this? I need to decide soon whether or not I should apply.
Note: I realize that “if I really wanted to go to MITES that badly then I would apply no matter what” but I don’t want to have spent hours on perfecting my application only to find that my social circumstances throw my hard work down the drain. There are other programs I am eyeing so I want to make the right decision here as MITES is my first choice.
Thank you to anyone who can help!
I went to E2 and can tell you there was definitely a decent amount of Asians there. My parents also have good incomes and graduate degrees and I got in, so it’s definitely possible. You’ll have to write some good essays and hope to get lucky, but you do have a shot.
Hi!
I really would like to join this program. The only thing is, the dreaded fear of rejection!
I am pretty frightened of how my essays might be viewed and the extremely low acceptance rate.
In my school, no one really focuses on these types on summer academic programs.
I have always wanted to apply to one, but the costs always become an obstacle.
I know that everyone here is really enthusiastic about this program too.
Best of luck!
Hello @innerchild33! Join us in the MITES 2016 discussion thread. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/summer-programs/1797004-mites-2016-discussion.html#latest