Official 2010 MIT RD Decision Thread

asiaknight · March 19, 2006, 9:56am

**Decision: Waitlisted (After EA deferral) **

Stats:[ul]
[] SAT: 800M, 700V, 760W
[] SAT IIs: 800MII, 770Chem., 700 Span.
[] GPA:4.714
[] Rank:1/518
[] Other stats:AMC12A 136, AIME 9?
APs - 5 Calc. BC, Chem., Span. Lang.; 4 Macro. Econ.
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[] Essays: Good
[] Teacher Recs: 1 Good, other unknown
[] Counselor Rec: Good
[] Hook (if any): Research in math and college courses/intern at Fermilab/hoping to qualify for USAMO this year
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[] State or Country: IL/usa
[] School Type: public
[] Ethnicity: Chinese
[li] Gender: Male[/li]
[/ul]**Other Factors **[list]
[] Extracurriculars: Cross-country, piano (some state awards here), math team (some state and national awards her.), band, etc.
[] Why I think I was accepted/deferred: My interview wasn’t all that smooth. I guess I’m the typical Asian male.
[*] Other thoughts: :(

TGC06 · March 19, 2006, 10:05am

**Decision: ACCEPTED! **

Stats:[ul]
[] Fee Waiver Used?: Nope
[] SAT I (by section): 2310, 800M, 770CR, 740W
[] SAT IIs:800 Math2, 800 Bio-M, 790 Chem
[] ACT: umm… 32 my freshman year, never took it again
[] APs:Nat’l AP scholar-
5’s- Bio, World Hist, Eng Lang, US Hist, Comp Sci
4’s- Chem, Stat, Art Hist
[] IBs: none
[] GPA, Weighted and Unweighted: 4.7-ish/5.0, 4.0/4.0
[] Rank:1/~750
[] Senior Yr Courseload: AP Eng Lit, AP Comp Sci, AP Calc BC, AP Physics C, Organic Chem (@ local college), Cultural Anthropology (@ local college)
[] Number of Apps from Your School: probably 3 or 4
[] Other stats: State ranked musician, lots of leadership stuff
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[] ECs listed on app:Science Club (President), Asian Heritage (president), Mu Alpha Theta (VP), Hospital (Volunteer of the year), Special Olympics (Coordinator), Orchestra (Principal player)
[] Job/Work Experience: Worked for parent’s company 30 hr/ wk, freelance musician @ weddings and such (40hrs/event)
[] Essays (subject and responses):It was one of my later apps and so the SA’s were more refined. My response about my environment reflected my conflicted culture between Taiwan and the US
[] Teacher Recs: great, one from AP Bio teacher & club sponsor, one from Eng Teacher who adores me
[] Counselor Rec: generic - I go to a large high school. She doesn’t have time to focus on me.
[] Interview (feel and general location): FL, I had a nice interview. He was an older guy and so when you asked the right question he would start talking for about 20 min. The interview lasted about 1:30. His dog adored me.
[] Hook (if any): I didn’t think I had one…
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[] State or Country: FL
[] School Type, Average Stats of School (if available): public
[] Ethnicity: Asian (Taiwanese)
[] Income Bracket: Upper middle
[] Gender:Female
[] Hooks: didn’t I already answer this?
[] Strengths/Weaknesses: Probably my greatest thing was that I am a girl interested in Chemical Engineering. I honestly don’t know how I got in. I didn’t have any nat’l competitions or awards. No one from my school has ever gotten in.
[] Why you think you were accepted/deferred/denied: I don’t know. I think that my personality really came through on the essays.
[/ul]
Other Factors: Hmm… I don’t know. I was expecting the worst and hoping ofr the best. I don’t know how much my music helped. I sent a CD of one of my solos…
General Comments/Congratulations/Venting/Commiserations,etc:
WAHOOO!!

TooFastToFollow · March 19, 2006, 10:11am

Decision: ACCEPTED!!!

Stats:
SAT I (by section): 2120 800 M 650 CR 670 W
SAT IIs: 800 IIc 790 Chem 610 Physics
APs: 8
GPA, Weighted and Unweighted: 5/5.5, 3.93/4.0
Rank: 23/609
Senior Yr Courseload: Heavy
Number of Apps from Your School: 4
Job/Work Experience: Two years
Essays (subject and responses): Band, decent
Teacher Recs: One Amazing, one great
Counselor Rec: Amazing
Interview (feel and general location): Yes, and it went well.
Hook (if any):
State or Country:New Jersey
School Type, Average Stats of School (if available): Public, Decent
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Income Bracket: Fairly Low
Gender: Male
Hooks: Track and Field (Don’t know how much that helped… I’m not so good)
Strengths/Weaknesses: Strength: Just about every extracurriculars: Ranging from band, colorguard, FBLA, chess team, Track and Field, and so forth…
Weakness: SATII Physics, SAT Verbal, Rank
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/denied:
Other Factors:

General Comments/Congratulations/Venting/Commiserations,etc:

suloshfets · March 19, 2006, 10:35am

I would post my number, but it doesn’t matter anymore. I am just one of you. I don’t do worse than those who being accepted, and not better than those who being rejected, except that, well, I am both hearing and visual impaired. (But I guess my disability didn’t make me stand out.) After reading everyone’s profile, I come to a conclusion that there is no conclusion and no pattern. Maybe they did lottery. For all the people who got rejected, don’t feel bad. There is just this damn thing called luck!

girlfriendmb · March 19, 2006, 11:32am

accepted!!! don’t feel like posting stats since i feel you wouldn’t understand why i got in just by stats. Im glad mit saw that i am the next einstein and hopefully they give me a nice fin aid package!

Paul9 · March 19, 2006, 12:28pm

Decision: Rejected

Stats:[ul]
[] SAT: V700/M670/W660
[] SAT IIs: Chem 650 Math I 670 US History 680
[] GPA: 3.6
[] Rank:Top 10%
[] Other stats:
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[] Essays: I liked 'em
[] Teacher Recs: Good, I think. Maybe too good. One of the teachers that rec’d me liked me a lot and is a friend of my family.
[] Counselor Rec: Also probably very glowing
[] Hook (if any): I sent in a computer program I wrote?
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[] State or Country: New York
[] School Type: Public
[] Ethnicity: White
[] Gender: I’m a dude.
[/ul]Other Factors:[ul]
[] Extracurriculars: Robotics club, track, job, guitar lessons
[] Why I think I was denied: Low numbers? I guess that could be it. My interview went great. Also, I guess my ECs weren’t as interesting as I thought.
[] Other thoughts: Disappointed. But life goes on, brothers.[/ul]

shazalicious · March 19, 2006, 12:30pm

Accepted!

But still waiting from 3 more schools, and then we’ll see…

Who wants to give me more money?!

elladorkess · March 19, 2006, 12:32pm

**Decision: Rejected **

Stats:[ul]
[] SAT: 730M, 750CR, 650W
[] SAT IIs: 730M, 660USH, 660Chem
[] GPA: 3.7uw
[] Rank: low. very low.
[] Other stats:
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[] Essays: not spectacular, but decent…
[] Teacher Recs: no idea; didn’t read.
[] Counselor Rec: decent.
[] Hook (if any): biochem research over summer
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[] State or Country: CA
[] School Type: public, charter
[] Ethnicity: Vietnamese
[] Gender: Female
[/ul]Other Factors:[ul]
[] Extracurriculars: FIRST robotics, MUN, volunteer work.
[] Why I think I was accepted/deferred: low stats, not a big enough hook, not many math and science-related ECs.
[] Other thoughts: I fell in love with MIT too late… no interview. I didn’t have the accomplishments to show I could succeed; at least they said it and were honest. Although accepting of my rejection, it’s still sad and a bit heartbreaking.
[/ul]
Congrats to everyone who got in- you are all awesome people.

omareduardo13 · March 19, 2006, 2:51pm

Decision: ACCEPTED

Stats:[ul]
[] SAT: 510 W, 580 CR, 690 M
[] SAT IIs:530 Literature, 590 Biology, 600 Math 2
[] GPA: 3.8 UW
[] Rank:Top 10%
[] Other stats:
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[] Essays: Great
[] Teacher Recs:Awesome!
[] Counselor Rec: Perfect
[] Hook (if any): …
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[] State or Country: Puerto Rico
[] School Type:Public, Specialized in Science and Math
[] Ethnicity: Hispanic
[] Gender: Male
[/ul]Other Factors:[list]
[] Extracurriculars: Lost Lots
[] Why I think I was accepted/deferred: Combination of EC’s and Recommendations, plus research and many good things in my app. Interview was awesome.
[] Other thoughts: This is awesome!!!

system · March 19, 2006, 3:24pm

Decision: Accepted

Stats:[ul]
[] Fee Waiver Used?: No
[] SAT I (by section): 800 CR, 800 M, 800 W
[] SAT IIs: 800 Math II, 800 Physics, 800 Chemistry
[] ACT: N/A
[] APs: 15 5s (8 self-study)
[] IBs: N/A
[] GPA, Weighted and Unweighted: 4.0 UW, 4.3 W
[] Rank: 1/343
[] Senior Yr Courseload: AP English, AP Spanish, fairly advanced (second semester it is 400-level) math at good local LAC, other random stuff that I created because there was nothing left at my HS
[] Number of Apps from Your School: 2 or 3?
[] Other stats:
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[] ECs listed on app: Not much… a lot of jazz and symphonic band stuff, including school, regional, and state level awards, mock trial, young democrats, science bowl, etc… (leader of most). I guess there was research too… Siemens semi, if that counts.
[] Job/Work Experience: Didn’t list any
[] Essays (subject and responses): I did option A, and unfortunately there’s not enough room to describe it entirely. I really tried to just put as much of my personality into the essays as possible; the writing ranged between informal and somewhat formal, depending on the context.
[] Teacher Recs: Very, very good, I think (“best in career” type)
[] Counselor Rec: Very good
[] Interview (feel and general location): At a coffee place - it went very well, partially because I had been at MIT over the summer and we had a lot of fun chatting about different things there.
[] Hook (if any): RSI? Maybe being AP State Scholar after junior year?
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[] State or Country: Oregon
[] School Type, Average Stats of School (if available): decent suburban public, average old SAT of 1100
[] Ethnicity: White
[] Income Bracket: >100k
[] Gender: Male
[] Strengths/Weaknesses: Good numbers, essays, recs and interview but relatively sketchy ECs
[li] Why you think you were accepted/deferred/denied: I would say RSI, but I’m not sure if that counts, because something had to get me into RSI in the first place (and whatever that is, it probably made a difference for MIT). I don’t think that anything specific made the difference - just a combination of different elements in the application.[/li][/ul]
**General Comments/Congratulations/Venting/Commiserations,etc:**MIT was my first choice, so I’m happy, but (as with all schools, it seems) I’m very surprised at some of the denied and waitlisted students here. You all have very compelling records and will end up someplace great - even if MIT isn’t that place (and there’s always grad school!).

spiraloflife · March 19, 2006, 4:28pm

Decision: Accepted!

Stats:[ul]
[] Fee Waiver Used?: No
[] SAT I (by section): CR:760/M:750/W:800
[] SAT IIs: Chemistry: 690, Math IIC: 750, US History: 780
[] ACT: N/A
[] APs: Three last year (4 on AB calc, 5’s on US History and LangComp), four this year (Chem, Physics C, Stats, LitComp)
[] IBs: N/A
[] GPA, Weighted and Unweighted: 4.77, 96.95/100
[] Rank: 1/75
[] Senior Yr Courseload: AP Stats (online), AP Physics C, AP Chemistry, AP Literature, Spanish 5 Honors, Creative Writing 1 and 2 (one semester each)
[]Number of Apps from Your School: One, just me
[]Other stats: I’ve won a number of awards. National Merit Finalist, MA Superintendents Award, Havard Book Award, Bausch and Lomb Science award. I’ve also received “top in class” awards in every subject, including art and chorus.
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[]ECs listed on app: Oil painting, singing, volleyball (10th-11th), softball(9th), president of Amnesty International/Art Club/National Honor Society, Science Society, columnist/cartoonist for school newspaper, actor/set-painter for Drama Club, several choral groups
[] Job/Work Experience: I’ve held a job at my local supermarket since September of 2002. I recently went to being a bakery clerk there, and I work 12-25 hours/week, usually 15-18 hours.
[] Essays (subject and responses): I am not entirely sure that this was my MIT essay (I wrote so many dang essays), but I think I wrote about my involvement with Amnesty International. I also wrote about my duct tape prom dress from last year.
[]Teacher Recs: 3 really excellent recommendations from my Spanish teacher (3 years), Chemistry/Astronomy/Forensics teacher (2 years), and Calculus teacher/Amnesty Advisor (1 year as a teacher, 3 years as AI advisor)
[]Counselor Rec: Never saw it. My counselor annoyed me a lot, but she probably wrote a generic good letter because she wanted me to get into a good school.
[] Interview (feel and general location): It was in the Starbucks in the town next to mine (in MA). I felt like this was one of my strongest interviews. The woman later emailed me saying how much she had enjoyed talking to me and sent me a link to <a href=“http://www.hungersite.com%5B/url%5D”>www.hungersite.com</a>. We talked about a number of things, from poetry to duct tape to Magic the Gathering to engineering.
[] Hook (if any): I skipped a year of math, the first ever to do so in my school. My first A- for a final course grade occurred last year in AP US History (where I got a 5- no one got an A). Aside from that, I’ve received only A’s and A+'s in my school career.
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[] State or Country: Massachusetts
[] School Type, Average Stats of School (if available): Public, but very small. The scores for the students around my age have been very good (we were one of the few to pass all of our students in MCAS for several years running), though the younger kids are starting to lag behind.
[] Ethnicity: White
[] Income Bracket: My dad is fairly well off, though he won’t tell us how much he makes. My mom just got her nursing degree, so money there has been tight.
[] Gender: Female
[] Hooks: See above?
[] Strengths/Weaknesses: I am strong both in math/science and the humanities. I considered art school for a long time. My weaknesses might be that I could’ve used more straight community service, particularly earlier, and my sports were a bit lacking.
[] Why you think you were accepted/deferred/denied: I was a little surprised because I didn’t think that my SAT/AP scores were as good as they could’ve been, but I think the whole humanitarian/well-roundedness thing really came into play with me. I guess they liked that I could do things other than math.
[/ul]Other Factors:[ul]
[*] General Comments/Congratulations/Venting/Commiserations,etc: Congrats to all who got in, because every single one of you is awesome. I also want to say, good luck to all of those who didn’t get in because even if you got rejected from MIT, the stats here seem to point to an outcome where all of you will get into really awesome schools.[/ul]

baykin · March 19, 2006, 4:43pm

brian mc, I looked at those pictures. Did you invent cold fusion? Because there is currently an investigation into a Purdue graduate student claiming to have done that. And judging by the size of the apparatus, I doubt it was a device to sustain hot fusion. The magnetic coils needed to contain the plasma would be the size of a house.

brian-mc · March 19, 2006, 5:22pm

You need to read the fusion section of my website a bit more carefully, because I explain exactly how the machine works and how I collect my data.

It is not cold fusion, nor does hot fusion require magnets. All you need to do is smash a few atoms together.

What I built is a small particle accelerator that in short, collides nuclei of deuterium at energies of 50keV or greater. Multiply 50,000 eV by 11,080 to obtain a temperature in Kelvin, and lo and behold, you’re looking at a “temperature” of over 500 million degrees.

Magnets are needed to confine a thermal plasma, that is, a plasma whose range of particle energies is best modeled by a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. My fusor, due to its accelerator nature, does not work in the same temperature distribution.

There is no question that fusion is going on. It is not net energy, but it is still fusion. MIT has an identical device being used in a research project by Prof. Raymond Sedwick at the Space Systems Laboratory, and there are similar projects going on at the University of Wisconsin, Los Alamos, the University of Chicago, and several institutions in Japan.

Finally, this is not my invention. It was invented by Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of the electronic television.

My goal with this project was to prove to people that making fusion reactions is so easy that it is within the reach of most private individuals, while at the same time showing how hard it is to get net power from ANY man-made fusion system. I hoped to eventually try a few new novel design parameters to increase the fusion yield, which might not produce power, but would at least produce a nice source of neutrons for which there are many industrial applications. And since I have now been shut out of MIT and prevented from working with Dr. Sedwick, my efforts at furthering this project have become infinitely more difficult.

Sephiroth226 · March 19, 2006, 7:18pm

Hmmm, someone is sore. MIT obviously had a reason for picking him, and as for AA… MANY OF THE URM’s are actually qualified applicants stat-wise.

gmman · March 19, 2006, 7:23pm

sephiroth i’ve got nothing against URMs who are as qualified as their white/asian counterparts. But what reason could MIT possibly have to pick him over some rejectees? Obviously, his scores demonstrate that he wouldn’t cut it academically.

Dragon45 · March 19, 2006, 7:28pm

It’s really not our place to judge… if MIT had a good reason for picking him, then they had a good reason for picking him- I also don’t think it is fair to characterise MIT as being “just doing whatever they can to pick up all the URMs at the expense of more qualified candidates.” without hard numbers.

That being said, Sephiorth, myself (and 99% of the people here) would greatly appreciate it, I think, if you would reduce your negativity… It’s wonderful you got into MIT, but there’s a lot of us who didn’t, and all of our behaviors are a reflection of the frustration we feel at trying so hard and then not making it. It’s just a part of the adaptation process mate

Think about it: A lot of us have put our hearts and souls into these applications and they haven’t yielded us any results. It hurts. A lot. It’s really not fair to just ask someone to “suck it up” or what have you.

We will get over it, we will resume “proper” behavior before long- but negativity isn’t going to accelerate the process.

-Dragon45

sam42149 · March 19, 2006, 7:37pm

Decision: Rejected

SAT I: 800 math 740 verbal 760 writing
SAT IIs: 800 math IIC 800 US History 760 Chemistry
ACT: 34 reading 35 math 35 english (with 12/12 for essay) 36 science
APs: 5 Stats, 5 US History, 5 English Language and Comp
To Take Bio, Physics Mech + E&M, Euro, Spanish, and Calc BC this year
GPA: Unweighted 4.0, Weighted 7.55 (our school does it weird)
Rank: 3/595
Sr. Courseload: AP Bio, AP Physics, AP Calc BC, AP English, AP Euro, AP Spanish
Apps from my school: 6 (none got in)

Other:
ECs: Cross Country Team (4 yrs, Varsity 2 years); Swimming (3 years, Varsity 2 years); Track (4 years), Newspaper Staff (2 years, Copy Editor 1 year), Literacy Center Tutor at my school (2 years)
Honors: Bausch & Lomb Science Winner, DAR History Winner, AP Scholar, Illinois State Scholar, Spanish NHS, NHS
Essays: 500 worder (prompt A) narrative about first day of Cross Country practice; 100 worders about physics and watching baseball (for what I like to do for the fun of it)
Teacher Recs: Should have been really solid; one of the teachers said I was her best in 6 years, although she tried talking me out of MIT
Counselor Rec: Should have been really good too
Interview: Sucked. The lady was really mean to me because I didn’t load up on math and science extracurriculars
Hook: LEGACY (shows how much that matters LOL)

Location:
Illinois
Large School (2300+), Public, 22 average ACT (although we send kids to MIT all the time)
Ethnicity: White
Income Bracket: 200,000+
Gender: Male
Why I was rejected: Probably lack of Science ECs as well as the crappy interview

danielsjang · March 19, 2006, 7:38pm

Decision: ACCEPTED (after deferral)

Stats:

<pre><code>* SAT: 2190 (800M, 690V, 700W)

SAT IIs: 800/800/790
ACT: 34
GPA: um… 4 semesters of B’s in HS, all else; A’s
Rank: 7/310
Other stats: AIME: 5, AMC12: 126
</code></pre>

Subjective:

<pre><code>* Essays: Meh. Wasn’t too confident, but Lots of enthusiasm. Showed that I’m very willing to take on challenges and opportunities. I had a few typos in there, though.

Teacher Recs: pretty good x 2
Counselor Rec: AMAZING. “Best student in past 15 years that I had” etc
Hook (if any): AP National award. lots of math stuff. Lots of orchestra, band stuff (drum major, etc), exhausted math @ school, jumped up English levels from college prep>accelerated>honors.
Interview: i thought it was pretty bad. We had 2 days, however, and I showed my interest pretty well
</code></pre>

Location/Person:

<pre><code>* State or Country: WI

School Type: Suburban Public. Not great, but was ranked one of top 500 HS from newsweek
Ethnicity: Korean
Gender: Male
major strength/weakness:
why you think you were accepted/rejected/defered: i seriously have no idea how i got in. Looking at others who got rejected on this board, I am in awe that I got in. I guess when they required you to put down 5 activities, I had a few solid ones. Clarinet (drum major, 1st chair, etc), Started a rocketry club (TARC), Math related stuff, R/C plane stuff (one of my essay topic)
</code></pre>

Other Factors/COMMENTS:
OMG i can’t believe i’m in. this just makes no sense. I’m not sure if i was a mistake or not… a legacy friend got in, too!
I was seriously not expecting anything.

brian-mc · March 19, 2006, 7:45pm

Trip Barber (the man behind the Team America Rocketry Challange) is an excellent human being with a vision. I tried getting a similar club started back in 2002 when he and the AIA first started the competition, but it flopped due to lack of interest and lack of fields for which we could get FAA waivers.

ohmywow · March 19, 2006, 8:55pm

**Decision:Rejected. **

Stats:[ul]
[] SAT: M 800 V 800 W 690
[] SAT IIs: Bio 800 IC 740 Lit 680
[] GPA: 98.5
[] Rank: n/a
[] Other: AP Scholar w/ Distinction
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[] Essays: I liked them.
[] Teacher Recs: ?
[] Counselor Rec: ?
[] Hook (if any): Intel Semi, Siemens Semi, JSHS finalist, LISEF finalist, research at CSHL, Presidential Scholar candidate, All State musician, Off Broadway dancer
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[] State or Country: NY
[] School Type: Public
[] Ethnicity: Asian
[] Gender: Female
[/ul]Other Factors:[list]
[] Extracurriculars: Music, Dance, Research, Newspaper, Forensics Speech & Debate
[] Why I think I was accepted/deferred: I just wasn’t a match for MIT.
[] Other thoughts:
I don’t think less of myself…MIT simply wasn’t me. Congrats to everyone and for those who were rejected, you WILL get into a great school that is right for you.

Official 2010 MIT RD Decision Thread

Related topics

CONNECT WITH US