Please, tell me how I should be preparing!

rainynightstarz
Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:35:50 +0000

Honors != AP. Honors on your transcript != college will see it as honors… For one thing, Algebra 1 is should not be considered honors. It is offered as a middle school class in many places, so is geometry. A few schools might consider algebra 2/trig honors… but pretty much having honors in front of the class doesn’t help you too much since the title of the class sort of gives the difficulty away, unless you are taking physics honor vs normal physics.

Most of us here are from normal schools, so there aren’t much we know how to help you.
Again, there is no formula to getting in.
Take your SAT2s, take hard classes, challenge yourself, try to use up your resources, spend some times doing things you really enjoy whether it is making robots, or programming, or researching, or even drama and painting.
For people in normal schools, I would recommend getting involved in the clubs they enjoy, and earn a leadership position and lead people in the club (Awesome experience). These things are repeated over and over.
with the whole college application process, it is just really important and easier just to be yourself. If that doesn’t get you in, then maybe MIT isn’t the best match for you. If you fake your application, you might be miserable at MIT.

Again, there are no formulas to getting in. if you look through the old decision threads, you can see who did get in and who didn’t. That might be a good reference of what it takes since you don’t go to a school and have no one to compare to, but keep in mind that people won’t post everything on the internet.
Also really really important, read the admission blogs: Matt’s and Ben’s regarding admissions, Read everyone else’s to see student life, and also a little about their own experience of getting in.