So about International Admissions...

molliebatmit
Sun, 09 Jan 2011 14:51:32 +0000

^That’s my bet as well.



Jimmy797:

Needing diversity doesn’t exactly qualify for different states, which are still in the same country. Different countries, on the other hand, show extremely different cultures, and contribute to diversity considerably (and a lot more than diversity of states.)

But different states in the US do have considerably different opportunities for education, and very different percentages of affluent families clued in to the top college scene. It is generally considered to be more difficult to be admitted to a top college (not just MIT) coming from an area like the east coast of the US, where there are many well-educated students clambering for spots, than coming from an area like the rural midwest. It’s simply easier to stand out if you’re a competitive applicant from a not-very-competitive area.

The same is likely to be true of international admissions to some degree. Coming from a country where not many people apply to top US schools probably is an advantage over coming from an area that sends an extremely high number of high-quality applicants.

I don’t think the first priority of admissions office in international admissions is to have the largest possible number of countries represented or to increase diversity. I think their first priority is to find really smart kids from around the globe, even if those kids were not given opportunities for a top-notch education in their home countries.

And when I say that there’s no target number of admits from a given country each year, I mean to expand that to say that there’s also no target number of countries, either – MIT will not take the top one or two applicants from a country “as long as they qualify”. They will take the top ~150 people from the entire pool.