So about International Admissions...

Jimmy797
Sun, 09 Jan 2011 16:00:02 +0000

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



I don’t doubt that states are different in their own way, be it in culture or education. I was merely saying that the lack of representation of 2 states does not mean that MIT doesn’t care about the international applicant pool in terms of diversifying (as I understood from michael’s post). I mean, I know that the US is the college’s priority and all, but I’ve noticed that they do still put an emphasis on international students, and I really appreciate that.



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.

That’s likely very true. Last year, a student from our school was admitted at MIT with somewhat lacking stats. Personally, I think he was deserving of the acceptance as he was really intelligent and his personality fit MIT (in my opinion.) His grades and rank weren’t on the same level as the acceptances I’ve seen in the EA/RA acceptance thread of 2014 on the MIT forum, though. His acceptance was likely because 1- The education here is somewhat more advanced than the States’ (we take freshman year courses in 12th grade), 2- His essays and recommendations likely stood out, and 3- Few if any applicants with stats similar to US admits apply from here. I’m really hoping the same thing will happen with me this year, as my stats, while better than his, are not really of the same level as top US students who get in. (To be clear, I don’t think that if my grades don’t keep me out I’m a sure admit, but I’ll be a lot less sad if I’m rejected because MIT didn’t think I’m a fit than if they did but rejected me because of my grades.)



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.

I didn’t quite mean it that way. While I still think MIT cares for diversity (I’m sure they’re not going to accept all internationals from just 5 countries), I don’t doubt that what they look for is those students who have exhausted all possible resources in their country, and may have untapped potential. The likelihood that this leads to multiple country acceptances anyway is probably collateral damage, but it adds to the diversity in any case. I know that if they don’t see a reason to admit anyone from my country, for example, they won’t admit just for the sake of having 1 applicant from this specific country. That’s not what I meant. I was just thinking/hoping that, because of the international quota, when reading this country’s applications they’ll pick the one or two best and admit them, because honestly, our educational system is quite good and some applicants can be stellar (in more ways than stats-wise.)



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.

Once again, I’d like to straighten out my point - I didn’t mean that there’s a target number of admits. I was acknowledging the fact that there might be a quota for each country depending on its number of applicants. This would inevitably lead to their choosing the top applicants as long as they’d see them as a fit. If there’s no fit, there’s no admits. However, in reading the applications together in context of the country, as you said, some countries (like mine) where not many students apply to colleges such as MIT gives a sort of advantage over, say, Asian applicants, whose stats undoubtedly need to be top-notch to gain an acceptance. Otherwise, I think most of the international admits would be Asian, with one or two from other areas. Which just wouldn’t be fair, as sometimes resources in other countries aren’t as plentiful. Which is why the ‘advantage’ that one might get from a country with a small number of applications isn’t really an advantage, so much as a context-viewing that helps that applicant.

Sorry for the million word post ;)