Stanford SCEA? Good stats, but not sure about ECs.

GammaGrozza
Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:23:05 +0000

^There are two schools of thought on the topic the past couple posts brought up. I think my MIT application highlights this…

I play golf. Really well. I’d be the best player (arguably) at MIT based on the team results I’ve seen. I also enjoy math and science. A lot. But so does every other stinking MIT applicant.

So, do I highlight what makes me different (golf) or focus on what the school is looking for that almost everyone else has (strong math and science)? Tough dilemna. If I write an essay about golf, then I don’t get to express my passion for math and science and MIT might think I’m just a random guy with good math/science grades and a couple math/science ECs (which I may or may not be passionate for) who wants in at MIT. If I write an essay about math/science, then I may end up sounding like every other applicant and I don’t get to stand out as much as I’d like. So, what to do?

In case you were wondering, I ended up writing the essay about golf and getting rejected. The two may not be correlated at all, though. Who knows?