Thoughts on EA decisions

Colleges & Universities Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>This is my second round of EA decisions on CC, so I feel like I may have earned the right to wax philosophic. I also do not have a [url=<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/Mollie.shtml]blog[/url”>Mollie B. ’06 | MIT Admissions]blog[/url</a>] anymore, so I’m in need of places to wax philosophic in the first place. :)</p>

<p>First, I want to say that no matter what your decision is, it did not come out the way it did because of your race. It did not come out the way it did because of your SAT score. There’s no one “reason” you were accepted/deferred/rejected. It’s a little frustrating, but that’s the reality of a holistic admissions process.</p>

<p>Your decision is not a value judgement on you and on the way you live your life. If you still believe that MIT’s admission rate is ~14% because only ~14% of the applicant pool is MIT-worthy, I have confidence you’ll change your mind on this issue at some point in the next few years. There may only be a handful of really smart kids in your high school, but when you go to college, no matter where you go to college, you will realize that there are a lot of highly gifted kids your age across the country. </p>

<p>Personally, I don’t think it’s possible to pull out “the best” small percentage of people out of a very talented applicant pool. Too many of you just haven’t had the ability in high school to show what you’re really made of.</p>

<p>For that reason, I don’t think anybody should really be shocked by his or her decision. If you got in, well, it’s because you’re fabulous. If you got deferred, well, it’s because you’re fabulous, but a lot of other fabulous people applied too.</p>

<p>Those of you who were deferred, you absolutely would not have been deferred if the admissions officers didn’t believe you would be competitive for admission in the regular action round. I know it’s rough to have to wait even longer when you’re antsy enough as it is. Just think of this as a second shot – you can update your application and make it stronger for regular action. You have the benefit of hindsight.</p>

<p>Best of luck to everybody, both at MIT and at other schools. As always, I’m available to answer questions about MIT on the board, via PM, and via email (although I’m notoriously bad at responding to emails!).</p>

2

<p>I’m still trying to figure out why MIT’s early admit rate is as low as Harvard’s REGULAR admit rate. </p>

<p>Also, can we really update our applications? To what extent – can we resubmit entire parts of it?</p>

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<p>MIT Admissions wants to fill up AT MOST 30% of the class early, and since it is Early Action, a lot of people are going to apply early… so that explains why MIT’s EA acceptance rate is low and often lower than its RD acceptance rate.</p>

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<p>MIT stops accepting people early after they have potentially filled 30% of the class.</p>

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<p>From Matt, [last</a> year](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/the_selection_process_application_reading_committee_and_decisions/for_deferred_students.shtml]last”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/the_selection_process_application_reading_committee_and_decisions/for_deferred_students.shtml):

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