What does it take for an international to get accepted?

Mikalye
Fri, 22 May 2009 17:12:54 +0000

I have perhaps a different perspective. I am an international EC. Every year I interview a crop of bright, talented applicants to MIT. And yes it is true that every year I meet brilliant, talented, wonderful students who do not get in. But I have also met quite a few international applicants who have gotten in over the years, and I think that I have some perspective, and the answer to what MIT is looking for in international applicants is simple: It’s looking for exactly the same thing it is looking for in domestic applicants (though admittedly the competition is harder).

So, you don’t have to have achieved world beating results, own 5 patents, and be frustrated that the local town denied your planning application for a home-built supercollider in your backyard. Sure its nice if you have some of these things, but an extremely small percentage of the admitted class does (though admittedly those are the ones you hear about). You also definitely don’t need to have a narrative theme (such as purplecat suggests).

You do need to be a good match for MIT, that is CRITICAL (read [MIT Admissions: The Match Between You And MIT](http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/pulse/the_match_between_you_and_mit/index.shtml) ). I have seen some very brilliant candidates who nevertheless matched poorly.

You also need to demonstrate that you have taken full advantage of the educational opportunities available to you, whatever they may be. I had a candidate get in a few years back who had achieved a few small distinctions, and relatively modest SAT scores. However, she came from a largely rural and economically ravaged area in my country (nearest American equivalent is Appalachia). Almost none of her schoolmates went on to college, those that did went to the nearby community college. Her school did not teach enough physics to take the SAT2 test in Physics, but she had enlisted the aid of a science teacher at the school, and taught herself enough to do moderately well on the test. She had applied for and been accepted for a couple of national programs designed to encourage women who wished to enter the sciences, and had done a summer programme under scholarship at a major urban university. She got in. MIT reasoned that if she was able to accomplish what she had accomplished given the paucity of resources available to her, she could accomplish great things given what MIT could offer her.

The same year, I had another candidate who had significantly better test scores, and roughly equivalent other accomplishments. This kid however went to a very well-supported educational academy, was exhaustively prepped by the school for the tests and had a set of tutors amongst the rest of his families household staff. He did not get in. Now MIT was not penalising him for being wealthy, something he could not really help. But he had not parlayed that advantage into anything other than better test scores.

So anyone who tells you that you need a perfect SAT, or authorship of a major journal article, or any other crap is just wasting your time, and making you feel inadequate at the same time. There is no minimum level of anything necessary to get into MIT. But do understand that the competition is very, very strong, and it would be helpful to understand what MIT can do for you, and possibly what you could bring to MIT.

My tuppence,
-Mikalye