<p>My dream graduate school is MIT. I’m at a state college right now, where the median act is 24, But the engineering is decent.</p>
<p>I want to make it into MIT by the time I graduate. My major is chem e and math. Possibly switching to aero e or mechanical engineering.</p>
<p>I want to study a lot, but I also want to have fun. Hopefully you can let me have a better perspective about how much of each I should have if I want to get into a place like MIT.</p>
<p>If I have the capacity, I’m going to try to fit these into my years.
17+ credit hours/semester
ultimate frisbee
aiaa or aiche (american institute of aero/chem engineers)
internship/research assistant job
some math club</p>
<p>I’m probably not going to fully dedicate myself to all of these. It’s only been a week into the semester, so I guess I’m going to be a lot less ambitious a couple of more months into college.</p>
<p>Hate to break it to you, but you’ll need to do extremely well, as in get a 3.7+. Even that might not be enough. Get as involved as you can while maintaing that GPA.</p>
<p>Only you are going to be able to tell how much of what you need to do. I for one make top grades and in order to do so I study about 30 hours a week for 12-15 credit hours. I do still get free time and time for socializing, but when and how much is dependent on how much schoolwork I get and when I get it done. Some people don’t need to study as much. If MIT is your dream school and you really want it you will have to make academic pursuits your top priority and let the rest fall into place around it.</p>
<p>"I’d focus more on grades and research if I wanted to go to MIT for grad school… "</p>
<p>Do they care about leadership, wellroundedness or what not that they look for in younger students? In this one book, it talks about how most successes are achieved through human relations, while little of it is attributed to ability - even in engineering. It’s a stretched statement, but I don’t think it can be left out in any application</p>
<p>I’m certainly not going to act like I know about grad school admissions, but this guy certainly sounds like he knows what he’s talking about (he goes to MIT for grad school…he just finished his thesis). Here’s just a couple of his blog posts about extracurriculars in college.</p>
<p>So is there really no point in doing extracurriculars in college if you want to go to grad school? I’m a second year engineering right now and I’m in two clubs and volunteer for another area at my school and I have some thoughts of going to grad school, although I’m not entirely sure yet. I have an average GPA (3.0). Should I really just cut a couple of my EC’s and focus a lot more time studying and trying to get my GPA up?</p>
<p>"So is there really no point in doing extracurriculars in college if you want to go to grad school? "</p>
<p>I hope to god you don’t JUST do ECs for applications, that totally defeats the purpose of them.</p>
<p>I would cut something to bring that GPA up if that’s what you have to do, but I would wonder if you are using the time you have wisely? I personally love my ECs and wouldn’t want to cut them unless I’d exhausted my other options. Maybe cut back ons ome involvement without actually cutting it out?</p>
<p>Even if you’re not in love with your ECs, there is more learning for you to do in college than you can learn in a classroom. Your grades have got to come first but I certainly wouldn’t say there’s no point. Time management, social skills, and personal development all sound good to me. You won’t get hired without those skills, either.</p>
<p>NOOOOO I never meant doing extracurriculars in college is meaningless. My point is to focus on academics and research because those two are the most important for grad school, but still find 1-2 things you love to do outside of the classroom and focus on them so you can do great things with them. Doing that is going to be more impressive than doing 5 extracurriculars decently.</p>
<p>Do school and research during the week. Partay on the weekends. Have some fun…focusing on too many things at once will not be good. It all works out.</p>
<p>If you enjoy ECs, then do them. They can greatly enhance the college experience.</p>
<p>Don’t do something just to put it on your application. Graduate schools won’t care about/don’t wan’t to see anything not related to your intended field of study on your application.</p>
<p>I would also think that sucking up to a professor helps. I’ve known the associate math professor since I was in HS because he organized a math session at our HS every friday. I’m going to try to get close to him and go to his math sessions both to sharpen my math skills as well as a possibility for an excellent recommendation.</p>
<p>For Grad School: it’s about the grades, research/publications (if you’re lucky), GRE scores, and professor recommendations. Only do the EC’s if they’re enjoyable to you because they really don’t play a big part in the grad school admission’s process. Definitely form relationships with your professors.</p>