<p>To tell you the truth I am really frustrated. </p>
<p>I am an Taiwanese international student from El Salvador. I was rejected by MIT and several other colleges (Stanford and Princeton), but I really don’t know why. I have very good scores and good recommendations, I even have several very good ECs but I still got rejected, not even wait listed, can anyone tell me why?</p>
<p>I got
111 in my TOEFL
800 in Math 2 SAT
800 in Chem SAT
800 in Physics SAT</p>
<p>*MIT only requires subject test and TOEFL for internationals</p>
<p>I also have predicted grade of 7 in IB Math HL, Physics HL and Chemistry HL. I was predicted a 42 in my IB diploma. I am ranked 2nd or 3rd of the school.</p>
<p>For my ECs:</p>
<p>I won national Knowledgebowl competition of El Salvador
I am a national ranked archer
I played trumpet in the National Youth symphony and performed in front of the presidents during the Ibeamerican Conference (not solo, just with the orchestra).
Me and my friends formed a group that raised around $5000 to renew a children’s hospital in San Salvador
I like to make papercraft and have designed some really cool papercraft
I was the part of the Science Club and Leader of the Engineering Club
I also raised funds to help a school in rural area of El Salvador</p>
<p>My Essays</p>
<p>I wrote about how moving from Taiwan to El Salvador changed me (it should be pretty good).
I also wrote about how I realized what is passion. (Before a very important archery competition my Bow broke so I couldn’t participate in the competition and it was my last year)</p>
<p>because everyone that applies to MIT has stats as good as yours. They just happened to not need a Taiwanese archer this year. It is nothing against you, thousands of students with stellar stats were rejected- not only from MIT, but from Stanford and Princeton too.</p>
<p>I know it sucks, but there are a lot of factors that contribute to the decision. Did you apply for financial aid? From what I’ve heard, colleges in the US don’t like to give FA to internationals, so that could’ve been one thing. Another thing is demographics, which is another unfortunate factor. As you probably know, there seems to be an ongoing discussion about raising the bar for asian applicants. I’m sorry you got rejected, but try and go someplace nice and if you feel very strongly about it, apply next year…</p>
<p>I don’t believe that everyone has stats that good though it is far from unheard of at somewhere of MIT’s caliber. While it is common wisdom to some of us that you can never expect admission to such competitive schools with full certainty, it can be hard to make sense of what happened. Unfortunately, I think it depends too much on the rest of the pool and what was going on in admissions at that particular time to shed tremendous light, else “chance me” threads would be valid.</p>
<p>MIT admits about 150 international students per year due to federal quotas that limit the percentage of international students to about 15%. The same is true of other schools. So it is quite competitive.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response everyone. I know my chance was a crap shot but I still feel kind of mad. BTW do you think I will have a better chance if I reapply next year? I currently don’t have any universities due to several bad decisions so I will be taking a gap year. But I am not sure if I want to spend another $75 just to get rejected again.</p>
<p>International admissions are extremely competitive at MIT. Considerably more competitive than domestic admissions which are already very competitive. The acceptance rate for internationals is under 4%. MIT only admits a certain number of international students which is something like 10% of the class. However, I don’t think that is because of any federal quota but instead because of policies chosen by the MIT administration [people higher up than the admissions office]. I don’t think MIT considers financial aid for international applicants although many colleges do. Whether or not Asian-American applicants face higher standards is irrelevant to this as well. It is a known fact that international students at MIT face higher standards and that has nothing to do with race.</p>
<p>
It’s both, really – the quota is set by higher-ups in the administration in response to government policies. MIT receives a great deal of money from the federal government, and the government expects that money to be used primarily for educating US citizens.</p>
<p>Hmm ok then. Is there any reason why the quota is much lower for undergrads than for grad students?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Whether or not you have a better chance next year depends on what you do with your spare time. In general, though, I wouldn’t count on getting in next year. You come across as feeling entitled in this post (I wonder if MIT thought you sounded this way too?) and failed to apply to any safety schools - hopefully you’ll make better decisions with round II.</p>
<p>I think the biggest contributing factor to feeling entitled is for whatever reason asking why on earth <em>not</em> admit you as opposed to why it is clear that you should be admitted. I say this because frequently, a rejected applicant will have a lot of the same traits as an accepted one, and really may have been top of the list for at least someone on the committee. Things don’t always work out the way any given committee member wants.</p>
<p>However, it can be easy to see people who got accepted in the past and feel (perhaps even rightfully) that one is up to snuff, and feel bad if rejection still happens. Something that can help is to realize that there are others with just as impressive resumes who didn’t make it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I wonder this too. Perhaps the role of say, a PhD student, is seen more as the role of a professional than of someone getting educated, and the same obligation to use the money to educate the nation’s people is not as much in place.</p>
<p>It could be interesting to see the percentage of postdocs who are in the international category.</p>
<p>
My guess is that there’s more non-federal departmental money available to fund graduate students. To my knowledge, there is not an MIT-wide quota set on the number of international grad students, it’s just up to each individual department to figure out funding for every admitted student. American grad students are still somewhat preferable funding-wise, as they can be put on governmental training grants or fellowships, but there is some departmental money put aside to fund graduate students who aren’t eligible for government funding.</p>
<p>Federal research grants awarded by NSF in response to proposals do not have restrictions on the citizenship of the students supported as research assistants. I assume that the same is true at NIH. At my university, I have supported a lot of international students in the Ph.D. program as RAs, over time. NSF does ask about the citizenship status of the personnel supported on the grant (when the reports are submitted annually), but I have not heard about the citizenship of the research assistants being a factor in the decision to award a grant. </p>
<p>Awards from defense agencies may have restrictions on citizenship, and often do, as do some of the training grants that are awarded to departments or cross-departmentally in a university. Some programs permit permanent residents as well, but I think some do not.</p>
<p>You don’t seem to have mentioned your SAT Reasoning scores? From what I gather that too is a requirement. </p>
<p>Sent from my MT15i using CC</p>
<p>
NIH training grants are only for US citizens, both the departmental T32s and the individual F31s. I am not sure whether an individual lab’s R01 could provide salary support for non-US citizens, though I would suspect so. I do think permanent residents count as citizens – my collaborator was a permanent resident when he started his MD/PhD, and MD/PhDs are supported by individual NIH training grants.</p>
<p>In biomedical sciences programs, students are typically on departmental training grants for the first two years, then on their PI’s dime afterward. So international students have to be funded from non-NIH departmental money for the first two years. As you can imagine, the programs that have the option are pretty biased toward admitting US citizens. </p>
<p>But that’s interesting info, thank you – I am so immersed in my little corner of science, I forget that we’re not the whole story.</p>
<p>I am pretty certain that faculty in our Department have non-citizen, non-permanent residents on their R01’s; I think this is/was also true for NIH Program Project grants with multiple PI’s. Training grants are in a different category. I suspect that IGERT awards might have citizenship restrictions. </p>
<p>Out here in the hinterlands, students are often supported as teaching assistants in the first year or two, rather than on departmental training grants to start. I’d guess that MIT has grad TAs (although I know that MIT also has some undergrad course assistants as well)–so TA-ships might cover foreign students with reasonable English skills, until the faculty mentor’s grant kicks in with a research assistantship.</p>
<p>Stats are not everything in the admissions process. While a high GPA and good SAT scores are important, MIT and other colleges are also heavily focused on the applicant’s personality and passion. Exhibiting high passion for something as well as great stats means a very good chance of getting accepted.</p>