Originally posted by: DLeRium
Originally posted by: irishScott
Originally posted by: The Godfather
Originally posted by: Tab
You're doing the right thing by taking AP Classes, just keep getting As and Bs and you'll be fine.
As for MIT, why not UCLA or some other not-so-awesome-school-but-quite-good...
Yeah MIT is just something i pointed out. I rather go to a school for architecture in London, even if its not THAT great. Think i can make it?
There are plenty of good colleges out there. Screw MIT. Half of getting in there is politics. I know people with 4.3 GPAs and the best resumes in the world that didn't get accepted. Also, As and Bs are fine. I did the same thing in HS, and although my GPA was a 3.4 I still got into 6/7 colleges I applied to for Engineering (Including Virginia Tech, NCState, RIT, Syracuse, GMU, University of Delaware. Only one that rejected me was the pompous UVA bastards
).
I ended up going to the University of Delaware as it had a balance of programs that the other didn't (I'm also a hardcore chorus singer, so I wanted a good music program + good engineering). That and Virginia Tech was in the middle of nowhere.
But then again, I had an Engineering Resume to die for (President of FIRST Robotics Team, Co-Leader of NASA Student Launch Initiative Team, Went to the Internationals in the science fair, etc). My SATs were pretty good too (1380 on the old, 2100 on the new)
I had As and Bs. I had a 4.3 I had a 800/800/780 on my SAT IIs and a 1430 on my SAT I. Yes my SAT I was low but my high SAT IIs more than made up for it I'm sure because most people honestly focus too much on SAT Is while ther II scores are a lot lower than mine even if they got 1500s on their SAT Is. Even with my 4.35 GPA I was rank 55 out of a class of 515. Go figure. You needed a 4.6 to be in the top 10. Even then only a few people out of our whole class got into MIT. We are one of the top HSes in the nation and in CA, and I can guarantee you if you wanted to take SAT scores, our HS would top out a lot of others simply because we're like 75% Asian.
Honestly, you just named a bunch of schools
I got denied from MIT and StanFUrd.
Also, the schools you named to say there's no point in MIT aren't even on the top whatever in US News for engineering schools. I think you should at least name alternatives like Cal, Stanfurd, GA Tech, CMU, Cornell, UT Austin, etc...
My guess is that the following points hurt your chances at somewhere like MIT:
1) You're Asian (any school looks to diversify itself, and with Asians being historically overrepresented in the engineering/tech populations, it could work against you)
2) Your HS being as good as you say it is; no college is going to recruit its entire incoming class from one city, county, or even state; therefore, they look to take the best of the best from various areas. When your region is producing large numbers of outstanding candidates, it hurts the chances of the people not in that top 1%
3) You didn't list any extracurricular activities. I'm not saying you didn't participate in any, but I'd imagine that the average MIT/Cal Tech/whatever applicant has a respectable number of clubs and side-projects to his or her name.
Beyond that, part of the process is simply how much the committee likes your portrayal of yourself. Once you make it past the cut-point in terms of raw numbers/scores, and actually have a real person looking at your application, it's all about how well-rounded you appear, how good a fit you are for the program (and vice-versa), and how much the committee is willing to take the gamble that you'll complete your degree.
If all you have are grades and test scores, some committee members might be hesitant to admit you based on a lack of life experience. Without said experiences, there's likely a greater chance that you'll enter the program and realize it's not quite what you had expected. Either that, or you'll feel the need to take the infamous post-freshman-year vacation.
Edit: I should add that not getting into MIT wouldn't be the end of the world. In the end, the quality of the program matters substantially less than the amount of work you're willing to put into your own education. Upper-tier schools have disproportionately fewer incoming student slots than they do applicants, and so they're forced to accept the people who present themselves as the most likely to succeed.
But no matter how many times these colleges have run through admissions processes before, none of them are perfect at it. Every year, thousands of candidates who would've done astoundingly well are denied admission; many of them go on to other colleges where the steadfastly apply themselves, develop their abilities, and reach great successes in their lives.
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