10 Things Not To Do If You Are Applying To MIT

Application season for the incoming class of 2014 is coming up and MIT has probably one of the most difficult applications out there. As an ex-applicant and an MIT reject (currently enrolled at Penn State University Park), I thought I might as well share some insight to the application. Most of these come from personal experience, so take warning. These are 10 things not to do if you are applying to MIT:

Hack MIT Yes, I did it. I did a hack as an applicant. The MyMIT.info hack got me noticed but hacking will not get you in. Even worse, if you think you are addicted to MIT before, you will really be addicted after hacking them. And with their acceptance rate, you don’t want to get emotionally connected to MIT as you are setting yourself up for depression. Even now I see Killian Court on The Science Channel every once in a while and feel somewhat depressed.
Purchase MIT Gear (Clothing, Flags, Calculator Covers) If you are rejected from MIT, you’re just going to like an idiot walking around wearing an MIT T-Shirt on another college’s campus. Wait until you are admitted before putting a calendar of pictures of MIT’s campus on your desk and placing that order for a mug with “MIT Engineers” on it.
Participate in the Senior Slide Some may call it Senioritis, but I prefer the term Senior Slide as it’s a good bit of working climbing to the top but darn it is fun to slide down. If you are finishing out your high school career with some Ds and Fs on your report cards, then you would die at MIT. Heck, if you get an F on your first report card in a core class your senior year, you are pretty much screwed either way. (True story!)
Claim that you are definitely going to make it in I know many who did this. And with many of them, I took schadenfreude in their misfortunes. It may be cruel, but just don’t get expectations up. If I recall, the acceptance rate last time was 9%.
“Discover” your potential last minute Okay, if you are one of those that slacked off for 3 years of high school and then decided you want to go to MIT, thus launching you into a crazed attempt to up your GPA, you are probably too late to make it.
Make MIT is your only school No it isn’t. I know one kid with insanely hit SAT scores, ACT scores, and the highest GPA in his school and he still got rejected. He then spent the following month hastily trying to apply to other colleges but finding it hard to get in at that point. I personally applied at three schools with a fourth one prepared just incase the three fell through. I was rejected at MIT, waitlisted at CMU (just turned them down…they kept wanting me to wait), and finally accepted at Penn State. It wasn’t where I wanted to go, but I’ll survive.
Join the MIT Class of 20xx group on Facebook You aren’t a part of the class yet! And if you are rejected, it isn’t cool to be a Penn State student in a group full of MIT students
Remain a recluse Get in contact with some other MIT applicants. You may be seeing some of them for at least 4 years of your life, so at least prepare to be social. I invite the class of 2014 applicants to use the MIT chatroom I created when I was applying. You can access it here.
Create a blog about MIT That is essentially what my blog was about couple months ago. Now I look like a nitwit with an entire category dedicated to the university.
Wait until the last minute to submit your application Get it over with. Start early and submit it at least a week before. Do not let your tendencies as seniors take the best of you. Besides, if you are already done, you can help out others with their applications.

Ahana says:

June 11, 2009 at 9:32 AM

lol

An MIT '12er says:

June 11, 2009 at 11:40 AM

I think those are interesting, but subjective. For example, I did 2, 6, 7, 9, and 10. And I got in.
2. I went a whole year at my high school wearing only MIT sweatshirts. It was a good luck charm. It let everyone know where I was applying, and they supported me 100% of the way. I was the first one to get in from my school in 6 years.
6. I only applied to MIT. Early. Didn’t apply anywhere else. Had no plans to apply anywhere else. didn’t apply anywhere else. Made it my only option. Why? Motivation.
7. I joined the 2012 group at like 100 people. Watched it grow to almost a thousand. Chatted with future classmates. Made CPW a blast since I met people way before hand. Saw the numbers dwindled as people who chose other schools dropped out. Talked to future classmates about clubs and activities and classes. Made me more informed before going in. Let me see the kinds of people going there.
9. I kept a blog for a while. Had my own site and everything. I have since moved on to other forms of social media / thought sharing (not to mention my domain renting ran out and I was cheap) but while I was applying, that’s what I wrote about, for that’s what I thought about. Did it get many readers? I don’t know. I don’t care. It was my space, and what was occupying my time was MIT. I was a bit worse though, as you only have one category for MIT, I had MIT-Apply, MIT-Rumors, MIT-Classes, MIT-News, MIT-Awesome.
10. I’m a terrible procrastinator. I know its true. Yet I do it because it helps me focus. I’m work great under pressure. Yes I started the application early. I got the recommendation forms handed out over the summer. I filled out part one like in August or like a week after it was released. But Part 2? The Essay? I couldn’t rush that. I didn’t rush that. You have to go with how you work best, and my best isn’t forcing it.

I’m not trying to rub this in your face or anything like that. Honest to god. I just think better advice would be to do what you do. Do as you do. Their selection process is complex and looks for the people they think will fit in, and they do a pretty damn good job, as their drop out rate is very very low. Maybe I’m biased, its true. But trying to be someone else just to get into your dream school is bound to leave you disappointed.

Instead of don’t do the aforementioned. I think you should do it! In fact, do more! Do everything that shows your passion about a school. Make sure all your teachers, all your classmates, your counselors, the MIT reps who come to your school, your interviewer, make sure EVERYONE knows how much you really want to go to that school. They look for passion. It says so on their website. Yes you need good grades, and good SAT scores, but mine weren’t amazing. Math was actually my lowest score. But passion show them that you’ll do whatever it takes to stay in. Your enthusiasm for their school is the key, at least in my experience, to making you stand out over all the other applicants with their perfect SAT scores and 20 AP tests.

Ashwath says:

June 20, 2009 at 11:36 PM

They may ‘look’ for passion but it’s nice to remember that at the end of the day, they’re just another school with just another admissions process. Do NOT get carried away by the very cool admissions website into thinking that there’s something magical that other places don’t have. It’s great to study at MIT, but there are several other places which are just as awesome.

For the most part, we hackers didn’t recognise that. And well … you know the rest of the story.

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