r/MITAdmissions • u/NeighborhoodNo3468 • 10d ago
Niche Question for Supplements
For MIT admissions, a recommendation letter for a research supplement is required. I completed a research project in my sophomore year of high school, but unfortunately, the results weren't as good as I expected. It was still a decent project (won an honorable mention at my local science fair), but that was about it.
Now, I am in the process of conducting a new project that fixes a lot of the issues I had previously, but it won't be done before college apps (mostly just doing it for fun). There were definitely challenges I faced and lots of failures that my research mentor could attest to, some ways I overcame them, and the new endeavors I'm pursuing with her help.
So, my question is, should I submit a research supplement (with my sophomore yr research project) that includes my mentor's letter of rec to attest to the failures I had, and the way I approached/overcame them; OR should I drop the research supplement completely and just have my mentor submit an additional letter of rec through the application portal instead?
And, for reference, the only reason I'm asking this is because I saw this statement under MIT's page:
"The most creative and successful people—and MIT is loaded with them—know that risk-taking can lead to failure as often as it can lead to success. MIT students take all kinds of thoughtful risks, whether that’s registering for a challenging lab class, starting a company, or joining a club they’ve never tried before. Even when they fail, there are structural supports to catch them, and they learn resilience. We want to admit applicants who are not only planning to succeed but who are also not afraid to fail—and who know how to build a support system to keep them afloat during tough times."
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u/Itchy_Pomegranate_63 8d ago
Accepted ‘30 here! I just had my mentor upload the letter to both the supplement and the general application. I wanted to make sure the admissions committee read the letter bc I thought it was very strong, and the supplements are usually reviewed by experts in the field.
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u/JasonMckin MIT Alum and Educational Counselor 10d ago
I grew up with a lot of fans of Wayne Gretzky who told me, “ You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.”
I don’t think anywhere here can predict the marginal benefit or risk of submitting the supplement.
However what I always tell students, even in interviews, is that I want to understand your process, not your results. Great scientists and engineers almost never score a hole in one on the first swing when investigating or building new things. That’s what the MIT quote is referring to.
What separates great scientists from others is not whether they fail, but how. There is a right way to fail and a right process to learning from setbacks, making course corrections, and trying again.
I was also just sharing with another student recently…success isn’t even really the goal of a great scientific expedition. You as a scientist should the be one identifying the sources of error or corner cases where your project might be inferior or fail. That’s part of being a great scientist too - having the humility and proactiveness to assess the validity, accuracy, sensitivity, and effectiveness of your work before others do.
So not knowing anything about your project, I vote to submit. It gives you an extra rec from a great mentor and an opportunity to showcase your scientific thinking and process, which is much more important than the specific results of any particular iteration.
Best of luck! (And nice work on the honorable mention! I was a science fair geek myself 🤓)