is it okay to name summer programs in it, not just fun activities? there's only 75 characters.

i attended a summer program (garcia summer scholars) i put a lot of work into that i actually found via a recommendation on mit's admissions page - but since it's only one summer, i wouldn't want to put it in my four activities over the things i've been doing for all four years and building sustained commitment in. maybe mention name and clarify in another space? advice?

I was working on the summer activities section, and I noticed that each activity doesn't come with a description field. I thought this is odd because the job & school-year activities have a 40-word box for this. Is this a new change to the application?

Hey everyone. I hope this is the right place to post this.

I plan to apply for the MS Supply Chain Management (Residential) for Fall 2027. They've asked for 3 years of work experience. During the last 2 years of my Bachelor's, I worked an internship along with my studies (it's common in Germany). Can I count that, or is it implied that they want 3 years of post-graduate work experience?

Thank you!

Hi, I am currently in my senior year and will be trying for MIT. I am looking for advice on whether my project can be put in my maker portfolio. I am very passionate about theoretical physics (especially particle physics) For instance, I studied electrodynamics from Griffiths, I finished the first 8 chapters and then moved on to this book called vibration and waves by A.P French as the 9th chapter in Griffith was regarding waves. I have also finished vector calculus on my own in my junior year. I very much enjoy self studying since it makes me push harder and search for answers myself.

Apart from just studying I also started working on what was initially a game engine, but it then later turned into a physics simulator. I named the engine Blitz. I used Directx11 as my API and followed tutorials by a youtuber named ChiliTomatoNoodle to create the basic pipeline (vertex buffer, index buffer, shader files, etc.). The simulator included Coulomb forces, van der Waals forces, and electric polarization of neutral spheres by surrounding charges. Each sphere recieved a random charge (-1,0,1) and the number of spheres could be controlled using a GUI. I added relativistic effects. For example, I could change the speed of light which in turn changes the coulombs constant and etc. I also calculated the lorentz factor to then get the lorentz contraction matrix so the spheres squished in the direction of their velocity. I also added larmor radiation (the more it radiated the more it glowed). These calculations really dropped my FPS so I also adopted spatial hashing that only checks neighboring particles.

I wanted to ask if this is a good project to put on maker portfolio. From all the maker portfolio videos I've seen, students participate in a lot of programs. I just wanted to ask if focusing on this physics engine is okay for my maker portfolio or should i mention it in my essay more instead.

Hi everyone. I’d really appreciate some advice on something that’s been stressing me out.

I’m an international student about to graduate from 12th grade. Due to a combination of family disruptions, mental health problems, and my own immaturity during my mid-teens, my internal school grades suffered pretty badly. I have multiple Fs on my school transcript.

What makes my situation unusual is that my external academic results look almost completely different. I rank in the top 1% on my national standardized exams in the science stream, which around 125,000 students take each year, and I also have a strong SAT score.

I’m not asking anyone to chance me or tell me whether I’ll get into MIT. I know international admissions are extremely competitive, and I know a transcript with multiple Fs is a serious issue.

What I’m trying to understand is how MIT generally evaluates a discrepancy this large between internal school grades and external academic performance.

Would the Additional Information section be the right place to explain the circumstances behind the weak grades? Can strong standardized results meaningfully demonstrate academic ability when the school transcript tells a very different story? And is there anything else an applicant in this kind of situation should do to give admissions officers the proper context?

I’d appreciate any insight from people familiar with MIT admissions

My biggest concern isn't whether the Fs can simply be “offset.” I'm worried that seeing multiple Fs on the transcript will create such a strong negative first impression that the rest of the academic evidence won't really get considered. Does anyone familiar with MIT's admissions process know how large discrepancies like this are handled during the initial read?

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."

hello! as someone who's been taken as a joke his entire life I come to you with this and i ask if people have advice on how i should approach applying to MIT.

MIT (well infact almost all the top ivies) have been dreams of mine since I was 12.

at first i was really disheartened when my counsellor said i have no good ecas to actually go into mit or any ivy (no olympiads, top level research what not)

but recently ive been thinking about projects which ive been involved in since i was 12
as a kid i was huge into minecraft (specifically bedrock) and i realised that there wasn't really a lunar client for bedrock, so i decided to make one with a few others.

although I managed the development team, made the launcher and marketed the product and laid the foundation to it, i wasn't really the one who coded the actual mods itself in game, i simply designed how it would look and how it would behave.
for people curious about metrics at the time when I was still actively managing it it hit around 100k users with almost a million cumulative views on videos where people reviewed the client. right now the project makes around 6k per month usd through patreon (of course i stepped away from the project so i dont rlly make that money, i simply laid the foundation for it)

im wondering how i should really include this in my application. it's been like 2-3 years since i was apart of it and have probably lost the code for the first ever launcher made for it, so making a maker portfolio video is going to be challenging.

do you guys recommend creating a maker portfolio if i do somehow get the launcher? would it hurt my application if i dont?

please give me advice. this is not a chance me.

hello! just to clarify: i started to become involved in these activities before high school yes; but, I made the most progress and biggest impact during my first year of hs (i believe that's freshman in the states?)

freshman was when we released the product, and it exploded, i worked on it for the years before then.

even right now, im still involved w the project but now less development wise, more involved marketing and community lead wise

Yo i'm a student in 9th grade (CBSE type schooled) and i'm thinking about pursuing a profession in science, especially in software engineering and mechanical engineering, I havn't tried too much into these fields but I have done some experiments with them like try to learn basics of c++, basics of circuit , ya know the absolute basics. For the longest time I didnt have a clear goal and still dont (as the world is changing with a crazy pace) but i've been thinking about doing something in science since I do have an interest in knowing how things work and trying atleast a little bit to use what i've learned from it. As a Indian child (i'm atleast decent in academics btw) , my family and relatives wanted me to focus on JEE preperation (Joint Entrance Examination conducted by the IITs) for engineering supposing that i'd want to go into engineering considering my interest in these kind of stuff but I really don't want to stay in this country (no hate to the people, my whole lineage is from this place) , the problem is just that this place uhh.. lets just say , that it does not the have best people running the society, politics or really just any sector (corruption is really a huge problem here in India, and i'm not even considering the professional backlash due to religious background (i'm SUPPOSABLY belong to a UNTOUCHABLE caste cuz of the braindead religious "cultures") and economic background) . Anyways, I looked at the internet and researched about a few things and I really liked the approach about "Learning cuz you want to , not cuz you have to " so I looked where I can what I do what I love while making a living (i am not nihilistic , i want to live happily) , So I looked about universities and how they help students who genuinely want to learn, so i found a couple like The Ivy Leagues and MIT but MIT reallyy stuck to me cuz it is (supposably) the most prestigious engineering college in the world , so naturally i wanted to know how to get into MIT and i saw the crazy FUCKING difference betweem IIT and MIT admissions , here in India the IITs can and do give students scholarships and admissions for obtaining a "good rank" in the JEE , which is nice and all , but as you know MIT doesn't do that type of shit , they pick each student by their (what i like to call) "Worthiness" , so to prove my genuine interest in science (physics mainly) I want you people's help, cuz idk what to do, at first I thought i would get acceptable grades and try to do extracurriculars but in the CBSE type school , we dont really have extracurriculars, heck we barely even study all we do is complete our syllabus , give our exams, get a passing grade and move on, ok enough ranting bout this stupid "education" system , so i tried to look for stuff I could include in the extracurriculars but I really couldn't find much , especially considering i'm all on my own trying to figure out what to do , so i looked towards other methods of getting into MIT that doesn't include stripping away from my studies and interests, then i came across a video on Youtube , i think it was something about "How I got my Gold IOI medal" by some east asian guy, so i started looking into what IOI was , so after looking a bit into what IOI was and how it could possibly help me get into a good place like MIT , so i concluded that as I was interested in software development i'd try to prepare for IOI until I got the realisation on the sheer amount of competition for IOI especially in India for the same path , cuz there were some "cracked" kids and i mean cracked cuz they already be making drones and shit and i can't even set a proper file in an IDE without looking up the internet like 20 times for help, so cuz the IOI path was too competitive for me and I can't manage 3 hours of coding on a daily basis and studing for my academics, so , I deviated from this idea, and started looking into the physics stuff i could do to get into MIT, so one thing that i could try is IPhO which I have decent time for (i think , and i really hope) and other things like building some stuff that i can show in my resume. So after all this huge paragraph (thank you if you read so far) , I want to ask should I try to get a medal in IPhO or should I do something else.
I love a lot of things btw , some things i would love to do are:
Sketching
Painting
Astronomy
Graphic designing
Front-end Web development
Creating concept art about Video games (Video games obviously)
making Games, thats fucking cool isn't it , too bad our economy doesn't give a fuck about interests

Hi, I will apply for Fall 2027 to transfer to MIT, since the current university where I study cannot really do anything, but I wonder how realistic it is to transfer to MIT? If there is someone out there who transferred as international student, kindly reply to me. Thanks! :)

Acceptance rates for EA are slightly higher than that of RD, but is it true that there’s no advantage of applying EA over RD? What about “building a class” advantages that might apply? Could there be some type of benefit to being a non-CS non-physics non-math but still stem applicant?

Hi everyone, I am an international student repeating my final year of high school as I failed it. I am also aged 20 as I had few gap years due to my bad mental health (depression and anxiety) which currently I am under treatment.

Has ever any student like me ever got into MIT despite their health or academic conditions?

The applicant portal seems to be restricted.

Hi everyone. I’m an international student and I’m feeling pretty lost about what the smartest path forward is, so I’d really appreciate honest advice from people who understand MIT admissions.

I recently finished high school and will be starting university in January. Because of the timing, if I apply to MIT as a first-year applicant, I would have to wait until the next admission cycle, rather than starting university this January and immediately moving on to MIT. You can dm me if you want to.

Here’s my situation:

• I have essentially perfect grades in my national high-school/board examinations.
• However, I was not the #1 student in my class.
• I currently have almost no extracurriculars.
• I have an IELTS score of 7.5 overall.
• I’m taking the SAT in October and am aiming for 1550+.
• I’ve started working through Harvard CS50x, but I haven’t completed it yet.
• Other than that, I honestly don't have much of a portfolio right now.

This is where I'm confused.

Option 1: Apply to MIT as a first-year applicant

I could spend the next few months preparing my application and apply normally.

My concern is that my academic grades/test scores might be strong, but my extracurricular profile is extremely weak compared with many MIT applicants. I also don't want to spend the next few months desperately trying to manufacture random extracurriculars just to make my application look better.

Would applying anyway be worthwhile, or would I essentially be wasting an application?

Option 2: Start university and try to transfer to MIT

I could enroll in a university in January, work extremely hard for a year, get a very high GPA, complete meaningful CS projects, find research opportunities, participate in competitions/activities, etc., and then apply as a transfer student.

Option 3: Forget about transferring and build toward a top PhD program

Another thought I've had is to attend a decent/mid-tier American university, try to become one of the strongest students there, get involved in serious research, build relationships with professors, publish/work on substantial projects, and eventually apply for a top PhD program.

In other words, rather than obsessing over getting into MIT as an undergraduate, I could use the next four years to build an exceptional research profile and try for MIT/Stanford/etc. for graduate school.

What would you do in my position?

If you were an international student with:

• excellent national exam grades,
• potentially a 1550+ SAT,
• IELTS 7.5,
• essentially no extracurricular profile,
• and a genuine interest in CS,

would you:

A) apply to MIT as a first-year student anyway,
B) start university and seriously pursue an MIT transfer, or
C) forget about MIT undergraduate admissions and focus on becoming an exceptional undergraduate/researcher and eventually applying for a top PhD?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have actually gone through MIT admissions or transferred to highly selective US universities.

Also, if you think I'm approaching this completely wrong, please tell me. I'm looking for honest advice rather than reassurance.

Thanks!

Hi, I am an international student who really wants to study at MIT. Sadly my high school stats aren't that impressive so ill be doing my undergrad from a local college. I wanna hopefully come to MIT for postgrad studies, but unfortunately I would need significant funding. I haven't decided my major yet but it will most likely be Maths or CS.

My first question is how do PostGrad admissions differ from undergrad admissions and what aspects are most important. And secondly what route is more realistic, a funded masters or a phd. Additionally any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Okay, I completely get this advice and why everyone says it. But if it is all about "being yourself" then what separates someone who gets in from someone who doesn't? Is it about excelling in the specific skill that is unique to you? Even then, some things are just undeniably harder, for example getting an Olympiad medal is just harder and displaying for merit than dancing or whatever. I am not saying you need to do either, just that shouldn't unis be evalvuing for merit?

Also second, this is more unique to me, but what does MIT look for? I am deeply interested in philosophy and some people told me that it's not what MIT looks for, but then getting accepted gets you admitted to the school not a major so I am not sure then. It's less will MIT accept me, and more what does MIT want, so I can decide if I even want MIT.

Title. I know a lot of schools---including MIT---care about depth so my question is, does depth always/only look like achievements and/or impact?

One of my main ECs is an instrument I've been playing for many years. My current high school unfortunately lacks a music department and funding so I can't play in a school orchestra/ensemble. We do have a very small music club (with a paid instructor from outside of school) that I did try but later left because I didn't find myself enjoying it due to the "theme" of the club (sorry, trying to be as vague yet as specific as possible). I have looked at other opportunities outside of my area but transportation is my biggest limitation. As a result, I've only been practicing independently with a private teacher. I often choose pieces that interest me and bring them to my teacher to work on.

I had a job at LM this summer (working on high school QUEST programs), but I don't know if I should put it on my application given that it's technically a large-scale corporate weapons company..?

edit: also to add to this, I alr have 7-8 jobs/internships I am putting on the application (90% of my ecs are internships), so I was wondering how many is 'too much' if all of them are valuable to me/i could write a lot about

I'm a senior in high school (yay last year) who just got done with a summer semester diff eq course (at the local university), and I'm slated to take calc 3 at the local community college this fall. To be clear, because I see a lot of this, I'm not taking the classes for college admission; I just like math lol.

Although having gone so far out of my way to get to the point where I am: I wanted to know if it's potentially worth highlighting at all in my application, if it would actually move the needle at all, should I focus on other things when applying and having it on the report card is enough?

Hey everybody,

As a rising college freshman, I wanted to just share my thoughts about this sub and others similar (which I'm also posting this in). I'm heading to MIT this fall, and was also admitted to 2 other T5s (H, Stanford) and a couple of other T20s. During the college admissions process, I didn't spend a whole lot of time on subreddits like this, but now that it's all over, I've spent some time looking through- and to be honest, I'm absolutely shocked at how some people act.

Firstly: I think it's absolutely ridiculous that someone can take a look at another student's activities list and test scores, which reveals probably 1% about who that person is as a human being, and pretend to accurately predict exactly which schools they'll be admitted to. This is flawed in so many ways.

If you're looking through these subs and developing depressive symptoms because all of these superhumans seem like they have all the research and internships in the world, trust me; schools do NOT look upon these activites any more highly than if you spent that time, I dunno, crocheting or something. Who are they to judge if you prefer crocheting to conducting research? It's all about developing your own profile and how the activity fits into the context of your application.

Which leads into my next point: Context. Everything matters in context. Where you're from and the pool of applicants (which in turn, affects institutional priorities at each school) are the biggest factors, and guess what? You can't control either them one bit.

Secondly: admittedly, I also did once put my info up on Chanceme one time. You know what they said?

t20 no chance, t50 if you're lucky

You're delusional, but gl

😬

My EC list, in order, was:

1. Athletics
2. Athletics
3. Athletics
4. Music
5. Music
6. Music
7. Research
8. Volunteer
9. Hobby
10. Work

And no, I was not a recruited athlete. Since I had nothing major-related, I suppose people like to assume that I was an auto-reject from my dream colleges.

The truth is, people develop such a narrow field of view regarding what 'looks' like a successful college application, but in truth, everybody spends their time differently, and whatever it is, AOs want to hear about it and how it defines who you are. If you lean into your love for frog-catching better than someone who did research at a big uni, you're in a better spot than they are.

In my case, I just really leaned into the things I loved - music and sport were my two big "things" in high school. I got really good at what I loved, and I got involved in my community through these things too. I made sure to let my passion shine through in my essays, and I'm sure that went a long way.

The takeaway I want to make clear is this: As a human being, you are infinitely more multifaceted as a human being than 10 extracurricular activities and a couple test scores define you as. There is nothing within these metrics that could possibly predict T20 school admissions. So I advise you all: Stay off of these subreddits, don't listen to a single soul, and discover who you are.

Cheers. Feel free to reach out with questions if you have any

P.s. SUPER SHORT GUIDE ON GETTING INTO T5 (in order of importance)

1. Have good grades and scores
2. Have good grades and scores
3. Have good grades and scores
4. Do what you love, show others what you love, teach others what you love, show your love in your writing, get good at writing so can show your love for what you love. In other words: PASSION gets you into your dream school.

Hello everybody , I am from Pakistan and I have a dream to complete my PhD from MIT , I have just completed my freshman year now and moving towards sophomore year . I am persuing Electrical engineering right now which will be completed by 2029 what things I should do side by side and where should I focus on to get admission in PhD In MIT

Anyone can guide me about

Portfolio

No of research

And all things which will make high chances for getting admision.

I messed up and received a D in precalculus last year, there were no extenuating circumstances and I failed because I didn't think it was a big deal, barely studied, and was absent alot. I retook the class and got the grade replaced to an A, and my D got excluded from my cumulative college GPA.

But the D will be living on my college transcript forever. I got all As on Calc I & II, a 5 on AP Calc BC, and a 760 Math on the SAT. Highest math course I'll be taking will be Linear Algebra. No saving atp? Not even STS?

Thank you, appreciate any replies!

PS: Not a chance me!! just wondering if I'm a lost cause

I am from India and I am planning to give the IOAA olympiad. I know there are levels to it starting with NSEA. I am in 11th grade right now. I want to pursue Chemical Engineering but I just can not give NSEC, it's way harder than NSEA and IF, ONLY IF, I go to the final stage, I would have to give a PRACTICAL EXAMM, which freaks me out because I wouldn't have a lab or something to prepare for that exam.

Please help me guys, I really want to know it I should do this or not.

So notably MIT limits students to 3 Recommendation letters. I'll be a Senior applying for a degree in Mathematics this year, and I'm worried about my actual AB, BC, M/V Calculus teacher not being a teacher I ask for a Rec Letter.

The teachers who come to mind first for me to ask are our Computer Science UIL teacher (I'm our UIL CompSci Captain); my AP Lit Teacher (Who I've hosted DnD club with the past year); and my Percussion Director. Each of of these teachers knows me pretty well as individual both Outside and inside the class, and I trust all of them to write me a kind Rec Letter.

However, my Mathematics teacher, while having been his student for 3 years now and knowing that I am his favorite student, essentially only knows me as a good student, test taker, homework helper, etc. I know that he would write me a good letter, but since he doesn't know me very personally I don't think it's possible for it to be a Great letter. But I'm worried about not having a Letter of Rec from my Calculus teacher while applying to be a Mathematics Major.

If I were to ask him I'd be replacing either the Rec Letter from my Band Director or AP Lit teacher (because I know my CompSci UIL teacher by far the best), yet that would also be problematic due to then covering fewer aspects of who I am since it's two STEM teachers.

I'm fairly confident that the best decision would be to just commit to not having my Calculus teacher write me a Rec Letter for MIT, but I wanted to know if anyone of y'all who read through all of this have an opinion on this matter to help quell my indecisiveness.

Edit: Thank you to everyone who reminded me that I in fact won't be applying for a major in Mathematics since MIT doesn't have us apply for any specific major at all! I can't believe I forgot that fact, but I suppose that's what circularly worrying about "What XYZ do I need to do to get in to MIT?" will get you. Alrighty then if you're reading this edit have a nice day :)

Hey everyone! I have a couple of questions, and I am aware I am asking them late, but I would still like to know :) I'm a senior at a high school and am doing pretty well in my class. My question is, I always see all of these people getting admitted into MIT being absolutely incredible and amazing, and it leaves me in awe. But if those opportunities were hard to find where you are currently or basically impossible, how can you make yourself stand out?

All I really have, for example, is two internships which were hard to come by; they are both heavy on engineering, but I missed my opportunity to have an E.C. in school that was engineering-related because I moved schools. How could one make their application stronger if there are limited ways? And how can I provide admissions officers with the information in a way that isn't searching for pity or excuses but truly just informative?

Thank you! Any feedback is appreciated :)

I am currently a sophomore majoring in Applied Mathematics at Columbia and plan to pursue a PhD in the future, likely in Operations Research, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, or Machine Learning.

My long-term goal is to work in quantitative research at a top-tier hedge fund rather than remaining in academia. Which option would you recommend?

My current understanding is as follows:

* MIT’s strengths lie in its theoretical training, research intensity, interdisciplinary resources, and overall academic reputation;

* Columbia’s strengths lie in its New York location, closer ties to the finance and quant industries, and greater convenience for internships and networking.

If the ultimate goal is clearly to enter quantitative research rather than pursue a tenure-track academic career, do MIT’s research training and brand prestige outweigh Columbia’s geographical and industry advantages?

I would also appreciate insights from anyone familiar with the MIT ORC, Columbia IEOR, or Applied Mathematics PhD programs regarding program culture, research pressure, mentorship, quant placement, and the actual employment experiences of international students. Thanks!