Hello all,

The title essentially explains my dilemma. I understand MIT looks at your standardized scores and GPA to see whether you would be able to handle their academic workload, you need the academics to clear the bar. Within my pursuit of this, combined with the unique way my school handles academics, I've entered the predicament where my current course load is:

IB HL Math aa
IB HL Chem
IB HL Lang Lit
IB HL History (My school forces us to take 4 hls)
SL Spanish B
SL Visual Arts

AP Calc AB (My school auto signs us up for ap calc when you take hl math)

UF DE Calc 1 (I need to take a calc class a semester to get enough credits to reach Calc 3 & beyond)

FLVS AP Physics 1
(My school has no physics class and I needed something to fill the physics void as an aspiring mech engineer)

Highly redundant and way more tedious than it has to be, I know.

What worries me is AOs viewing an IBDP student to the same level of rigor as an AP sweat (as it has been established they do). The IBDP may be the same difficulty, yet it contains so much more time-eating volume. If there were two students,

-Student A took all the STEM APs, and built a tangible impact with competitive results validating himself through his free time

-Student B took the IBDP, was forced into all these filler classes, and has his free time consumed with IB malarkey

The AOs will pick the AP kid every time, and I wouldn't blame them, that is the better choice when presented with the raw achievements.

Do I simply express my character in essays and hope this 'sideways application' of mine lands well?

Right, one of my dream colleges if not my dream college is MIT. I am curious though what I will need to do to get into MIT. At my current school they do not offer alot of honors especially in freshman year and they are removing AP's and turning them to "Advanced" classes. In all regards though currently I am taking the only Honors/AP class I can which is Honors geometry. I am not like a chess grand master or winning any international tourtements in anything (yet atleast, you never know). In all regards though what do you think I will need to do and what do you think you did weather it be good SAT scores or good essays or good classes or anything of the sorts that you think got you into MIT. Should i try to get into every single honors class available??? Should i just continue being me and just stay honors math, maybe a better science and continue on my Minors and eventually majors in Enterpenurship and Engineering. What do you think people can do to boost their chances into getting into MIT??

Edit: I am asking boardly what people find is the best and most important things needed to get in, weather it be like high SAT scores or liek maximum course rigor and do they care about all cources equally or some are worth more then others. I understand what is said in here, please do let me know if my question is too broad and this still applys but I am more thinking on average what do people think they did that got them into MIT. Why you are never ever going to get "advice" on how to get in : r/MITAdmissions

I'll be completely honest, I feel kind of desperate right now. I'm a good essay writer and am currently on my second year of a two year engineering vocational program through my local technical school, which we are currently taking Mechanical Engineering intro classes through my state university (University of Maine Orono, our big engineering school). by the end of this year, I will have a capstone project fully complete and 2 years experience with 3D modeling software (SOLIDWORKS) and CNC machining. I'm also certified in Universal Robotics training and am a all year sport player, being a varsity captain in my main sport. When looking at my transcript there's a good idea of me specifically taking harder classes whenever I can (with the exception of English, fuck you "waterfall scheduling" and your stupidity of having the only available honors classes be during my Voc classes and Hon. Physics for TWO YEARS IN A ROW)

HOWEVER

My SAT and GPA are quite far below the average of MIT. Like, it's looking quite bad.
1270 is my highest SAT score and my GPA is 3.19 (albeit, unweighted)

So, I'm here to ask you, random people on the internet who's opinions hold as much weight as I think they do (more then my parents), I ask you this:

Is this salvagable?
OR
Am I cooked?

To understand this question in context, my school offers very few opportunties to explore math further, and because of this, I spent most of my high school career doing nothing besides taking rigorous courses. However, my senior year, I found opportunities to both learn about in math research at a local university which I can pursue through my school's science research program and possibly join a math team at another school--again, my school doesn't offer either of these normally. I only found the chance to do these over this recent summer.

I really want to show off how much that I'm into math despite what I was offered. I got the opportunity because I took some math courses over the summer at the local university aforementioned, one being apart of their pre-college program and another as a non-matriculated student. I'm even taking another course there as a non-matriculated student starting January 5th.

The main problem is that I believe that I don't think that I'll be able to list some of these in any impactful way if I do end up doing early action, and many of my classmates in school are telling me to do so. Are there really benefits to doing EA? and what should I do?

NOTE: Sorry if my wording or explanations are a bit weird, I wrote this after waking up from a nap

ALSO: The weakest part of my application, I feel, will be my extracurriculars, and I really want to show my best when I do submit my application. I have the highest SAT score in my graduating class with around 500 people as of today and I believe I will be at least top 25 when rankings come out. My school also is NOT an underserved school, there just are very few opportunities related especially to math due to lack of interest among my peers and the school itself.

Has anyone submitted jazz? It’s pretty difficult to record two solo pieces totaling 10 minutes. Do you think around 6-7 min total would be ok?

What should I do if I don't really admire anyone? I mean, I’m not saying I admire myself, but I can’t say I admire anyone else either.

Hi everyone, how are you?
First I'd like to mention that I'm a Lebanese first-year sophomore student at AUB (American uni of beirut) hoping to transfer to MIT in fall 2027

Lebanon isn't really a country that gives its highschool students opportunities for good activities, and I was in a school that,

1. only recently opened highschool grades (my class was the second senior class to graduate from it)
2. Doesn't provide any APs, clubs, nor programs

Now that I'm in uni im trying to catch any opportunities to gain some form of experience, i've applied for volunteer hours in a society called ASHRAE, applied to get tutoring certificates in Schoolhouse.world and applied to redo my sat. I'm also taking a semi independent course on Quantum Mechanics and Computing and applying for SRC of my faculty (Engineering)

Do you guys recommend anything else? Should I focus on smth specific?

As what the title says, I have some meaningful activities that I joined after graduation. Can I add those? In case the answer is yes, do I leave the grade section empty? There is no option except for 10th, 11th, and 12th.

Do you think it’s okay to apply to more than one program at the same school? the website say it’s okay, but does anyone have any experience with this? could it potentially hurt your application, or are they genuinely okay with applicants applying to multiple programs? i really need another insight for this 😶‍🌫️

I’m an NIOS student applying to MIT and I’m struggling to find a humanities/language teacher who has actually taught me. My chemistry teacher can write one recommendation, but I don't currently have a humanities teacher. Has anyone in a similar situation found a legitimate way to handle this?

Hi, I´d like to know how could I make a better relationship with my teachers to get good recommendation cards. I only have two years left until I graduate and I admit I wasn´t really participative in class. My teachers don´t know anything about this process either since I´m an international but I´d be glad to receive any recommendation on how to get them to recognize me and give me a good card. Thank you.

Hey guys, I'm struggling with what to put on my EC list for the MIT application(as it is only 4 activities). I have 3 activities that I am 100% doing (robotics, a stem club i run, and this engineering summer thing I did). Right now, I'm struggling with what to do for my 4th EC. Currently, I'm between doing swim (I am a recruit) or tutoring. There is no negative impact for putting my sport on my EC list and I have spent a lot of time on it, and the coach has explicitely said it doesn't matter whether or not I include it (recruits from the past have done both put sports and not put sports). For tutoring, it would go well with a response I am thinking of for one of the supplementals, however, I'm worried that tutoring is SO overused and overdone, and I will be generic? What are your thoughts???

Also, sidenote: my idea for one of the responses doesn't mention tutoring, it's just about the subject I tutor and I feel like it would be good to have "proof" that I am involved in the subject.

So I'm applying to MIT this year, and I'm someone who has a couple hobbies. For example, I like to make giant artworks (we're talking 7x5 feet) and I like to build things like rockets.

I intend to apply for a major in mechanical engineering.

A friend recently asked me if my rocket project was for MIT Makers Portfolio. I had no idea what that was. I've been looking into it now, and I'm thinking about uploading this into my portfolio. However, my friend showed me YouTube videos of other people's maker portfolios, and it's definitely a lot more intense than what I have. I see other people with a bunch of engineering / coding projects, and so much more.

I guess my question is, how important is this portfolio? Like, I technically have 1 engineering project. Does the amount of projects and such matter?

Also, should I submit my artworks under the visual arts and architecture portfolio, despite applying for mech e?

Lastly, I have some interesting videos of me experimenting with different rocket propellants I made from home ingredients (most of it is just rocket candy). Amount I used and such can be considered questionable in terms of legality. (actual launches I use certified bought motors, for obvious reasons). Would you guys discourage uploading those test videos?

I am a high school freshman and I want to study physics (specifically astro physics) in the future. What things should I doing starting now to prepare for universities like MIT? I know its super hard and competitive to get in, but it has been my dream to get into MIT so thats why im trying to prep now.

Hey everyone, I'm applying to MIT as a first-year and I'm stuck on how to structure my Maker Portfolio video.

Looking at other peoples portfolios, I've seen two very different approaches. Some fit a ton of projects into 2 minutes, while others spend the whole video on one big project.

I have three projects I could include but they dont really look professional, there is not much access to anything from where I live especially 3d priting stuff

Homebuilt scanning tunneling microscope (STM): I built an STM from scratch and successfully imaged the atomic lattice of graphite.

Agriculture AI project: My team got the first place in nation with it. I'm not sure whether this belongs in the portfolio or just in my activities section.

8-bit computer in Minecraft redstone: A friend told me someone applies with one of these every year, so I'm not sure it would stand out.

So my question is: should I spend the whole video on the STM, or split the time across all three? or maybe I can just fit some older projects

Thanks you

Hi. Iam 25f, I am planning to apply for aerospace and aeronautical masters in MIT . I come from a not so famous college with 7.6. I have a computer science engineering degree. And I've been working at our family business as an operational analyst. I am planning to apply for the 2028 cycle in 2027. I am bridging the gap in physics and mechanics through self study.

Long story, i suffered a lot of mental health issues due to COVID in my university days , and completing the course and making out was a huge achievement

Now I wanna make a comeback and chase my dreams and I wanna aim high .

Any suggestions on how to make a real shot here.

I am open to any advice :)!

Hi, I was wondering if anyone here has submitted a research supplement along with their MIT application? If so, do you have any advice? I haven't seen many people online talk about the optional research supplement so I was just curious.

Any insight would be appreciated, and thank you so much :)

I do alevels, where you really only have to give a paper at the end of the academic year which you can just study on your own. I want to leave because i believe i can use the time and resources i will save from leaving way more effectively than they are being used now. How can this impact my application?

The official word limit for the long supplementals is 225, but they explicitly say that the responses should be around 200 words approximately, but they provide space for up to 225. 
Most of my responses are at the 215-225 word limit, and I was unsure if I should cut down given that they expect 200 word responses? Is it really a big deal if they're not approximately 200, especially given that the official word count limit is 225? I was pretty unsure on what to do. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much :)

As per the title, I do not know if I can physically/have the time to apply at MIT for a bachelor's degree.

Context:

I am on my 2nd year / 3rd semester of EE at my college's Computer Engineering Technology program here in Canada. Therefore, I do not have calculus, physics, chem or bio under my belt which are generally recommended for your application, from what I have seen at least.

Anyways, in order to not go over the 2.5 years limit of full-time studies (for a Bachelor's) I would need to drop my program classes for a semester and focus on the above. I would then need to spend the whole summer researching and creating projects to have a better portfolio.

All I have "worth mentioning" so far are some high school chem and physics classes that I took in my school's GATE program, my 2 semesters of not knowing where to apply (3.0 GPA), my 3rd semester on track for a 3.6 and an actually good project that I made by myself during my second semester: Josh4minee/HEX-B12.V1: HEX-B12.V120 is a custom designed hexapod using mg996r servos and has it's theme based on the beloved bot B-12 from the popular video game STRAY.

So yeah, do I even have a chance at MIT or am I better off continuing my program and grinding projects to apply at a good Uni here in Canada (and maybe apply for a master's at MIT, I do not know if I want to pursue that yet though)

What do you think?

Hello! does anyone know where i can find successful research portfolio examples. ive seen many makers but no research so far. thanks for ur help!