4 ms·

I'm not sure about that, unless you're talking specifically about undergrad at Yale and Harvard. The prof at my previous laboratory worked on the admission comm

by ramchip 17y ago

I'm not sure about that, unless you're talking specifically about undergrad at Yale and Harvard. The prof at my previous laboratory worked on the admission committee for the MIT and told us that having research publications done before graduate studies was a large factor. So was doing special stuff like going to Africa and building a library, getting a grammy award, etc. Everyone who applies has excellent grades, so they can't really use them to distinguish people.

hga 17y ago
I have a good friend who's been part of the MIT admissions process in times past (on a time available basis). They look at lots of things. Before the SAT changes in 1994 that made them worthless, they found that class ranking was strangely enough one of the best predictors of future success (MIT does longitudinal study of the admissions and resulting success of failure, the number one imperative is to accept no one who they don't think can do the work (which is a pretty high bar for MIT, with it's core math and science requirements)). And, yeah, having an almost published paper probably helped me (I sent the original draft with a note that half the results were unusable due to a contaminated culture that was only discovered after the work). Plus a well designed (structured programming) program (this was back in 1979). My SAT (very high verbal, OK but not so much for MIT math) and class standing weren't too great, but they correctly said yes. My friend said that being from deep in flyover country certainly made a difference in terms of a desire for geographic diversity. Anyway, a bottom line today for MIT is that if you can do the work, you have a raw 1/3 chance of acceptance (self-selection of applications is fierce). The very most important thing you can do is to demonstrate to them that you're a "go-getter", the sort of person who naturally does projects and the like. Mens and manus (mind and hand) as the school motto goes.
- codexon 17y ago
  Before the SAT changes in 1994 that made them worthless I've heard this a couple times, but there is not much reasoning to back this up. Having taken the SAT after 1994 and receiving a high score, I think it is a bit disingenuous to claim that the SAT after 1994 are useless. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAT#1994_changes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAT#1994_changes The mean SAT score remained virtually unchanged, while the removal of antonym questions and non-multiple choice questions seems to be an improvement. There were many times where the analogy questions were quite ambiguous, I could think of a dozen reasons to support each answer.

by ramchip 17y ago

hga 17y ago

I have a good friend who's been part of the MIT admissions process in times past (on a time available basis). They look at lots of things. Before the SAT changes in 1994 that made them worthless, they found that class ranking was strangely enough one of the best predictors of future success (MIT does longitudinal study of the admissions and resulting success of failure, the number one imperative is to accept no one who they don't think can do the work (which is a pretty high bar for MIT, with it's core math and science requirements)). And, yeah, having an almost published paper probably helped me (I sent the original draft with a note that half the results were unusable due to a contaminated culture that was only discovered after the work). Plus a well designed (structured programming) program (this was back in 1979). My SAT (very high verbal, OK but not so much for MIT math) and class standing weren't too great, but they correctly said yes. My friend said that being from deep in flyover country certainly made a difference in terms of a desire for geographic diversity. Anyway, a bottom line today for MIT is that if you can do the work, you have a raw 1/3 chance of acceptance (self-selection of applications is fierce). The very most important thing you can do is to demonstrate to them that you're a "go-getter", the sort of person who naturally does projects and the like. Mens and manus (mind and hand) as the school motto goes.

codexon 17y ago
Before the SAT changes in 1994 that made them worthless I've heard this a couple times, but there is not much reasoning to back this up. Having taken the SAT after 1994 and receiving a high score, I think it is a bit disingenuous to claim that the SAT after 1994 are useless. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAT#1994_changes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAT#1994_changes The mean SAT score remained virtually unchanged, while the removal of antonym questions and non-multiple choice questions seems to be an improvement. There were many times where the analogy questions were quite ambiguous, I could think of a dozen reasons to support each answer.