I'm going into senior year of highschool and looking at colleges. I have been fascinated with MIT since I heard about it. I love comptuers, engineering, and anything related to the subject. So far, I have: * worked on 3 advanced web sites that incorporate PHP and heavy backend MySQL * written a program my dad's coworkers now use in research at industrial a phamacuitical company * been elected computer club president for two years in a row * founded the robotics club at my school, become president What else can I do to get into MIT??? I'm willing to learn languages (computer and not), read 10 hours a day instead of sleeping, and and experiment that I have a 50+ percent chance surviving. Ideas?
You know you already sound like an annoying. There is nothing worse than some one who feals obliged to tell people what they have done. Go do computers or engineering because physics is definately is not th field for you, no physicist likes a know it all, because every physicisist quietly things he already does. I'll give you a hint, when you get to Uni, no-one will give a stuuff about you or what you have done, so do something that will absorb you, not something which you would like to brag about.
Don't worry young fellow It is true whatever you go into there is always the need for any past knowledge that you may have. But to really survive Univeristy you must learn to work as a member of a team espectially in engineering of which I am about to graduate. You can have all the advanced subjects in high school but it does not mean anything unless you work your bottom off in and out of the class room. Try to narrow down the specific field of computers or engineering (ie. electrical environmental etc) this will help in the college hunt and give you a definate goal to shoot for (it will help keep you motivated). Also don't have such a narrow objective especially in this economy apply to all the schools you may want to attend and see which one gives you the best opportunities and possible connections with industry as well as the most financial aide you can get. Don't go by name alone I go to a very small school and it has definately not hurt me at all. Best of luck to you keep up the good work but remember teamwork is greatly important most definately for sure in the fields that you have selected. Oh and don't drink underage.
If you wish to see what lays ahead for you, I suggest you check out: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html It's a list of MIT's courses, including handouts, classnotes, tests... just about everything in a class besides the teacher (arguably the most important part). I know 2 people who went to MIT. The things you seem to need to do are get a VERY high GPA, VERY high SAT scores, many extra activities (hopefully related to your field), and teacher references. One of the guys that got in had a 1600, the other someplace is the 1500s. This isn't the only requirement though, as someone else who had 1500 something didn't get in. As far as the difficulty of material, looking through the tests... it's the same material I had in college. The value of MIT isn't what they make you memorize, but the amount they make you read and the class interaction.
i didn't mean to brag... my resume is much longer... i'm just trying to get advice on things engineering and compsci related colleges will be specifically interested (like knowledge of PHP/MySQL). the reason i posted this is I read a story somehwere of someone with 1600 SAT's being rejected... :-/ i reason from this that while high SAT's are necessary, I shouldn't waste all my time on them...
ouch. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! http://www.collegeconfidential.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?5/14829 that's the stroy, i found it again
Obviously , you want your computerskills to be your MIT ticket, it's not like they gonna invite you to build the next Large Hadron Collider for their quantum mechanics department.... While serious PHP & SQL skills are certainly hot/wellpaid in the commercial web/consumer market, my guess is that MIT will show more interest in people who put their computer skills to work for solving problems related to: - black holes / supernova models - grow of nanotubes / chemical deposition substrate models - dna probing / sequencing / aids etc - supercomputing / cdistributed computing / real-time OS (missiles) - sillicon wafer technology / x-ray lithography / stepmachine design These are hot budget attracting topicss, pick one that you are most interested in and see if you have the skills to merge it with computermodelling/theory using C++ (requirement really, to port it on the big mainframes and linux clusters) or advanced models in Labmath etc, to find correlations and answers for hot questions. It's allways good to send them your own modified linux kernel running on a nokia communicator 9210i . These are the kind of eggheads you are competing with. High SAT goes only so far, be possesed, get psycho and get media coverage Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
puhlease... I'd say that his tech and programming skills, actual research work, and leadership in technical clubs should be quite ample. I'd shop around in case the person handling your application has a bad day and loses it. Backup schools are important! Oh, there's that smiley face. Hell, he's probably being modest and just forgot to mention the linchpin work he's doing with nanoscale robots and artificial gravity. MIT might accept you after you get your Nobel prize in Physics and it couldn't hurt. Two Nobel prizes would be sufficient, I think. If not, there's always those backup schools!
Hey, I'm in the same predicament as you -- only I want to get in for physics. I just visited the school about a week ago, it was pretty nice, especially when its proximity to Boston is factored in. I was just wondering if anyone knew of any physics programs I could get involved in. Obviously physics is a bit more taboo than computers, in that high school students don't get many opportunities to explore it as they do computers. Basically, at the introduction, they told us that they look at the application as a whole; no one piece will make you or break you. However, with the type of kids that apply there, it's very likely that it could. Good luck! Maybe I'll see you there.
