I've been denied. oh well, that's life. there's gotta be a reason i'm not going MIT

oh well

good luck at other places, everyone.

Officially rejected. ^.^

dont worry this place sucks anyway

Game Over!

rejected :( Oh whell, I tried my best. NOW TO LOOK TO THE FUTURE! (woot!)

rejected.. will take it in my stride and move on..

captcha: direction eyesight

ah, well.
I did get caltech though :p

Rejected.

After seven months of slaving over an application, stressing over interviews, writing the SAT twice for the only american school I was applying to, its all over in a few seconds...
I'm going to be more successful then ANYONE you admitted this year. And then you will be sorry.

Put me in the group. Yay! Now, soemone made the decision I hated to make..
So, my fellow rejectees, remember IHTFP, from the current students.

this really sucks :(

*sigh* well, only thing to do now is get better and try again next year. Good luck to everyone in the same boat as me!

http://imagemacros.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/fuckit_imgoinghome.png

That says everything.

Fare The Well MIT. its been a nice journey. sorry i have to leave so soon. :)

I'll be back soon. :)

Rejected... I knew that

Rejected! Can't say I'm surprised. But you know, I freaking tried. That's what applying for me was really about. I put myself out there, and I took a risk. But jeez, imagine how much fun that would have been! To be honest, I actually had fun with the application process. The actual app wasn't that bad and I had a great time with my interviewer. RIT, here I come! Allons-y!

I came here from Israel and worked day and night, and this is what happens. Ugh.

Rejected! Oh well, guess I'll be at Florida Tech this fall.

Go panthers!

lol

eh. stuff happens.

Denied admission. Ah, well, easy come, easy go. Next attempted conquest: Harvey Mudd!

Haha, thanks Vladimir. I needed that.

http://images.starcraftmazter.net/4chan/for_forums/son_i_am_disappoint.gif

Well, the driving force of my life and dream school are now gone. Sort of a kick in the face that my best chance is now to get in on the waitlist at Caltech (where I', not all that excited about going). But life will go on, once I let go...

Still have UF!

Officially rejected.
Oh well. I may be sad now but I won't remember this day when I become more successful than anyone else in MIT Class of '14.

Oh, well, dissapointing to say the least, but gotta move on right.

I will be back to postgraduate though xD, and if I am not accepted to any of the schools I applied to, I will try again MIT.

why? |:

Sigh... first rejection ever...

plan for3/14
1. see decisions
2. write sth in blog
3. Go hanging

haha....not a surprise!!

All of the people who have or are gonna berate MIT for not accepting 'em! Do as much as you want but don't say that this place wasn't worth it or wasn't good enough!!Coz you applied to MIT thinking it was good enough!!

I am gonna get over this and shine again....God please don't ever do this to me again!!!

Worst day of my life!! :|

Well... it's been so so hard to even apply... coming from a small town in another country.. and i did all that i could.. i really left no stone unturned... but well there goes the future.. just like that.. vanishes in a wisp of smoke.. and now i have nowhere to go to..

Oh well... Thank you MIT for the wonderful journey. I guess you are right, I might be happy elsewhere and the odds were against me anyway(I'm an international).

M gonna apply again n again n again until i get in. Worst day of my life 2.

Thanks for the chance to dream.

Grad school maybe?
lol

My feelings exactly

Don't worry MIT, I still love you. Even though now I have to love you from good ol' Atlanta..

:(

Not going to MIT. Im sad.. Best Wishes for admitted students.

I'm from Peru and I'm a little disappointed, too. I don't know if I can apply as freshman next year or as a transfer student. Waiting for other admission decisions as well. Hope is the last thing to lose :)

It's like you've been punched in the stomach.

Just seeing that "sorry" on the page.

Not going to say "it's not worth it" b/c I'd be jumping off the sofa screaming if I had gotten in, but...

I'm not concerned, it's your loss MIT :P

REJECTED !

I still enjoyed applying to this school though.
Time to move ahead.

It's just cruel to do this on a day of universal joy and love for science!! =(

hey... Has princeton relesed its decisions?

Why the am i not accepted in MIT....I got 2350 SAT 1 what the hell is wrong with MIT.....Now I would rahter prefer Mughalpur institiute of technology in rajhisthan.....

Even though I was rejected, I gotta admit it is still cool school. I really don't know what to do now.

MIT SUCKS I PREFER MUGHALPUR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.......in india............india rooocks

I was so happy 5 mins ago because I was very curious, it seemed like flames were shooting out within inside of me. Now I am very disappointed. It all happened too fast... Too fast to realize and sort everything... I know that this is a temporary feeling and I will feel great in a week or so, but still... Thank you MIT for reviewing my application. You are truly a great school and hopefully I will visit you and smile at what I have missed...

I got accepted but i dont go MIT i go to Indian institue of technology thats much better.......... In ur face losers rejected BOYS

I am reporting this to GEO. Unfair rejections. Sorry to say but MIT is bad bad

Rejected,, but i am sure GOd say it was not time yet..

Ah rejected. I would be lying if I said I didn't expect it. But it still is hard when six years of dreaming comes to an end. So much for my happy ending. :(

Good luck to everybody.

So many angry people...man.

So...? What's everyone's second choice?

ReCaptcha: more smarter...lol!

! rachel....cheers me 2. lol Florida Tech.

Quoting Bianca...

"Officially rejected.
Oh well. I may be sad now but I won't remember this day when I become more successful than anyone else in MIT Class of '14."

Oh, wait, I'm NOT sad and will still be more successful than anyone else in the Class of '14.

Hello, freedom :D

i prayed to my cow and she listened I GOT IN :)
My cow bowed and hit me which means good luck for HINDUS

I know everyone is feeling disappointed, but please keep things civil so I don't have to nuke your post.

Yo i was rejected a year ago and was crushed but two weeks later I got into Princeton and couldn't be happier now!

i don't deserve to get in so it's ok.

Who needs MIT when you have community college?

sad i didnt get in. ill try again next year.. :)

Didn't make it, I'm disappointed but at peace with it. Thanks for taking time to consider me anyways, MIT, it was fun.

a dream dat ended!!...

Kierra.. it was fun? are you kidding me?

Kierra u wanna go out sometime? :)

How can they possibly judge us based on a few written paragraphs... REBEL!!!

NARZAB or ZARNAB!!!! OMG.

4 years down the drain. I dont feel so good. bring on the ice cream. best of luck everyone

rejected.....but no worries..........will try again next time..........NO HARD FEELINGS FOR MIT....
@KUmar please......have some manners....
learn from us pakistanis.....:)

i want to GET OUT OF THIS TRAUMA. CAN ANY GIRL HERE GO OUT WITH ME SOMETIME? I SUPPOSE WE COULD REFLECT ON WHATS BEEN GOING ON AND MOURN TOGETHER..MAYBE HIT THE BED AFTER THAT :)

Are you kidding me...if you are a white male you had absolutely no chance...reverse racism is great. Ha

Thank you, MIT, for considering me anyway. There's probably a reason for my denial which I can't see yet but will become apparent later.

Do realize, everyone, that you've fought in one of the hardest admissions years yet.

So it goes,
SamY

samy are u a girl? will you go out with me? :)

Istanbul Teknik Universitesi is at the helm!!!

East or West indian onstitue of Tecnology is the best......... :D

Thanks for not accepting me. I just received news from three honors colleges that I've been accepted, and they're all offering me $136,000 for four years. So I say, in your face! I don't need an MIT education to succeed. Besides, one of those colleges is near D.C. Where I want to be if I want to work for the government. I'm going to be more successful than the MIT class of 2014. May not hear about me though, but I'll be protecting you while you sleep. ^_^

yesss.im frm India. how about we hit the bed straight away..it wud save us money and all the hassle!

I have given it my all and gotten rejected. Toilet paper is my only solace now. Stuff that s**t in my face and nibble it all up =)

I'm an international student, had every hope and so many projects for M.I.T, and I know I would have contributed so well in every aspect, not just academically. If the admission committee know our applications so well, I would really appreciate if they could just write a few lines about why we weren't admitted in the rejection letter. Wouldn't cost much, they'd just had to write a little note before they throw the file in the "not admitted' pile.

Anyway, I spent a hell of a time for these applications, I dreamed, I had mixed feelings, I was hopeless and hopeful, I wanted to make my family proud...for those admitted, be happy with your decision, it's a lifetime chance for you, don't keep saying u hate MIT; thousands would have liked to be admitted like you. But if you still hate M.I.T so much, then it puts me in great doubt of the admissions committee; they've actually admitted people who hate and do not want to attend M.I.T and rejected thousands who love MIT and would do anything to attend. Food for thought there...admissions committee, thank you for all. But you are humans, and you do make mistakes. I think next time in the applications for the future, add a question saying: "Do you really want to attend M.I.T?" lol...anyway would be great if you could remove those who are admitted but who hate M.I.T and give their place to students who actually want to attend.

My best of luck and hope to all those rejected like me. It was my lifetime dream, I could see myself there. But now, I just have to move on, my parents will be disappointed and I'll have to face the look in their eyes.

maalun sure my place

tomorrow 9 pm
18 Ragni apartments,
24 Kumaran Road,
Calcutta.

ill come tomorrow ok? stay naked till i get there.

Anonymous is me Krishna BTW

FINE WHATEVER MIT NOBODY LIKES YOU ANYWAY GOD I'M GLAD I GOT REJECTED

Ha, just kidding, love you guys. See you in four years for grad school, or possibly a transfer.

I hope you realize, though, that I might actually go to Caltech now. This is all your fault, MIT :)

@keshav

I completely agree with that. I mean, there are people who are thinking twice, but are accepted. come on. but okay. they'll be sorry :D

It has been a great journey and perhaps the right decision considering the admit rate for internationals was only 3%

But I got to go to another university and prove my worth. See you MIT for graduates, maybe.
I am just another rejected applicant from Pakistan.

Anyone accepted from Pakistan? Let me know, i'm just curious. A lot of my friends who had just about everything got rejected.

Rejected...meh.

I guess there must be some reason MIT didn't like me.

...and to everyone who's so angry, calm down, this isn't the end of the world. We'll all be successful. And best wishes to those accepted.

No hard feelings, See you in 4 years MIT ^_^

Gorilla munchies. Thats what i have now. MIT is the worst for rejecting me, its not like ive been more inventive than anyone who was accepted or anything

firstly, maalun have some manners and stop bringing india's name down.your a disgrace to indians.

mit will definitely regret this reject someday when i show them what they lost out on!
your loss mit...im sorry to inform you, mit that you have lost out on one of your best applicants.
all the struggle for 5 months to apply here has gone waste.
but i will admit, it is a place i really wanted.

Rejected.. oh well..

Goodluck everyone with everything else..
and congratulations to those who got in! woooh! enjoy yourselves!!

faith.. Im an idian and I have the balls to admit what's true! ok. It's because im an indian that i din't get in! otherwise i would have no matter wat! -_-

Caltech, here I come!

Game over.

Judging from a few of the comments here, MIT is much better off without some of these people who were rejected, if their first reaction is obscenity and pure nonsense.

I'm personally fine with not getting in. I still have excellent options and I hold nothing against MIT or the admissions officers. Good luck to all, and don't take it too hard.

there's always grad school...

@ maalun

Pride is fine, but keep it PG-13

MIT, no matter how, I will remember you. ^_^

@ keshav: i totally agree with you.
the people who are admitted are just taking it for granted. meanwhile, the rejects like us are wondering what the hell did they find in our applications that made them reject us or what they didnt find good enough.
its pathetic but this is life.
a day can be your mother or your stepmother. for me it was the latter today.

is there any chance to ever learn what were the disadvantages of my application?

It's only cuz I'm international....

Ahh, MIT. I clearly am not your number one choice of student. Well, you weren't my number one choice of university.

Congrats to all those accepted!

i got rejected too, but still i have to say that as an international student i knew right from start that the odds were heavily against me, i do feel dejected, but that feeling goes away as soon as i realize that im going to U-MICH ( or UCLA ) !!!
no hard feelings MIT, you are amazing !!
i dont see how people who can use swear words on a blog related to such a prestigious institution can even aspire to be a part of it...dont let it be a case of SOUR GRAPES :D
-ps ... I also feel that insulting the moderators or the students of the MIT class of 2014 is demeaning and crude......GROW UP kiddos!!
( is anybody else heading to Umich ???
GO BLUE !!!! )

join me in revolution... the time is now... happy pi day to no man nor woman here... f***

Rejected. I am still a junior this year.
So....MIT!!!!!!!!!
I am going to prove to you next year that I really really belong to you!!!!

Thank you so much for the extreme honor of your interest in me. It has been good and while I am not admitted, I will pursue other colleges. I have been offered other scholarships to three different universities. However, do not forget my name as you will see it again.

I worshiped my bhagwan (statue of God in my room) and i got accepted :)

@Frank not-'14
Yeah, you have totally right...

I was rejected; such is life. MIT still remains the best place of the world, and that will be the first place I will try after I undergraduate.

Good luck for every admitted! :)

The game is maybe over !!! but the ball is still moving !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

rejected !! rejected !!! rejected !!! not even waitlistted....

but thanks MIT !!!
THANKS alot for making me have a dream and look forward in like THANK YOU !!!

kumar, just to inform you since you're too illiterate to know this is the forum for non admitted applicants. go blog on your own freakin forum. noone cares if you got in and how the hell you got in.
and being and indian myself, i still say only a fool would take IIT over MIT.
go sleep with your cow.

I am rejected but I saw this coming, despite pretty good application.

So... why does MIT have this quota on the number of international students admittted every year?
Simply said, in very many cases this regulation rejects people who aren't of given nationality. Why does MIT allow such an unfairness?
I've heard that this is because internationals use to take more financial aid, but this is a second-hand information.

reCAPTCHA: "only trial"
Interesting.

Regards,
Szymon

Wait... did someone say the admissions rate for international students was less than 3%?Wow... I must admit that makes me feel better.
Wait... did someone say the admissions rate for international students was less than 3%?Wow... I must admit that makes me feel better.
Then again, isn't it ironic somehow that we get so upset about something like this, something which was a gamble to begin with? I mean, no one feels dejected for not winning the lottery. I know that's an extreme example but nonetheless: we all went into this knowing our chances of admission were incredibly low, and we decided to take the risk. We're all high achieving students, or we wouldn't have applied. Think of those people who are happy to get 650 on the SAT. We should be happy with, and proud of what we have achieved, even if it didn't get us into MIT.
That said, I’m disappointed, of course I am, but I shouldn’t be. None of us really should.

I was deferred EA just to be rejected RA?!?! MIT why couldn't you have just rejected me then and saved me the time, effort, trouble, and false hope!

Ahh rejection. Not like i didn't see this coming from a mile away though, just was kinda hoping for the best. Oh well, Good luck to the rest of the denied class of '14, and I'm still coming for you MIT. As a transfer student, a grad student, or maybe in 2012 (that class seem to lack potential lol) See you in a few years

Your loss not mine.
Cal-tech here I come!!!

MIT was a good tool to encourage me to get my grades up, and Somebody obviously noticed.

@An administrator
Please note that the reference by maalun at 02:37 PM (that makes a reference to Stu) actually uses some very offensive language and makes some very obscene remarks to Stu in the second sentence. It should be removed ASAP.

In fact the word 'maalun' is actually shortened version of a string of very offensive words in Hindi. It doesn't mean much by itself, but anybody from the Indian Subcontinent could figure it out. And we obviously wouldn't want it to remain on the blogs.

Besides, it is obvious that he has totally lost his mind. I vote for all his posts to be removed. He is a disgrace to international applicants.

P.S. That means you have to remove/censor all the places where 'maalun' is mentioned.

All you haters--cut it out!

Personally, for me the last six months have been the journey of a lifetime. I have never had this much joy and excitement over an academic process before! I've felt for half a year that I've had this wonderful family standing behind me, and you know what--I still feel that way. For me, this is a blow, yes, but it must have happened for a reason. I have several excellent schools to go to as backups, so right now, I am trying to focus on the positive, not the negative. Think of it this way--we came this far, what's going to hold us back now? My best friend did not get in either, and we are both upset. And he COULD build a particle accelerator in his garage, for the record...but my plan is this: go to another school for the first year, see how I like it, excel far beyond anyone else and enjoy myself, and then, if I decide I still want to, try to transfer into MIT the year after. And regardless, I am going to try to do my graduate work at MIT.
If I get into Harvard, I am going to make myself a t-shirt that says--"Only Harvard On the Outside!" :)

So long for now, guys, but just for now...I feel certain we will meet again. I have some really great ideas for hacks on the Great Dome...This just means my journey is going to be a little bit longer.

Cheers from San Antonio! Ame

As a parent of a Senior who was just denied admission to MIT, I wanted to say I think they did a great job. 16,600 potential students and only 1,600 spots is a tough situation to begin with... I hope my son grew from the admissions process (and even the disappointment for not getting accepted). Even though all of his life people have told him he "belongs at MIT" I feel that he can excel anyplace and as Paul (?) said, he probably was NOT supposed to be at MIT as much as someone else WAS. Good luck or Godspeed to all of those who where accepted! Realize what an honor it is to get in and do your very best! Thanks, MIT, for the consideration! Hope everyone has a great year! :)

can you guys please stop dissing this school. you all wouldnt have applied if you didnt want to go here okay. so stop saying, " i didnt really want to go here, or MIT sucks." becuase we all know you are jealous. so, get over yourselves real quick and move on. You are all amazing academically, metally, extracurricularly, but really, there is always someone who can write a better essay, who can out do you at math, and who has done more.

so with that being said, stop dissing one of the greatest instituions this world has seen.

@ Concerned

Thanks. Hindi is not one of my skills.

@ Amethyst

Two words: cross registration :)

I'm rejected. No matter, MIT is still THE BEST school but not a really diverse one (I don't want to offense I say that even if I admitted). 100 international students and 59 country is really very very low. Still hope for Princeton!!

@ ham'13

Let people hate on MIT. It's called cognitive dissonance; you convince yourself that the situation's not all that bad because the alternative wasn't that great anyways. Would you prefer these people remain extremely upset? Show some sensitivity.

Dear Sir or Madam:
I was dismayed to discover that I will not be matriculating with the class of 2014 at your insitution. I am equally unimpressed with your callous method of informing me of your decision. Please know that your rejection letter will be of use in my future career as a cage fighter/method actor, and I hereby reject your rejection letter and withdraw my application. Good day, Sir or Madam.

Well, I definitely tried on this application, and to me, that's what counts :) Thanks, MIT, for taking time on my application!

Kobayashi Maru? maybe, but I know there has to be a way to win, I wont give up, MIT wait for me next year :)
Thanks for reviewing my application I enjoyed to do it I hope you did enjoy to read it too, even though I now know there might have been way better ones.
I'll hibernate my dream to get in until next opportunity comes.
Greetings from Bolivia

I'm rejected as well...

At first I was upset but now after some time to think I've realized it's the best thing for me. If it didn't happen it wasn't supposed to happen. Although the idea of going to MIT for college has the shock and the "I'm smart" factor, I realized that wasn't a good reason to spend four years of my life at a place.

The last thing that I would want is to go to a place and be metaphorically drowning for the supposedly best years of my life. I don't want to look at my friends at other places and see that not only are they getting a great education (and will be very successful in their lives) but they are also having fun and partying and even meeting their future partners. Look, the majority of the most successful people in the world didn't go to an Ivy league/MIT/stanford. And that is just a fact (knowing all of us applied to MIT we really do like facts and numbers...)

It sucks to be rejected but now that I think of it, I'd rather go to a good school and be able to live my life then go to an amazing school like MIT but have to life my life constantly sleep deprived and unhappy from too much work.

So instead of people joking about hanging themselves or whatever because they weren't admitted, just think that maybe now you'll be able to be a big fish getting lots of help from your professors instead of a small fish drowning in lab work. Go to a great college and work your hardest and when someone asks you where you went to college be proud of your answer no matter what it is.

Who knows, maybe I'm just being a pollyanna here but this could easily be a blessing in disguise.

But truly congrats to all of those who got in!

It seems strange to me - Why are some of us denigrating MIT - Isn't it the same university that has been our dream for years? Isn't it the one which we always loved and wanted? We all knew what was coming - 9.7% acceptance rate means only the best of the best matched would get in. So why are we losing hope? Nowhere does it say that you can not apply again ; and nowhere does it say that MIT is the only path to success. We should take our past 6 months as an experience - it should be taken as a chance we took, a chance which we will never ever regret taking all our lives because of all the happiness( ah , those daydreams) and learning it brought to us.
As far as I am concerned, I can honestly confess right now that i know what was missing in my efforts- and I know that I NEED to fix my errors now. I think this probably is the best way to look at our present situation - so I think I am fine with it.
Quotes that are helping me right now- *You do not always get what you want , but you always get what you need.
*Life is just an educational game - so don't take it too seriously.
All the Best for your future everyone!
P.S. I still love you a lot MIT !! :)

Its all good, congrats to all the admits!

didnt really care about this yet still kinda did at the same time.

uchicago '14 aw g

Lots of people here should definitely take it easy, chill out and go for a walk or something that calms them down...
However, I do agree with the fact that admissions officers should explain their decision to rejected applicants. Not as a mere formality or as a justification but as a means of promoting our self-improvement. After all, we should all learn something from this process... No one's perfect, but far too many people are arrogant!

@CINYC

Thank you :)

The only disappointment remains that I wouldn't get the opportunity to attend Prof. W. Lewin's lectures in person.

I'm really upset that I didn't get in. Who knew what I could have built if I was admitted to MIT. How can I accomplish my dreams now? How can I build all the devices I want to build? I need MIT's education to accomplish my dreams! My dreams are crushed and as MIT is the only school that could have educated me and also given me financial aid. I have no money and I can't attend another university now.....This is okay as I hope the admitted students will succeed and accomplish their dreams in the future! Good Luck to all of the admitted students! :D

a limerick about my rejection:

there once was a school called MIT
and i applied, but it cost me a fee
i got rejected
and not accepted
and now its hard for me to pee.

Thank you!

Life is 90% effort, 10% luck. I guess luck wasn't with us 2nite...anyway, life does not end up here. My best wishes to you all who are not writing rude comments :)

Captach: try seizing

lol...I tried, hard.

another limerick!

why, MIT, were you mean?
do i really need to call you fiend?
i love you so much

goodbye MIT, you look like a bean

Thank you!

My dream school since 6th grade :( And I got a surprise denial from Cal-tech yesterday... oh well. I knew it would be hard.

@ham '13

Oh come on, let us have some fun for at least one day :P

We all know MIT is a great school and people are just railing on it because we got rejected. Let us be angry and irrational for a little bit.

@ Amethyst - I couldn't agree with you more. This has been a journey to remember.

And to my fellow rejectees, remember this: By being rejected you join a group of over 15,000 great students. Don't take it too hard, and don't be spiteful - there's always grad school.

thank you mit for giving me a great interview; i really enjoyed meeting that guy
wish i was admitted, but this probably means i belong at another school
even though having rejection makes me sad; i'll get over it eventually.

Those who listen to metal, listen to Opeth's Blackwater Park album...it really helps me calm down and get over it quick ;)

Its bad enough to get rejected, but even worse are the false words of encouragement that come with the rejection. "we had to turn away many, many, many incredible students", i dont feel very incredible to be honest. I feel like an idiot who suffered depression, high blood pressure, and extreme stress for several months only to be rejected and basically have no future left. To all those who got accepted, enjoy the bright futures ahead of you. Goodbye, MIT.

Some honest questions for this honest meritocracy:

1. Why do my chances of admission double if I were to become a female?
2. Why do I need to be more than just "academically qualified" for admission, while applicants afforded minority status require no more than that?
3. Why does the admissions office neglect to address these simple facts with an open and clear policy, instead merely calling itself a "meritocracy"?

Okay, I'm done moping and I've realized, hey - I've gotten into pretty good schools already. And, it's MIT's loss. So I'll either see you in 4 years for grad school, or you'll see my name when you go to vote for President.

Yeah... what the hell, shit happens....

Time to go watch some funny videos and get get get get get over it! HEY! :)

a recommended pick me up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMjvyPbUt6Y

:)

Congratulations to all the admits. As a parent of a "not admitted", there was all round silence in the house for couple of hours after she saw her decision. I felt very sorry for her, she had skipped a grade when in first grade and had been in all the GT, AP classes and what not. Her e.c. activities were also remarkable, music, debate, black belt karate etc etc etc. She had this school in mind for as far as I can remember back. I hope and pray that my kid succeeds wherever she decides to go and that the school develops her career to her fullest potential. She is one brilliant kid and hopefully she will be at grad school MIT in less than 4 years. Good Luck to all the not admitted students here. Life goes on and you will all do well wherever you go. A Mom.

@ In Praise of Meritocracy

I'm sorry you feel that our selection process is unfair and disingenuous. I couldn't disagree more forcefully. In fact our policy on affirmative action and diversity is posted on the website for the world to see, 24/7 (Apply -> Affirmative Action):

"In undergraduate recruitment and selection, MIT looks at each application holistically, taking account of many different factors that have shaped a student's experience, including his or her racial, ethnic, social, economic and educational context. We believe it is crucial for the successful future of our world to educate people from every walk of life, and we take great pride in the diversity of our student body, which is typically made up of 19-22% underrepresented minority groups."

MIT values diversity of all kinds, and it is just one of the many things (though not, as you imply, the only thing) we consider during the lengthy, time-consuming, and often emotionally draining holistic evaluation and selection of the Class of 2014.

There is only one reason a student is admitted into MIT, and that is because they have earned the right to be part of MIT's vibrant intellectual community.

Rejected, but an exciting journey anyway! BESIDES, you haven't heard the last of me. Grad school 2014, here I come!!! :)

Oh yeah. One more thing, everybody. Live long and prosper!!

Don't know whether my country, NIGERIA affected the decisions, Dont think so anyways, but they are still human
A dashed dream, all the same, kudos to those who can live thiers
So many other little things could have caused it, a teachers report, an essay, etc
Lets know that this doesn't neccessarily mean we are not as good as those admitted
Anything could have caused it, so Lets forge on with life

Pi Day brought me bad luck...

@ Dave...we are still waiting to hear from Wellesley. Can we say "backdoor"? :-)

@ Viv...I totally agree for my child. I have been much worse off than she has waiting for this decision.

@ Extremely Negative Former Applicants....do you have to wonder why you weren't offered a spot? I'd say the admissions staff is spot-on in not offering admission with the attitudes and lack of class that you have shown. Consider growing up before you leave for college. It is okay to be disappointed but there should be limits for supposed "bright" young people.

@ Amethyst....You are one classy young lady and I wish you the best of success wherever you enroll. I really enjoyed reading your comments.

My son is disappointed, but will go on to another excellent university and help them rise to the top engineering school in the country.

I have yet to see anyone's college tatoo'ed on their forehead. So once you have your first job, few really care where you got your degree. It's what you do with your talent that counts.

@Dave, is the applicant pool made up of 47% female? Or 19-22% of underrepresented minorities?

I've spent the last 3 months growing a beard for good luck but I guess it just wasn't enough

well... retry as graduate^^

no hard feelings :-)

well... retry as graduate^^

no hard feelings :-) although a comment on the application would have been helpfull

I am an MIT EC, and I just wanted to say.. remember that MIT has more graduate students than postgrads. You have not lost your chance to go to MIT. For your undergraduate education you will not go there, but there are many places where you will get a great education, and if- after that- you still want to go to MIT, you can apply again.

Every year I am gutted because there are students whom I interview that I know would do well and fit in, but the choice has to be made somehow and some of them don't get in. Right now I am anxious because us ECs only get to find out the decisions on Tuesday. It may even be that some of my students are already writing here. My heart goes out to them. I can remember being that age.

I wish you all the best, wherever you end up. And perhaps you will go to MIT some day. Either way, I hope that you'll see someday that MIT does not have a monopoly on having brilliant people- I've met so many good people who didn't go there.

@RandomPerson Not getting into MIT doesn't mean you're not incredible nor does it mean you don't have a bright future ahead of you unless you decide to make that your story. I'm sorry the application process was so rough for you and hope you can move on to greener pastures.

@Hardik Gupta:
Walter Lewin doesn't teach anymore

...I only just realized that the release time was planned to be 3/14 1:59.

For those who feel too sad about the rejection: http://games.adultswim.com/robot-unicorn-attack-twitchy-online-game.html

Diversity for the sake of diversity implies quotas and reverse discrimination. If you happen to have made the mistake of being born a male who is not a URM your odds of being admitted are vastly diminished. The admission process should be gender and race blind. Discrimination is discrimination and quotas diminish all. Equality of opportunity is a lofty and important goal. Equality of outcome is another thing.

Well here i am rejected. I was planning to try to write to Stu and ask for a spot on the waiting list but that doesn't really make sense. It was easy trying to imagine what this would be like but as it turns out, impossible to actually do. One thing that i did realize after i saw that decision (and read it over and over and over) was that, I instinctively knew what to do. Let the teacher that was most supportive for me to go to MIT knw the news and then take off my phone and start reading the blogs.

I guess that it was a good experience overall. A desire to go here was the thing that led me to apply to schools abroad so i guess in the end it was fruitful in some ways. I might just take a year off after HS and relax as well as reapply next yr i suppose, although, I don't know if i can endure this feeling again.

After a brief reflection, MIT doesn't offer an actuarial degree, which is what i had really wanted to do anyway, so I guess U of Waterloo ftw.

Good luck guys. I suspect that most of the rest of the applicant pool is similar to me so do not forget that we are still some of the greats, even if it may not seem so right now.

Brad

One more thing, the only thing that i really regret in this whole admissions process was sending stuff into Financial Aid. That cost me some money that it seems I did not need to spend

reCaptcha: Diversity oakmont

That's a testament to A Disappointed Alum

@Michigan Mom: Thank you so much!! :) That has made my day. Good luck to your student, wherever she goes. PS, I wrote another monstrously long positive comment on the "MIT Regular Action Decisions available online" post, haha.

(Why do people have to be so immature about the decisions?)

@Morteza: Really hope you get into Princeton. Maybe I will see you there; I applied too. Stay safe, I know things aren't so stable in your country right now. Best wishes...

@Dave in the admissions office: *wicked grin* Why do you think I applied for Harvard in the first place? :P Cross-registration is a very viable option, I think!

I'd just like to say to everyone who reviewed my application, thank you so much for the opportunity! And don't listen to all the negative people. You must have had an incredible job to do. I'm sure they will all simmer down in a week or two...

goddammit. i slaved away my whole life for this school and now i'm rejected. life sux : (

haha i got rejected !! I didn't think i put in all my effort this year !! I wassss tooo baffled with so much ppr work :P !! but now i got the hang of it !! so next yr for transfer mit or graduate mit !! 1 of the two for sure for i love mit and its my dream and i'll surely come here :D !! So thanks guys !! tc !! still love and will forever love mit

Oops, sorry. That last Anonymous was me. Forgot to write my name!

@ Brad

Hey, possible fellow future Waterloo student there :) You know, sometimes good things do come out of sad things. Might very well end up seeing you at UW in a few months :)

ReCaptcha: Asked refunded

It is really hard to read "I am so sorry". Looking at the numbers makes it easier, specially for an international student, but it is still tough.

I wish there was just ONE line with a very brief explanation of the denial starting with "You are not a good match for MIT BECAUSE:" and e.g. "LACK OF INTEREST", "Weak academic record", "Not enough extracurricular involvement/achievement", "Writting incosistency", "You are way too selfish and individualist", "We do not believe you could build a particle accelerator", "Your mental health is a concern to us" or "ALL OF THE ABOVE, and btw what were you thinking when you applied?". Any of those would have worked better than: "many of our applicants are not offered admission SIMPLY because we don't have enough space in our entering class". we all know that admission is extremly competitive (that's one of the MANY reasons why MIT appeals to me), but then what? Once AO's have a pile of all the students who deserve to study at MIT that exceeds by 5,000 the spots available... they start flipping coins? Of course not, they get more picky and meticulous and probably a tiny mistake may become a reason to refuse an application. As the list shrinks and some spots are filled, a sense of what kind of group is being made, should arise. it should become exponentially harder to decide who fits better in that class. "Good matches", who are rejected, deserve something more than "We do not have enough spots available" something like "We believe you will not be happy at MIT" or "You matched with MIT, but not with this particular class". Maybe my suggestions are childish, naive or stupid, BUT reading any of that, getting an idea of how far or close I was, having a particular reason, would have helped me a lot more than "not enough space".

Out of so many countries in the world, out of more than 4,000 colleges in the US, MIT is my first choice and out of 16,600 students, I wasn't MIT's top 1600 choice (truly heart breaking). I could have been the last choice, the worst applicant for Class 2014 or the very last in the "Denied" pile; I will never know. It breaks my heart, BUT we all better learn to deal with it, get over it and move foward.

I believe that one of the most important factors to be a TOP university is the application process. The universities need the best SET of students they can get and they know it. By reading some comments I realized that AO's knew what they were doing when they rejected them, but in other cases it might be harder to find out. So I trust their decision. Maybe they forsaw that I was not going to succeed at MIT or got a sense that I was not as accomplished as I could have been because of carelessness or lazyness. If we trust and place our faith in the AO this might be easier.

I really try to see it this way. Just for the fact of considering MIT, we are all top students likely to succeed in the future. Completing the application is not that easy, so that also shows we are determined to seek our goals and dreams, but this is the risk of applying to a top college. So being rejected is not the end of the world (for the record, I was rejected from Exeter and Andover a year ago and look here I am, trying over and over again) because there are many excellent universities willing to accept us for Fall 2010, or for Spring 2011 or upcoming years. Probably an other top college will accept us, maybe not. Still we are likely to succeed anywhere we go.

For those who claim that they will become more successful than all the MIT Class of 2014, then guess what? That university you attended or whatever you did was RIGHT for you, not MIT. Check mark for the Admission Officers.

My most sincere Congrats to all admitted students and best of luck for your years at MIT. You may be somehow ahead of us, but not for long;).

(If someone did not apply to any other college and keep trying, take this as a warning to open your mind to other chocies in the future)

@ Keshab
I totally agree..

I'm just happy for the chance to try, filling out the app was a good experience and I feel good for it. Remember, walls aren't there to block us, they are there to stop those who don't want it bad enough!

Hey everybody!

Watch the "Fountain" of Darren Aronofsky!
It helped me a lot:)

One of the best films of the world:)

Regarding the whole "a little note about why you were rejected" suggestion people are talking about:

I believe that would be difficult for the admissions office, not to mention the piles of letters they would get in response.

example:-
"Dear Jack Florey, you were not admitted because we think you're not motivated enough academically"
Response: "From: Jack Florey, Subject: I AM MORE THAN JUST MOTIVATED ENOUGH!!!"

and then our dear Jack goes into a novel-length rant about the magnificence of his motivation.

unless of course you want the admissions committee to be totally cruel about it, e.g. "Honestly, compared to the people we admitted you did nothing special, you don't interest us"

And people, try joining the tautology club next time.

goodbye wall street. hello mediocrity.

P.S. no offense EC guys!
P.P.S. I salute the serves and Sysadmins behind this site that holds against all this traffic with absolutely no noticeable delay, Thanks guys!

although i love mit and it is a great place, it is not fair with international students !!!

it is like a hundred students admitted out of all the application. How unfair that can be and of course SAD at the same time !!! i still love you MIT, but u r not fair with everybody.

I remmeber MIT said that no one have an opportunity more than the other !!! can you explain this now !!!! very dessapointed !!

And to all who were admitted !!! you are exceptional guys best of luck in ur studied !!!

Actually, the policy on international admits is pretty clear and publicly stated -

http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/international_applicants_helpful_tips/international_men_women_of_mys.shtml

http://tech.mit.edu/V127/N14/admissions.html

hm, is it coincidence that the captcha words for this entry are "quotas determined"?!

Looks like it's Cornell for me. Ah well, I gave it a shot. :)

Pasted from main thread:

Did they look at the music supplements and interviews from EA?

I don't see how they could have accepted anyone from Utah when they won't accept someone with a perfect GPA at the most competitive and most difficult school in the state. Don't even mention the facts that I am an Eagle Scout, that I have played piano my entire life, that I have earned enough college credit for an Associates Degree, and that I rank in the 99 percentile for the ACT.

By the way, if you didn't notice, I didn't get accepted. They really should stop overvaluing AP and IB credits. Concurrent Enrollment and college courses is where it is at.

Oh well. I guess I am screwed since the application deadlines for other schools are over. No college at all for me? That sucks.

Does anyone know of any top schools in the US still taking application?

To those who got rejected, please take heart.

Rejection is not the end of the world. There are a lot of great colleges and universities out there, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

I applied to about a dozen schools, and saw quite a few rejections. While I was accepted to MIT, Caltech, Yale and Princeton, I was rejected by Harvard, Stanford and Rice.

Being rejected does not mean that you are a failure, or that you are not as impressive as some other people are.

The school you end up attending will be your home for the next 4 years (give or take a few). Be it MIT or some place else, all of us will make new friends, get hammered with homework, and be hosed by exams.

What really matters is what you do with the opportunities laid out before you, regardless of what school you end up going to.

There are many brilliant and successful people out there, in the public, private and education sectors, that never attended MIT... and some who never finished college.

Likewise, I know people who graduated from MIT, yet never seemed to do much with their lives or live up to their potential.

So, to all of you who did not make it into MIT, I saw this...

Good luck to you all! Make the most of wherever you go! And always remember, any college you go to can be great!..... unless you go to Caltech or Harvard, which just suck!

=P

Kim
MIT Class of 2012

@ Anonymous on March 14, 2010 06:21 PM

Hey why don't you get in touch with me waterloo potential? symphonia4@hotmail.com

@Landon

Hmm... maybe it's because you are an arrogant jerk? And why would you apply to only one school, did you just assume you would get in because of your insane awesomeness?

I am certain that the MIT class of 2014 is full of brilliant minds and people, but I´m also sure that MIT would love to have more places, because specially this year, there are many students who fit the MIT profile. Competition was hard, be proud of yourself! It is an honor applying to MIT! Things happen for a reason.

Wherever you go, do not forget to change the world.

Thank you for the opportunity, and good luck for the admitted students.

@anon, now i get to spend the entirety of my life looking back at what could have been. that doesn't sound very optimistic, but it is reality. For the next 4 years of my education, all i will be able to think about are the students attending my dream university while i watch from the sidelines. I will never have the resources these students have nor will i have the same weight behind me when i try to build my career. These are just a few reasons why i say my future is not bright.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6aRwky0W5Y

be back in 4 years

Great. Now I have to make a DECISION. Thanks a lot MIT. haha

rejected. Fortunately I felt not much as the moment before I got the result. Lately I've come to realized that MIT is truly NOT a place for me deep down in my heart. But I went online and checked anyway 'cuz I had hope, but then... It's ok, it's been really fun applying to MIT this year but I will keep hunting this website (there's no rule said that rejected students are not allowed to be here, is there? :).

Dont worry guys....I got in with an 1850, i dont know why people say you need a high SAT score

Thank you so much for the experience! I've had plenty of fun during the admission process. Even if I've not been admitted, I'm feeling rather happy about it.

Thanks!

@ Landon

Did you seriously just apply to ONE school? Are you THAT certain you would get into MIT? o_____o

Anyway, there's no chance that "top schools" are still taking applications now. You're better off just taking a year off. Do something cool or enroll at a community college and reapply next year.

Any future applicants reading this: PLEASE do not apply to just one school!

MIT I love you!!!! wait for me next year :D

Success is not never falling; it is getting up after you fall.

To all other well-qualified but rejected applicants: No matter what your life goal is, there must be multiple paths leading to it. I'm sure MIT is only one of them.

It is interesting to see that according to statistics, those who are accepted to MIT but choose not to go end up just as successful as those who chose otherwise. From this, we can conclude that someone who is truly qualified but did not receive an offer due to factors out of their control will not suffer in the long run. They will be successful regardless of which university they attend.

Finally, I want to say congratulations to all my fellow applicants, whether accepted or not. We took a shot at the world's top university, and whether gold or silver, we made it to the final round.

I sincerely wish everyone the best of luck in the future. :)

Toronto, Canada

I have to admit--I totally thought I was going to get in this school, but decided I didn't want to go before finding my decision. After getting rejected, I felt like a complete idiot!!! Took a huge blow to my ego!!!

P.S. Remember the Olympic spirit. We tried our best, and that's all it matters. :)

P.P.S. Waterloo anyone? :P

My biggest regret is that I didn't apply for any other out of state schools -- no Yale, Caltech, or what have you-- and thus I am stuck in this horrid state that we call Florida. Now I am really feeling the impact of the actions that I didn't take back in October/November... That isn't to say that FSU/FIT isn't going to be great, though.

Good luck to everyone wherever you end up going!

被拒了也要先感谢国家。。

I'm still coming here for graduate school!

captcha: "beamish he". Jabberwocky?

(sigh) well, at least I had an awesome interview, (sigh) I really felt like I would fit in MIT, well I'm sad that I wasn't accepted to my first choice, but what's really sad is that I and a friend were planning on going together, he got in last year... Anyways good luck to everyone, admitted/rejected.

:( Good luck to all.

i enjoyed the application process though ........ haha Mit you gave me the wings and now you take it back

Well MIT, you hath rejected me. With such a large applicant pool of applicants that are relatively the same, it is truly no surprise. On paper, those of us that have been rejected probably look exactly the same as those who were accepted and waitlisted. The essays are there, but the word limits hinder our abilities to express ourselves because for some of us verbosity is a virtue. I slaved over the application for months, waited for months, became one of the many deferred, and waited some more, all to find out that I was rejected. Luckily, I am accepted elsewhere, like many others, but this is not the end of my journey. I will chase this quest as long as it takes because I can tell that MIT is where I belong, whether the admissions officers agree or not. I visited once and also stayed in the overnight program, and I felt at home. I'll never forget my experience nor will I forget the people that I met. Next House will always be a home to me and what was written on those white boards will never truly be erased. The memories cannot be taken for me and remember this - seeing my name on that application is not the last time that you will see it. You can take my word that you will see my name continuously until you see it on a diploma with "Mens et Manus" stamped on the top. I vow to you that after my first year of college, wherever I go, you will receive a transfer application from me. You will receive one every semester until I am unable to apply anymore because I no longer meet the criteria, but you may receive more yet. If I do not succeed in that endeavor, you will receive an application for graduate school from me. If that does not work, then maybe I will come to complete some post-doctoral work. Still yet, if I have not succeeded by then, you shall see my name on an employment application. Mark my words MIT, my quest has not yet ended - it has just begun. Alas, this brings our correspondence to an end for now, but expect my transfer application in February of 2011. All of us wanted it, few of us could have it, but I do swear to you that I want it the most - that is why I will never surrender to you polite rejections. (I'm very aware that you monitor your blogs and may be entering this into my file now.)
Farewell, but not for long,
Tyler Devan
Indianapolis, IN

I got rejected, it hurts

you know what Mit..... I will still fly ... thanx for those wings

what is the numbers like for international students?
.......... It will help me convince myself

@ Someone in your shoes

I'll probably be attending Waterloo this fall. You?

@randomperson I know you're upset; it's understandable. But obviously you're a smart person or you never would have put yourself into the applicant pool for MIT. You can watch from the sidelines and spend your whole life wondering what might have been or you can find a way to move on and be happy on another playing field (and, realistically, still wonder what might have been from time to time). No, you may not have the resources of MIT, but with your natural intelligence and the opportunities that will be available at many other fine institutions, you can have a very bright future.

@Anonymous (March 14, 2010 11:36PM)

See you at Waterloo in Fall 2010! I'm aware that a few others on this forum are also headed for UW. Hope we'll find each other there. :)

@ A Disappointed Alum

Your disappointment is misplaced. MIT DOES NOT have quotas.

I'll say it again: MIT does not have quotas.

Am I being clear? I can say it again if necessary.

We do not include diversity for the sake of diversity, but rather as part of a whole person. Just as academics, arts, athletics, leadership, and a dozen other qualities we feel benefit the MIT community are considered as desirable, so too is diversity. It's a piece of what makes people who they are, and what makes MIT a vibrant, wonderful vortex of awesome. If you think that any student is admitted to MIT because they only possess a single one of those desired qualities and not a whole lot more, you're just plain wrong. With a 9.7% admit rate we can't afford that luxury.

@ dad_mitrej'ed_gr8_kid

This year's increase was tame compared to last year's (17%). The admissions office has brought on several new staff members, including me, to help share the intensive workload of selection, and the staff members who manage the process do a fantastic job. I can't speak to specifics, but remember that for us, selection is an event that runs from October through May. The admissions officers still work very, very (very) hard to make sure each student gets our full attention, best effort and the benefit of every doubt. It's one of the aspects of selection that makes us emotionally invested in the students we read. Each of us have students we really wanted to be part of the new class, and we all feel the joy and pain when decisions are made. We all wish there could be more joy.

I'll be heading to Waterloo too! Eyyyo.

For international applicants, the pool is around 3,500 candidates but only 120 spots.

UF it is...

Totally expected...
Well at least I tried and had a great time.(MIT was my first application!)
I guess what the bloggers said is true...MIT isn't or everyone. I'm just not good enough. I think this just showed me how much i need to improve. Still it hurts.
Anyways, at least there are transfer and gradschool! I will be back in no time, MIT.
Will be thriving some plce else..at least for next school year. =D

Dear Adcoms,

Thank you for all the hard work you've done. :) Even though rejected, this has been a wonderful journey for me.

See you at grad school, maybe? LOL

It sucks to be rejected but you gotta roll with the punches.
Or maybe...
Roll up your sleeves people!
Let's outperform, out-invent, and out-achieve!
It's time to prove an admissions department wrong!

But first, a little pick-me-up from happier times...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye8mB6VsUHw

P.S. I still like MIT :) Grad school maybe?
P.S.S. Though Pi Day will never be the same... -.-

What can I say? Its not good on our part to flame about MIT now that we aren't a part of it. Now its time to focus on doing what I do best. Making Robots.

Yes I got rejected. Being an international student had already put me in a disadvantage but still I hoped and hoped and hoped. :(
When the results came out I took a deep breath and clicked on "Display Result". Well I didn't take the decision gracefully. lol. I think I went through all phases of dealing with 'dissapointment'. First:-
Denial :- I refreshed the MIT decisions page a couple of times hoping it would change.
Anger :- I mentally cursed Stu (sorry). If i were you I would always sleep with one eye open. :) I think he made 15,000 enemies and and about a 1000 friends. I now don't hold a grudge against the MIT decisions committee. I was obviously not good enough for MIT.
Bargaining :- I prayed to God. lol. Considering the fact that I'm an atheist that wouldn't have worked right?? However I'm not ashamed to admit that I did beg God to make it a mistake. Ah!
Acceptance :- It sure took me a lot of time to accept what had happened. I had already cried a lot. I had vomited and yeah the food came out a bit. :( Rejection washed through me. Then I cried again. Meanwhile my parents consoled me. (they didn't succeed.) Right now they are trying to pamper me lol. But I don't want anything. I tried to sleep but couldn't. I opened my chemistry book and studied for a good 2 hours and then slept. That made me forget the horrible result for some time.
But then i read a story and its lesson "This too shall Pass". Well I sure hope so. Well MIT I'll apply again. Please don't think that you'll get rid of me this easily.
Hey anyone does bribing work at MIT? :)

you guys totally don't get it, writing like long letters asking for explanations blah blah blah, clearly they don't read your application, so offcourse they can't give you an explanation...

think about, reading it would just make the job harder.

so i guess that's it, i'm really not going to MIT. :( or no college at all. :( :(

i still love MIT and will obsessively come here and read about-whatever....hopefully it stops like soon.

oh well, it's totally there fault i mean you're missing a vital, vibrant, energetic, happy, wonderful...[and other great adjective] person in your class.

i guess my billion dollar future donations will go to some other school, or not.

ugh, why cant i get over it. :(

and guess what songs comes on

yes, breakeven by the script.. :( tears i really don't wanna cry.

I will love MIT always!
-all i wanted to do was use MITs resources to create opportunities for my people.

ps: best believe this doesnt stop me one bit.

don't you just love life and time, and how neither ever stop or slow down or go backwards

My mom told me that if it was meant to be then I would have gotten in. So, until then, I'm waiting on fate.

@Tyler Devan from Indianapolis, IN:

Here, here, brother!...that sounds suspiciously close to my plan. :) I think I will do the same. We will be known as the terrible two who apply as transfer students regular as clockwork...I am going to spend a lot of time looking at OCW courses, then take a look at all my other prospective schools and figure out what courses would be good ones to take in preparation for future MIT work. And you know, it's not just that I'd go to MIT for the sake of going to MIT, either (although that is just a tiny part of it, lol)--my next top-choice school over in New Jersey would be great to attend all four years at, except they do not have Naval/Marine Option ROTC or my major (just a certificate program, which I could work with but it would be a lot more roundabout). Besides, I love to travel.

To be honest, this might actually be healthier for me in the long run. I go kinda restless if I stay in one place too long; 4 years is almost the max anyway. Maybe it would have turned out that 4 years even at a place like MIT would be too much to bear...interesting thought.

MIT nooooo, I'm still loyal to you

take meeeeee, you were always my number 1 and you will never cease to be; ill wait for a "lololol jk we totally admitted you, dude" letter

:D

Sigh, my girlfriend is going here, guess it's over now :(

Well Dear Friends!!! That's s lottery!!!
Everyone who rejected and accepted are the best!!!
I'm from Kazakhstan and planning to apply for class of 2015. I'll try my best to get in. And look at your self some of you are in Caltech (that's my friends dream school).
Life keeps going!!! You'll be lucky in something bigger!!!
Every one is special in own way!!!
A. Einstein.

I am writing this at the risk of sounding like a desperate looser.

I got rejected from MIT.

All this time I had this feeling that I might get in. I thought I knew everything about MIT just because I memorized almost everything on their website.

I spend the 90 percent of my applications time on MIT.
I thought I am the perfect MATCH. But just as my EC said " even MIT does not know what they are looking for "

Today I am telling this right here, right now to everyone who might have lost all hope after getting their decisions.

Every year at least 1000 students graduate from MIT,
1000 from Harvard,

And probably the same number from the top 10 universities in the world. So a total of 10,000 Highly Talented World Changing Super Efficient people gets in to the Real World. And if these Universities are at least 50 years old. Then 500,000 of these GRADS already exists in the world.

But how many of these people are actually changing the world ????

Most of these graduates end up selling them selves to a "big" company for a high paying salary.

Now you may think that I am saying all this because I turned out to be a rejected looser.

But trust me MIT i have gained something so much more Important that even a million mit degrees put together cannot give me.

May peace be upon all of you !

@Desperate Rejected Looser: Dude, you are so true!
see what I found ::http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/FSif0oeAinx/Unemployed+Banker+MIT+Graduate+Peddles+Street

Well, for the past few months I've been afraid of being admitted, that I'd go here and be overwhelmed. I'm quite sure I'll be happier elsewhere. But, of the many times in my life when I've thought "Man, I don't know if I can handle this." I've never been told in reply "Yeah, you probably can't." That is what this rejection means to me. A relief, yes, but in the form of someone telling me I should set my sights a bit lower. If I can't get into MIT, I don't know if I can get into a good grad/professional program. "Yeah, you probably can't." Or get to work in a good research lab. "Yeah, you probably can't." Or do groundbreaking research. "Yeah, you probably can't." Or become important. "Yeah, you probably can't." That just keeps playing in my mind, those words you never said.

I read rejects announcing that they will be so much more successful than their admitted counterparts and scoff. But is that really any more pathetic than my idea that I'm condemned to become another cog in the machine because I was not one of the less than 10% let in?

MIT was not my lifelong dream or anything, so you don't need to feel that bad about it, admins. And I know I probably opened up my heart to you too much in my essay about my greatest challenge, to the point of awkwardness. The process was not all bad. I learned about myself. No hard feelings.

Well, some hard feelings.

REJECTED :(

I will definitely come back to MIT as a post graduate....or as a Professor to teach here.. and will tell these people what they lost.

guys (and gals( and no i'm not sexist( but that's beside the point))) as my name suggests i'm prefrosh'15 and i believe i can learn more from the regects than from the '14ers so how bout makin a deal . u guys tell me wad (u think) mighta gone wrong as your payback to mit (ok whom am i kiddin i sound pretty darn selfish here but wad da heck)).i really symphathise with u but i believe that the fact that u care so much bout gettin in there and dream bout changin dis worlds is reason enuf to believe u r destined for great(er) things (than mit that is)

@Dave:

In posts above, you said that you “couldn't disagree more forcefully” that MIT’s “selection process is unfair and disingenuous,“ and that “MIT DOES NOT have quotas.” I sincerely do not doubt your incredibly hard work and dedication to applicants in the face of an ever-increasing torrent of top quality applications. And, of course no one believes that anyone is rejected for a single reason or lack of a single quality. However, please have enough respect for the 90% of applicants who were rejected to at least consider the following points.

1. Fairness and quotas: MIT prominently reports gender and underrepresented minority distributions for enrolled applicants, but is much less forthcoming about admissions rates for these same groups. In fact, to achieve the acclaimed 46% female enrollment rate for the class of 2013 last year, the acceptance rate was actually 8.7% for men versus 19.4% for women (data on MIT website at http://web.mit.edu/ir/cds/2009/c.html). Analogous numbers for underrepresented minority applicants are not provided.

2. (Dis)ingenuousness: As a private institution, MIT is of course welcome to engineer the composition of its incoming class however it wants, whether it is done through explicit quotas (unlikely and forcefully denied) or by a sufficiently ambiguous definition of diversity and affirmative action that this is achieved “holistically.” Given the time and emotional investment that so many students place in their MIT application, however, don’t you think they at least deserve the transparency of knowing, for example, that men’s odds of acceptance are less than half of that of women? If this is not the case, or if I have misunderstood, please say so, with actual data!

@Everyone else:

Of course none of this matters to you, MIT rejected you. However, if you were basing any part of self worth on MIT Admissions’s opinion of you, please realize that MIT’s (or anyone else in life’s) priorities are not necessarily matched to your own. Go to your next choice school, and make it better by your presence! If you got this far, you will succeed!

The website I mentioned in the last post is:

http://web.mit.edu/ir/cds/2009/c.html

I think the fact that you could probably choose 4 or 5 completely different sets of students from the application pool and call them MIT '14 is a testament to the strength of the undergraduate program and the allure of name recognition.

Am I disappointed? Yes, it would be inhuman not to be.

But, honestly... Think of the future. When you or one of the other MIT rejectees is President or head of the Department of Energy or something, won't it be nice to say in an interview, "Yeah, MIT rejected me."

Essentially, MIT didn't grab all of the "world changers" in their application pool, as they aren't clairvoyant, or psychic.

So lets buck up and further prove the college admissions process is a completely fallible and sometimes seemingly arbitrary process.

Well...it's been nice MIT :) thanks alot for bringing out the best in me. I WILL be seeing the admissions page again in a few years hopefully for graduate studies.
Now, inshaaAllah, off to Canada either U of T ,MgGill or Waterloo

Catch you later MIT

@wouldntmindareply

I'm going to give you a reply:

I've been scanning these posts all day in disappointment, looking for answers or for people who feel the same as I do. Frankly, I agree with you about half way, but something about what you said resonated with me more than any other person so far.

I also pondered, "maybe I'll be a little in over my head at MIT," but then I reasoned that any person in their right mind should feel that way, and if they don't, it's pure egotism. Most of us are successful and capable people, tackling many great endeavors. We haven't run into any "no you can't" situations because most things come easy to us. This is where I begin to disagree with you. Rejection from MIT isn't a "no you can't" situation. This is sadly, a numbers game. There are simply too many talented people for an unfortunately small number of spots. I am not disappointed with myself, nor my seemingly outstanding performance in high school. I am just disappointed there are not enough spots. I am not jealous of anyone who has gotten in, for I know I would be proud to sit next to them in any MIT classroom. I trust they are my equal, and that is precisely the reason why I am disappointed.

Rejection from MIT is no reflection on who you are as a person or your ability to succeed. Your success in life isn’t written on an admissions letter, it’s written by your work ethic. Keep up what you’ve done your whole life, and things will fall into place.

@ someone in your shoes- I might come to UW after all ...Hope to see u there :)

I think there's some unclarity (is that even a word) about what a "quota" is.

Some people seem to think that because the admit rate is X percent for men and Y percent for women that this represents a quota.

A quota is where there are N slots or N % allocated for men/women/Martians/beings with three legs and, do or die, those slots will be filled by the admissions office with beings having those characteristics.

This is different from what actually happens, which is that in order to achieve what it thinks is a balanced class, MIT selects what it wants from a huge applicant pool, and all of the people it selects are qualified.

No matter which way you slice it, you will find that the admit rates are skewed. Suppose somebody applies who is the only three-legged Martian in the entire applicant pool, and gets admitted. Does this then mean that the admit rate for three-legged Martians is 100% and therefore MIT is applying a quota?

I think not. If there were no qualified female applicants one year, there would be 0% women in the graduating class.

Goodbye everyone. I'm heading to Pasadena.

we are raised on internet and television to believe that one day we'll all be millionaires and movie-gods and rock stars and MIT FRESHMEN but the bottomline my rejected (dejected) friends is "is that what u wanna be", "is that what'll define u for the rest of ur life" , is that the boundary conditions u'll apply to define ur life (represented by an infinite function . well think again

Is it just me - or is it that the AdCom tend to admit people like themselves?...

oh thank god i didnt get in. now i have a reason for not going. its much better than telling my mom that i rather get wasted at arizona state

partyyyyyyyyy

good luck all you MIT people. dont go wild and drink too much coca cola

Ahhh rejected :( Disappointed ofcourse..would take some time to recover
Anyways I would like to thank the adcoms for viewing the app. Like a person above said a note would be nice, but they are busy people after all. And thanks to my interviewer and the great bloggers here, who kept everyone's hopes alive.
Guess I'll try again in 1 or 4 years hehe and that time I'll make sure you dont turn me down (just kidding) :P

Captcha: Gruesome was --kinda true lol

any1 applyin 2 cornell and carnegie.. heard from dem ye... dam got 3 rejections so far... freakin out now!! ...

It´s been a great try... :)

The dream all washed away in a matter of seconds.It isnt the end though! It happened for a reason, one I cant not comprehend right now!All the best to admitted students!

@Amethyst and Tyler
Cool, count me in !
and while you're at it
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/28-life-at-mit/videos/1502-behind-the-scenes-of-admissions-at-mit
a bit old but still nice. we'll end up like the "infamous" student that come check up on the admissions office every other day ^_^

MIT used to accept the smartest applicants; that is what gave them their esteemed reputation. Their selection process reflects the policies instituted in this country that have diminished America's status as a global leader. Hopefully, someday an institution will make a stand and let the brightest students learn together and stop the dumbing down of America.

Hey to everyone who was not admitted. Its okay cause I was not admitted as well last year. After any kind of rejection, it just strengthens you as much as you wanted toget in. After one year, my thirst for knowledge hasn't given in, instead I feel like I have unlocked a potential within me. Therefore, as in any anime series (lol), I will say:- "There is a hidden potential lying, sleeping within every single one of you, so don't give up! Be like the guy/gal who tries to follow his/her dream even more every single day" BTW just because you are not admitted once, doesn't mean that you are not good enough everytime you apply. So do somemore amazing things! See ya! Good luck!

As an Alum, I'd would like to see average SATs of admitted URMs,Women,White Men,Asians, and "specical talent" students. If MIT has nothing to hide the numbers should support their contentions about the admissions process being "fair" if not, what's really up?

Best Technical School on the Planet and MIT can't base an arguement on statistics? How weak is that?

SATs are definitely not the most important thing. I have a friend that was admitted with 690 in Math II and 750 in physics.

I think a selective school like MIT should really have an appeals process. Processing so many applications in such a short span of time is bound to cause a few mistakes. Also there is the fact that many a times applicants are actually a lot different than what they look like on paper. MIT's interview in this regard helps but still an appeals process would really help.

I'm not angry or anything, I just believe that an appeals process would be beneficial for both the institvte and the applicants. I'd really like the admissions department to look into this as I believe that people who might not be as impressive in terms of awards and distinctions as others might sometimes be a better choice. Maybe they're more aligned with MIT's mission etc.

Ahhhh, M.I.T.

And, MIT, don't think that you'll get rid of me. I'll be applying for transfer next year :P

@bob.. as another alum.. I am not sure what difference posting statistics is going to make, other than to skew people's expectations even more.

statistics can't be used as a predictor because sometimes there are underlying factors that can skew them. One thing that I have heard admissions people say, when they came to talk in my town, is that the women who apply are somewhat self-selecting so it's not a true sample of all the female high school students anyway. I don't work for admissions office so I cannot prove or disprove that; however, the argument is valid. Danger of posting statistics is that then people will use it to hold MIT to things that it shouldn't be held do eg. suppose next year it is women 5% admit rate, men 15%, people are going to ask what the reason is for the discrepancy, when there is no "reason" as such- that's just how the numbers worked out that year, there is no conspiracy keeping women (or men or [insert demographic group here]) out or in. I think you would be opening up a huge can of worms where the admissions office would be forced to justify a set of statistics that is meaningless.

Another problem appears to be that what the institute thinks of as "fair" is clearly not what other people think of as fair. And that is because "fair" is not definable like a law of physics. Some people are equating "fair" with "equal probability of any applicant getting in based on external characteristics such as gender, race, ...". Admissions office is defining "fair" as "we choose from the large pool of qualified people". Who is "correct"?

Laying all my cards on the table- I am a female alum. I don't know what the statistics were in my year, but i know that in my time there I didn't meet anyone, male or female, whom I thought was unqualified to be at MIT. I also met a lot of people who were not at MIT who were pretty qualified and would have done great there.Some had applied but didn't get in, some didn't apply and went elsewhere and did great anyway.

friends,fellowhuman beings and dejected rejects lend me your ears i have decided to form a worldwide "mit reject" community to prove that people with immense talent (like you guys here) can achieve the stupefying heights of success sans mit...this my friends will become a cult organisation having a simple objective to bring together the brightest minds with the that have born the brunt of a blunt rejection and through our gain mit will realise its loss....please send your views and comments the next update'll underline the objectives...TAKE OUT YOUR ACADEMIC AGGRESSION......

"brightest minds that have borne the .......
p.s ...this will be a lifelong thing and to qualify u need to be brilliant and a reject
p.p.s both the above qualifications are satisfied if u have applied for mit ( obviously)
and forgive my lack of punctuation..

famous people "NOT" from mit.................................u know what in 10 years your name could be here ...

Waterloo or U of T anyone?

I aspected a rejection, but It still hurts.

*expected, lol

@'13 Your comment to Ann was out of line.

mit or not - remember that

Successful people are ORDINARY people with an EXTRA-ORDINARY desire to succeed... in real life it really doesn't matter where u study...

Not out of line at all. I am sick and tired of whiners ... More people should be responding to people like Ann than people like '13.

@manu
You got the point there!!!

@genii: Great idea! I support you.

@mit-reject: Waterloo ftw! (*^__^*)V

At least Cal Tech surprised me with rejection instead of building me up just to let me down.

@Tyler:

That's the spirit! Being from Indiana also, I can empathize! So few people at MIT know the "Wander Indiana" song, or the "There's more than corn in Indiana.... Indiana Beach" song!

If you still have your heart set on MIT, there is always Transfer Admissions.

Additionally, there is also graduate school. MIT has more graduate students than undergraduates.

Do well, wherever you go! Be hungry for new opportunities! And, if in a few years, you still want to go to MIT, the chance is always there.

-Kim
MIT Class of 2012

P.S.
Last year, I met an 18 year old, 4th year MIT graduate student. The guy graduated from a small town college when he was like 12. Then, he took like a break for a year or two, before coming to MIT for graduate school.

I am truly disgusted!

I have officially been rejected for the first time in my life. It is sad, but also inspirational at the same time. Some of you say this is Game Over, but I think not.
MIT has always been a dream for all of us. Let's not give up. Besides Undergrad is quite irrelevant in comparison with Graduate School. MIT is always an option to come back to in four years.
But I will continue to carry my head high, knowing I did my best, and that is completely fine by me. And not sure about the rest, but I can bet I will be applying for transfer in the next year :)

CAPTCHA: as orpheus

@Caio:

You are right that SAT scores are not everything.

I knew one girl from MIT whose SAT math and verbal scores did not break 600. I don't think I knew anyone here with a lower SAT score.

But, as I understand it, her school grades were good, she had a VERY STRONG extracurricular and volunteer background during high school, while working part-time.

MIT does not judge you on just a single category. Nor does MIT look for a single, cookie-cutter template, when it comes to admissions. It looks at the whole picture.

If things were so cookie-cutter, the girl I knew would not have made it into MIT. But, she shined in so many other ways, that, on the whole, she got accepted.

-Kim
MIT Class of 2012

i got rejected.. it's a sad feeling.. but though i dreamed of MIT and thought of nothing else i can't say that my life ambition was just to get into MIT.. it's more than that.. all of us, no matter how dissappointed, know that deep in our hearts our goal in life is to make the world a better place.. MIT may have rejected us but it doesn't mean that it abandoned us.. in our quest to make the world a better place i'm rather glad knowing that MIT is with us and that if we turn to ask for help it won't refuse.. the help may not be in the form we asked but it'll always be there..

my friend forwarded a msg to me a few days ago it said '.. it's madness to stop dreaming just because one didn't come true..'.. so true..

life's a roller coaster ride and it's short.. so i suggest that we stop mourning and get on with what we really want to do.. and that is to make the world a better place..

to the admissions committee and SFS: thank you for reading our applications and helping us make a decision.. while i agree it would have been nice if we just got a note stating the reason for our not being admitted, i realise that it would be very troublesome for you.. and i would also like to thank Diane whom i pestered with a lot of questions, to each of which she replied with equal importance and patience.. thank you all for everything.. it was my first college application and the first time i did each and everything on my own.. thanks for making it so easy and stress-free.. and some people may not be nice to you now but do know that, regardless of anything, you did a great job.. thanks once again..

and it's still not over MIT.. i'll apply again.. maybe as a transfer or for PG

I'm from Europe, and I totally DISAGREE with them, who are blaming MIT for the strict international quotas.

You should be happy about even the chance, that you could try to apply to the best technical university of the world.

MIT is in the USA, and for american people.
Why should an american institute educate foreign people, who will make an other country better(maybe for the bad of america)?

I agree with that quotas, and thank you MIT for the chance, and that you (and especially Richard Feynman) gave me a dream!
I hope we'll meet in the grad school, and until then, I'll work on some hacks in Europe (just to prepare for the MIT) :)

No worry MIT,, we are coming back (for grad school)
------->The return -------...->will be soon

the best fowler is the to last to flourish :)

MIT you are the best university in the world.
GREATING FROM TUNISIA

One girl from our school got into MIT, and I know for a fact she only got in because she was recruited. She barely broke 2000 on her sats, took only a few AP's, and generally could not compare academically to the other three of us full IB candidate, 2200+ scoring, volunteering, acting, etc etc applicants.
Even my teacher, after I broke the news today, who had taught her in the past, said (and I quote)
"She is smart, but she is not quite your caliber"
MIT, of ALL schools, should be a haven for intelligence, hard work, and academics. The fact that MIT chose based on recruiting is disgusting to me, and made me lose so much faith in the university system, especially MIT. But whatever, I know that we three will be more successful at whatever school we go to, I just hope that MIT isn't graduating a bunch of jocks who don't know a lepton from a higgs-boson :(
And please, Dave, delete my post. I dare you. God forbid people know the truth about admissions these days. Recruiting and affirmative action have gone WAY too far. Smart kids are getting boxed out for jocks and "URM", and it is just WRONG.
I dont care about me, because Im going to work hard and succeed wherever I am, but I implore you, for the class of '15, to reconsider this new, deplorable policy of recruiting. Leave that to the Notre Dames and the Dukes of the world; the havens for student-athletes. Leave MIT to the real thinkers.

I'm going to a reputed school in the west coast where professors take undergraduate classes and not teaching assistants :D

Yeah, I sort of felt like I was wasting my time and my teacher's time with all the work I placed in the application. At least I know the answer though.

At least I found out that I didn't match with MIT. If I took the spot of one of the accepted applicants who actually deserved MIT, I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror.

MIT? I thought we were cool man? lol
I have more words of personal reflection but it doesn’t really matter. Tell other friends who didn’t make it in, just read some other people’s post. It really helps you to realize that you are among some of the smartest people who happen to be disappointed about the same thing. Good luck everyone.

BTW: I can’t believe that’s all they gave us for an Officially Rejected message. Three paragraphs? I spent so much money, so much time and effort and that’s all? Cold!

Insomniatic...or should I just call you "Punk" We all know this this "holier than thou" attitude came out in your application. You obviously are not a fit for MIT. The real thinkers? You are a real thinker? Just because you say scored 2200? You sound like a spoiled little brat who should have had his a$$ed kicked a little bit. Oh wow...a high school teacher should be making decisions for MIT. MIT knows who is a fit and who will succeed here.

You have no idea why this woman was accepted. None whatsoever. Did a coach call you? Did the admissions office send you a letter?

You really are a punk

@ Anonymous

Wholly inappropriate, and nothing to joke about. *deleted*

@ Insomniatic

Why on earth would I delete your post? You haven't personally attacked a fellow commenter and there's nothing obscene. You're free to speak your mind here.

WHY NO FAIRNESS WITH INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHYW WHY 11111

TELL ME MIT WHY !!!! YOU BROKE THE HEARTS NO A PERSON OR A 2 OR A 3 OR 10 OR A HUNDERED BUT THOUSANDS !!!!!!
LESS THAN 3% WHY WHY WHY NOOOOOOOOOO !
WE ARE ONLY ASKING FOR SOME FAIRNESS IN THIS WORLD !!! THIS WORLD IS VERY BAD !!! IF MIT NUMBER 1 HAS NO FAIRNESS WHO DO WE EXPECT HIM TO HAVE SOME FAIRNESS !!!!! DARK WORLD !!! VERY VERY VERY !!!!

@'13

Should expect something like that out of you, after what you said to ann who was making the same point I am. No, I do not think SAT's determine being a 'real thinker', but a lot of other things do. I dont have a 'holier than' anything attitude. The other three kids I talked about deserved it more than I do, and I will readily admit that, but this particular girl, I dont believe, quite earned it. Lets face it, recruiting happens. Schools get money from alums who enjoy keeping up with the school teams, and sports have become really big in america. I dont think theres anything necessarily wrong with that, but I do believe that recruiting should be left up to the schools that really are suited to student athletes, and frankly MIT, as one of the top technical institutions IN THE WORLD, should not be picking based on athletic ability. This is merely my opinion. I also believe affirmative action to be incredibly racist, why should we hold people of different races to a lower standard? Color is so incredibly irrelevant, and we shouldn't base peoples relative intelligence off of it. I find you to be rather rude, '13, and if you wish to make a point you could lay off the Ad Hominum attacks. Jeez.

This is for you Insomniatic: FROM ANOTHER ADMISSION BLOG:

Hi all. I'm a second-year MIT student. Congrats to all of you who applied, I know how hard the process was and how many hopes and dreams were banked on this process. So I'd like to tell you all that it's not over. Life is all about the long haul. If there's one thing that MIT taught me more than anything, it's this: everyone blows out sooner or later. But if you're the one who can take it, gets back up, and continue on with a smile, you're the one who wins out in the end.

To those who got rejected and are getting pissed at the institute, believe me when I say that you should thank your luck that you got rejected, because MIT would have wiped you out. If one little rejection letter is enough to make you quit, or lose your cool, you weren't made of the right kind of mettle for this place. You'd become just another one of those sad cases who brags about being at the top of the world, falters as soon as they realize that everyone here is as good as they are if not better, and breaks when they realize they start losing ground. As they say, pride goeth before the fall.

But to those of you who, admitted or rejected, takes a look at the new game and resolves to win this one, or at least to do as well as you possibly can, take comfort in the fact that you've taken what the institute had to throw at you and not only survived, but you won. IHTFP, we all do, but when it's over, we'll be smiling at the other side. I look forward to seeing some of you next year, and some of you in four years.

Cheers,
fiicere

Posted by: fiicere on March 15, 2010 05:51 PM

To MIT,
Thanks for giving me hope and motivation to work hard for six month ....

congrats 2 admitted ...

@Insomniac - I am aware of a male who was actively recruited for sports and admitted to MIT EA. He is also first generation. I know he is academically talented, but I can't say what his SAT/ACT scores were. When I heard in Sept. he was being recruited, I was shocked. It was the first time I had heard that MIT recruited athletes. That, along with the whole "balanced class/diversity" discussion has really changed my impression of MIT. Shame on me for not doing my research.

For everyone commenting on the affirmative action policy: Look, it seems unfair, but there is a reason for it. That reason is that the strength of our community depends on our ability to work with people of other backgrounds, of rich cultural experience. The future of our world is determined by how we work together as a GLOBAL community. By offering admission to a vast group of students with diverse backgrounds, MIT helps to create an intellectual community of people who all bring different parts of the human experience to the table. The goal of this is to strengthen the cultural unity of our nation, and to forge a brighter future for our world community. And I think that MIT fully recognizes this goal.

Look at it this way: If you tried to paint a vibrant picture of our human experience, but only used one color of paint, your painting would look pretty damn boring.

I know that sounded corny, but it's what I truly believe. I'm a sophomore in high school this year, and am also a white male. I haven't had to endure the college admissions process yet, but I know the "holistic" approach that MIT takes to admissions is for the betterment of our community at large. Just my two cents.

@ a mom & insomniac

MIT does not lower their admission standards for athletes. Their sport(s) might take the place of other extracurriculars, but their test scores and grades still need to be within the acceptable range. What you might be misunderstanding about student athletes is their work ethic and their time management skills. What MIT has probably discovered is that students who can balance one or more varsity sports and a rigorous academic schedule successfully will likely be driven to work hard at MIT too.

A strong work ethic goes a long way at MIT. My own student was not a National Merit Student, but was able to out work many other students with more brain power. One of the biggest concerns of incoming freshman is that they don't know how to study because they've never had to work very hard for the grades. Sometimes a strong work ethic is a better indicator of who will be able to handle the workload at MIT. Those with great time management skills and the work ethic required of accomplished varsity athletes are very likely to be successful at MIT and they do not deserve to be badmouthed here.

Athletes bring many of the components that MIT looks for, as noted here:

http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/pulse/the_match_between_you_and_mit/index.shtml

These are not likely to be measureable qualities, like test scores and grades, but characteristics reflected in the application or recommendations.

I am writing on behalf of myself and the other student from my high school who were not accepted. Our school was designated #34 on the the US News and World Report's "Best High Schools" list this year. However, of the many who applied, not a single male from the school who applied has been accepted to MIT in 4 years, while there were two females accepted last year alone. While I am not in a position to accuse the admissions department of unfairness, I think it would at least be appropriate for detailed statistics to be released.

As a side note, the 4 hours I endured on public transportation for my MIT interview was the longest trip I have ever made for a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Agreed that athletes need good time management skills. However, how is that any different from the thespian who rehearses nightly, or the student deeply involved in community service, or the musician, or the one with a job, or the one who prepares for academic competitions? Are they being recruited? I sure hope so!

BTW, I don't believe I was badmouthing anyone. I did say the one athlete that I knew was recruited was academically talented. I think the phrase you used "within an acceptable range" is where others may have a problem.

I take offense to the implication that any student who was not admitted would not be able to handle the workload of MIT.

@ a mom:
Completely, 100% agree. thank you! Nothing wrong with students being admitted for special talents, but lets be fair here and treat actors and artists with the same importance as football players and track stars.

I believe that the selection of the international students depends too much on the applicants' medals on competitions such as the IMO and the IPhO... That's all I wanted to say. I cannot judge whether that is fair or not because I know nothing about MIT compared to the admission officers. And I don't know if what I'm saying about the selection of international students is true or not... But if it is, then I would have liked the webpage to include at least a clue about it. If someone can explain me or prove me wrong, I would appreciate it.

Completely broken hearted! it is unbelievable how this affected my life. But again, it is their loss. I know that I am meant to do great in life. I guess it is just not going to happen this way. I just hate it that all my plans will now have to change. :(

@ Anonymous two posts above:

Nope, it's not just IMO medals that want. My IMO medal failed to work.

WAITLIST ME! OH PLEASE, PLEASE ATLEAST WAITLIST ME.
If you still really decide you must, you can chuck me out later, but for the present...WAITLIST ME!!!

To Mom, Insomniatic, and any others whining and crying about thinking MIT recruits athletes...I am a parent of student who is a higher level athlete at MIT, and I am a parent of a major conference Division I athlete. Let me tell you FIRST hand, MIT does not recruit athletes.

There is no way my son, who thought he wanted to follow his sister to MIT was going to attend and flourish there, regardless of what he would bring to the diamond. And he had 2000 on his SAT. Yeah yeah yeah, not up to some of your standards, but pretty damn good. Even with being an athlete and a sibling offspring, I am sure MIT may have seen it was not a fit.

Athletes do let the coach know of their interest in MIT, and can write a letter (after getting to know the student/athlete), informing admissions of their opinion about what that student can offer the school as a whole, including fitting in academically. The coach does not sit in on any decisions, etc. Man oh man, get over the fact that you were not accepted, and move on...Over 90% of the people who applied were not accepted.

Trust me, one year from now you will have moved on, so start doing it now.

@insomniatic
It sounds like you're bitter that your less qualified female class-mate was admitted while you were rejected. However, you are in no place to judge her or the adcoms. Maybe there was that match between her and MIT that you did not have. Or maybe her application reflected more passion and motivation that yours.

@a mom: Yes, the musicians, academicians and hard workers are all equally considered. This is why applicants are asked to write about themselves and what they do.

Anyway, I'm only a prefrosh, trying to defend what I consider the most transparent admissions committee in the world. I could be wrong.

JUST CUZ IM MEXICAN XD

@Parent '13 - I do beg to differ about the recruiting. Although I did not hear first hand from the student, his aunt told me he had been recruited. She is a very good friend of mine and consider her to be a reliable source. Perhaps your children were not recruited, but I do believe it is happening now.

This is a board for students who were not admitted. Let them whine, or cry, or experience whatever emotion they would like. From the posts, it's easy to see what a wide range of reactions there are. I appreciate those current students and parents who have attempted to be sympathetic, encouraging and supportive. For some students, it is a lifelong dream that is being altered. I don't think it's asking too much to show some courtesy and respect to them. Telling people get over it and move on is not being supportive. (As are the posts saying "you wouldn't have made it here anyway", etc.)

BTW, I am "a mom", not a student.

@anonymous - My comment was in the context of recruitment. Best of luck to you.

Hi everyone. I'd like to clarify a few things about MIT student-athletes, and in particular how that applies to the selection process.

MIT coaches do recruit athletes, and are happy to talk to any student who thinks they might want to apply to MIT and have an interest/talent in sports. Most of that work is trying to convince great athletes to apply to MIT, and making sure they understand that at MIT, academics always comes first. MIT's common hours help support our athletic community, and we're justifiably proud of our great student-athletes.

Recruited or not, MIT doesn't offer guaranteed spots for athletes. We're very up front about that, but I thought I should specifically mention it. In fact the idea of athletic recruitment being a ticket to admission would make most MIT coaches laugh (and occasionally cry). Just ask them.

What does happen is that MIT coaches evaluate athletes, give us an expert view of an applicant's ability, tell us what that student might bring to the campus community, and pass that information along to us. In much the same way we ask music and arts faculty to evaluate supplemental materials in those fields. Those evaluations are the extent of outside input into the selection process.

We do consider athletics during selection. Of course we do, for all the reasons already stated in this discussion. But to say that we consider athletic achievement more than other areas is simply not true. Any activity that takes up a student's precious time, indicates passion and dedication, or displays achievement is of interest to us. The selection committee has absolutely no idea if an applicant has been "recruited." We only know whether or not there's an athletics/arts evaluation.

I know it's difficult to try to figure out why MIT didn't offer admission. I doubt I can improve on what my predecessor said on the subject, because while the numbers change the sentiment remains the same.

I don't want you to think you didn't get in to MIT because you were or weren't an athlete. I don't want you to think you didn't get in to MIT because you're somehow not an amazing student and whole person. Sometimes MIT isn't the best place for an applicant. Sometimes there's simply not enough room to let in everyone we'd like to.

To take away that being turned down by MIT diminishes the brilliant minds, gifted musicians, visionary artists, talented athletes, determined community organizers, inventive tinkerers - whatever makes you wonderful - of our applicants; that's the wrong message. We fully expect all of you to do great things and change the world. That journey just can't always start here, and we do understand that's often our loss.

Sincerely, all the best.

Mom - My daughter was a freshman last year, and she is at the top of her team. She certainly was not top enough to earn a high level DI scholarship, but has the ability to compete at a high levels here in DIII.

Interesting that not only did you not hear it first hand from the student, you did not even hear it from the student's parents.

In DI, athletes are approached by schools and coaches. In DIII, a student expresses an interest in a school that they believe they can compete at academically. They fill out a form and a coach will contact them about their interest. There are NO athletic scholarships at DIII schools. AND those schools do not provide academic scholarships for athletes a DIII schools either. After a student expresses an interest and fits the academic profile, a coach does stay in touch, and encourages an overnight as well. The same way the school in general encourages that for all students expressing interest. Trust me, as a parent who just went through major college recruitment for baseball (which competes with pro baseball draft), MIT does not recruit.

If you want to say they do, then they also recruit for musicians, artists, and the like.

So stop whining about being left out in favor of someone who now plays a sport is what I am saying. Fine, whine and vent about not getting in, but don't blame it on something you don't know anything about.

@Parent '13 - See Dave's post above.

@Dave - Thanks for clarifying and for some POSITIVE words.

Two cents: Maybe I can be happy to be at one of those high schols where all the brilliant kids in Advanced Calculus are also star athletes, star debaters, fine arts wizards, MIT applicants, robotics buffs, or some combination of three or more of the above... *cheeky grin*

Hi Mom, Again, as a parent who has a DI and a DIII athlete, I will respectfully disagree with Dave on the definition of recruiting, and we may be discussing semantic differences. As Dave says, however, MIT does not consider athletics above anything else, and that is untrue at DI. They do understand that one who is committed to athletics at a higher level, there is a significant time element involved. For example, we have another son (a junior) who swims in high school and spends 25 hours a week at the pool and in the gym, and is all state. That may not be equivalent to a full time job, but considering the early morning hours and numerous weekends traveling to meets.

Now, his SATs (Jan 2010) are just as impressive as his sister's who is at MIT, and his course load may be a little tougher. Should his swimming be though of less than someone who attends science fairs?

Amethyst -- Who says they are not?

@Parent '13 - I never said it should be thought of as less. Please re-read MY posts, and stop being so rude and condescending to me("get over the fact that you were not admitted and move on", "stop whining", "you know nothing about").

so, firstly.. if you didn't get in, don't look at it as a bad thing.

it could mean:
>>you wouldn't enjoy it here at all (this is likely), and you would hate the next four years of your life.. (more than the average mit student, anyway)
>>they think you might burn out after the first time you get less than 50% on an exam...
>>you are the type of person who isn't self-motivated to spend 7 hours a day (in addition to class) studying/psetting/etc.
>>>>>even if you did this in h.s., it's way diff. in college. you have to be your own security net.
>you applied to a list of schools that looks similar to this...
>>>>>>>>>harvard
>>>>>>>>>dartmouth
>>>>>>>>>mit
>>>>>>>>>caltech
>>>>>>>>>olin
>>>>>>>>>carnegie mellon
>>>>>>>>>stanford
>>>>>>>>>UC Berkley
>>>>>sure, each one of these schools might have felt like home, but if you didn't make it very clear in your app that mit was your first choice, accepting you is a gamble for the school. it could hurt their '(n_enrolled)/(n_accepted)' rate. plus it looks like you don't really want to go to mit but just to Prestigious University "X"
>>you have always been #1 and you'd be more motivated fighting to keep at the top of a less intense university
>>or (this is really unlikely, as nobody seriously applies to mit c/o actually being a competitive applicant) you aren't up to mit standards or lack potential

so, i'm not saying that you fall into any of these categories, but i do want to stress that the MIT admissions committee does not take their decisions lightly. if you did not get in, it doesn't mean that you're stupid or that mit is better than you, or anything. it just means that mit and you are not the best match. this is a GOOD thing. now you know. trust me, not getting into schools makes the whole college decision tons easier.
for whatever reason mit is not going to bring out the best in you, and why would you want to go anywhere that won't help you to be the very best version of yourself? i know y'all aren't going to fully realize this until you are halfway through freshman year, but it is true
it's far better to accept this now than to have gone to mit and have it kick you in the face. the place for you is out there, and it probably has better weather and a better meal plan.

SIDE NOTE:
Don't blame you not getting into MIT on not doing the right sports or not being a concert pianist. there isn't a some tennis player quota that they have to make each year. and even if your mad violin skills are a big part of your application, it wouldn't matter if it were paper football skills instead, it's mostly about how that has affected you as an individual and how it is expressed in your character. someone that played varsity soccer might get in over someone who did no sports, but there was no one deciding factor... (e.g. i got in, i only did sub jv cross-country and track freshman and sophomore years of h.s.)

also, mit is not a 'fun' school. i mean, i have fun, but it'd be easy not to.

hey student '13, great post. I'm an alum and I totally agree. I can't stress how important the culture fit is, because without it, all your achievements and honors don't mean jack, because you won't be happy.

I felt like I was beaten down to almost nothing, then kicked in the teeth when I was down. In case anyone misreads this as being some sort of misbegotten attempt at making MIT students out to be superheroes- it isn't. I don't think that one should have to go through that in order to graduate from college. I don't think my experience was atypical of MIT students, and I don't think that a lot of other schools have that same culture of "IHTFP". Sure other schools are hard, but I've not really seen many others in which pride in being hosed is that big a part of the culture.

I got a lot out of it- I'd stop short of saying "it was fun". I have to say i also was completely, utterly miserable at times. Don't get me wrong I'm not sorry i got in and not sorry I went but like student '13 said- "I have fun but it'd be easy not to". it was a pretty thin line at times. maybe I am a wimp..?

so what was the culture fit there? I guess the ability to tolerate the above and come out the other side. Plenty of people get through life successfully without having to do it that way. I don't think less of people who didn't go through it.

all I'm trying to say is- there's not necessarily a correlation between SAT scores, being a top athelete, artist or musician or whatever, and being a fit with the MIT culture. It could be that you think you are but there isn't the evidence to show that you are. Don't ask me what that evidence is.. I have no idea how one measures it, but I know the culture.

also, now that I've been out a few years.. I realise how much people change after graduation. It may be that after you graduate from elsewhere, you will be a better match.

@student '13:

I agree. MIT can be a complete shock, for even the most gifted of students.

There are many students here who were at the top of their respective high school classes, who soon discover themselves failing MIT exams, doing all-nighters on problem sets, and dropping classes.

Then there are situations where your fellow classmates make you feel really really small. Let me give you an example...

So, I considered myself to be a pretty good math student. I got a 770 on the SAT Math (I know, I know...), A's in high school, and placed on various state-level competitions.

One day, I was walking with a classmate of mine, walking towards MacGregor, when my classmate encountered a person she recognized. I discovered they recognized each other from the International Math Olympiad. (I had no idea that my classmate was part of that.. she had never advertised that before).

So, let's just say that I felt like a math wimp in the shadow of these people.

In another case, I learned that a friend of mine spent the summers of her high school junior and senior years doing research projects at a big-name bio company.

I, on the other hand, had never done any sort of research work like that before. My high school career was pretty much JUST high school classes and clubs, a calculus summer camp at Purdue University, some state-level math competitions, a little bit of volunteer work, and a few other minor things... all of which seemed to pale in the light of my classmates.

I often consider myself to be a "normal" mortal attending a school filled with many "Supermen".

I am now a sophomore here at MIT. I have yet to do a UROP, and doubt I will ever find the time to pursue one.

I pulled 2 all-nighters back-to-back this week, trying to do my 18.404 homework, which quite frankly, I am not really comprehending. Turing machines, how you elude me so!

I managed to squeeze out a 4.75 GPA here so far, which I am pretty happy with, but realize that it was by no means easy. This involved me...
1.) pulling many many all-nighters, to finish homeworks,
2.) attending TA-run office hours, to get help,
3.) using HKN's free tutoring services for assistance (in this case, for 6.042, where I was getting a D in the class at the beginning of last semester, but managed to eek out an A- at the end of the term)
4.) hiring private tutors for additional help (for Linear Algebra)

One of the biggest difficulties for many students who excelled in high school is asking for help. We were so accustomed to having others ask us for academic assistance, that it is often a foreign notion for us to be asking others for help.

But, at MIT, we all learn that we went from being a big fish in a small pond, to being little fish in an ocean. And honestly, there are some who are unable to cope with that realization.

I know that there are a good number of people who applied to MIT who did not get accepted.. people who earned better grades, got higher test scores, did more impressive extracurriculars than I ever did. Those people may have felt confident that they deserved, no... that they could conquer MIT.

But, MIT is a powerful, menacing beast, that can suck the life out of even the most accomplished hero. Many have charged in, only to be crushed under MIT's mighty claws.

More often than not, to survive MIT, you need to be flexible, collaborative, willing to accept that you need to find a party, recruit a buffer and a healer... because here, you find that your hit points just are not enough to solo the quest.

-Kim
Massachusetts Institute of Trucking
Class of 2012

For a few days my mind kept asking questions like "What did I do wrong?", "Were my academic achievements not high enough?" or "Was my list of ec's not impressive enough?", "Was something about me misinterpreted?", "Didn't I show enough initiative?", etc. However, I think I have finally digested the unpleasant news. The 2 or 3 percent limit of admitted international students is a number that speaks for itself and there is nothing wrong with any of the rejected applicants.

Past is past.

Can someone give an opinion on what would be more reasonable next year - to apply as a transfer student or as an undergraduate?

i definitely think it is easier to get in as a transfer student than as a freshman. less people apply, the % is (if i remember correctly) closer to 25% than 10%. idk if this is the same for internationals.
but if you do get in, you will have a lot harder of an adjustment, and you'll have a lot of catching up to do. i'm not saying that to mean you shouldn't go for it, just it's something to be aware of and really think about. is it worth it? or would you come out better after four or five yrs by going to a different school.
also, remember, what if you don't get in the next time around, i hope whatever you did that year trying to increase your chances of getting into mit still mean something and are a positive incorporation into your life if it doesn't lead to mit.

i guess what i'm really trying to stress is that you shouldn't have to bend over backwards changing who you are to fit into what you believe is the model of an mit student. i'm not going to say that you can't do it, but if going to mit means you can't be yourself...don't do it. you won't be happy
whatever you do/did to 'impress' mit should still be meaningful and worthwhile if mit did not exist.

best of luck to all of y'all, and if you want to, you will love your college more than any other school and have a blast and no regrets wherever you end up, it really is ~90% attitude

jk, it's about 6%, but that's higher than 3, and you can try it twice

Going for grads(PH.D. in cog sci)! MIT wait for me ok? --tree

@ Kate

Your 770 SAT Math ain't worth anything, "I got a 770 on the SAT Math (I know, I know......)"...

It's time to get over yourself and stop feeling so smug because there are lots of non-MIT students who scored more than that...

I got rejected from MIT in 2002. I was the top student in my class and had a near perfect application and all of it. I was crushed. I know the admissions process is a bit random, but I don't think I ever fully got over it.

Anyway, take heart everybody. If they made a mistake, show them. After graduating top of my class in computer science at Stanford I applied to MIT's PhD program. It felt really good to turn them down!

um...
@anon first of all it was kim, not kate. and if you read what she wrote again you'll realize that that was the exact point she was making..... she definitely was not being 'smug' and i think you read the 'i know, i know' the wrong way. i'm pretty sure it meant i know that 770 is about avg for the people writing on this blog.

b t dubbs, it is worth something. 770 is awesome, and compared to other sat scores, it will always be worth something.
the only way it would've been a valid statement for you to shoot down someone's SAT score is if you're point was that SAT scores in general don't really matter in the great scheme of things, life, etc. saying it isn't worth anything because it isn't as high as yours or someone else's just makes you sound like a jackass.
and really, after you hit M:750 V:700, differences in scores aren't going to carry a lot of weight. (i.e. 770 is, for all intents and purposes, the same as an 800)

Oh, student '13, it is interesting the things you say...

It's easy 770 SAT Math; but whether SAT scores correlate to later success in life is something I don't know or even care about...btw I had a 790 and loads had 800 from my country.

I know exactly what I am talking about; the point I am making here is that this is a "rejected" students forum, not some outlet for a bored MIT student to sound their horns for purposes obvious known only to them...

You have your approach wrong but I am not surprised 'cos you are sticking up for one of your own, for your type...Your kind make me sick.

miao miao

oops I meant: *...purposes obvious(ly)known only to them...*

I also believe that Kim meant 770 is average.
Anon, I,a reject too, think you read it wrong. Sometimes, tone is important, and that's hard to convey in blogs.

Oh well, MIT see ya in cuatro anos! And until then, I promise myself to not read your blogs ever again.

P.s. Most intelligent people should try "The Onion"

you seem upset, so don't read this unless you are going to do it objectively. calm down, this is sooooo not something to get worked up over. if you aren't upset, sorry for telling you to chill. sometimes it is really hard to interpret tone from these posts. but for future reference "your kind make me sick" comes across as being from someone who is in a pretty bad mood
honestly, we (mit students) read these blogs because a lot of the comments are funny.
funny because y'all take some things way more seriously than they should be taken

i'm not trying to 'sound a horn for purposes' i'm just saying what i wish someone had told me last april and the december before that.
i wasn't defending anyone based on where they go to school, i was merely suggesting that you may have misread what they wrote, and i didn't want other people taking your misinterpretation on it. it is a subject i feel strongly about, and you used some pretty powerful words shutting her down, i was trying to undo that. the truth is, sat scores really aren't super important, and so they shouldn't make you angry enough to insult someone without taking a step back to realize what they are saying.

and, finally, mit didn't make this blog for rejectees to bash mit.. i'm just trying to give some people a positive perspective on the situation bc you sure as hell are getting a lot of negativity on here

I can't say it isn't a big deal, because it is. MIT was the college I was most looking forward to attending (more than Caltech, my other tied-for-number-1 school). Now I've been rejected from both of them. It really hurts.

Hopefully I'll hear back from Stanford soon. I could see myself there, and there's always transfer applications.

Congratulations to everyone who made it and sorry to those who didn't. I just hope we can all find somewhere to belong.

Until next year, I'll miss you.

student '13

Oh My God, like you are seriously "saucy" and sick? or something, calling someone a "jackass" here, you have no right to do insult and be abusive and must be respectful towards other users because you are the one who seems so sad and pathetic.

Your comments should be taken off this blog presto; your type have no business being at MIT. You think that just because you are at MIT gives you the absolute right to denigrate others..

I think Anon was only trying to point out Kim's obvious superciliousness, her comments def ooze that, I agree.

Your affected attempts at being condescending and morally superior, e.g. "comes across as being from someone who is in a pretty bad mood", are frankly, irritating, and make YOU the one who sounds like a jerk and a douchebag.. (tw*t)

Hi guys,
Cheer up and just look forward.
My words are exclusively to the international applicants, but domestics are welcome too.
You all are wonderful and you will be admitted in another top university, be sure.
I didn’t have the intent to write here at all, but I changed my mind when I realized what is in fact the profile of an average MIT student and I’m surprised.
Well, MIT is great, and it will be. Even without you. But do you really think that the admission committee has reviewed all of the nearly 4000 international applications just in one pass and has made the right choice for a pool of 130? Selecting 3%, comparing applicants of different culture, different scholar systems, different social, political, religious and economical live and philosophy and all that in one pass? I’m a teacher in a selective high school with an acceptance rate of 1/5, requiring entrance exams in math and literature and we always check the works twice, independently, and if the grade deviation of a work is greater than 0.5 we check it again. But MIT makes the decision, reviewing 4000 applications, much more complicated than just an exam, only in one pass, at the same time declaring that the process is more than precise.
I was told that the admission process for internationals is a lottery, but I didn’t believe it. Now I think I was wrong.
I’m a mother of a rejected international. His GPA is 4.96. Ranks second in one of the strongest Math and CS high schools in our country in Europe, with an acceptance rate of 1/20. SAT Mathematics 800, SAT Chemistry 800, SAT Physics 740. TOEFL 105. 10 National Olympiad Medals. 7 National Merit Scholarships. 2 European Projects Scholarships. NASA contest medal. MENSA 99 percentile. MENSA member since he was 10. Strongest curriculum, especially in math and CS, strongest extracurricular activities. Granted by the city administration for his social activities and achievements in science – every year. But he will never say that he is something more than you are, and I know that many of you have much more to show. But how many? So I don’t think that all of the applications have been reviewed in a way they should be. He is rejected. Even not waitlisted. As he used to say – mom, I’m wastelisted. Well, he is offered admission by universities in London, Madrid, Toronto, US and some American universities abroad he had never applied to. Somehow they knew all his scores and achievements. And I’m happy. But my son is not. Because he wants just MIT. Because all of the above was just a preparatory work for MIT. He was assured by an alum that MIT is the best choice for him and that he is the best fit for MIT. Now he is in shock. He feels like a piece of a puzzle that should fit the shape but doesn’t match the picture.
But I’d like to hear your opinion, especially you at MIT, what you think could be the problem with his application?
One more question to all of you, guys. If you were my son, would you try MIT again? Same lottery again?

@mother - I wrote earlier on this page about how I interview for admissions (I am an educational counsellor so I do alum interviews), and how every year I'm gutted because I meet so many good students but I know the chances are low.

I don't think your son was one of mine as I didn't tell him that MIT was the best choice for him and he was the best fit. However, the story really resonates, because he could be one of my students.

Many of the international candidates I interview are seriously good and I know that many of them would do well at MIT. BUT, I also know that there is a limit on the number of international students in the freshman class (well-documented and I think I've seen the links posted somewhere here already).

When that happens, the choice has to be made somehow. If there are more qualified candidates than places, then some qualified candidates will not get in. MIT does not have enough place for all.

I am almost certain that there was no problem at all with his application. It is not a numbers game because they don't just throw all the names into a hat and pick 50 out (or whatever the number is)- I know that the admissions are considered very carefully and they are always group decisions (someone from admissions office correct me if I am wrong, please).

It is hard to have to choose, but the choice has to be made, and that is what has happened.

Your son sounds like he will do well anywhere. I wish him and you all the best.

p.s. @mother - for what it's worth.. if I was applying now, I am not sure I would get in (I would have been considered international). my list of accomplishments is far, far fewer than your son's. In the years I have been interviewing, the quality of the international applicants has increased year to year.

Kim '12, for the record, 770 SAT Math is nothing special, especially for a place like MIT..That score is not even in the 75th Percentile for places like Harvard and Princeton either...

So stop blowing your own trumpet and stop being annoying and boring (yawns...), acting like you are the best that has ever been. I, for one, I am not your fan or one of your "admirers". Personally, I think you are just A PRETENDER!

Hello,

A few things I wanted to clarify...

When I said that I got a 770 SAT Math, I did not mean it in a condescending way. What I was trying to convey was this:

1.) When I was in high school, I thought I was pretty good in math. This was because, relative to my high school classmates, I was probably the top math student there.

2.) After I came to MIT, I learned just how wrong I was.... that my math skills were nothing compared to some of my classmates here.

3.) That sort of realization can be quite a shock. I know it was for me. I had been so confident about my math abilities, but MIT made that confidence crumble in many ways.

4.) I am not alone in feeling this way. There are many students who thought they were the best of the best in high school, who feel mediocre once they come to MIT.

I apologize if I did not properly express what I was trying to convey before. I was not trying to be smug. Quite the opposite.

MIT can be quite humbling. MIT has humbled me (as well as walked all over me and spit on me a few times). There are times that I wonder if I can handle my current classes, yet alone 2 more years worth of classes.

Many people apply to MIT, confident that they belong to MIT. Some of them probably are. But, as I learned, both in my experience and in those of some of my classmates, MIT can unnerve even the best of us.

I hope that clarified things.

Kim
MIT Class of 2012

Kim '12

That's really touching. I bet the "haters" are a bit sorry for themselves right about now...It's just that the pressure of the college application process can sometimes make us folk "steam over", or act in most unpredictable ways.#

I know, I am applying transfer so it won't be any easy for me...either!

MIT: The excitement of this place is just plain incredible.

@Parent '13, a while back:

Sorry that wasn't clear--theat was actually the point I was trying to make, that the profile of the dumb, non-creative athlete is totally not true. I was agreeing with you and some of the other commenters. :)