Stanford is the top choice of many students whose focuses coincide with what Stanford offers (e.g., a West Coast life or a large research institution with a slight engineering lean). PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. But the school offers a wide range of other programs as well, ranging from business and humanities to public policy and gender studies. To me, humanities is everything thats not biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, and math. As such, scoring substantially below a perfect score on the SAT/ACT does actually signal to Stanford a lack of understanding of some rather standard areas of math. Form an after-school Spanish study group. Even if you dont want to major in science, do you think you will be able to complete the core sequence of 2 semesters of calculus, 2 semesters of physics, 1 semester of chemistry, 1 semester of biology, 2 electives in science, and 1 lab course? MIT accepts the following tests, with the given minimum and recommended scores. In this area, or spike, you should try your best to be nationally or state-ranked, or accomplish a goal that's rare for a high school student. I hope the rest of you will similarly find this useful. If you want, you can also initiate your own language-study trip since theres a ton of external organizations that conduct those as well. In other words, 75% of admitted students score above a 1510 on the SAT. As a result, math-related classes and extracurriculars are not the only things that matter when applying to Stanford. The best resource to train for the USAMO series is Art of Problem Solving. But with the ISEF, tenacity and the ability to stick to a project for hundreds or even thousands of hours from start to finish is absolutely crucial. Your MIT essays will help your application stand out. Own it. So I count art as humanities as well. To estimate prestige, first look at how many people participatethe more people who participate, the more impressive it'll be on your Stanford application. This means you should try to aim for the most prestigious competition you can actually do well in. Many people think that since Stanford is an academic institution, it must care only about academics. Contribute positively to your community while you're in high school. I think one thing that cannot be overstated is kindness. MIT is one of the most selective schools in the world. Using these rules to your advantage will greatly increase your chances of getting in. Maybe teaching is your calling instead. But I believe what got me into MIT was ultimately my service and commitment to something bigger to myself. I feel like this is something that I can never emphasize enough the awesomeness of MIT UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program). Application Requirements. Conversely, if you're above the SAT/ACT Math threshold, you definitely will benefit from taking the USAMO series, even if it isn't your spike. What exactly constitutes humanities? Not to mention that dilly-dallying in a big number of areas will make you look like a dilettante. This letter has been modified to summarize meaning and protect privacy. Remember, MIT wants applicants that are interesting as people. The College Entrance Examination BoardTM does not endorse, nor is it affiliated in any way with the owner or any content of this site. Get Free Guides to Boost Your SAT/ACT Score, one of the most difficult colleges to get into, wrote an entirely separate essay for the Stanford application, as high as 1420 on the SAT or 32 on the ACT, roughly 2,300 students Stanford accepts each year, humanities-heavy application that would do well at Harvard, improve quickly and consistently to the 700+ level on the SAT, our guide on how to get into the Ivy League, how many questions you can afford to get wrong, Our guide lists hundreds of extracurriculars, it's important for any student to have a professional academic scientist or engineer as their mentor, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Informatics (Computer Science) Olympiads, our complete guide to Stanford University, our college admissions and test-prep guide, You need high baseline academics, with SAT scores above 600 (ideally 750 in each section), You need to have a diverse set of extracurriculars at which you're good (but not necessarily a pro), You need to have a "spike" for which you're (ideally) ranked in the top 100-1,000 compared to other students, Stanford admissions is all about academics, Stanford wants you to be as evenly well rounded as possible. Note that for your activities, you don't need to be especially great at themparticipation is what ultimately matters here. You don't even need to be interested in STEM in general; Stanford is not MIT or Caltech! We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. He would literally put all his time into building these robots, often skipping English classes, physics classes, and even sleep to spend time on this intense passion he had. Here are the 2022-2023 MIT essay prompts: You can learn more about how to ace your MIT essays in our in-depth article on the topic. You have to be an academic and community god. Note: The following advice also works for admission to UC Berkeley and Cornell University. So usually this is how I view these kinds of things. Stanford is all about engineering, and they would love to see you build something of your own! However, I've personally spent weeks, if not months, thinking about Stanford admissions. Here's a quick overview of how they work. If you havent noticed already. As a result, we can replace the first myth with our second truth: top colleges care about far more than just academics and want to see strengths in many areas, including GPA, test scores, extracurriculars, and community service. In fact, the 25th percentile score for the school is a 35 . But why is the USAMO so prestigious? This is the true purpose of community service: don't pick up trash for hours if you don't grow from it or see why it is important. So if one student were a top-100 young writer and another were a top-100 math competitor, it's likely that the latter would have a slightly better chance of getting into Stanford. January Scholars in France is selective and you need to have taken past French 4. Even more to your advantage, I personally got into Stanford following this path, so I will have much more refined strategies for you here, including naming specific programs to try. IAP Germany is open to students without any knowledge in German since you take German 1 there, and I think thats it for foreign language IAP trips. Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub.PrepScholar.com, allow you to interact with your peers and the PrepScholar staff. They're difficult enough that getting a sufficiently high score signals you're in the 95th percentile or above in all the UScertainly enough to qualify as well rounded. What ACT target score should you be aiming for? Put another way, you'll need get as close to a perfect score as possible to make sure you're putting yourself in a good position to get in (if you choose to submit test scores). you'll still have to pick and choose) 13112221. I know of several Harvard students who would have been intimidated by. Again, it doesn't matter if you apply early or not. Assuming every student offered admission enrolled, the acceptance rate is low at 4.1%. Do you enjoy the culture? My assigned conference topic is Health and Modern Technology, which still relates to what I study. You can definitely get these scores if you put your mind to it. They say so on their website! If you want to get a taste of what an easy problem looks like in the USAMO series, just look at the hardest problems on SAT Math or the hardest problems on the (now discontinued) Math Level 2 SAT Subject Test (the hardest problems usually appear last). And for your IAPs, did you have to be fluent in Japanese and Spanish to take part in it? After all, if you were trying out for the football team, the coaches wouldn't measure your skills in baseball, right? 07-22-2010 at 7:33 pm. College Info. I got a brochure from MIT called "You and your fit with MIT" that outlined what they were looking for, and the one I took to heart the most was "Be kind". For example, for enthusiasts of debate-type activities, there's Model UN, Junior State of America, governor's school, mock-trial, and nationwide debate. I visited the campus twice before even applying, attended admissions sessions where I asked dozens of questions about what they were looking for, searched online and in bookstores, wrote an entirely separate essay for the Stanford application, and used a separate admissions strategy for Stanford alone. This is why they hit us with insanely difficult psets this is why they give us exams in which we feel like we always have no time to finish this is why our science courses go nearly 2x or 3x faster than state colleges and many Ivies.*. Menu and widgets. As you know, strong test scores are an important part of your Stanford application. My mom got really hung up on that spelling when she saw it on Building 7. You'll need to answer four short prompts (each answer should be roughly 200 words) on various aspects of your life: a description of your background, what department you're interested in at MIT, what you do for fun, a way that you contribute to your community, and a challenge that you have faced in your life. MIT has a small humanities program, but what we have are excellent. You should have a strong plan for studying for the SAT or ACT so that you achieve the best score possible. On the eve of nearly being halfway through my MIT career, I realized that quietly and slowly one problem set at a time MIT has changed the way that I perceive science. Word. The middle 50% of MIT applicants earn between a 1510 and a 1580 on a 1600 SAT scale. Awesome. This is where you really get to show off your STEM skills. On the other hand, Physics and Informatics have a lot of hands-on sections that require a ton of resourcefulness and novel problem solving. The good news is that you can improve quickly and consistently to the 700+ level on the SAT. So what's a good enough baseline in SAT or ACT Math? Put down the football and the debate notecards and focus on violin if that's what you love. Instead, you have to start out first in a regional science fair. It's OK to be lopsidedin fact, it's even desirable! I got in, 3.65 gpa but difficult school + lots of course rigor so I assume that was factored in. Not a doctor who's pretty good at setting bones and also pretty good at diagnosing the type of flu you have and pretty good at recommending a diet to keep you healthy. Myth 2 is that you should be well rounded and great (but not necessarily excellent) in every field. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(360031, 'c8b8e502-c285-4182-9589-5f8ae230e78a', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"}); Hayley Milliman is a former teacher turned writer who blogs about education, history, and technology. Press J to jump to the feed. Studying satellite images and data from theDescartes Labs, Lillian successfully forecasted 2020 crop yields for every country within Africa. The MIT essay prompts are designed specifically to get to the heart of what makes youwell, you. Let's take a closer look at what scores you need to get into MIT. Competitions provide a direct way for admissions officers to see how good you are, but you can also do other tasks that qualitatively seem similarly accomplished. The superfluous boasting in this post is revolting. If you're fast and have good hand-eye coordination, consider baseball. To be honest, I don't really know myself. For the awards from the Foreign Language department, what languages are eligible for those? Nevertheless, don't forget the fact that Stanford likes baseline diversity. If you're still in your freshman, sophomore, or junior year of high school, plan to take some advanced classes to up your GPA. That means that, if you take the ACT multiple times, MIT will consider the highest score achieved in each section. I would find things that I really enjoyed; its like killing two birds with one stone if youre doing something that you enjoy, youre more likely to put your whole heart into it, and if you put your whole heart into something, youre more likely to outperform yourself and be awesome. For example, if you started a theater club that has an impressive number of audience members or consistently do journal-quality academic research on Victorian English literature, you'd be well positioned for your spike. From many personal surveys, I have found that even well-researched students and parents fall prey to this myth. Fred graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor's in Mathematics and a PhD in Economics. Stanford is also by far the top US News-ranked school west of the Mississippi (the second is Caltech, which attracts a very different crowd). In the end, make sure that you're putting forward your absolute best Stanford application possible! Whats with the counting? MIT will also be paying attention to your course loadare you challenging yourself, or are you coasting on easy classes? Get started with our complete guide to Stanford University and then read our best tips on how to write great Stanford essays, including a stand-out roommate essay. (The school does provide other admissions statistics like average test scores.) MIT wants students who will succeed on their campusyou need to demonstrate that you're up to MIT's academic challenge. There's nothing to set you apart. We've said it already and we'll say it again: MIT likes unique applicants. For example, the Department of Literature (21L) offers an exciting series of literature classes that are generally only a dozen students in size, providing great interaction between professors and students for knowledge exchange, relationship building, and lets face it recommendation letters. For your Stanford spike, you could brainstorm an amazing discovery, such as a biological process, an electrical engineering discovery, or something else entirely. I definitely fall into the category of people who never want to see another literary analysis prompt again, but Im still looking at some of the other humanities courses. MIT is characterized as drinking from a firehose, and that is equally true for all majors. I can 100% confidently say that if my character hadn't developed and I hadn't matured in the way that I have in the past 1-2 years, then no matter how smart I was, I would've been rejected. HA, MIT is still the place I want to be. SAT is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination BoardTM. Aiming for a top score? Consequently, top colleges such as Stanford need to look beyond academic scores to distinguish between these equally high-achieving students. It's very difficult to get into MIT, but it's not impossible. shelley bryan wee biography, consumer reports best solar companies in california,