Understanding Apply MIT

Webinar Transcription

2021-10-10 Understanding Apply MIT

[00:00:00] Hi, everyone. Welcome to CollegeAdvisor’s webinar, Understanding apply MIT. To orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’ll start off with a presentation, then answer your questions in a live Q and a on the sidebar. You can download the slides and you can start submitting your questions in the Q and a tab.

Now let’s meet our panelist. Hi, my name is Lisa Lozano. I graduated from MIT in 2017, so that was about four years ago. I did brain and cognitive sciences at MIT. That’s a fancy way of saying neuroscience and you’re at MIT. We don’t have psych, uh, we have neuroscience and I was also pre-med. Um, but no matter who you are at MIT, you have to get, you get exposed to like computer science and the engineering and the physics.

So, um, I’m, well-rounded in all the term and STEMI tech, uh, terminology. So if you have questions related to that, I got you. Um, okay. Without further ado, um, let’s get started. We have our first [00:01:00] poll. Are you planning on applying to MIT? Um, so while we wait for the answers to roll in, um, what made you choose MIT?

Uh, financial aid? Uh, so what I, I I’m nerdy, like I loved math in high school. I was in the math team. Um, And to, uh, MIT has had one of the best financial aid packages. Uh, so it was a low-income student. I was first gen, uh, when you’re a low income, a lot of these like IVs and the top tier schools tend to have DOE they tend to have money.

Um, and because my mom made less than 20,000 at the time MIT covered everything. And then they provide a small stipend for you to live in, in Boston, which is very expensive to live in. Um, so the financial aid package was good then I think it’s even better now. Um, especially with COVID there’s now more resources to help students out.

Um, but yeah, financial aid was a factor for me. Um, it wasn’t Ironman, it was financial aid. I feel like [00:02:00] iron man would be the better option. So it’s looking like 33 students are saying, yes, they’re planning. One student is saying no six are seeing maybe and no people are unsure, so y’all are in the right place.

Okay. Um, well, let’s see. We can convince some people, um, that one person, um, the next slide, so apply my team. Um, I’m going to read it and then it kind of expand on this, apply in my Teza application portal. And my team uses for first year applicants and transfer students. So after a semester at another school, you were allowed to transfer to MIT or apply to transfer to MIT.

Um, So this is, they use apply MIT rather than the common app. MIT is a very nerdy school. They have tons of systems for themselves. Uh, for instance, a lot of public schools use something called Blackboard, which centralizes all the courses, but MIT doesn’t want to rely on Blackboard. So they built their own, uh, portal to access your classes.

Similarly, they built their own portal for application. So if [00:03:00] things go wrong with the application or there’s like bugs, they don’t have to reach out, uh, to the common app. They can just reach out to their, um, their computer science majors and their technicians on, on hand. Um, let’s get gone to the next, uh, so the application opens in mid August, like in 2020 opened on August 13th.

So August 13th to 15th is kind of when it opens and it closes on January 1st because that’s when things are due. Um, that’s right. I think it’s regular decision is due January. So MIT offers early action. Early action is due November 1st. MIT’s also one of the schools that if you do early action, um, you’re not obligated to attend.

Um, no one’s gonna force you, uh, to go to their school. Some schools do. I think it’s early decision and I, it’s kind of binding you apply early decision and you have, you should go and you have to go. Um, but MIT is lenient and that’s also another reason I applied to them. So I did early action with MIT, um, and I don’t [00:04:00] regret it.

Um, if you do early action with MIT and you’re a decent candidate, you can get thrown into the regular decision pool if you don’t make it in the early action pool. So if you apply early action, you may have two chances are two ways or two times to try to get accepted. And I think that’s really cool. I don’t know of many schools that do that.

Um, so admission decisions are announced mid December, uh, for our early action people. So I found out in mid December, I actually didn’t check my portal because I thought I got denied. So I waited until January. I got an email that said, Hey, you were accepted check. That’s how I found out. Um, so admissions decisions for regular decisions, uh, regular actually is on PI day for my math leads.

Uh, my math nerds here that it should be 3.14. So March 14th. Um, if you didn’t know what PI day was before, you know, now March 14th, um, the application is $75, but MIT also offers [00:05:00] wafers. Um, MIT is very generous when it comes to waivers too. Um, so if you get free or discounted meals at school, if there’s financial circumstances at home bills, I need to get paid, um, like your families and debt.

Um, they’re, they’re very generous. I rarely have heard them saying or telling a student. No, because they want to make sure it’s an equal access opportunity for their low, middle and high income students. K um, So we have another poll. Where are you in the college application versus, um, okay. Okay. There we go.

Um, okay. Again, while we wait. Um, so MIT is a big stem tech school, but it seems more like robots and NASA. How has prevented it’s it’s intense. Um, as a pre-med I still got forced to do computer science-y things. Um, I say forced because I wasn’t happy. I had to learn MATLAB. I had to learn Python. I had to learn R [00:06:00] um, and you don’t really need these things as a medical student, you know, when you’re a doctor and you’re saving somebody’s life, nobody’s going to ask you, Hey, can you, um, can you code me a feedback loop with it and, or functions?

Um, so I felt like it was pointless, but, um, I decided not to go into the pre-med life. I’m actually actually applying for PhD programs. And now, um, those tools are like I’m desirable because I have those tools because a lot of other students and a lot of other pre-meds who go psych pre-med who go research, um, they don’t have that.

And so I’m very fortunate that I, I had the torture of learning, uh, these three coding languages at MIT because now I stand out in society. And now when, uh, minority friends talk about coding, I, I follow along, like, I know what they’re talking about. You are stronger than I am. I hated computer science with a passion, but MIT is the place for that.

Um, so it’s looking like we have 11 students that say they haven’t started. 21 are [00:07:00] researching. School is 16, are working on their essays. 13 are getting their application materials together. And for those lucky people are almost done. Whoa, uh, by chance, do you know the demographics? Like, is this mostly a junior or senior popular.

That is a good question. I can add it to a poet. We can do it. And the next slide. No worries. Um, so the apply MIT, uh, application has many, many sections you may or may not cry in this process. Um, so the common app also has very similar sections except MIT expands on them. So for instance, for instance, MIT has the introduce yourself and identity sections.

Um, the common app have these two. They’re like, what’s your ethnicity, your income, your family, but for MITs, you have to write us a, I think it’s two or one short essays in this section about your culture, um, which rarely happens. Oh, thank you for the poll. I appreciate it. Well, [00:08:00] So you’re going to get asked your demographic information, your identity, um, what kind of majors you’re interested in?

Another thing about MIT is that you’re not obligated to be in that major if you pick it an application process. So if you say computer science in the fall, they’re not going to force you to do computer science. When you get enrolled, you have the option to choose, uh, chemistry or anthropology. Um, so it’s not binding.

I know at other schools, like if you put a major, it may be binding in that may be the major you have to start with. Um, they’re going to ask for family information, like if you have any caregivers, uh, parents, what their occupations are, your first-generation status and they get all this information.

They’re very nosy, um, per se, because they want to make sure they’re being equal with students. For instance, if there’s any students here who have to take care of an elderly relative or babysit. MIT will know, MIT admissions will say like, Hey, this student babysits 20 hours a week. Uh, they may not have as much time to do coding or [00:09:00] robotics or math or whatever, compared to another student who has that opportunity.

Um, so take advantage of it and be very honest when you get to these sections and the MIT application. Um, so that way they can judge you equally, um, more equitably along with other students. Um, they’re going to ask you what schools you’ve gone to. Um, a lot of students tend to do dual enrollment and so you may have to submit college transcripts.

I had to as well, um, your academic history. So what kind of classes you’re in, if you’ve had any disciplinary, uh, disciplinary history, um, another cool thing, and I hope I’m not spending too much time on this one. Slide is when I think there are the black lives matters, protest MIT admissions sent out a statement and said, if you participate and get arrested, that’s okay.

We want you to stand up for what you believe in, uh, which I thought was super cool. So they made that post. So if students wanted to be in these kinds of advocacy, uh, situations MIT would understand if you had disciplinary, uh, disciplinary history or, um, a record per se. [00:10:00] Um, they’re going to ask for the classes that you’ve taken, they’re also going to ask, this is a new section about COVID-19 of COVID-19 impacted anything about your situation.

Did your grades go down? Did you, could you not participate in extracurriculars because of COVID? Were you busy taking care of family or working? Uh, you want to be very, very, very honest in these parts. Uh, so again, that way they can kind of like, um, rank you accordingly and compare you to other students, um, more appropriately, because you don’t want to lie and be like, oh yeah, I, I went through COVID easily and there was a holiday for me, cause that’s not going to help your case.

Um, and lastly, they’re going to ask for test scores, IB sat act. And then again, they have a circumstances section. If you had the flu during the sat, which I did. Um, you, you might want to note that, um, if there are any circumstances, like maybe there was a death in the family around the time you took the sat or your IB tests, you, you want to include that again, just [00:11:00] very honest.

I, it’s very important to be honest on this application. I know the MIT admissions officers. They’re very nice people and they want to consider you holistically. Okay. We’re on slide eight. Um, there’s still more sessions to go y’all that was just the first half. Uh, they want to hear about, uh, any potential jobs that you’ve had, even if it’s, um, you’re self employed and you’re like a tutor on the side.

They want to hear about activities and distinctions. So I, right now I’m helping an MIT student apply for MIT and activities. It’s kind of limited. You can only put in, I think it’s four or five activities, so you want to make sure they count. Um, and then they’ll ask you for four or five summer activities.

So if you do 10 or 20 activities, uh, you may not have the space to put all of them. So you’re only going to put the core ones, the ones that will make a difference and make you more outstanding. Um, they have three short answer essays. Um, so I think the first two are at the beginning in the culture section.

And then here’s three more. [00:12:00] They’re going to ask for additional information. This is a place to put anything else that may not have been covered. Um, at this point, I don’t know what else you can put, um, because they already were so thorough with, um, their other questions. But if there’s something else about your situation, it may have hindered your grades or your academic progress.

Again, another place to put that, uh, they’re going to ask for recommendations, one counselor to teachers, um, certifications, sort of patient status, signature to stay. You’ve been honest. So you’re going to write a digital signature that says I haven’t lied. And if I’ve lied, I have messed up and no one’s going to want me for college.

Um, they’re going to ask for ’em if you need a fee waiver, and if, if you think you might, this is the place to state it. Yes or no. And if you say yes, you have to submit documents. Um, and then finally there’s a review and submit page where it has, um, it tells you what pages haven’t and have been filled.

Whew. Okay. We’re on [00:13:00] slide nine here, the essays. Sorry. Do you want to do the poll real quick? Oh yeah. There’s a poll. Where’s the poll. Oh, this one, the grade, yes. Okay. I’m going to put other, um, because I don’t count. Um, thank you for making the poll. I was like interested on, on who’s, uh, you know, getting started or not started.

Okay. We got some seniors, um, Some eager beavers. I, when I got hired, I was told her eager beavers people who were like intended 11th grade starting their college apps. I’ve seen a few eighth graders every now and again. Whoa. That’s awesome. Okay. So it looks like some people here are maybe in the process of applying if they’re in 12th grade.

I think so. It’s looking like we have 23 people, our 12th graders, 19 people are 11th graders sport. People are 10th graders and one person is a freshmen [00:14:00] and then we have three are others. So that’s either you or, um, parents or transfer students. Oh, okay. Oh, that’s so cool. Parents can attend. Okay. Um, great.

Um, so a lot of students are probably, they probably already have the apply in my key section. Okay. Or like they’ve already started the process and then the 11th graders have it. Okay. This is good to know. Just so I know who my audience is. I agree. Um, okay. I’m going to briefly go through these because, um, it’s a lot of content of content.

Uh, so the MIT application asks for five mini essays. Uh, it sounds nice. Uh, you know, it’s nice to have an essay. That’s a hundred words, two 50 words, 200 words. Um, but it, it has its own pros and cons. Um, the common app, I believe it has one core essay. That’s like 650 words, max, and then every school has their own individual mini essays.

Um, these mini essays, uh, they’re intimidating. Uh, they were intimidating [00:15:00] for me because instead of focusing on one huge essay, you have five little ones, um, that are gonna make or break your application. These essays are really important. Admissions officers do read them. Like the first one is about, uh, the world.

You come on, come from, for example, your family clips, schools, community, city, or town. How have your, your experiences in the world or the community shaped your dreams and aspirations? Uh, the second pick would field of ads of studying MIT appeals to you the most right now, and explain why, um, the third one, we know you lead a busy life, many full of activities, many of which are required for you tell us about something they do simply for the pleasure of it.

Um, so for that one, it is okay to be honest and I highly recommend it. Um, for instance, uh, when I was, when I had. Got an enrolled the admissions officer. He had an orientation with all the new freshmen and he said only one of you truthfully put that you play video [00:16:00] games to relax only one out of 800 students.

Um, and then that student, that student stood up and he’s like, guys, I know maybe you like to volunteer. Maybe you like to, uh, sort food at the food pantry. Maybe you like to do all these things. But we do like when students are honest and if you honestly like to read, you can talk about it. If you relaxed, I’m going to the beach or doing things for, to for self care, you can talk about it.

Okay, small tangent. I’m going to return back to our fourth bullet point. Um, at MIT, we bring people together to do better for the lives of others, MIT students work to improve their communities in different ways from tackling the world’s biggest challenges to being a good friend. Describe one way in which you have contributed to your community community, whether in your family, the classroom, your neighborhood, et cetera.

So another thing about MIT is that they’re very, um, the community feels like everyone wants to change the world. Everyone I met there wanted to make a difference in the community, um, and serve others. I really felt like [00:17:00] MIT was. I don’t know how to say this. We’re just a bunch of students who want to help other people.

No one was really in it for themselves. I rarely met a student who was like, yeah, I want to get rich that wasn’t us. Maybe that was Harvard. But, uh, I rarely, rarely met students who were doing computer science because they wanted to be the next, um, iron man or something. Everyone there wants to help other people.

And so in your essays, it’s super important to emphasize that, um, if you want to be rich, um, I don’t recommend stating that directly. You can say like, I want to code, um, and maybe I’ll get rich in the process, but I want to help people. Um, so that’s what you want to focus on. Uh, the last essay, tell us about a significant challenge you faced or something that didn’t go according to plan, um, that made you, that you feel comfortable sharing.

How did you manage that situation? Um, so you want to be honest, but also if you like are not good at. Things not, not going according to plan, you [00:18:00] probably don’t want to talk about that experience. For instance, if things didn’t go according to plan and you like yelled or went off at somebody, um, do not talk about that.

And I, I feel like I’m pretty sure I’m in a room of people who know that, like that should be inferred. Okay. Slide 10. Um, so MIT is also one of many schools that now allow students to submit creative portfolios to demonstrate their works. This isn’t new. This did not exist until the year after I applied.

Um, so if you’ve done research before you can now send pictures of your, your posters, you can now send copies of your papers, your publications. If you are, have done anything in music or theater, You can now send them their comp, your composition scores, recordings of you in theater, arts, uh, videos or images related to your works spring scripts.

Um, if you’ve done visual art or architecture things, you can submit images of your work. And lastly, for all of the coding people out here, my engineers, uh, we have the maker’s portfolio, which is becoming more [00:19:00] and more popular and common of many top tier schools. So this is a chance for you to kind of give a summary of the different projects you’ve worked on related to coding or engineering.

Um, so if you didn’t have room in your extracurricular activities to talk about a project, the maker’s portfolio is an excellent place to do so. Okay. Things is about letters of recommendation. So you’ll need three letters of recommendation. They have a recommendation that you should follow. One from a math or science teacher, another from a humanities, social science or language teacher, and then the third from the counselor.

Um, They also give you permission to upload a supplemental, a letter of recommendation that should probably be from maybe an extracurricular leader, a teacher who led your extracurricular or somebody who knows you outside of academics, a religious leader, um, a community service leader, somebody who can speak on like your service, the academic, um, extracurricular side.

Um, [00:20:00] and then if you have a creative portfolio that is submitted through SlideRoom, um, so you have the apply the MIT supply app, and then you have slide room to submit other external files. Okay, next slide. We’re in slide 12. Um, the MIT portal is only available to support the MIT application. There is no other applications on this, like the common app or the UC applications where you can apply to multiple colleges at once, or like apply Texas where you can apply to like 20 Texas schools at once.

This is just for one school. Um, so it feels like its own job sometimes. Uh, so this means you to keep track of the progress and apply my T in addition to anything else on other applications. Okay. Slide 13. So I think this slide is about, cause I can’t see the full screen. Maybe I can know what is in the apply my tea section on the financial.

Um, the application doesn’t necessarily directly [00:21:00] ask about students’ financial statuses. Um, however, there’s plenty of places that you can talk about your socioeconomic status. For instance, there’s places that you can talk about your parents’ occupations. Um, if you were ever allegeable for free reduced lunches, any circumstances that prevented you from affording things in school.

Um, so there are tons of sections where you could have acknowledged these things. Personally, like in my case, my mom was a janitor at the time. So I did say that like, my mom is a janitor at this high school. Um, and that signifies to them like, yeah, Lisa May not have a hundred thousand dollars to pay for the tuition.

Um, I love that MIT’s a need-blind school. Um, this means that when they’re looking at your application, they don’t take your financial aid into account. Unfortunately, some schools do this, um, if they need students to pay tuition because they don’t have huge endowments, they don’t have a lot of money. So they need students who can kind of cover the costs on their own.

So they may or may not take your financial aid status [00:22:00] into consideration. MIT. Doesn’t do that. Um, so regardless if you have $0, if you have a hundred thousand, if you have a million, um, that doesn’t matter when they’re looking through your materials, um, So this question, how can students get familiar with the apply?

Am I see? So it looks like maybe, maybe 23 or 50% of you have already maybe have an account, but we can talk about it again. Although the application is up for like three, four months, students can do many things to get familiar with the vibe of the school. So MIT admissions has a blog where students talk about their experience, being a student, um, and admissions officers talk about their experiences, um, accepting students and their experiences being on campus.

I recommend that you go through that to kind of get a feel for what students are experiencing and the vibe that MIT has, especially if you can’t afford to visit MIT, this is proud and expects the next best thing. So we’ll get blogs of students [00:23:00] describing their experiences at MIT. Um, if a student is eager, you can create a dummy account now.

So my 11 10th and, uh, when my one ninth grader, you can create a dummy account. This means an account that you’re not actually gonna use. Um, you make, you have a username, you have your password, you can go through it and you don’t have to have to fill anything out. You can just see what it looks like. Um, you can start building your resumes now and creating a list of all your achievements and honors in a words.

And I think that’s one of the simplest things you can do, um, to create a resume and you can start that at 9, 10, 11. So that way, when you get to the application can kind of copy and paste the different terminologies, your organization, the role in what you did. Um, so students can, you can also start looking for people to recommend you.

If there’s a teacher you have in mind and you’re in 11th, 10th or ninth, um, you may want to be on their good side for a very long time. So when you get to 12th grade, um, they’ll be eager to write you a letter of [00:24:00] rec and it will be very good. Um, so MIT also has a page dedicated to understanding the MIT application process.

Um, and this is for anybody for students, parents, educators, and transfer applicant applicants. I think it’s really cool. They have sections for these different populations just to visit. So if you’re a parent, there’s actually a page for parents. And if you’re a teacher or a counselor, there’s a page for.

And then there’s a page for you, the students, and that is MIT admissions.org/apply/. Okay, cool. I’m so wedding, let’s keep going. I’m waiting for a poll, um, to cool down anyways. Um, we’re in the, uh, the apply MIT application. The students have a chance to shine. Um, I wrote literally anywhere and everywhere.

Um, this is a school that considers you holistically. Um, it does it like if you have perfect sat scores that that doesn’t really make or break a that doesn’t [00:25:00] cut it. I know that there are some public and private schools where you have a perfect ACE sat, ACP score, and it automatic admission for MIT.

That’s not enough. Um, you may have a perfect score. You may have a good score, but what about your essays? If your essays aren’t passionate about. You’re probably not getting in. So every section of your application matters, um, prospective students are the accumulation of their identity, extracurriculars, epidemics, test scores, jobs, and essays.

So all of those sections matter, they all matter. I promise you. Um, so though many students will fill up the activities and distinctions portions, and may have stellar test grades and academics. The essays can help distinguish an extraordinary student from a pool of other great candidates. Um, I think, I think the essays from experience from college advising from working in the admissions office, the essays is the place to maybe distinguish yourself from everybody else.

MIT’s application process is very competitive. You are going to be competing [00:26:00] against people that are like you, or maybe more intense than you. For example, um, I met students at MIT who took organic chemistry in eighth and ninth grade. My school did not have organic chemistry at any grade. Um, you will be competing against people who have labs in their garage who have been coding since they were like four or five.

Um, it is intense, but what ma um, I think what matters most is the essays where you can display your passion, because even if somebody has been coding since they were like four or five and they’re good at it, can they talk about how passionate they are? It’s one thing to be good at it, and it’s another to be passionate about it.

And I think MIT admissions really loves when students can talk about how they’re passionate about it, how they’re passionate about using the tools to help serve the world in one way. Okay. We’re on slide 16. Um, so how do students submit finished applications through apply MIT? Uh, there is a review and submit tab.

Okay. [00:27:00] At this tab, uh, it’s kind of like a table of contents. I don’t know why it’s at the end, but at this tab, it’ll tell you what sections are still need to be filled and what, which sections have been filled. And once every section is green, um, or mark this complete, you will be allowed to submit your application.

Okay. So any last advice to give to students, learning to navigate, uh, apply MIT. The smartest thing you can do from the very beginning is copy and paste every essay or, um, open-ended question into a document. What you don’t want to do is work straight from the essay. Um, especially for people who like what you try to type an essay into a small box, and then you can’t really see your whole lesson.

You don’t know what you’re typing. Where you’ve done your tabs, your spaces, it’s hard to correct. It’s just a Mart and it’s common sense to move all these questions into a document that you can work from. And then once that document is done, [00:28:00] you can start copying and pasting the essays from the duck back into MIT, the MIT application.

Um, so another thing you can do, I talked about being honest. Um, if you spend time with self care activities, uh, like yoga, meditating, reading, playing video games, you can include that. And in some ways I think that would have made me more distinguished too. I kind of wish I had put like, Hey, I played Denton’s revolution on the side, but I was scared that they would see that they would think video games were a negative.

When in fact that would have made me look more at standing because how many other students were bravely talking about how they play video games at like seven, and then they start coding or doing homework. Uh, not many students are that honest and I wish I had been, um, that’s not to say that you should tell them like, yeah, I play video games 40 hours a week.

Um, you don’t want to do that either. Um, uh, similarly, if you had circumstances that prevented you from getting the best grades, you could have gotten, [00:29:00] uh, anything, literally, anything like helping your family work, if you were sick, if you had a babysit often, uh, if you didn’t have as much access to volunteering and researching and your community, you need to include that information.

Um, and going back, I wish I had, I think that they knew my community, um, tends to, is a bit more impoverished and a bit more poor than other communities. But I wish I had said like, yeah, my, my local university doesn’t have opportunities for high school students like others. Um, and if that’s the case for you include that.

And lastly start early. So once that application opens in. 1315 16th. Um, you want to create account and you want to start copying and pasting all the questions into a document to start working on the essays. We’re on slide 18. I might’ve spoken too fast. I’m not sure. Um, we’re doing good for time. We’ll have 30 minutes for the Q and a.

So that is the end of the presentation part of the webinar. I hope you found this information [00:30:00] helpful and remember that you can download the slides from the link in the handouts tab, moving on to the live Q and a I’ll read through your questions. You submitted in the Q and a tab and read them aloud before our panelists gives you an answer as a heads up.

If your Q and a tab, isn’t letting you submit questions, just double check that you joined the webinar through the custom link in your email and not from the webinar landing page. If you joined from the webinar landing page on the website, you’re not going to have all the features that big marker. So just make sure you join through your email link and we can get started.

So I’m seeing a question. Um, does MIT have a good premed or medical.

Yes. So it does. Here’s the thing you will be over-prepared for medical school. Um, for instance, medical schools require that you take organic chemistry one and two, but at MIT, organic chemistry, one is actually one and two. And because medical schools don’t know and don’t care, you still have to take [00:31:00] organic chemistry two, which is actually Oregon three.

It is hell it is hard. And as a pre-med student, like I had mentioned, uh, I think in my first few minutes speaking, um, you do have to take a lot of the courses required by other students in the general requirements. For instance, you will have to take introduction to computer science and, um, engineering, and you will have to learn Python and you may not need to ever use it in your life as a medical doctor.

You still got to learn it. Um, and from what I’ve heard from other students who did pursue medical school, some of them said medical school was easier than MIT. And I think that’s saying a lot. That is a next question. This one is a bit more specific, but MIT asked for parents financial proof of income to qualify for financial aid.

I did not want to rely on parent my parents’ income. Can I apply for financial aid without [00:32:00] providing parents income proof? I think that depends. I I’m gonna, I’m gonna infer that this is like a us student. So, uh, in some know you will need your parents’ information unless you, um, there’s a word for it, unless you dis-aggregate, unless you, what do you know the word for pay?

Yes. Emancipate yourself from your parents. Otherwise, there’s not much you can do. You will need to get your parents’ information. Um, MIT does, I think they asked for the FAFSA. So the government application to see how much aid you qualify for. And they also ask for something called a CSS profile, which is a pain in the booty.

Um, the CSU, if you thought FAFSA was bad, the CSS profile is worse. This is going to ask you about everything that you own and everything your family owns. Does your family own a farm? Does your family own a business? How many yachts do you have? How many cars do you have? It’s everything. Um, so. [00:33:00] You w you would have to fill that out too.

Again, the only way out of getting your parents to help you out is emancipation and, or in like other circumstances, they’re like more extreme cases of like, if you were abused by your parents or like there’s a severe situation, you may be able to get permission to not have them on your records, but it’s so rare.

Um, they will need to help. MIT does provide a lot of aid for students. Like if your parents make, I think it’s less than 90,000, don’t quote me on that. Um, MIT at least covers tuition, which saves you 40,000 a year. So like the bar is high, I think zero to 90,000. They’re at very least covering tuition. And that should save you.

Hmm. And you won’t necessarily have to like, have your parents pay for anything. You can take out loans in your name to cover like parent and student contributions. If you were to get them in your financial aid package, but from the sound of it and with a lot of IVs, um, you get a lot of financial [00:34:00] aid, so you, a lot of people don’t have to come out of pocket.

They just need your financial records to determine if you’re going to have to come out of pocket. Um, so yeah. Um, next question. What is the minimum sat cutoff that is required? Um, will it be helpful? Whether it will be Jesus by can I read it will help whether we should really focus on the, um, writing essay or not.

So the way the question is if the SAT’s important or like how much is determined, like, I, I’m guessing it’s asking what the average sat is, um, for, uh, MIT. And then if the essay for the sat is missing. It’s been a while. Okay. So is the sat now out of 1600, because I think it was different my year at 1600 now.

Okay. So just going from memory, I think most students scored like from the 15 to the 1600, um, y’all mine was trash. It was absolutely trash. [00:35:00] I think it might’ve been 12 or 1300. I had the flu. Um, it was bad and that didn’t determine whether I got in or not, because my act score actually kind of compensated for that as well as my extracurriculars, as well as my essays.

Um, so again, if you, if you’re weak in one area, that’s okay. Everything else should, um, kind of help you out and alleviate that. Um, there was a better word for that. Um, anyway, so if you do bad on the sat or like not as hot, um, just make sure you do better in everything. Uh, and you can find more admissions, specific information on their website.

Okay. I’m going to skip down some questions. Are there any classes that MIT expects you to have taken when applying? Hm, yes and no. Uh, so if, um, if you go to like an intense school, let’s say there’s like tons of AP classes, tons of [00:36:00] IB, uh, whatever, maybe dual enrollment, um, they expect that you should have taken those advanced courses.

Uh, so when you, uh, when your counselor submit your transcripts and I think, uh, I think like a letter on your behalf, um, they also submit like a menu of what classes you could’ve taken at the school. If MIT sees that you took, uh, beginner’s physics and they had AP physics, they’re going to ask why didn’t they take AP physics?

So they’re going to know if you took the harder courses or easier courses at your school and that’s, what’s going to matter. Um, so your school had no AP courses. That’s fine. Um, they do want to see that you, you took the harder versions of whatever classes that you had at your school. Uh, okay. So I’m going to ask a first part of this question, but, um, does MIT have sports?

Yes. Okay. So the person is asking if [00:37:00] you’re an athlete and would like to play at MIT, how do you apply and let coaches know vice versa and vice versa? E okay. That, wasn’t my forte. I do know a lot of students, um, do get in, uh, not, they don’t really get into sports. You still have to meet criteria. Um, I know at other schools, like you can kind of get in, um, by knowing the coaches per se, but at MIT, your academics have to be on par with everybody else.

Your application. You get on the swim team, you get on the football team. Um, I don’t have the, I really don’t have it on hand on how people, how you’re recruited through sports. I think there are 36 sports at the time when I was at MIT. Um, and if you didn’t want to do sports, uh, to compete, you could do intermural through your dorm and you could do it for funsies.

Okay. So you had mentioned on portfolios that you can submit research to the person is asking, um, does science fair projects, [00:38:00] um, like for school account, as a research project, can you submit that? Maybe like, I hope it’s not like a volcano thing, you know, like something pretty basic. Like if it’s a science peer project, it should be, um, impressive.

Um, and ideally it would be a poster like this should not be an experiment. That’s been done thousands of times in like a high school classroom that doesn’t. Uh, my school has different academies and I requested a letter of recommendation for my engineering academy teacher. Does that count as a math and science teacher?

So I’m 99% sure. That should count because I think what they wanted was a stem and a humanity, essentially. Um, I think engineering counts as a sciences. If you, if you’re like nervous about it, I would ask MIT admissions directly. That may be a good question too. And it may make you stand out a little bit when they go through the applications.

They’ll remember you, [00:39:00] they somehow, I don’t know how their brains remember everybody. Um, but you can ask though, I am kind of, I’m certain that that’s something they would accept. Okay. So this is a very good question. What is MIT like for students with learning discipline? So I saw that question. I was hoping to ask because MIT is very good at supporting students with learning disabilities.

Um, I did have a few friends who needed to utilize their resources. Their office is very, very sweet. I ha I had to go meet with the staff for different reasons, uh, for other organization things. But, um, for instance, they have tools that if you have a textbook in a textbook, they have a tour, it can read it out loud to you or make our, turn it into like audio or turn it into braille.

Um, and I heard no complaints. Um, I wish I could speak more on it, but I do know that the students who were served by, um, the office of learning [00:40:00] disabilities or accessibilities like felt very supported and the staff is very kind. And also, if you have any questions, you can probably call them. And they’d love to hear from you, um, and tell you more about it.

Okay. So are there differences in financial aid options for out of state? No, it’s a private school. Uh, so, um, public schools is where you have differences in tuition. Um, private schools everybody’s paying $60,000 or getting a scholarship to, um, so it doesn’t matter if you’re in state or out of state. Uh, okay.

What would be something that would make an outstanding math applicant? Stand out, Mac Mac after math, like, I guess more applying as a map. Okay. How would a math person stand out? I think in the essays. Um, and then if you’ve competed it before, that would count [00:41:00] too. If you’re in any honor societies like welfare data, I think they’re like a math honor society.

If you have that include that. Um, personally I think the essays and you want to like somehow stand out and talk about how you want to, how and why you would utilize math in your future career. And again, Serve the community at large. Um, you don’t want to say, like, I like math, it’s fun. Like you’re going to want to word it in a way that’s compelling.

Um, and in doing so, usually you you’ve heard of people who are like, you have a hook in your first essay, your, your first paragraph, you do those tools too. You have a hook, you tell a story that’s compelling in a way that displays that you are passionate about math. Uh, okay. So is there a spot in the application to indicate that I am a first gen applicant or does it, uh, does it even matter to him?

Yes. And yes. Um, I think that that place may be if it asks for your parents’ information. And I think from memory it’s like your parents’ [00:42:00] occupation, their rule, and in, are they first gen, like, did they have, do they have college, some college, high school, no diploma. And that’s where the MIT learns whether you are first gen or not.

Now, if you’re first gen, um, they’re going to take that into consideration when going through your application, because what that usually means is that if you’re first gen, you may not have had as much help with your college application. So it may not be as fine tune up or perfect, or as neat as other students who have their parents to help them write their essays or edit their essays and edit their applications.

Um, they’re also, they also know that first-generation students tend to maybe have to work more, to babysit more, to have all these other responsibilities. And they’ll take that into consideration. Okay, so I’m going to skip down to another question then we’ll do a quick ad break after, uh, is Cambridge a safe city?

Uh, do you feel safe on MIT’s campus? Hm, yes. So I did [00:43:00] feel safe. Um, so MIT it’s like a huge, uh, the huge campus and I’m the, we have a street, I think it was NASA. And on the opposite side of that street is all the dorms. All the dorms are lit and we have the police office in our side, on the dorm side. Um, so I personally felt safe in this little area.

Um, once you leave the MIT space, it’s a city and like many other cities, you have to be mindful and watch out. Um, so MIT police are constantly patrolling the area, the dorms, the, the campus, but once you leave the MIT community, um, you are in a city, you are in Cambridge. Like any other cities, there is a risk I, nothing ever happened to me.

Um, I think maybe twice in my four years there, maybe there may have been a student, a few rots students robbed. Um, but this would happen like at two in the morning it didn’t make it right. [00:44:00] Um, but the students were walking out in the city at 2:00 AM and then got mugged or got their backpack stolen. Um, so yes, it, it could be an issue.

So just be very mindful that you are in a city and you’re across Boston, um, which is also a big city. It’s a very pretty area. You just have to watch out for all the Harvard students cause they make up mostly area. Um, Okay. So once work one-on-one with an advisor from our team of over 155 advisors and admissions officers sign up for a free consultation with us by going to CollegeAdvisor.com and clicking the green chat button in the bottom, right of the screen from there, just write in consultation and a live team member will get back to you to help coordinate your free consultation with us now, back to the Q and a, uh, okay.

See, um, what are the different clubs? Uh, student led organizations at [00:45:00] MIT. And what is the atmosphere like? What are the different clubs? There’s a club for everything. Y’all I think they have 400 clubs on campus. Um, in total. Like there’s a Quidditch club. I would see people on broomsticks hitting a ball in like a field.

Um, there’s pre-med clubs where people traveled to, uh, underserved communities and help people there. You can create your own club. And I did, uh, when I was at MIT, I created a club to build resources for low-income students. Um, and my club was so good that, um, the office of the first year actually absorbed my club and took it back, uh, after I graduated.

Um, so I would, I would research that like look for, I think it’s, um, I forgot the office, but you can Google like extracurriculars at MIT and you should find a list of 400 different clubs. And even if you’re not good at them, for instance, I joined dance troupe at MIT. I’m not a dancer, I sucked. Um, but they took me into their beginners team and I learned one dance and I [00:46:00] performed and I, I felt baller.

Like it was great. Um, so have fun with it while you’re at MIT, you don’t have to take all of the serious extracurriculars. Do like have fun and do the fun ones too. Uh, okay. So some financial aid questions is all the financial aid documentation due on the application deadlines like November 1st and January 1st.

Um, or does it have a different date? And then the next one is asking, does financial aid include on campus housing and food? Okay. On campus housing or food. Okay. This is, this is good. I see the two questions now, too. Uh, so for the first one, I’m doing my own research. Cause I do have some students right now who are seniors, who are applying early action, regular and they ask the same question.

So from my research, I have found. You at least you need to submit at latest. I think it’s like may or June, but you want to submit as soon as possible. You want to submit your FAFSA as soon as possible because some schools prioritize giving you aid based on how soon you turned it [00:47:00] in. Um, and so I it’s already open.

And so even though, you know, early action isn’t due for November G on regular isn’t for January, you should probably try to finish the FAFSA this month. So that way MIT can work on processing your aid faster, and then maybe you’ll see the finance, your financial status sooner than other students in the spring.

And then the second, this financial aid include on-campus housing and food. Yes, ish. If you get, um, if you get a full ride, um, which I did, because again, my, my, my parents made less than 20,000 a year and she was a single mom. Um, MIT did cover the tuition and. And then they gave me like a two or 3000 stipend for the semester that I used on food.

Um, but from other students, I heard that, um, sometimes cause I live in a dorm that didn’t have a cafeteria. Um, so other students said that their food was covered, um, in [00:48:00] their dorms cafeteria, if they were low income. So at the very least I know that housing, food and tuition would be covered. If you get kind of a full eight, a full ride package, that’s a bit odd with the dorms and dining halls thing.

A little it’s a little weird. Okay. So one, there was another financial aid related. Um, okay. Does MIT take into account, uh, having younger siblings for financial help? Yes. Well, the FAFSA does too. And the CSS profile, they use that the government uses that to calculate like how much your parents can feasibly and like realistically help you out.

Um, if at all, so in the FAFSA and CSS profile, they’re going to ask you, like, how many siblings do you have? How old are these siblings? Because they know that like a baby, maybe more expensive than like a 16 year old. Um, so yes, that is taken into consideration. What would you say? What would you suggest for an international student to get into MIT?[00:49:00]

Um, I actually have like experience because I’m, I currently am helping international students try to apply to MIT. What I can say is being competitive again, where you’re at. So whatever school that you’re at, make sure you’re taking the most intense classes that you possibly can make sure that you’re taking advantage of any opportunity in your community to do research or do extracurriculars that you possibly can.

If those things do not exist, you might want to work on a passion project, which is something that CollegeAdvisor helps. Uh, the advisors help students with. This is a project that you can make on your own. Like you can make an initiative in your community to address maybe food insecurity, maybe, uh, clothing for winter, something that you can do that, um, shows MIT like, Hey, I took initiative, like I have this experience.

So the experiences don’t exist. You can, you should and could create one to add to your application. I did a webinar on [00:50:00] passion projects and writing about passion projects, uh, back in may and then last month. So if you want to check those up, but, um, yes, those are good. Um, okay. Next question. Are there any special awards or tests that MIT expects you to get if you apply as a computer science major, and I guess you can apply this to any major?

Yeah. Uh, the answer is no, uh, because they know that some students do not have access to these things. Uh, for instance, my school had something, my high school has something called UIL university interscholastic week. And so I had dozens and dozens of opportunities to compete. Um, whereas other, uh, other students named from Oklahoma or Kansas don’t, um, and MIT admissions knows that.

Uh, so it’s really hard to compare apples and oranges. Um, when you live in different states and different communities that all have different opportunities, It’s not an expectation for you to participate in dif like the science, Olympiad or different things. Um, you have to just [00:51:00] use what you have, um, in your community.

Okay. I’m seeing a lot of questions about programs. So one person is asking is, uh, computer science considered a competitive major at MIT. Some people are asking about the pre-med program and then neuroscience. So if you want to talk about those few things, let’s try. Um, so computer science, half of my, uh, my cohort was computer science.

So I think we are 800 at the time 400 students were computer science. Uh, your computer science classes will be huge. Um, and the professors will be less likely to know you compared to neuroscience where there’s like 40 or 50 of us per year. Um, what was that question related to if it’s competitive? MIT does it, unlike other schools, you don’t have to apply or compete to get a spot in the computer science program.

What’s hard is staying in though, because you have to be really resilient, persistent, and you have to just fight through your tears to get through those [00:52:00] four years of computer science. Uh, it’s hard, but I, um, am I T does adequately prepare you? So for instance, uh, while I was at MIT, um, my friends at MIT let’s okay.

Yeah. Their second year. So my second year computer science, friends at MIT had learned more than, um, the computer science majors at my local university in four years. So students with two years of experience of MIT at MIT learns more than students with four years of experience at my local university.

Like it’s an intense major. It is hard. It is fast, it is difficult. Um, I wasn’t even a major. I just saw them all suffering. So it’s not that it’s hard to get in. It is hard to stay in. Um, So that’s one of the questions, uh, neuroscience, and then there’s just different questions asking about different specific programs.

So if you want to give just a broad overview of anything, you know, about different programs, okay. [00:53:00] Uh, neuroscience, uh, it consists of classes that are mostly, uh, cognitive based and neuroscience based, um, or a mixture of both, both. How does neuroscience effects cognition? And my T used to have psych classes, I think, in the eighties or nineties, but they got rid of them because psych doesn’t bring in money.

Neuroscience does, if you do neuroscience, a lot of your classes will be, um, more computational and neuroscience focused. So you will have to learn coding for neuroscience. I was forced to learn MATLAB for one of my neuroscience classes. Not happy for a whole semester. It was miserable and I will never do it again.

Um, so you will have to learn how to code through your neuroscience classes and you will have to do, um, the more wet lab stuff too. So if you, if you have, if you’ve never put a mouse down before to experiment on them, you will do that at MIT, uh, which was also a traumatic experience for me. Um, what, and I saw that [00:54:00] question.

What are the various options for pre-med? So pre-med students typically do biology. Uh, they do neuroscience. It’s not unheard of to have some students do biological engineering, um, which is really intense. Those are your intense pre-meds. Um, or, um, I’ve heard of pre-med students who are mechanical engineering, who to, who to pre-med like junior or senior year.

And you can do that too. Um, you just may be very tired all the time. Usually they try and say pick a major that kind of aligns with pre-med we’re premise, just so you aren’t having to do two separate things. Um, okay. Do you have to fill in, and is it advantage to fill in every entry portion of the application, including like the optional part?

Yes. Yes. You always want to have something to say, and it also makes you look like you’re more excited to apply. Um, it was a rule of thumb when I was applying to never leave a section blank. Um, however, I know that because of COVID, there’s now a lot more sections for you to put your, your disadvantages and hardships and stuff.

And so like, [00:55:00] I think now you may be able to like run out of juice. Like at some point, like you’ve already said all you can say. Um, but if there’s places that it’s optional, like, Hey, you want to talk about anything else? Talk about something else. If there was an extracurricular that you weren’t able to expand on, use that space and talk about how you were passionate about it, but there is no space to.

Uh, okay. Let’s see. Um, this is specific question, but, um, from my understanding, an a and the a is a 90% and above, and the American high schools in Canada, it’s an 86 and above is the different grading scale taking into consideration. Okay. This is an excellent question because I have two Canadian students right now in my cohort who I’m supporting.

And I had to learn the hard way that MIT does know that other students have different grading schemes. And so it won’t hurt you. They know that an a is different in Canada than it is in the U S um, and I, I don’t think you have to fill in the GPA if you’re an international student, either again, [00:56:00] because they know that the GPA system in the U S is very different from what other schools may be doing.

Um, so I’m glad to know that MIT takes that into account. I cannot speak for other. A lot of schools, what they do is like, um, cause even in the U S like in Georgia, where on the four point scale, but in Florida, one school was on a 12 point scale for whatever reason. And a lot of schools, aren’t a five point scale.

They’ll take your core classes, your like your math, science, social studies, and, um, English. And then, um, they’ll take whatever grade you got and they put it in their own calculation to figure out what your GPA is by MIT standards. So that’s how you get compared. So even if you’re on a different scale, you get like filtered through.

That’s why you like don’t failure, like, um, electives, but they don’t technically matter. Um, but they, you need electives still because like different electives can show that you are like interest in your major and stuff. So, yeah. Um, okay. [00:57:00] Uh, does, do you know what it’s like being a part of the ROTC program at, um, Not personally, there was one person in my dorm who she had to wake up at like five or four in the morning, one time, a week to go to training.

Um, she liked it. She felt like it was another community. She loved it. Like I would never do it because you’re already tired from everything else. Um, but I guess she liked it so much that she didn’t mind getting up at four in the morning to go do her routine or the workout that they had to do. Um, again, I don’t have any negative comments, but the colleagues and the friends that I knew who did ROTC enjoyed it.

Um, if you have questions, I kind of recommend asking the ROTC leader directly, um, and finding their contact info on that. Some schools, if you join ROTC, you can get different stipends and some students can even get full rides at Cornell. You can get a full ride if you’re in ROTC. Apparently even if you’re international, um, one of my friends from England and he has a full ride.[00:58:00]

Um, uh, okay. Um, if you see any questions that you want to answer, please do, uh, or that you have an answer for already. Um, there’s a lot of questions about astronomy and aerospace. Do you have anything on those programs? I do. I don’t know how honest to be. Um, because, um, I heard like unofficially aerospace engineering is the hardest major.

Unofficially and officially, so nobody, this does not go on the record. Um, but that was my experience. And a lot of my arrow, uh, science, friends were always tired. Like they, they were always excited, like, and they loved what they were doing and they loved building like small model airplanes, but, um, they just always looked exhausted.

Um, now most of them are making like six figures and they’re living the life. And I kind of wonder why, but maybe I should have done aerospace, made some planes. One of my friends is doing, I think he’s an aerospace, he’s doing something to get into NASA. And he had time [00:59:00] what MIT to do a bike tour. Like he went on a cross country, bike tour in the middle of his semester as a passion project and fundraiser.

So you’ll still be able to have a life you’re should at least, uh, does MIT have limits by major, as in does the major you choose have an impact on being accepted? No, that’s a good question. No, but I guess the major kind of maybe should align to what you say in your application, because then your application, if you’re talking about how you’re passionate about math, but then the majors like anthropology, like that’s not gonna make any sense at all and that’s going to be a red flag for them.

So you want to make sure that what you’ve discussed in your essays is in line with, um, the major that you have at the moment. So, uh, whereabouts to come to close on the webinar. But so if you have any last minute things on the application, MIT as a school or anything that you’d like to add, please feel free.[01:00:00]

Um, you all, it’s a fun school. Like it was hard. And I know I said that I like, I suffered a lot, but I would do it again, except that one computational science class, um, in neuroscience. But, um, I met some of the greatest people there. The people that I met at MIT or some of my best friends now today, um, I utilized every resource I can.

So even if you don’t go to MIT, if you need help with things. Get as much support as you can for organic chemistry. I had three tutors through three different departments. I made it, um, I needed help cause it wasn’t my forte. Um, so it’s okay to ask for help. MIT is a very, very big on asking for help if you need it.

And I love that about MIT as well. It’s a very collaborative school where people aren’t trying to sabotage each other. Um, I recommend it. I’m a little biased, but I hope that, um, you can have, you can explore it a bit more. Look at the MIT admissions pages. Look at some of what some students are doing on Instagram, um, and [01:01:00] consider.

Okay. Um, yeah, I think we’re going to have to end the web and our, uh, so that is the end of our webinar. Thank you everyone for coming out tonight and thank you to our panelists. Um, uh, okay, so we had a really great time telling you about applying to MIT and here’s the rest of our October series, where we’ll go over different, uh, other aspects of the application.

And next month we’ll be doing a, um, what is it, the final stretch, like finishing up the applications, if you applied early, what to do next and, um, revising, editing your essays. Um, and then if you’d like to get more, um, personal help, always join CollegeAdvisor, uh, and you can also watch our webinars on the website or read through our blog for, um, supplemental help or different questions.

And, yeah. Thank you everyone for coming out tonight. Thank you everyone.