May 4 2012

Waitlist Decisions 2012

Posted in: Process & Statistics

As the May 1st reply date has passed, I know many people on the waitlist are anxious to hear an update. Although a few things are still settling down, we wanted to give you all an update as soon as possible.

Each year, we always plan on admitting students from the waitlist. However, this year, we saw an unprecedented, record-breaking percentage of students enrolling from our admitted student group (around 70+ percent). Unfortunately, this means that we will not be able to admit anyone off the waitlist this year. This is the first time in the last seven years that we have not been able to go to our waitlist.

Today at 5pm Eastern Time, we will notify all remaining students on our waitlist via email that we will not be able to offer them admission. At that point, we will consider our waitlist “closed” and do not expect to admit any additional students this year for the Class of 2016.

I know many of you have been sending in additional materials, and we have seen all the wonderful... read the post »

Discussion

Oct 21 2011

Our favoirte applicaiton spellnig errers

Posted in: Miscellaneous, Freshman Applicants

Every year, the MIT admissions staff reads tens of thousands of applications. Last year, it was 17,909 to be exact. And we don't just see them once - there is an iterative process in which many applications are seen several times by various committees. In other words, an application is usually read or seen by several people, multiple times throughout the admissions selection process.

During that process, we notice a lot of interesting things - for example, spelling errors. [See also: Matt's blog entry from 2008.] Usually, one or two spelling errors on an application is no big deal; we're not sticklers for that type of stuff (and hey, nobody's perfect). But when there get to be a lot of errors, we start to question how much time and effort the student has put into the application. So be sure to proofread and double-check your spelling - and don't just rely on spell check!

Here are some of our "favorites" (and by "favorites", I mean most often noticed and/or most common pet peeves... read the post »

Comments (16)

Sep 27 2011

There Goes My Baby

Posted in: Miscellaneous, Life & Culture

As it says in my introduction, I used to sing in the MIT Logarhythms (an all-male a cappella group), and still keep up with the group as a "logalum". Recently, they released their first music video, promoting the first single off their new upcoming album (to be released in October).

A pretty cool video, I think, especially considering they filmed/directed/edited/produced the entire thing themselves, and did it all in 2 weeks from concept to finished product. I might also add that all the indoor shots were done inside the recording studio at MIT which I helped build (from scratch!) back when I was in the group. Yes, I'm a proud Log papa. :)

It definitely goes to show that MIT students are all about making things happen. It's much more about participation than spectatorship; people like to do, rather than watch. At MIT, you won't see a lot of people who just sit on their hands and let life happen to them - they're going to want to go out and start something new, create something... read the post »

Comments (9)

Sep 8 2011

Questbridge College Admissions Conference

Posted in: Miscellaneous, Freshman Applicants

Some of you may look at my last post and wonder, "what's happened to Mikey since last year's waitlist decisions were posted in May?!" Well, given that we're so busy during the school year giving presentations and reading/evaluating applications, the summer is the primary time during the year where we get to take vacation! So I did quite a bit of that - went to a few weddings, visited family and friends, and generally took time to rest and relax.

In addition, I attended one of the QuestBridge College Admissions Conferences that are hosted annually by QuestBridge - a non-profit organization that we partner with to help identify, recruit, and select talented low-income students who might not otherwise think of MIT as a place they could apply to, be admitted to, and afford to attend. Anyways, the conference I attended was being held at Yale, and there I ran into Louis Lamia '14, an MIT Quest Scholar whom I met when he was applying through QuestBridge not too long ago. He was... read the post »

Comments (4)

May 10 2011

Waitlist Decisions 2011

Posted in: Process & Statistics

For the sixth consecutive year, we will admit students from our waitlist. This year, a high number of admitted students have chosen to enroll, but we do plan to admit 26 students from the waitlist.

Today, around 3pm Eastern Daylight Time, we will notify the admitted students via email, informing them that they have been admitted from the waitlist. If you have applied for aid, the Financial Aid Office will follow up shortly thereafter with award packages. Admitted students can then choose to accept our offer (it is an understood part of admissions that some people will shuffle around during the waitlist period; you will lose your deposit at the other school, but it is a standard practice to consider accepting a waitlist offer) or decline it.

For all other students on the waitlist, we will notify them today via email (at approximately 3pm Eastern Daylight Time) that we will not be able to offer them admission. At that point, we will consider our waitlist "closed" and do not expect to... read the post »

Comments (32)