During one recent episode, Stephen Colbert interviewed Richard Hersh, a former university president who recently coauthored a book on how higher education is failing in America. During that interview Hersh - who I think it is fair to say is somewhat down on education in America today - had some very kind words to say about MIT. (Thanks Richard. The check from Tim Beaver is in the mail). 

Stephen, though, had some unkind words about MIT, and moreover didn't seem to really "get" what makes this such a special place. Now, I know such complex concepts may be difficult for him to grasp (after all, truthiness will only get you so far), but, as someone who cares deeply about education, I felt compelled to try. 

So Stephen, a few of us here at MITAdmissions put something together in a form you might understand: 

As I recently wrote in an op-ed piece for the higher ed website Inside Higher Ed, the best thing a student can do is whatever will advance his or her personal growth and genuine enthusiasm for learning.

In the piece I cite the FIRST robotics competition as one of many excellent and worthwhile activities a student might do. While many MIT students have participated in FIRST, last year I had the good fortune of experiencing FIRST through the eyes of my daughter, who was on a FIRST Lego League (FLL) team. And, as I am gearing up to head to St. Louis for the FIRST World Championships in a few days, I thought I would share a bit of my experience with the program.

(Actually, my first experience with a FIRST-like program was in Woodie Flowers’ 2.70 design class at MIT – a story for another day.)

The FLL program is the elementary and middle school version of the FIRST robotics competition. There are two elements to the program: a robotics competition and a project where the team identifies and develops a solution to a real world problem. Each year there is a theme to the robot game and the project. Last year’s theme, “Food Factor,” explored food safety and the challenge of keeping food from spoiling. But here is the key reason that I found FLL so valuable: the robot game and the project are overlaid with a third, arguably more important, element: the FLL Core Values.

These core values, such as teamwork, discovery, and the notion that your competitors are really your collaborators, are the real insight into this program. Teams get evaluated based on how well they live these core values. You get judged not only on how many points your robot scores during the tournament and how good a solution you develop for the project, but also on your process – the teamwork, intentions, and values that you bring to it. How accepting was the group to different ideas? Did all members contribute? Were your mentors appropriately involved (i.e., guiding, but not doing)?

And so the winning teams are not necessarily the ones that have the highest scoring robots or the most elegant designs (although these are good things). The process, intentions, attitudes, etc. – all the good stuff that allows teams to succeed and sets young people up for success in life – is what is judged and what is rewarded. As every engineer knows, you get what you measure, and as every parent knows, you get what you reward. The key is to measure and reward the outcomes you want. And FIRST is doing exactly that.

Imagine if sports championships were won not only based on how many points you scored, but by how well your team worked together and solved problems, and how much you respected and even assisted your opponents?

My daughter’s team learned an enormous amount about how to design and program a robot. They learned that by jumping in and trying things, you can learn to do something that just weeks before seemed impossibly hard. They learned how to build things that wouldn’t break (by building things that did), that it is actually good to change your direction once you realize it needs to change (by hanging on too long and then panicking), that getting ideas from others on the team actually didn’t mess everything up, and they learned to focus, ultimately building a robot that did a few tasks well rather then one that did many not so well.

They also learned a lot about food safety. They learned that it is not so easy to keep food from spoiling. They learned to do research before identifying a problem to solve. They learned how to brainstorm possible solutions, and then compromise to agree on one to focus. And they learned that everyone had something unique they could contribute to the solution (including a team member who contributed his ventriloquism skills to the presentation!).

What is clear is that the learning that takes place in FIRST is not abstract: it is real and accessible. Indeed, it is not only real, it is aligned with what we want student to learn. Programs like FIRST get students excited about working together, emphasizing that competition is more valuable when it is not about beating your opponent but when it is used to lift everyone up. This is exactly the type of experience our students need to be prepared to meet the challenges that the world faces.
 

This year has certainly been different from any we’ve seen before. The economic crisis has affected many, here at home and around the world. I know that many of you — students and parents — are concerned about the future: about jobs, about your ability to pay for college, and more generally about the economic, social, and environmental stability of the world.

For those who will come here to study, despite the difficult times — indeed, because of the difficult times — I hope you will come here with the realization that MIT offers the type of education that the leaders of our world need today, and the determination to take full advantage of it.

Through our commitment to a science and technology centered education integrated with a strong humanities program that offers appropriate context, you will leave MIT with the background that is essential for any leader who will influence and solve the problems that the world faces today. In fact, you don’t have to wait to graduate. As an undergraduate student, you can work with faculty on any number of important projects, such as the MIT Energy Initiative, the Center for Integrative Cancer Research, the Poverty Action Lab, D-lab, or the Laboratory for Financial Engineering. The analytic and human skills you will learn-by-doing here at MIT are the exact ones that will be central to solving the world’s most pressing problems.

Of course, along with the excitement of the opportunity of an MIT education, there remains the anxiety over how to pay for it. I know that for many families, it will be a stretch. To help, this year we have increased our financial aid budget by more than 10%, adding resources to help families across the economic spectrum. If circumstances change in your family at any time during your four years here, be assured that we will be flexible and responsive. If you have any questions about financial aid, I urge you to contact your financial aid officer.

At a press conference at the White House on Monday, MIT President Susan Hockfield joined President Barack Obama in calling for increased funding for clean energy research. In her speech, President Hockfield cited a report that showed that "every government dollar invested in energy R&D returns 40-fold to the economy — in energy efficiency, energy savings and in new technologies — a 40-to-1 return on investment."

In the same way that President Hockfield argues that funding energy research is a smart investment, I think of an MIT education as a smart investment. Certainly our students do very well in the job market when they graduate, and will continue to do well even in this economy. The skills learned at MIT will continue to be valuable — in fact, will be of core value to the economy that will reward innovation. And, of course, the investment will continue to pay off not only for our students and graduates, but for society as well.

To those who will come to MIT to study, I look forward to seeing many of you at CPW in a few weeks. To those who will not come to MIT to study, I hope that you pursue an analytic, science-based education, which is so needed now, and I wish you well. I have no doubt that you will be among those who are the global leaders in the near future.

One thing that I am certain of is that no matter where you wind up, you and your classmates have an enormous opportunity to bring about significant change in our future. Science and technology will drive this transformation, and we need our future leaders to have a deep understanding of science and technology in order to remake this world.

From reading your applications, I know how much energy and care you put into them. For the last several months, as you have been waiting to find out your decisions, we have been reading and discussing your applications with the great care and thoroughness that they deserve. On behalf of the entire staff, I want to say thank you for your interest in MIT, and for sharing your stories with us. We have all been truly inspired by them.

Many of your applications brought back some memories for me. When I was in high school more than 25 years ago, I played Ultimate Frisbee and attended the Saturday morning Columbia science program. I took the city bus to my public high school every day and had a job all through my high school years.

Of course, there are many other experiences that I read about that are completely foreign to me. I have never assisted at a calving, had my artwork displayed in a museum, nor led a group of students through a rainy trek up Illimani. This is certainly one of the exciting things about college that you will soon experience: the chance to learn with - and from - students from all over the world with backgrounds both similar and completely different from yours. This opportunity, in fact, may turn out to be the one you most treasure about your college days.

Reading through your applications, I was also reminded of how different things are today. Not so much in terms of your backgrounds or aspirations, but simply in how many more applicants we have. When I applied to MIT, we admitted one out of three applicants; this year we admitted just one out of nine. There are now more students graduating from high school than ever before, and more of them are going on to college. Add to that an increase in the number of students who recognize the value of the type of education that MIT offers, and this year becomes the toughest year in our history.

And so, given that just about all of you are well-qualified for admission, there were simply not enough spaces for the large number of highly qualified applicants, many of whom I would absolutely love to invite to our campus.

The one thing I hope you will keep in mind is that your college experience will be what you make of it. If you maintain the sense of optimism, initiative, creativity, and service that I experienced in your applications, you will thrive wherever you wind up. For those who will come to MIT, I welcome you. For those who will study elsewhere, I wish you the best of luck, and perhaps we will see you again in the future.

I am counting on all of you to help make the world a better place. And I know you can, because I read all about you in your applications. Thanks to you, I have enormous hope for the future.

Marilee's influence was widely felt. The message of "being" vs. "doing," quality over quantity, and injecting sanity into the way parents and students approach college admissions, came at an important time for our culture, and is one that resonated deeply with many. At the same time, what Marilee did was wrong. While we don't expect our applicants to be perfect, we do require them to be truthful. And we must hold ourselves to that standard.

I want to reassure everyone - especially those in the MIT community (and that includes you, members of the class of 2011) - that our admissions process is, and always has been, extremely rigorous and fair. Before any applicant is accepted, that person's application passes through five stages of review and is evaluated by multiple selection teams comprised of admissions officers, faculty, and members of the Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid. This meritocratic and committee-based process is as rigorous and thorough as you will find anywhere. It has been basically the same for more than fifty years, stretching over the tenures of half a dozen deans and directors. And while we are always striving for improvement, we are very proud of this process and, most importantly, of its demonstrated results.

The admissions office has a profound responsibility. We love what we do, connecting world-class students who have a passion to change the world with the world-class faculty and resources that can successfully prepare them to do that. The students who enter MIT bring with them the talent, the hope, and the courage that energizes this campus. It is this energy that inspires all of us to reach higher, and to go further.

I remember the first time I felt this energy, arriving on campus as a freshman, 25 years ago. The special MIT culture lifted me up during my years as an undergraduate. After four years in Course 2, and twenty years in various roles in the athletic department, alumni association, and admissions office, I retain a profound appreciation for this culture, which encourages students to be incredibly engaged and think that nothing is impossible.

The real mission of the admissions office is to enroll not only the best students in the world, but also those who are best matched to MIT's culture: students who will take full advantage of the opportunities here, and who will add to the diversity and vibrancy of the living and learning community.

There is a deep trust placed in us by the MIT community, and indeed, by the world. I, and the outstanding staff in the admissions office, re-affirm our pledge to uphold the ideals of MIT and to demand of ourselves the same high standards of excellence, fairness, and rigor in our admissions process as MIT holds throughout the institution.

We are committed to learn from the past, as we create the future.

But there may be other reasons. I know one EC who told me that some of her applicants’ emails wound up in her spam filter. My suggestion is that if you email your EC and don’t hear back within a few days, you should call him or her. If you then don’t hear back within a few days, then you should follow up with the EC office, via email (interview@mit.edu) or phone (617-258-5510).

And, while we are on this topic, a good thing to keep in mind is that when you do call or email your EC, you should identify yourself at the front end, so they know who you are and why you are calling/writing. (And don’t call too late at night, either!)

To that end, there is no expectation that you should have to prepare anything special for the interview. You should be prepared to talk about the things that interest you and the way you pursue those interests, and think about why MIT would be a good place for you. But those are things that you should be doing for the application, anyway. The interview is simply a way for you to tell us in person.

Some ECs may suggest you bring resumes, some might suggest that you bring something else of interest to your interview. This is not a requirement or an expectation — remember that most students don't have resumes or other things — but if you have something, feel free to bring it.

Also remember that there are no right or wrong things to talk about in the interview. There is no one profile of student we are looking for — MIT students have extremely diverse interests — and we don't value one type of activity over another. You don't need to have pulled a child from a burning building or have solved any of the world's major problems; nobody else has. Whatever it is that you like to do is great just as it is. You don't need to glitz it up or embellish in any way. You don't have to set yourself apart from your classmates (common advice you might hear from college counselors). If you love to play the violin, play the violin - even if your many of your classmates do as well. You don't need to take up the crumhorn to look "different."

What the ECs are looking to learn about you is simply what it is that you enjoy doing, and how you have gone about doing those things. Remember that these meetings are supposed to be fun — after all, what could be more fun than talking about things that you love to do!

Remember that our alumni interviewers are volunteers and have jobs, families, and other commitments. They sometimes travel or are otherwise unavailable for brief periods, and this can happen unexpectedly. If you have been trying to connect with your EC for some time and have been unable to reach him or her, please write to interview@mit.edu and tell us; we will assign you to another EC who is available.

Some of you may live in areas where we don't have alumni (or enough alumni so that we can accommodate everyone's request for an interview). In these cases, your interview may be waived. (You should know that we pull out students whose interviews have been waived from the admit-rate statistics for applicants with interview vs. applicants without interview.) If your interview has been waived, you do have another option. If you will be visiting campus sometime this fall or winter, you can interview with an alum in the Boston/Cambridge area. You should write to interview@mit.edu and tell us that you will be coming to campus - we'll assign you to an EC in the vicinity of MIT.

Note that you don't need to make a special trip here; this is only if you are planning to visit anyway. You should only take advantage of this if your interview was initially waived; if we have an EC available for you near your home, it's best for you to interview with them.

If you haven't yet contacted your EC - whether you are applying early or regular - you should do so soon! And have fun with it!

Last Wednesday was a typical day: up at 5:00 am to get a workout in and eat a little something before heading out to get to Stuyvesant for an 8:00 meeting. The chance to eat a real bagel was a treat, and a must for me every time I'm in the city. I spent my high school years making bagels at Slims, in Bayside and Little Neck (Slims, on Horace Harding near Springfield Boulevard, is the place I first saw the joke, "if a seagull flies over the sea, what flies over the bay?" - which I discovered today, before visiting Cardozo, is sadly no longer on the awning.)

Educational Counselors (ECs) Les Cline and Larry Horowitz picked me up at my hotel in mid-town at 7:15 am. We used the entire 45 minutes getting downtown. Les coordinates the alumni interviewers in NYC and Larry coordinates the interviews for Stuyvesant. It was great having them join me on the visit to Stuyvesant. We had the chance to meet a lot of students and answer their questions about MIT. By the way, graduates of MIT's Architecture department designed Stuyvesant's new building. Larry, who is a practicing architect in the city, pointed that out in the meeting.

From Stuy we went to over to the United Nations International School, then uptown to Hunter College High School, the Dalton School, and Regis High School. Somewhere in there we grabbed a slice of pizza. As we arrived at Regis we heard the shocking news of Cory Lidle's plane crash. Regis is not to far from the site of the crash, so there was quite a lot of phone calls being made (and being received) there. After calling home and the office, I went to the meeting accompanied by Les and Tom Nacinovich, who is the EC assigned to Regis. At most of the visits I did, the ECs who interview students were able to join me, which was great. It is not always possible, as our alumni do work and have other commitments, but it was very good for the students to have the chance to meet the alumni who will be doing their interview.

Here I'll put in a plug for your having the interview. Last year I posted a blog entry on the interview and how to prepare for it. If you haven't yet set up your interview, you might want to take a look at that posting.

We left Regis at about 4:15 and headed over to the Panorama Restaurant. Darrell Rigel, our EC coordinator for Manhattan, had arranged a dinner for the local area ECs and me. It was a good way for me to talk with our alumni, bringing them up to date on new things this year, and answering their questions. After the dinner, we headed over to Ramaz; the headmaster and staff there were gracious hosts for our NYC area admissions information meeting. The turnout was a bit low, I think due to the pouring rain and the traffic closing on the east side due to the plane crash; there were about 150 parents and students and 18 ECs there. But the crowd was great and I think the questions and discussion would have gone on all night if we didn't have to leave the facility at 9:30.

This was a typical day (except for the plane crash). Unfortunately, there is no way we can get to all the schools we'd like to. But one thing is clear from talking with the students: with the web, it is much easier for students to learn about colleges and universities. Many of the students I met already knew a fair bit about MIT. It is for this reason that we tend to visit fewer high schools than most other colleges.

One of the questions asked quite a bit this week was how possible is it to balance the tough academic load at MIT with other activities. Mostly I get this question from athletes who want to pursue their sport at a high level, but the same question applies to musicians, or those who want to do any kind of other activity, from writing on the school newspaper to being in student government or being a member of a cultural organization.

I was a varsity athlete when I was at MIT (on the crew) and on top of that I had a job, did research, did well (enough) in my classes, and had a lot of fun. And for a few years after graduating I coached the crew here at MIT, so I have seen hundreds of students come through the program and balance their studies and their athletics.

I actually think that this is easier to do at MIT than at many other places for this very important reason: given the way we do admissions, every single one of our students is academically engaged and serious about their studies. Every one. We don't admit any students who are not; we don't make exceptions for legacies, or for athletes, or for any other reason. So the extra-curricular activities have cultures that support students pursuing a rigorous academic course load. This is true in all of our activities, and equally true on our sports teams; and is something that makes us somewhat unique. But I think this is something very special about our MIT programs, and important for you to know if you are interested in pursuing some outside activities (as most students do).

Anyway, to anyone I may have met in NYC, or in Washington DC and Baltimore last month, thanks for your time and your attention and your interest in MIT, and for making my trips so much fun!

First, it is your responsibility to arrange the interview. You should check your MyMIT account to see who your interviewer is and give him or her a call or write him or her an email. You should do this, not one of your parents. While we appreciate that your parents want to help, they should limit themselves to nagging you to do it, and not do it for you (this applies to other elements of your application as well).

Note: If we don't have any alumni in your area and your interview is waived, and you are going to be visiting Cambridge sometime this fall, let the Educational Council office know at interview@mit.edu and we can connect you with an Educational Counselor (EC) when you are here. If your interview was waived and you are not planning on visiting campus, you can check the site periodically as we do sometimes recruit new ECs through the year who might be able to accommodate your interview.

Here are my suggestions on how to prepare for the interview:

1. Review the ways in which you spend your time. What do you enjoy doing most? Inside or outside of school.
2. Think about why you like to do these activities. What is it about them? The people, the subject, the process, etc.
3. Remember that the alums will not have seen any part of your application and are not interested in your grades, test scores, etc. They want to learn about you as a person. This is your chance to tell us things that go beyond the application and what you can tell us in the essays.
4. Think about why you are applying to MIT. Do a little research on the web, and think of some questions to ask. Remember that the interview is not only a way for us to get to know you better, but also a way for you to get to know us better.
5. Show up on time.
6. Relax.
7. Relax.
8. Relax. Remember, there is no way to "fail." The interview is simply a chance to talk about what interests you and the things you like to do. And remember, all our alumni went through the interview when they were in high school and they are very nice people. They are looking to help enhance your application. Last year 19% of interviewed applicants were admitted to MIT while only 7% of those who did not have their interview were admitted. This is not because we penalized students who did not interview; rather it's because the interview can add a useful, additional dimension to your application. (If your interview was waived, don't worry; we removed applicants with waived interviews before compiling those statistics.)
9. Send a short thank you note after the interview. This is not at all expected as part of the admissions process - we will have no knowledge of your having done this, and it will have no bearing on your application or the report that the EC writes. But it is the nice thing to do. (Email is okay, but a short, handwritten note is nicer.)

After growing up in Queens, NY, I went to MIT for college. I graduated about 20 years ago as a mechanical engineer. I went to work for General Motors in Detroit designing cars. Mine were the Chevy Lumina, Olds Cutlass, Pontiac Grand Prix, and Buick Regal — not the whole car but about 200 parts (which is about 1% of the car).

While there, I also volunteered my time coaching the high school crew program at the Detroit Boat Club (I was on the varsity crew when I was a student at MIT). I found that I enjoyed my coaching more than I enjoyed my day job, so I did what any good MIT grad would do: I followed my passion.

I quit my job at GM and became a full time crew coach. I wound up back at MIT and coached the crew here from 1987-2000. I had a great time and had some good crews (was voted EARC coach of the year one year — the EARC is our league with the Ivies and a few others). I loved coaching MIT students; they know how to focus as well or better than athletes I've coached from other colleges.

About five years ago I stopped coaching, largely because I had been coaching for a while and I thought it would be fun to do something else. I spent a few years in the MIT Alumni Association, and three years ago I came to work in the admissions office in my current role. Although my path has been somewhat untraditional, I wouldn't change any of it. I happen to love what I do every day.

I am still active in rowing. I cox a few times every year, always racing in the Head of the Charles. I've won the race quite a few times now, including one win with the United States National Team. This year I will be coxing a boat from Croatia in the Masters eight event. I also just spent this summer coaching crew. I just got back from a three-week trip to Israel where I coached the US rowing entries at the World Maccabiah Games (the Jewish Olympics). We entered every event offered. We won most of them, but I think it is more cool that we entered everything.

I love racing, because it gets you into a heightened state of awareness (read Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which was recommended to me by my former professor Woodie Flowers years ago). John Everett, MIT class of 1976 — who learned to row at MIT in 1973, won the world championship in the US eight-oared shell in 1974, and was on the 1976 and 1980 Olympic teams — once told me he'd rather be 10-10 than 10-0: he preferred to get 20 chances to race, to test yourself, to get into that state of awareness when growth occurs, regardless of whether he won or not (believe me, he preferred to win). The key is to look upon performances — a race, game, music or dance recital, speech for debate team or at a science fair, a test in school, or, yes, a college interview — as an opportunity to experience a heightened state of awareness, to experience, "flow," or to be in the "zone." It is in these times when life is fun and you learn about yourself.

People sometimes get nervous about these performances because rather than looking at them as opportunities to experience life fully, they look at them as a test of their self-worth. "If I fail, I'm not so good." If you fail (which only means not doing as well as you can, it does not mean, "not winning") it is only because something inhibited you from performing (lack of preparation, fear of failure, fear of success, etc.), not because you are a bad person.

Think about this as you go through the college process. In particular, think about how this relates to the interview. View the interview as an opportunity. It is not something you can fail at — there are no tests, no admissions decisions being made — it is just a conversation between you and an alum. It is an opportunity for you to talk about your involvement in the things that interest you (which should be fun for you to do), and for you to learn about MIT and have your questions answered by someone who went here (which should also be fun for you to do).

In my next blog entry in a few weeks, I'll offer some specific advice on how to approach the interview. For now, just relax and enjoy the rest of your summer. And get into that "flow" state as often as you can.