Admission into MIT

[Anomaly]

I'm currently a sophomore in High School, and aim to get a bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. I'm 1/152 in my class, and have a 4.0 unweighted. I took AP Biology my Freshman year, and got a 4. I'm currently taking AP Calculus AB and AP European History, and aim to get 5's on both of them. I've been on the varsity tennis team for 2nd year now, and I plan on volunteering at a summer program as well as at the library. What steps should I be taking to ensure entrance into MIT?

Also, I got a 194 on my PSAT, but I had very little preparation. I'm sure with practice I could very easily get it in the 230+ range. Plan on taking my SAT's in my junior year.

[wahl]

Take college courses in the evenings through your local community college (or a better local university, if you can afford it). Take the full math sequence that they offer - linear algebra, multivariable calculus, differential equations, etc. - in the evenings/weekends, during the summers if you're in town, or even during the school day if you can swing it. Learn your way around a machine shop (community colleges offer many classes) and demonstrate your skill by entering design or robotics competitions. Those things will matter more for MIT and your MechE career than tennis or volunteering in a library (although ideally you would do it all!).

[moomber123]

You do have a very impressive profile indeed! Keep up the great work. However, I would like to remind you that top schools like MIT are simply so competitive that there is absolutely no way to ensure admissions. In fact, at that level of competition, who gets in and who gets rejected are often just a matter of luck. You often hear story of a slightly better student getting rejected whereas a slighter worse student get in. This is like trying to compare someone who scores 99 and someone who scores 100 and argue that 100 is always better than 99. And at the level of MIT, it is often time an issue of 99.9999 and 99.9998.

You are doing all the right thing, and doing it well. I think it's important to have a wholesome, well-rounded exposure to academics, not just one aspect in MechE. Schools like MIT would appreciate that, and it's better for your life anyways. And I would also recommend looking into comparable schools. Given how random the final selection among worthy candidates will be, you are far better off targeting more schools. I think Cal Tech and MIT should be considered almost a perfect substitution, with Cal Tech probably more into basic science and MIT more into engineering. Very slight difference though. MIT seems to have a more widespread reputation, but as someone already being through PhD level admissions, I can tell you that academic places appear to think slightly more highly of Cal Tech, perhaps because they are less "practitioner" oriented than MIT. Very slight. One level down from the engineering/science top schools would include places that are more well-rounded. For MechE in particular, Berkeley is very strong, but the student composition is not going to be as "elite" as MIT/Caltech. Not a big loss. CMU, Stanford, Cornell, UIUC, are all great places for engineering. I would say if you manage to get into any of those schools, you are very much set. Of course I can understand how everyone has a dream place to be. I guess I am just hoping that you don't turn out to be one of those kids who get so bummed out because they did not get into the only one dream school they have. I know a kid who was seriously depressed after being rejected by Stanford, and very reluctantly attended University of Chicago. Now as far as I am concerned, that is just plain wrong. My dream was Cal tech, but it turned out that I am not their dream =) and I managed to go through college, and end up in a top 10 PhD program anyways. So, relax, and keep doing what you are doing. I am sure you have a bright future ahead of you.