How am I doing fine if what I said is only going to make me an average applicant? I don’t want to be an average top-notch applicant because that only gives me a 5% chance of actually getting in. I need some ideas to make me stand out.
You’re doing fine as a person. Very admirably, in fact.
All that other stuff you’re worried about? *It doesn’t really matter. * 
What do you mean? What doesn’t matter?
Getting into MIT, since you ask.
Getting into MIT doesn’t matter (particularly for undergrad). Sure, it’s a great school, but it is not that much greater than any number of technical universities in the US.
What you do at whatever university you go to matters far more to your personal and professional advancement than the name on the gate. Hell, getting an internship is probably more important too, if you plan to go into private industry.
I would recommend that you not place too much emphasis on getting into a particular school and try to wrap your mind around the fact that some things are simply out of your control.
I stand corrected. My wife informs me that while our nephew was offered soccer scholarships at other schools, and while he did play soccer at MIT, he did not receive a soccer scholarship from MIT.
The rest of his resume is correct, though.
Yeah it is. Do you know if you go to MIT for undergrad, you’re considered so good it’s not even funny. If you keep your grades very high throughout undergrad, then getting into grad school is easier. Then when you go to apply for jobs, it’s like instant acceptance. You say, “I went to MIT for undergrad and grad. Need I say more?” And the interviewer is like, “No, you’re already in.”
Well actually that might be a little exaggerated but you get the idea. But why should I go to a lesser quality school if I CAN make it into a very prestigious school with a little hard work? Don’t tell me, “It doesn’t matter,” or “Don’t worry about it,” because I NEED to get into a top mathematics school. Top 10 at least. I’m very capable. I have a 95.133 in mathematics right now that are accelerated by two years and even that is expected to go up to a 97.
There are many people in this thread who did go there for undergrad and would disagree with you about how automatic it has made anything else in life. The sentiment is unanimous, as far as I can tell. Quite simply, you’re wrong about that impression, and it would be interesting to know how you formed it.
Look, the place cranks out a thousand or so BS degrees every year. Around Boston, which I grant is atypical, it doesn’t impress others all that much, because other people in your profession are just as likely to have their own. Even bringing it up in conversation is a turn-off.
There are many, many other prestigious schools. And their quality of education really isn’t lower - look, undergrad curricula in most fields are the same anywhere. The same material, the same texts, etc., even many profs with prestigious degrees (there’s a lot more applicants than slots for academic careers, as you may have heard, but it means you can get top-level instruction at lesser-image places). What you get out of wherever it is you are depends mostly on what you put into it, not on what’s already there.
Okay, why? What do you want to do with your math degree? What do you want to do with your time there? What other top math schools (there are a number of others, and MIT isn’t even the only one in Cambridge) are you looking at, and what do you think they want in their candidates? *Why *does this matter to you?
My wife is an alum from the University of Penn, an Ivy league school. She runs the local secondary school program which means she works with recruiters to find and interview candidates for Penn from the high schools around the area. You’re looking at Ivy League, so here’s a few tips I’ve gathered from her experiences:
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Recruiters are going to pick one person from your school. One. They want diversity and that means geographic diversity as well. So, ironically, you’d be better served going to a less than stellar school and standing out than a school where EVERYONE’s applying to MIT.
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There are plenty of events to look into for people interested in going to MIT. Look into them. Ask questions.
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In interviews, she sees three types of people. The first are those middling kids who are interviewing because their parents are rich and said “apply. Go interview.” and they do. They don’t really care. The second are ones like Mary Poppins: they’re practically perfect in every way. But what they lack is any sense of real world perspective on things because everything is performance based. They’d be perfect at Penn. They’d be perfect at any Ivy League. Who cares to them, it’s all interchangeable. Pardon my French, but what they say in the interviews would be complete bullshit if they even understood that what they were spouting was generic bullshit. But they don’t because they don’t know any better. And they don’t stand out in the slightest. You fall into this category, Anonymous User.
So then there’s the third group, who are just like category 2 (or even below them, academically). But you know what they can do? They can show genuine reasons why they want to attend Penn to the exclusion of all other schools. “I want to study X and Y and I’ve seen that Penn offers classes in X and Y” which leads to a further discussion on what Penn has to offer. Or they talk about a Professor they want to study under, or ask specific questions to show that they have taken an interest in the school enough to want to learn more.
What you need, Anonymous User, is to make connections not just in the admissions office but at the school itself. What draws you to it? Don’t tell me you just want to be the best of the best. This isn’t Top Gun. Why MIT? What areas? You have four whole years to research, make connections, and, hell, maybe even spend a summer being a gopher there.
But you need to stop worrying and start acting.
Since you’re so focused on mathematics, might I suggest also adding some statistics into it? Or something that will expose you to some analytic thinking? Because “I have a 95.133” is a completely meaningless statement (is it a 95.133 out of a 100.00 scale? Or what if it’s a 200.00 point scale? It’s like a 100.00 scale, but everything is contextual). We don’t know what courses you took (“accelerated by two years” could simply mean “I’m in class with the idiots of the Junior class”). We don’t know what classes you could be taking instead (Did you slack off and not take AP courses where available? Is everyone else in your classes getting 99.99 grades?)
Here’s what you do: Head down to the admissions office, rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard. Then, in a loud 'n proud voice, proclaim, “I done told you once, you sonofabitch, I’m the best there’s ever been!”
That’ll get ya in.
mmm
If you want to stand out, look into doing proofs. Nobody cares if you can do the integration of some gnarly function in your head. I’ve had full professors say they use wolfram for that, and look up tables for trig identities. It’s the ability to do creative stuff like proofs that matters in math academics, not algebra or calculus – those are means to that end. I’m sure MIT gets tons of straight A math applicants, I imagine the number of undergrad applicants that have proof that they do proofs is much smaller though, it’s just not something you encounter in high school much.
Yes it’s on a 100 scale. And I’m taking the second half of Geometry and Algebra 2, next year is pre-calculus for me. No, this class is ACTUALLY A STANDARD CLASS FOR JUNIORS. If someone were to ask this school, what’s the standard math class for Juniors, this is the course they would say. And this is technically the highest level of math you can take (I said technically, there are always exceptions.)
No, this is a very hard class for many, and so many people get C’s. In fact for the first quiz the average grade was a 75. I probably have the highest grade right now in mathematics for this class.
Kid, look. Every single person in this thread who is giving you advice has actually DONE all the things you are trying to prepare for. I’m currently doing a PhD at an Ivy League university, if that matters to you. And we’re all telling you it isn’t nearly as important as you think it is. If there’s something to pick up from this thread that will REALLY help you in life, it should be that it’s good to listen to people who know more than you about a specific area, rather than telling them how YOU think things are.
Nobody NEEDS to get into a top mathematics school.
Also, you still haven’t bothered to explain why you’re asking US about all of this instead of talking to the actual people who have the actual information that you actually want.
I recommend that movie to the OP. It’s pretty funny and I agree with Great Antibob that he might recognize himself in it.
BTW, I think the OP might consider what he wants to do with a mathematics degree. Academia isn’t very lucrative but I’ve heard that you can make good money in data analytics.
Nope. What going to MIT does is get you in the door. It is in no way a guarantee of getting a job. You will be interviewing with lots of people who went to good schools (like IIT) and will not be all that impressed. You also have to work really hard at getting good internships and keeping up. You also have to graduate at a time when people are hiring and in an area people want.
Even 40 years ago people freaked out about the pressure. People convinced that they will die if they don’t get a 5.0 are not happy people. My best preparation for MIT was sucking at languages. Since I never did that well at Spanish, my high school average, though very good was not in the top 10 of my gigantic school, even though my standardized test scores were. Therefore people getting better grades than me never bothered me, which kept me sane. At MIT there is always someone smarter than you are. People who were valedictorians at their high school had a much harder time than me. MIT does not have cum laude and class rankings, and that is for a reason. Students are crazy enough and don’t need more incentive.
At least when I went it was very easy to switch majors. Of my 15 - 20 close friends there maybe 3 didn’t switch at one time or another, and in major ways. I applied in Mechanical Engineering for no good reason but by the time I went I switched to Computer Science, and had no trouble changing. I don’t think a high school student has any idea of what real math is like.
Frankly, your many grammatical mistakes are what stand out to me.
Also, you don’t mention any programming ability. I suspect that nowadays any math or science student would be expected to have some programming ability, and if they were really trying to impress people, they would have contributed to an open source project, or published some simple apps, or at least have a website.