First gen 小中男 2x camper MIT defer

 

在另一帖裏有人說今年USACO camper 3人被MIT defer，包括一個2x USACO camp, 1x mop，不知道是不是這個人。問題出在哪？GPA硬傷，還是小中男原罪？小中女穩錄吧？

Demographics:

• Gender: Male

• Race/Ethnicity: East Asian

  • Region: Competitive

• Type of School: Large public

• Hooks: First generation for MIT

Intended Major(s):

• Math, Physics, or CS

ACT/SAT/SAT II/APs:

• SAT: 1570 (770 RW, 800 Math)

• APs: 5s on Calc AB/BC, Stats, Micro, Lang, Chinese, Bio, Physics C: Mech; 4 on World History

UW/W GPA and Rank:

• GPA: 4.23 W is what is on my school transcript, which weights my Makerspace elective very disproportionately, includes non-core subjects, and doesn't include my college coursework. If I recalculate it, I get a 4.50 W.

• UW and Rank isn't provided by school. If I calculate my UW, its a 3.79. I got 6 B's in the following.

• 9th grade: English, Makerspace elective, US History

• 10th grade: AP Bio (but 5 on AP), Makerspace elective, World History

• 11th grade: All A's, 4.6 W

Coursework

• Highest possible rigor at my school, i.e, nearly all AP/college-level courses

• 9th grade: Honors English, Makerspace Elective, Honors Chinese I, Honors Algebra II, AP CSA, Honors US History, AP Chem

• 10th grade: Honors English II, Makerspace Elective, Honors Chinese II, Honors Pre-Calc, Honors World History, AP Bio, Real Analysis (not DE, took at state school, but I received a transcript)

• 11th grade: AP Lang, Makerspace Elective, Mobile App Development Elective, AP Chinese, AP Physics C, AP Calc BC, AP Stats, APUSH, Graph Theory (not DE, took at state school, but I received a transcript)

• 12th grade: Multi, DiffEq, Abs Alg, AP Lit, Makerspace Elective, Post AP Chinese

• Note I have basically 0 freedom over my coursework. Hence this is the highest rigor possible at my school. I took additional college courses that I have a transcript for, which no one else at my hs has since the university typically does not allow high schoolers to take courses.

Awards and Honors:

Academic:

• One of (MOP, USACO Camp, Physics Camp, MIT PRIMES-USA)

• Another one of (MOP, USACO Camp, Physics Camp, MIT PRIMES-USA)

• Multiple large national individual awards in math (ARML, HMMT, PUMaC, CMIMC, MMATHS, SMT, etc).

• Large national science fair award

• National Merit semifinalist

Non-academic:

• Scholastic Regional HM in one of the writing categories

• State creative writing contest award

• Regional creative writing contest award

• PVSA Gold

• Another state creative writing contest award

Activities (for MIT)

• Prestigious undergraduate research program, published paper in subject area

• Founder/president of pretty big nonprofit in STEM, visible impact

• Co-founder of another pretty big nonprofit in STEM, visible impact

• On a well-regarded team in one of the STEM fields, described team awards

Summer Programs (for MIT)

• olympiad camps that I already mentioned in awards

• prestigious stem-adjacent program (3% acceptance rate). it's on the mit website, but it isn't one of the research programs.

• prestigious stem program (5% acceptance rate). it's on the mit website, but it isn't one of the research programs.

• humanities program (not that prestigious, idk this was just for fun)

• self-study subjects -- these are backed up by one of my research mentor LORs

Essays/LORs/Other: 

• Supplements (9/10-10/10): I think these are very strong based on feedback from a past MIT AO

LORS:

• Calc Teacher (10/10): Best student he ever had

• English Teacher (6-7?/10): Mentioned I'm very strong at writing, but we don't have a very personal relationship

• Counselor: (5?/10), just a generic good letter, she said the same thing for everyone at my school

• Research mentor 1: (10/10)

• Research mentor 2: (10/10)

Decision: Deferred from MIT EA.