Thread: MIT and Berkely of CA

I wan't to go to one of these schools. I doubt I will get into the former, but just wondering what are some of the standards. I have strait A's and going to join BETA, Honors society, Intereact, Foreign language club, I also am the president of our computer programming team. I am in Algebra II and advanced math right now. Any thoughts.
P.S. these are my 2 dream schools if not UNO(university of New Orleans)

UC Berkeley wants a very well written personal statement, which they will anally read.

Also you haven't said what major you want. Berkeley's engineering department is extremely cut throat so keep that in mind.

If you haven't done so check out their site: http://www.berkeley.edu/
http://www.berkeley.edu/applying/
http://students.berkeley.edu/admissions/index.asp

Good luck

Well, I made it into the former this year, although I can't say exactly what their admissions standards are. Certainly, they are looking for good grades/test scores, etc, but they are certainly looking for a bit more as well. The other activities are rather important as well. And, make sure to get the interview with one of their alumni. Although they say officially that it doesn't hurt you if you don't do it, it is something else to look at, and something else to differentiate you from the rest of the applicants. And make sure the essays are well written.

Here is a profile of this year's admitted students: http://web.mit.edu/admissions/inside...ass/index.html

also, what helps in a majority of colleges that have a far left political view(not that this is bad), try to find out if you have any non-caucasian heritage in your past, this helps as you get bonus points for having a minority group's blood in your veins.

also, if you don't get into either of those schools, look at some others, like stanford, CMU, UT Austin, and other top 10 CS departments if you are looking at CS.

a lot of schools really look for leadership qualities. forming a club or leading a team would really help in that regard.

sadly, this is one of the reasons there are fewer people from middle america(both in geography and income) in institutions like MIT. There is definately a lack of opportunity to distinguish one's self on admissions when alot of the southern states lack extra-curricular activities excluding sports(I started a petition for starting a computer programming club in my local area, 3-4 signatures out of 30000+ people were were even slightly interested, and out of those people, only 1 was actually interested in programming). also, being middle income level sets you too high to be considered a hard working student if you succeed in school(which is what you would get if you were poor), but too low to pay off the admissions office like the people in the top income brackets.

Well if you all get into Berkeley let me know. I am planning on transfering to Davis (don't like Berkeley's polictical atmosphere) and Berkeley isn't that far from me