(In this series, indianexpress.com will talk to Indian students who have secured admission to some of the top colleges in the world or the Ivy League colleges. They will share their journey of admission — from deciding which course and college, to the importance of SoPs, LoRs, documents and more)
I first got to know about foreign universities when I was in either Class 8 or 9, which is when I started participating in the Olympiads. Some of my friends who were senior to me were planning to study abroad. After discussing with them, in Class 11, I started considering this.
At that time, I was planning to study at a top engineering institute in India, and therefore, I appeared for entrance exams like JEE too. I decided to apply to maybe three or four colleges abroad and see if I make it into any of those.
I applied to Stanford, Harvard, California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Out of these, I got accepted into MIT and Harvard. After analysing my choices, I decided to pursue Mathematics with Computer Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Harvard vs MIT — the tough choice
I think if someone is particularly interested in computer science, coding and mathematics, then MIT is the right university. However, there have been instances where I thought that if I had chosen Harvard, I would have had the option of choosing a few humanities courses.
Also, from the people I have talked to from Harvard, they are a bit more social, outgoing and easier to talk to. This might partially just be a stereotype but a lot of MIT students, including me, are slightly introverted. However, overall, I think I made the right choice.
Admission process
The admission process for MIT is different from our Indian college system. In India, admissions are solely based on the marks scored by students in school and entrance exams. However, for American colleges, it’s a more holistic approach. For MIT, aspirants have to fill out an online application and answer some questions in the form of a few essays. They should remember that these essay questions clearly state what they require. It is important to write about yourself and your achievements, rather than beating around the bush. The admission committee carefully reads these essays to analyse if you would be a good fit or not.
The next important thing is the letter of recommendation (LoR). One LoR can be from your school principal or the subject teacher of the major you are applying for. Along with this, you should try and get a letter of recommendation from the company you have interned at, for example, I took an LoR from one of the employees of the company I interned with during my schooling years.
Another thing to concentrate on is the Statement of Purpose (SoP) which is important and can help make your application stand out. The SoP should not be generalised; that essay defines you and your aim in the chosen college, course and future. If you write something which is common and surface-level, it will dilute the value of your application. For this, ensure you do a lot of research on the college and course, and embed information from that to your essay, wherever relevant.
One main thing to remember is that these universities usually state on their website what they are looking for, and it is important to pay heed to that.
I started thinking about this in Class 11. So I wrote all the essays in Class 12 after studying. I think what helped was that I was never explicitly doing these things for college, but I had participated in the Olympiads a few times, which MIT values greatly. And I had interned for experience, but that also majorly helped my applications.
Therefore, students should get more experience and participate in relevant activities during schooling days. What works more organically, and what works better for these colleges is to just do what you like, and try to excel in the subjects you like while in high school. And that automatically translates into a good application.
Are Boards important for top college admissions?
It’s up to the student and their family how they want to split the time. I never prepared too much for board exams because I knew I wanted to pursue maths and computer science.
However, aspirants should remember that marks do matter in the US. So, I would advise aspirants to pay attention in class, get their basic concepts right and score decent marks in the board exams, as people with poor high school scores are seen in a bad light in the US.
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Do not miss connecting with alumni
I read the blogs by alumni that were available on the MIT website, and also some previously submitted essays by other candidates to get a hint of how these SoPs should be drafted.
The alumni network is usually the best guide for the top colleges, since these graduates have lived the experience we are embarking on, and they have also gained work experience since then so they know how relevant these skills would be in the future. I reached out to some of the alumni of MIT through my social circles at the Math Olympiad. You can also connect with people through LinkedIn.
Look for information through the official website rather than the social media platforms such as Quora, as that information would be more reliable and closer to the actual picture.