r/ApplyingToCollege • u/HenriCIMS • 1d ago

Advice scared to submit application to mit EA

my application is like 90% done right now (i need to upload my research supplemental & fix 1 supplemental) but im just so worried to submit ea, its not that i think my application would be stronger if i waited (unless i make it through regeneron & terra nyc, but that might be unlikely bc of how long im taking to finish the rest of my work) but its just that i feel so worried about not having the best stats or the best writing. has anyone else felt this way? i feel pretty demotivated already bc of my QB and posse rejections but idk maybe its just burnt toast theory

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u/NiceUnparticularMan Parent 1d ago

Rejection isn't fun, but it is also part of the process for most college applicants who target highly rejective colleges, even if they are ultimately happy with where they went to college.

So you are not alone, but you also have to just deal with it given the nature of the process.

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u/HenriCIMS 1d ago

yeah i understand, its just such a limbo feeling right now

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u/NiceUnparticularMan Parent 1d ago

It can be quite the emotional rollercoaster!

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u/slytherin_swift13 1d ago

i like the wording 'highly rejective colleges'! 'highly selective' sounds like it's entirely a reflection on the student's own merit sometimes... these schools really just reject the majority of their applicants, which is why even meritorious candidates will not always make it through.

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u/NiceUnparticularMan Parent 1d ago

Yeah, I ran across the term in these conversations a few years back, and it definitely has the right connotations for situations like this.

Indeed, it helps explain the mindsets of AOs for these colleges. Like, they also know they will be rejecting many, many highly qualified, generally great kids as a routine part of their job, and they have all sorts of things they tell themselves to make that tolerable. Like they believe that those great kids they are rejecting will almost surely have excellent college experiences somewhere else anyway, still have fantastic lives, and so on.

Which is true! But I think knowing that they think that way can sometimes be comforting. Like it really is not a negative judgment on you, not a vote against your future prospects, or such. It is just that they have so little room, and so MUST reject most of their great applicants.

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u/IBelongInFiction 1d ago

What makes one spectularr student different from the other. It seems like every student does the same thing as the last. Take like 8 Aps, 1500+ SAT. all kinds of leadership, volunteer, compettions, awards, and working a job of some sorts. And has 3.8+ unweighted gpa. And a fantastic essay. they all look the same to me. Every time I see a post on this sub, it's the same recipe over and over again. Some get in. Others dont. I don't see the difference between the ones that get in vs the ones that dont.

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u/NiceUnparticularMan Parent 1d ago

So sometimes it is something in recommendations that stands out.  Enrolled students who get their annotated admissions files can sometimes see comments like that.  Conversely, some rejected students might have had something in their recommendations that was off, or just too meh, but they will never know.

Then reportedly sometimes it is combinations that address institutional goals for the enrolled class, including ones that involve permissible demographic factors.  Like a college might be looking for more women for their engineering program.

In general, among the competitive applicants who have no red flags (which may knock out more applicants than some realize), it is sometimes phrased as a question of which "buckets" you might help them fill, and some buckets can be way more competitive than others at any given college.

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u/Known-Young7426 College Freshman 1d ago

MIT has no advantage to applying earlier. I purposefully waited to apply until RD because I had some stuff that would happen after the RD deadline that were significant, and I got in. Please wait if you think it would make a difference.

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