esrosedotblog

FLUNKED

You may remember that every year, from late summer to the New Year, I interview kids who have applied to MIT for the following academic year.

This year I interviewed 11 kids. Not a bumper year. I had a max of 16 two years ago. Don't know the min.

One interview didn't actually apply, on my advice, and another just fell by the wayside.

This drop out effect is not a bad thing. I am one of the filters.

Of the nine that got through to the application phase none were admitted.

I just heard today.

I never take this very well but at least I don't take it personally anymore.

I have a couple of favorites, one young man who came out to me. I guess he felt safe. He had a great resumé but that is not enough for MIT.

The odds are ten to one and most, say half, are very good admits. But that is not enough for the ten to one odds. Ten thousand kids apply and one thousand are admitted.

They know this, I know this, we talk about it. And it always hurts for awhile.

The thing about it is that many of the people I saw are quite gifted and they will have no trouble getting into another elite school.

So in the five years that I have been doing this, maybe 50 kids in all, two have been accepted.

In the ten to one ratio, if it were across the board, then I "should" have seen five admits.

We are under the average.

Start with the level of the schools here and that this is a backwater in many respects. It is very hard to shine in this kind of environment.

Some kids this year were on the on-line program at Stanford. Well, two of them. They didn't make it either. That is an elite high school setup. Maybe too new to be a dependable criteria.

And, of course, my report is just one of the many things considered. A few didn't ace the SATs, average maybe. A few didn't do much in the way of outside activities. One nerded his way through without any activities.

The other consideration here is that there are no real cultural opportunities. If they do something very well, they are a big frog in a small pond.

OK. I have talked it through.

There are a few hours where I go through an "I am not going to do this anymore" phase. And then I think of the ones I saw admitted and how that felt to me. I remember that for the most part, I enjoyed the interviews and the kids.

The disappointment vanishes and I begin to think about next year.

Here is my class picture. 900 people. 6 women. We wore ties!

Labels: MIT