Looking for students who daydream
Jun 3rd, 2004From Business Week, an interview with the addmissions dean at MIT.
Q: You reduced the number of spaces for activities on MIT's application. Why?A: We had 10 spaces on our application form, and kids were still adding paper with extra activities! Two years ago, we shrunk it to six lines, and this year we're going to shrink it to five.
The reason the school asks for extracurricular activities is to see how the student is spending his or her life. We initially made the assumption that if they're state winner at anything, Lord knows they must have emotional resilience because they have to lose sometimes to get to the top.
But now, everybody is the state's best something. We changed the language, asking: "Tell us something you do for the pleasure of it." You can be in your basement grinding a lens for your telescope because you love the stars — that's a great match for us. There's no way you can win a prize for that.
Q: What surprising responses did you get to that question?A: About one-third of [applicants] write [that] the thing they do for fun is the thing is that's No. 1 on their extracurricular list. That's fine.
The rest have some wonderful responses. One kid said he makes smoothies in a blender and tries different concoctions for friends. One kid watches classic movies with his mother and eats popcorn. Another reads and studies the pentameter of the ancient myths — his favorite are the Welsh myths, and he lists them all and describes them.
These are the things you would never know about kids if you didn't ask. With this information, that person becomes a real person to you.
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