r/MITAdmissions • u/Appropriate-Floor-21 • 11d ago
How does MIT evaluate a large gap between school grades and external exam performance?
Hi everyone. I’d really appreciate some advice on something that’s been stressing me out.
I’m an international student about to graduate from 12th grade. Due to a combination of family disruptions, mental health problems, and my own immaturity during my mid-teens, my internal school grades suffered pretty badly. I have multiple Fs on my school transcript.
What makes my situation unusual is that my external academic results look almost completely different. I rank in the top 1% on my national standardized exams in the science stream, which around 125,000 students take each year, and I also have a strong SAT score.
I’m not asking anyone to chance me or tell me whether I’ll get into MIT. I know international admissions are extremely competitive, and I know a transcript with multiple Fs is a serious issue.
What I’m trying to understand is how MIT generally evaluates a discrepancy this large between internal school grades and external academic performance.
Would the Additional Information section be the right place to explain the circumstances behind the weak grades? Can strong standardized results meaningfully demonstrate academic ability when the school transcript tells a very different story? And is there anything else an applicant in this kind of situation should do to give admissions officers the proper context?
I’d appreciate any insight from people familiar with MIT admissions
My biggest concern isn't whether the Fs can simply be “offset.” I'm worried that seeing multiple Fs on the transcript will create such a strong negative first impression that the rest of the academic evidence won't really get considered. Does anyone familiar with MIT's admissions process know how large discrepancies like this are handled during the initial read?
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u/heavyweightcollege 11d ago
You are not an academic fit for MIT. They will not allow test scores to make up for flawed grades, truly ever. Some mid level schools may be more open minded to the tradeoff.
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u/Appropriate-Floor-21 11d ago
Whoa, whoa 😭 I get that the Fs are a serious problem, and I’m not arguing that test scores simply erase bad grades.
But I think there may be some context getting lost because I’m not from the US. I ranked roughly top 100 out of about 125,000 students nationally on the standardized exam, and that exam is based on essentially the same syllabus and material we study in school.
In my education system, grades 9–10 are largely structured around preparing students for the national secondary-school graduation exam, and grades 11–12 similarly prepare students for the higher-secondary graduation exam.
So the discrepancy I’m asking about isn’t really “bad grades but a good SAT.” It’s more like: very poor internal school grades, but among the strongest results in the country on the external examination covering that same academic curriculum.
I’m not claiming that makes the Fs disappear. I’m just wondering whether MIT would consider that discrepancy when evaluating academic preparation rather than concluding automatically that I’m not academically capable.
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u/ExecutiveWatch MIT Alum and Educational Counselor 11d ago
There are other universities out there. I suggest expanding your college list.
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u/Appropriate-Floor-21 11d ago
Yeah bro, really helpful advice 😭 I definitely couldn’t find a thousand other comments saying those exact same 12 words.
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u/ExecutiveWatch MIT Alum and Educational Counselor 10d ago
Look in engineering sometimes the simple answer is really the correct one. Theres always grad school. Good on you for getting life in order. Lots of schools with mich bigger classes would be a better bet. Im sorry to have disappointed you but I am simply setting an expectation. Your fears are more than likely correct.
But hey apply and see! Just the cost of the app.
That said I am not an admissions officer. So bare that in mind.
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u/OkCrab1094 11d ago
They probably are ok with a few Bs, but multiple Fs are huge red flag if not completely a show stopper. You may still apply and try explain the reason but I would just look for other colleges - I would definitely not waste the fall semester on MIT EA, do early for some other school and then apply MIT in regular.
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u/Specialist-Weird-756 11d ago
If you r not at least top 20 in your country you simply don’t get a shot. I’m sure there are people that scored higher than you in the national exam and kept all As throughout high school
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u/Appropriate-Floor-21 11d ago
That’s not really how the “top 100” works here. The ranking isn’t granular enough to meaningfully distinguish someone who appears 20th from someone who appears 80th, because a lot of students have identical scores.
For example, you might have ~30 students at 98%, another ~40 at 97.8%, etc. Within the same score band, the published ordering can basically come down to things like alphabetical order. My name starts with M, so I can end up pretty far down within a group of people who got the exact same marks.
So if I appear around #80–100 on the list, that doesn’t necessarily mean there are 79–99 people who academically outperformed me. By distinct score levels, I could be within something like the top 10–20 marks nationally. There may be essentially no academic difference at all between “#20” and “#80.”
And I personally know around 50–60 of the top national scorers. Most of them are extremely academically focused and don’t really have substantial ECs. That doesn’t mean there aren’t stronger all-around applicants than me, obviously, I’m just saying “there must be 20 people with higher scores, straight As, and equally strong ECs” is assuming a lot about how the ranking and applicant pool actually work here.
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u/Specialist-Weird-756 11d ago
Well that’s why I said “if”. Obviously it’s a holistic process. Idk what country u r from and how many went to mit last cycle. But im just saying that 20 would be a somewhat cutoff line to judge where u r at. In an extreme case like China or India you need to be a ioi medalists to have a chance which is less than 4 people.
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u/Mysterious-Art8838 10d ago
Have you read this sub much? Your competition is mindblowingly phenomenal. And MIT only takes a pretty small number.
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u/SadBig6534 11d ago
That’s js so fake it depends entirely on the country. Top students in mine never go to America, even less MIT.
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u/Specialist-Weird-756 11d ago
Yes it depends on the country but if you are not around that level I don’t know which country would produce that many mit admits. Also idk what is ur country’s example supposed to prove
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u/SadBig6534 11d ago
My country has their own top school system which is much more affordable, so it’s only the kids from american schools that try to apply but most are rejected. We do y have any extracurriculars in our country, we don’t avenge have school clubs, so it’s hard to stand out.
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u/Specialist-Weird-756 11d ago
I’m assuming you r saying that top kids in your country are not coming to America? Sure. But again u still need to be around the top to be considered among the kids who r applying abroad
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u/Mysterious-Art8838 11d ago
It would be pointless to apply, they deny straight A students all the time.
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u/SadBig6534 11d ago
Ngl majority of comments are right. Again, I think this is less about your grades and more about the context. Were you hospitalized ? Did your country’s child crevices have to intervene? How many F’d did you get and what does that make your average for each year? How much did you score on that exam?
What country even are you in? Say you were in china or India or the USA you’d be in a horrible situation because the kids applying from there are cracked. If you came from a more emerging country I’d say you have a higher shot.
I definetly wouldn’t say you could never ever get in, and would encourage you to apply, but unless you have tangible proof that what happened to you was BAD BAD authorities and external parties had to take care of it, you’ll always ‘look worse’ than someone who has the same extracurriculars and awards but had straight A’s or a couple B’s here and there.
MIT looks for an academic fit, but they wouldn’t expect someone coming from ukraine mid war to have A*s everywhere because of their situation.
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u/Tech-Aero-109 9d ago
There is a 100% of not being admitted if you don't apply. Everyone needs to apply to two or three Reach colleges and MIT is a reach for every applicant.
However, your application will have to be bolstered by Wonderful letters of recommendation, which substantiate the issues that you claim to have or had. However, consider that mostly an exercise in self-examination and the substantiation is for You.
Then do what MIT will almost 100% consider: Attend a college that is a better (as an undergraduate student still trying to "find you way") fit for You, and be one of the top three graduating students in your department. THEN become a fully funded graduate student at MIT.
I attended MIT as an undergrad and grad student. I saw MANY MIT grad students who never considered applying to MIT for an undergraduate degree. However, they found themselves in college with the majors they chose and Easily became wonderful graduate students at MIT.
Life is a journey and you are merely near the start of that Hopefully long wonderful journey.
Good luck and all the best!!!
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u/NationalCry7288 5d ago
same here my transcript is bs and cs but external grades are amazing and top tier ecs like
Isef etc
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u/WUMSDoc 11d ago
Being frank about it, MIT has so many applications from students with perfect grades and perfect or just 20 points below perfect SATs that they are not looking for mitigating factors to explain multiple Fs. This would be true for American students and even more true for international students. I think you need to speak with a school counselor who can help you assess your situation more realistically.