Advice on getting my kid into MIT (Page 2)

I do need to sit him down and find out why he wants to go to MIT and what his goals are.  He's always had an "engineering" brain and loves robotics and things like that.  So several years ago he asked me what the best colleges were for robotics and engineering and I told him MIT and Cal Tech.  So, that's where it all got started.

It's not the easiest thing in the world to pin a 15 year old down to a career choice.  I think I wanted to be a fighter pilot when I was that age.  :-)

Tony, has your son gone to any of the tech summer camps?

My nephew is 14; he took a C++ programming class at tech camp last summer (UNC-CH); he learned that he doesn't want to be a coder/software engineer. He thinks he wants to be a hardware engineer/design computers; not sure if he means firmware or control systems but there is time to sort that out.

He wants to start a debate team at the middle school where he will volunteer/teach the kids the fundamentals. He really enjoys debate. He is doing this for his own sake, because he has a passion for it and not because someone told him it would look good on his application. (He's such a great kid!) Still, you can see how this would reflect positively on him.

He's in his sophomore year, gets all A's and tests in the very high percentiles. He took 3 AP classes this year. He says he only wants to take what he is interested in; he won't take an AP class just to get the AP points. If he doesn't get into MIT, he won't sweat it. Wherever he goes, he will get there on his own terms. For such a young one, he really knows his own mind though he isn't dead set on a tech career; he is considering law, too. When he was 10, after listening to an NPR news report about SCOTUS, he told me he might want to be a Supreme Court Justice some day - he wants to protect the citizens from Congress when they breach the Constitution. What a kid! (Sorry, I gush.)

Anyway, for now, he wants to go where he can really get his geek on with computers, learn the latest technology. His mom isn't crazy about him going to California; he skipped 2 grades and is younger than his classmates. He'll start college at age 16; she worries about the California hippies, crazies, and such.   I suggested he could always do summer internships in Silicon Valley if he stays east for his undergrad, something she is comfortable with him doing.

My niece is a sophomore at Harvard and I will echo the suggestion to go visit the campus based on her experience.  She plays softball for them and loves the campus and the people.  Growing up, she always wanted to go to Stanford, but when it came down to a decision her visit to Stanford knocked them out of consideration.  She did not want as much focus on softball.  She realizes that softball is a finite period and her education is really more important (pre-med).

She had her choice of the Ivy League schools, Boston College and St John's.  My sister had to force her to go to the Harvard visit because she had already decided on Columbia, but once she went to Harvard she recognized the school and the softball program were a better fit for her.

She had a high GPA and SAT score, but she also focused on community involvement.  She volunteered during the summer coaching softball to inner city girls, joined the Key Club and donated time at the senior center along with other activities.  As Renee said earlier, it is nice to tie at least on of your activities to a passion and I would think it gives it a little more weight.

As long as HE knows why he wants to go and you're sure it'll be a good investment, it isn't necessarily your place to "know" as well. 

There are some pretty cool things happening in robotics even outside of places like MIT.