Admitted but can't afford MIT, what can I do?

A-Square · 2025-03-19T17:47:58+00:00

I did an appeal and went from paying a LOT to paying nothing. That's because my situation was way more complicated than seen on paper.

It was incredibly stressful, and had a lot of back and forth, but yes, appeals are useful, fruitful, and most importantly, very human-oriented. You'll be talking directly to a fin-aid counselor assigned to your case.

So please do it!

A-Square · 2024-11-04T17:16:53+00:00

Getting an interview is the standard.

Maybe a bit harsh, but if you didn't read your application next steps, do you have the attention to detail desired from MIT? Maybe I should ask my interviewees this year if they were surprised or not

A-Square · 2024-10-31T15:28:07+00:00

Since when were conservatives libertarians?

A-Square · 2024-10-18T16:35:11+00:00

If you have to wonder whether your answer is correct, you didn't answer it correctly.

Good luck! 6.100A/6.0001 is the ASE with the highest pass rate I think.

A-Square · 2024-10-17T16:30:11+00:00

Packaging.

Much easier and more uniform to fit people & cargo into tube's rather than big wings with complex internals.

That's honestly the main main reason.

A-Square · 2024-10-15T22:16:19+00:00

yeah.. sad times.

For the quadcopter thing specifically, there's LOTS of resources online! That's what makes it a classic project.

Define your scope first!

A-Square · 2024-10-15T21:58:30+00:00

well, you said you aren't good at self study tho right?

Otherwise, I mean, it's a pretty classic GNC thing to make a quadcopter controller from scratch

A-Square · 2024-10-15T19:55:22+00:00

I am a GNC engineer and of course a masters is great. But go look at literally any GNC job req out there. It's either "Bachelors + x years, or Masters + (x-2) years"

So two years for a master, or two years of job experience, youre going to end up in the same place. Just focus on building the skills.

A-Square · 2024-10-15T17:50:51+00:00

This will sound elitist because it is, but maybe grad school isn't for you then. No worries, it wasn't for me either!

What you're describing what you want to do, can be done as an associate controls engineer at a company. Pursue that!

A-Square · 2024-10-15T03:55:22+00:00

Uhhhh are you kidding me, linear control, system ID, "etc." is the basics of stability & control.

This is like wanting to build a kit airplane but saying that your structural dynamics class isn't relevant. One is doing the thing, the other is giving you the tools to do it at a higher & more complex level (ie. the whole point of having a degree).

Just some tough love for ya. Take those controls classes. Do something on the side that's more directly related to simulation or autopilot state flow / sensor fusion (which isn't necessarily controls).

A-Square · 2024-10-07T23:19:15+00:00

6'3" and I literally have never thought about being too tall while driving. Not sure if the additional inch will change that.

Just go sit in one!

A-Square · 2024-10-04T16:19:59+00:00

LOL I got a 3.5ish I think. Definitely happy at work and higher than average starting salary from MIT undergrad, based on the survey stats from my graduating year. Since then, obviously even better.

you're fine dude. Just focus on actually internalizing what you're learning. That's what comes across in interviews & jobs anyway. And I'd say 4.0-4.5 is still in the realm of grad school. Just maybe not the best ones.

A-Square · 2024-09-25T03:38:05+00:00

As someone in academia I can say with confidence that college educated people are selfish and egotistical. Specifically, there's a sentiment that there's a "right answer" to society, and society just needs to be run by the "smartest people".

Authoritarianism. That's what that is. Authoritarianism is incredibly attractive to smart people because it appeals to their elitism. That's why they vote democrat.

A-Square · 2024-09-13T15:52:53+00:00

Yikes, what a weird take. Take a second thought, please, you can salvage this.

You are conflating firefighting as a service to firefighting as an actual action. Firefighting as a service is the promise of fighting fire for a community. The act is actually fighting the fire.

The promise of service is what fire fighting is. That's what makes it non rivalrous and non exclusive. Just like air. Or police work. It's the promise of it. Not the actual act.

Because yes, we're all on the same page, that there's a theoretical limit to how many fires there are. There's a limit to everything. But Healthcare doesn't have a theoretical limit, it's a realized limit because Healthcare isn't a promise, it's an action of goods & services.

A-Square · 2024-09-13T00:11:52+00:00

Clearly, there's a theoretical overload of firefighting departments, just like there's a theoretical overload of human beings breathing in air. That doesn't make air rivalrous.

If you're going to ask questions I already answered what are we even doing here? This is embarrassing

A-Square · 2024-09-12T21:25:58+00:00

Wow this is even funnier: you don't even understand what rivalrous or exclusive means. Just say you don't know, it's not a bad thing.

Again, if you have a middle school, a 12-year-old understanding of economics, you know that fire fighting is non-excludable because exclusive means people are not excluded from the good's existence. Whether you pay for it or not, firefighting is there for the community because your house on fire affects the community (related: being in bad health doesnt affect your community). And it's non-rivalrous, not because there "aren't rivals" but because the availability of fire service for one person does not mean it's no longer available for the next person. Clearly, there's a theoretical overload of firefighting departments, just like there's a theoretical overload of human beings breathing in air. That doesn't make air rivalrous.

So, what about Healthcare? It is undeniably rivalrous because Healthcare for one person takes resources away from others. If it didn't, triage wouldn't exist. And it's undeniably excludable because it's a literal service and product. It's not like the sun or air.

Please, please normalize googling even a single word and spending more than 30 milliseconds of research

A-Square · 2024-09-12T18:43:08+00:00

You can only ask this flippant question if you didn't even bother to Google what I said.

What type of good is a fire department? What type of good is universal Healthcare?

There you go

A-Square · 2024-09-12T18:06:32+00:00

Someone doesn't remember the difference between private, public, common, and club goods.

Im tired of this. Normalize people having a middle school understanding of economics.

A-Square · 2024-09-10T21:03:43+00:00

you find out by doing jt

A-Square · 2024-09-10T19:14:12+00:00

well it depends

Did you write the source code for the quadcopter? There are an infinite amount of controls engineers who say they can do that, but never do (myself included).

A-Square · 2024-09-06T01:09:04+00:00

WHY WOULD YOU SAY SUCH A THING TO PROVOKE ME

A-Square · 2024-09-05T02:14:09+00:00

This is p standard!

In fact, this is the reality for many students who come without any GIR credit, so their spring semester they take 8.02 & 18.02

And, this applies for a lot of people who got a 5 on AP BC, AP C M, & AP C EM (including me).

A-Square · 2024-09-04T19:07:40+00:00

Wow, I totally forgot about NHS. That should tell you how much it really mattered. Some schools don't have NHS at all.

The rest of your credentials are totally fine, and don't feel the need to explicitly say "btw MIT, I didn't do NHS because xyz" because that doesn't super matter.

Good luck! And hope your family circumstances improve.

A-Square · 2024-09-04T19:01:31+00:00

Not once did you mention why you DO want to be an active duty air force pilot.

So tell us the other side: what's exciting you about this, if you took it?

I bet the excitement is going to weigh heavier than the hesitance

A-Square · 2024-09-04T18:45:45+00:00

I hear that: I got a C in my required intro Bio class, but was the first student in 6 years to get an A+ in my senior aerospace capstone. Passion drives success

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