Two years ago I was in the middle of my MIT preparations: studying for SAT II’s and TOEFL, looking forward to my interview, writing and polishing my essays, spending hours reading mitadmissions.org and, in general, getting more and more crazy about the famous university. That was two years ago…
They didn’t admit me – honestly I could hardly speculate why: they don’t make any rankings, they just say YES, NO or WAIT. Now I think I would do it differently, but would it be a better way?
I try to imagine how my life would have been like if I had been admitted and it’s quite… hard. I thought I would take a plane every two months or so but firstly, plane tickets COST and secondly, there’s no time for a week-long vacation every two months when you are a (especially MIT) student. I have a perfect relationship with my girlfriend (who, by the way, lightened my life about the same time as MIT admission process started) and it would be extremely difficult to survive together yet so far away after knowing each other for only a few months. That makes every particle of regret die in a second after it’s created in my mind.
I chose a very good university here and it took me half a year or so to realize that I had just found a REALLY good place for my future. Of course, when you compare to MIT, everything gets pale. On the other hand, people often quit MIT after undergrad studies, which is not so common in Poland and that suits me better, as I aim to be a brillant scientist – not a perfectly educated engineer.
I can’t say I don’t want to get there someday, however now my future is brighter (two years ago I had no idea of what I would do in the future) and in 3-4 years I may be trying to get admitted to MIT again – now on different rules. It won’t be a matter of essays and tests – if they offer me what I want and I’ll be good enough to make them think that inviting me is a good investment, maybe I find myself living in Boston for a few months. Until then, I stay at WrUT and try to do my best.