How much does shooting matter to a school like MIT?

[Ketchup]

Hey guys,

My 'dream school' has always been MIT and I desperately want to get accepted their. The problem is of course that it's not easy. I've done a lot of research online and how admissions appears to work is that you need a sort of 'hook'. Obviously you can't get in because of shooting alone, but I'm wondering how much of a 'hook' is shooting? My air scores fall in the middle of their team right now and I have no SB scores. How much do you think shooting could help? I've heard that it's very good to get in contact with the coach but I'm not very sure what to ask? Anyone have any ideas? I'm very paranoid about getting doxxed so I won't post my extra-curricular activities and grades here but I'd love to PM them to anybody so they could offer their feedback.

Thank you,
Ketchup

[corning]

It probably would not hurt to try to either call, or e-mail/mail the coach and ask those questions. The coach would be able to tell you what, if any incentives they had to get shooters to apply, and what they do to retain them. Good luck!

[jenrick]

My older brother went there. While having a "hook" is good, they are all about academics. What for most universities would be almost guaranteed acceptance grades, is probably middle of the pack or lower at MIT. If you have reasonable but not outstanding grades (for an MIT student, so very high grades in general) then a hook will help. However if you are not academically competitive then there's not a lot that's going to help. Good luck though, it's a great school with a very unique student culture there.

-Jenrick

[Soupy44]

Most college coaches do have strings they can pull in admissions, but consider them a very rare commodity. Those strings are ones they really only want to pull for people they want. That said, if it's a down year of incoming people (quality or quantity), maybe you get the string. If it's a up year, maybe not.

Even better, a lesson to learn going into college is that it's better to talk to a coach (or professor) about something you're struggling with rather than wallow in mediocrity. I'm sure many people here have stories of Professors upping their grades simply because they showed the effort to come talk to them for extra help.

[gwsb]

I am going to be an ahole here but if you do not know the difference between "their" and "there" MIT is out of reach for you.

However there are other top (but not MIT) tech schools that have top rifle teams. All the service academies, have top teams and engineering programs. Other engineering colleges in the top 20 are NC State and Ohio State. Both of those schools are great engineering colleges.

I suspect that about the best a coach could do for you is to get you off the wait list.

[twisted]

Correct me if I'm wrong. Unless you are in your senior year, a coach cannot talk specifics to you about a scholarship or specifics about getting you on the team.

[Telecomtodd]

I re-read your original post and have some constructive comments.

First, unless you have some incredibly good air scores and can reliably turn those numbers in, without smallbore experience it's going to be an exceptionally difficult job to even walk on a NCAA team. A couple of years ago I met a young woman who was well-coached by a certain person highlighted in this month's Shooting USA magazine (good story, BTW!). Although the shooter had great and reliable air scores, she had zero smallbore experience and that was keeping her out of contention. Her coaches spoke of their frustration with her situation, but NCAA coaches are looking for shooters with both skills along with some emphasis on smallbore.

Another point to consider is whether you are male or female. Coaches will probably not admit looking stronger at a female candidate with the same scores as a male candidate, but there's Title IX (9) issues where athletic departments need to balance their male teams with a certain level of female participation. Again, if both a male and female candidate turn in similar scores, the female stands a stronger chance of scholarship money because of Title IX. If you are female, this might help you wrangle a hook - the name Ketchup isn't really gender-specific, LOL!

In short, I wouldn't plan on using Rifle as a hook to get in, but if you want to shoot you may want to consider another school like OH State or NC State. I would also look into getting your information filed into the NCAA Clearinghouse very soon so that coaches can start looking at your credentials - if you aren't listed, they can't talk to you.

One other thing - if you don't find an acceptance letter from MIT in the mailbox, just re-adjust your goals. I went to a prep high school where second place was rarely coveted. I was flat-out told I'd never get into RPI or MIT with my math scores, so think about something other than engineering. While I have some regrets, I've had a very interesting career in business and amaze engineering teams when I can speak to specifications no other marketing type can even think about. Persistence and goal setting is key! Good luck to you.

[David Levene]

I know the square root of beggar all about the US education system, but would anyone take practice scores seriously?

[Ketchup]

I know the square root of beggar all about the US education system, but would anyone take practice scores seriously?

Probably not. I will send the scores I get in a competition. I just said my practice scores to give you guys a feel of where I am.

[David Levene]

I just said my practice scores to give you guys a feel of where I am.

I must have missed those, and still can't find them.

[Ketchup]

I re-read your original post and have some constructive comments.

First, unless you have some incredibly good air scores and can reliably turn those numbers in, without smallbore experience it's going to be an exceptionally difficult job to even walk on a NCAA team. A couple of years ago I met a young woman who was well-coached by a certain person highlighted in this month's Shooting USA magazine (good story, BTW!). Although the shooter had great and reliable air scores, she had zero smallbore experience and that was keeping her out of contention. Her coaches spoke of their frustration with her situation, but NCAA coaches are looking for shooters with both skills along with some emphasis on smallbore.

Another point to consider is whether you are male or female. Coaches will probably not admit looking stronger at a female candidate with the same scores as a male candidate, but there's Title IX (9) issues where athletic departments need to balance their male teams with a certain level of female participation. Again, if both a male and female candidate turn in similar scores, the female stands a stronger chance of scholarship money because of Title IX. If you are female, this might help you wrangle a hook - the name Ketchup isn't really gender-specific, LOL!

In short, I wouldn't plan on using Rifle as a hook to get in, but if you want to shoot you may want to consider another school like OH State or NC State. I would also look into getting your information filed into the NCAA Clearinghouse very soon so that coaches can start looking at your credentials - if you aren't listed, they can't talk to you.

One other thing - if you don't find an acceptance letter from MIT in the mailbox, just re-adjust your goals. I went to a prep high school where second place was rarely coveted. I was flat-out told I'd never get into RPI or MIT with my math scores, so think about something other than engineering. While I have some regrets, I've had a very interesting career in business and amaze engineering teams when I can speak to specifications no other marketing type can even think about. Persistence and goal setting is key! Good luck to you.

Thank you for your comments. :)

On another forum, I talked with a lady who was on TCU's team and she said that she didn't have any smallbore experience before getting recruited. Obviously having experience in SM would be a huge plus but I'm not sure if it'll be the Achilles heel of the shooting aspect of my application.

I'm a male, but does it really matter? I could be wrong but I've heard that college rifle is dominated by both genders.

I'm Canadian and according to my councilor, I'll get a full-ride to the University of Toronto. If I go to American schools, I will have to pay the complete sticker price (+$50,000 annually for most schools). My parents will pay that if I go to a school like MIT but probably not for a school ranked lower than UofT. I personally prefer US schools greatly over their similarly ranked counterpart up North but my parents don't hold the same view as me... UofT apparently had a rifle team but they shut it down after a completely unrelated school shooting in the Toronto area. Don't see the logic -- neither do I.

MIT admits an insanely small percentage of international applicants. Although my application is somewhat strong, it's definitely not strong enough for MIT to not be a reach. I lack olympiad medals, and my unweighted GPA is under MIT's first quartile. Although I'm in love with MIT, not getting there won't mean the end of the world. There are plenty of other good schools in the world. After all, all you need for learning is a book, a pen, and your head (having access to MIT's badass labs and professors won't hurt though :D ).

Thank you for your feedback!

[Ketchup]

I just said my practice scores to give you guys a feel of where I am.

I must have missed those, and still can't find them.

I initially said my scores fall around MIT's average. They're around 550 right now. I'm hoping to improve them by about 20 by the time I apply. If I recall correctly, MIT's average for 10m rifle is 540. Sorry for the confusion I caused.

[dc.fireman]

This might be of interest to the OP:

http://www.range365.com/gun-owners-we-l ... ton-monroe

[Ketchup]

This might be of interest to the OP:

http://www.range365.com/gun-owners-we-l ... ton-monroe

Thank you for the link! It was a good read.