MIT欢迎什么样的学生？　我们喜欢有学识、有毅力，并对挑战充满热情的学生。但我们并不是寻找一批一模一样的完美学生。我们希望每一个人都能以自己独特的方式为校园带来活力，比如出众的气质、幽默感、丰富的人生经历、才艺、天赋、兴趣和成就。

如何为申请MIT做准备？　总的来说，你需要做两件事情：1. 确保你准备好接受挑战；2. 在校内、外活动中尽可能地探索你感兴趣的事物。具体而言，你可以从以下方面准备。

学习方面: 　中学时期能建立扎实的学习基础的学生更受MIT的青睐，因此如果你想入读MIT，建议你在中学阶段学习以下课程：物理、化学和生物（一年），数学（微积分），外语（两年），英语（四年）和历史或社会科学（两年）。总的来说，我们希望你能最大限度的了解周边的资源，并尝试你感兴趣的课程。如果你的中学不能提供有挑战性的课程，你可以寻找身边的其他学习机会，比如当地大学的辅导课或暑期课程。MIT的公开课名叫“高中课程集锦”（ Highlights for High School），也是很好的学习机会之一。该课是专门为高中生预修课考试设定的，旨在强化中学知识，并让学生们体验未来要学习的大学课堂。

课外活动:　你应该选择那些真正让你开心、愉悦并有挑战的活动，而不是那些只能让你的申请表看上去不错的活动。你可以尽情的去探寻能激发你的创造力与领导力的项目或活动，这些活动能让你和其他人的心紧紧相连并激发你展现出最好的一面，而且能让你感到愉悦、充满热情而不再是疲惫。有些学生喜欢同时参加多个活动，另一些则偏好集中注意力在少数几个活动上。无论怎样，这些课外活动都应该让你开心，是真正“属于你”的活动。大学生活丰富多彩而不可代替，它们可以让你了解到真正的自己，你需要向我们展示你已经做好开始这段奇妙的旅程的准备。我们真正需要的是你展示真实的自我——以你独特的方式追求热爱的事情，在过程中成长、改变，接受挑战并从错误中吸取经验。

强化项目:　如果你非常喜欢MIT，那么你很可能在数学和科学方面有着浓厚的兴趣。我们提供了与众不同的竞赛、会展、暑期课程、、社团组织和网站资源，让你有机会发挥想象力、提高分析能力，并与其他优秀的年轻人一起享受学习数学与科学的过程，帮助你提前了解让人兴奋而且充满挑战的MIT学习生活。 另外由校内学生发起的的教育学习项目（ESP）也为初高中学生提供多种独特的学习机会，这些活动从多周固定课程（HSSP）到为期仅一日的学术尝鲜（SPLASH）课程应有尽有。如果你喜欢纯科学研究或者创造发明，你可以关注以下的科技发明展览及比赛：因特尔国际科学与工程大奖赛（ISEF）,西门子科学竞赛, 因特尔科学奖(STS), 谷歌全球科学节, 戴维森研究员, 赖弥尔森-麻省理工发明队等。或者你是初露头角的工程师，对机器人兴趣浓厚。你或许喜欢一些项目，比如：FIRST机器人竞赛，零号机器人，战点IQ，VEX机器人，Botball 国际机器人大赛等。有时候你确实有新奇的点子，知识需要将它赋予实践。你还在寻找灵感吗？我们的学生觉得这些活动很有趣，比如“做”，孺子可教也，艾达的果实，一米等。

网上课程：　有时候高中的课程有限并不能满足学生的需求，幸运的是MIT为学生提供丰富的网上课程帮助他们学到更多的知识。MIT的公开课项目是网络教学的主导者。公开课向学生提供课程的教学大纲、讲义、课程安排、相关问题与解答、考试、阅读书单，甚至还有来自34个主要院系的教学视频。如果课程太多不好选择，你也可以查阅专门为高中生设计Highlights for High School来缩小你的搜索范围。除此之外，MIT校友Salman Khan创立的可汗学院也提供了丰富的免费在线网络课程供学生参考。除了刚才所说的MIT网络课程项目，还有一些更正规的类似传统课堂的网络教学，例如EPGY, 在线CTY和虚拟高中。在这些课堂学习中你会有作业、固定的交流时间、老师、年级的设定等等。你还可以通过这些项目获得高中甚至大学的学分。对于我校很多数学达人来说， “解决问题的艺术”是个不可或缺的学习软件。一些程序编辑控通常会喜欢“欧拉项目”带来的挑战。

MIT暑期项目：　MIT本校不组织类似高中学生来到校园里学习相关课程并寄宿在校内的这种活动。但我校的一些合作机构会组织学生到校园里开展小规模的特别的项目。如果与其暑假期间呆在家里看电视，这个夏天你更愿意探索人类基因组的奥秘或制造一个机器人的话，或许你可以尝试一下项目：

● 少数民族工程与科学入门课程（MITES）是一项为期六周的寄宿学术体验活动。该项目专门为社会上少数民族的80名励志进入科学、工程和企业领域的高中生设立。该项目对学生免费开放，但学生需要自己负担交通费用。
● 科学研究所（RSI）每年免费招收70名低年级高中生参加为期六周的数学、科技和工程项目。学生们参加相关大学课程并亲手完成课后实验，这些实验通常会被用作科技比赛项目。
● 女性技术项目（WTP）是一个专门为女学生设立的为期四周的暑期寄宿学术项目。60名高中女学生通过大学实践性课堂（该课程由MIT女研究生教授）、实验和小组项目探索工程学的奥秘。WTP有两个方向供学生们选择：电子工程和计算机科学（EECS）和机械工程（ME）。
● 暑期科学项目的举办地虽然不在MIT校园，但MIT赞助这一个在新墨西哥州和加州举办的寄宿科学研究实验项目。在当地MIT校友的带领下，学生们能在六周时间内学习了数学、物理、天文以及程序编辑。这个课程围绕着一个中心研究项目而设定的，目标在于通过直接天文观测确定一个近地小行星的绕地轨道。
● MIT的其他项目：你真的想在MIT校园里度过暑假么？以下还有另外一些暑期项目供你参考。请记住参加这些项目并不能为你的申请增加优势，你应该根据自己的兴趣爱好选择自己喜欢

[摘录自学校官网]

What kind of student is MIT looking for? We obviously want people who have the training, stamina and passion for the climb, but we are not looking for a batch of identical perfect climbers. At the same time, we want each to add something useful or intriguing to the team, from a wonderful temperament or sense of humor, to compelling personal experiences, to a wide range of individual gifts, talents, interests and achievements.

How to prepare for MIT: Generally speaking, preparing yourself for MIT means doing two things: 1. making sure you're ready to do the work; 2.taking the time to really explore things that interest you, both inside and outside of school.

Academics: A strong academic foundation in high school is preferred if you are seriously considering MIT. We recommend that your high school years include the following: high school physics / chemistry / biology (one year), Math (through calculus), foreign language (two years), English (four years) and history or social sciences (two years). Overall, you should try to take the most stimulating courses available to you. If your high school doesn't offer courses that challenge you, you may want to explore other options, such as local college extension or summer programs. MIT OpenCourseWare Highlights for High School is also a resource which highlights MIT courses selected specifically to help you prepare for AP exams, learn more about the skills and concepts you learned in school, and get a glimpse of what you'll soon study in college.

Extracurricular Activities: Choose your activities because they really delight, intrigue and challenge you, not because you think they'll look impressive on your application. Go out of your way to find projects, activities and experiences that stimulate your creativity and leadership, that connect you with peers and adults who bring out your best, that please you so much you don't mind the work involved. Some students find room for many activities; others prefer to concentrate on just a few. Either way, the test for any extracurricular should be whether it makes you happy - whether it feels right for you. College is an intense, irreplaceable four-year opportunity to become more yourself than you've ever been. What you need to show us is that you're ready to try. What we really want to see on your application is you being you - pursuing the things you love, growing, changing, taking risks, learning from your mistakes, all in your own distinctive way.

Enrichment Programs: If you are seriously interested in MIT, you probably think math and science are serious fun. We offer this abbreviated list of some remarkable competitions, fairs, summer programs, organizations and websites that will challenge your imagination and powers of analysis, connect you with other young people who dare to enjoy science and math, and help you prepare for the rigor and excitement of MIT. We also offer MIT's Educational Studies Program. ESP is an MIT student group which provides unique educational opportunities to junior high and high school students: everything from multi-week courses (HSSP) to a single day educational extravaganza (SPLASH) and more! If you enjoy pure science research or the thrill of invention, you may want to set your sights on these fairs and competitions including Intel International Science & Engineering Fair (ISEF), Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, Intel Science Talent Search (STS), Google Global Science Fair, Davidson Fellows and Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams etc. Many budding engineers have gotten their start tinkering with robots. You may enjoy these robotics programs such as FIRST Robotics, Zero Robotics, BattleBots IQ, VEX Robotics,Botball and so on. Or sometimes you have an idea for something really cool that just need to build. Our students have found these places exciting: MAKE, Instructables, Adafruit and MITERS.

Online Classes: Sometimes, high schools can be limited in their course offerings. Luckily, there are a number of online opportunities available to enrich your education. First and foremost (from our perspective, anyway) is MIT's own OpenCourseWare, which provides users with open access to the syllabi, lecture notes, course calendars, problem sets and solutions, exams, reading lists, even a selection of video lectures, from courses representing 34 departments. If you need to narrow your options, you can check out OCW's Highlights for High School, featuring courses selected specifically to help high school students. Khan Academy, founded by MIT alumnus Salman Khan, is also a useful online resource for introductions to different subjects. There are also more structured online environments that function more like traditional classrooms, with assigned homework, regular chat periods, an instructor, grades, and so forth. You may be able to get high school (and sometimes college!) credit through these programs. Some of them include EPGY, CTY Online, and Virtual High School. Many of our students who are mathematically inclined have found Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) an indispensable resource. Students who enjoy programming often enjoy the challenges of Project Euler.

MIT Summer Programs: MIT does not offer a traditional open-enrollment summer school program where any high school student can come to campus to take courses and live in the dorms. However, several partner organizations run small, specialized programs on campus. If you'd rather study the human genome or build a robot than memorize this year's summer TV reruns, then you might try one of these:

● Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science (MITES) is an intensive six-week residential academic enrichment program for about 80 promising high school juniors who intend to pursue careers in science, engineering and entrepreneurship, especially those from minority backgrounds and other underrepresented segments of the population. The program is free of charge to participating students, not including transportation.

● Research Science Institute (RSI) brings together about 70 high school students each summer for six stimulating weeks at MIT. This rigorous academic program stresses advanced theory and research in mathematics, the sciences and engineering. Participants attend college-level classes taught by distinguished faculty members and complete hands-on research, which they often then use to enter science competitions. Open to high school juniors, the program is free of charge for those selected.

● Women's Technology Program (WTP) is a four-week summer academic and residential experience where 60 female high school students explore engineering through hands-on classes (taught by female MIT graduate students), labs, and team-based projects in the summer after their junior year. Students attend WTP in either Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) or Mechanical Engineering (ME).

● While the Summer Science Program is not on campus, MIT does co-sponsor this residential science research program. With locations in New Mexico and California, and many MIT students among the program's alumni/ae, students learn mathematics, physics, astronomy, and programming over the program's 6 weeks. The curriculum is organized around a central research project: to determine the orbit of a near-earth asteroid (minor planet) from direct astronomical observations.

● Other Summer Programs at MIT: Do you really want to spend part of your summer on MIT's campus? In addition to the programs listed above, MIT also hosts the following programs. Remember that participation in summer programs will not give your application any advantage, so you should participate because of your enthusiasm for the program's offerings and not for any perceived admissions boost. These programs are MIT Launch, LLRISE: MIT Lincoln Laboratory Radar Introduction for Student Engineers, OEX: Ocean Engineering Experience, OSC - Oxford Study Courses and iD Tech Camps.

[Extracts from MIT website]