Bing Dong Liu (12): 

I applied to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for early action for computer science. MIT is different from a lot of other colleges: you can apply as any major you want, but you go in undeclared. This made picking CS a lot easier for me since I was pretty stressed about it being a competitive major.

Compared to any other schools that I applied to, I was really keen on MIT since it’s one of the top schools for computer science and has a lot of great coding opportunities. I also know a lot of undergraduates at MIT, so if I went, I would have familiar faces to keep me company. I visited the school last spring break, and automatically really liked it—a weird fun fact is that a lot of the buildings I saw were awkwardly shaped, and that definitely brought some quirk to the school. 

I started the application process in summer, but I mainly focused on MIT throughout. I reached out to current MIT students who I know, and they told me a lot about student life at MIT along with how clubs work there. I had one of them read my essays, but mostly relied on myself throughout the application process. 

I didn’t think my essays were too creative while applying, but going into it, I knew my extracurriculars would be what differentiated me from some other applicants. I competed in the USA Computing Olympiad (USACO), which is basically the coding version of the AMCs. Taking my experience as a finalist, I also started a YouTube channel centered around USACO questions in hopes of teaching and inspiring others. 

The best piece of advice I got while applying was to always highlight my passion. Whether it’s in my essays or even in my extracurricular descriptions, I always wanted to show that I had a deep interest in my major (CS), but also had room to grow with other interests as well. For example, I do a lot of coding, and that was my main focus, but I included other extracurriculars to make me a better, well-rounded student.

I was pretty surprised when I got into MIT! I spent the entire day at school stressing out, but when decisions came out, I was super relieved. I am really excited for MIT classes and to meet everyone at the school. 

For anyone applying this upcoming cycle—don’t force yourself to do things you don’t like. When I went into high school, I was encouraged to stop doing USACO and try to do other things, but I didn’t think that was the right option. I stuck with it, and it worked out. Do definitely try things, but stay with the ones that you like. That passion is what I believe makes people stand out to colleges.