AMA MIT 2016 Answers Part 3: Essay, Finance, etc

Language: Bahasa Indonesia and English

Essay

Perhaps the biggest component of your entire application is your essay. As mentioned previously, MIT uses its own application portal, MyMIT, and not CommonApp. Hence, MIT essay prompts are different from CA’s. Unlike CA, MIT application consists of several short essays (with 100 or 250 words max, depending on each topic). This year, the prompts are:

·       We know you lead a busy life, full of activities, many of which are required of you. Tell us about something you do simply for the pleasure of it. (100 words or fewer)

·       Although you may not yet know what you want to major in, which department or program at MIT appeals to you and why? (100 words or fewer)

·       At MIT, we bring people together to better the lives of others. MIT students work to improve their communities in different ways, from tackling the world’s biggest challenges to being a good friend. Describe one way in which you have contributed to your community, whether in your family, the classroom, your neighborhood, etc. (200-250 words)

·       Describe the world you come from; for example, your family, clubs, school, community, city, or town. How has that world shaped your dreams and aspirations? (200-250 words)

·       Tell us about the most significant challenge you’ve faced or something important that didn’t go according to plan. How did you manage the situation? (200-250 words)

             

Source: http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/our-2016-17-application-essay-questions

Bagi yang ingin mendaftar tahun ini, silahkan mulai menulis, atau setidaknya coba memikirkan apa yang mau ditulis untuk masing-masing topik (it’s never a bad thing to get a head start). Bagi yang ingin mendaftar tahun depan, atau tahun-tahun berikutnya, mendingan untuk tidak memulai menulis dahulu karena MIT sendiri suka mengganti 1-2 topik setiap 3-5 tahun (unless you don’t mind to work double if they do change it).

Before writing your essays, I suggest you to read the following posts on the technical aspects of essay writing:

http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/how-to-write-a-college-essay

http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/dear-applicants-the-college-essay

And here is what an application from looks like:  

http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/happy-21st-birthday-to-the-random-hall-milk (jokes included)

Okay, now onto the hard part, yaitu aspek apa aja sih yang dicari dari esai kita? Dalam kata lain, apa sih yang sebaiknya ditulis/tonjolkan dalam essai kita? This is a tough question. An easy answer would be to try encompass all aspects on this link here. Kalau aku sendiri, hal yang sebaiknya ditonjolkan adalah hal-hal yang membuat kamu, KAMU (Okay, this is getting old. I've been using this phrase over and over again, but I couldn't think of something else, since I really can't stress enough the importance of being YOURSELF). Whatever your achievement or award is, don’t get so worked up over it such that you have to write paragraphs about it. Instead, try to include every single detail, even the little ones that you think might not be appealing. If that is what describes you and also an integral part of your life, then do write about it. 

Coba manfaatin semua bagian esai mu untuk menceritakan hal-hal yang berbeda mengenai dirimu. Contoh nih (this is purely fictional), mungkin di esai pertama kamu tulis tentang hobi kamu menyanyi. Yang kedua kamu tuliskan ketertarikan kamu di bidang astronomi karena sering mengamati bintang. Esai ketiga kamu tulis, misal, pengalaman manis dan pahitmu jadi ketua osis. Essai keempat kamu tuliskan tentang begitu susahnya dapat akses pendidikan di daerah kamu, terutama untuk kalangan kurang mampu, sehingga kamu mulai mengajar anak-anak jalanan. Esai kelima bisa saja tentang bagaimana jatuh bangun kamu mengikuti lomba cerdas cermat, sampai akhirnya kamu bisa juara nasional. Jika aku admission officer nih, aku bisa pelajari banyak hal dari cerita-cerita kamu. Aku bakal tahu kalau kamu itu bakat nyanyi, debat, bisa dan mau mengajar, tertarik dengan ilmu sains, mau berbagi, serba bisa, dst. 

Coba bandingin deh kalau misalkan kamu tulis esai yang seperti ini: Esai pertama kamu tulis tentang mengutak-atik program stellar (aplikasi rasi bintang). Esai kedua kamu tulis mau masuk jurusan Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science (Kebumian). Esai ketiga kamu tulis tentang bagaimana kamu menjadi pendiri klub astronomi di sekolah. Esai keempat kamu tulis bagaimana kamu tinggal di daerah yang langit malamnya cerah sehingga kamu sering mengamati bintang. Esai kelima kamu tulis tentang jatuh bangun mengikuti olimpiade astronomi. See the difference? Walaupun sekilas esaimu ini tampak menarik, mau kamu tulis se-gimana bagus pun esai ini, I can only deduce that you are a nerd, interested only in the constellations. Contoh esai seperti inilah yang menurut aku kurang dimanfaatkan dengan baik. We all know that a human can’t only be passionate on one thing, surely he must have other hobbies. But since you didn’t write about them, the admission officers can’t really get to know the person you really are, and that will be your biggest downfall.

A few little details worth mentioning:

1.  Start by brainstorming ideas for each topic. Discuss it with your friends, teachers and family on which point you should elaborate more. Different perspectives won’t hurt, right?
2. Ketika nulis esai, jangan terlalu lebai deh. Don’t overuse fancy SAT vocabularies if that costs you clarity and simplicity. Ini bukan lomba cerpen atau puisi ya, yang paling penting itu adalah pesan kamu tersampaikan. Bayangin coba, officer-nya harus baca ribuan aplikasi yang masuk, mata uda ngantuk, lalu kamu tulis yang lebai ga jelas. Pasti langsung dibuang.
3. Jadi sistem portal MyMIT memperbolehkan kalian untuk menulis lebih dari word limit yang diberikan, karena cara programnya nge-cek itu berdasarkan number of characters, not number of words. Do exploit this bug if you really can’t trim down your essay under word limit. Aku saranin sih esai kalian itu kurang lebih 10% dari word limit. Misal word limit-nya 100, kalian coba tulis minimal 90 kata (sehingga semua yang kalian ingin utarakan bisa disampaikan) dan maksimum 110 kata (karena kalau sudah lebih dari 110 kata, biasanya ukuran tulisan di aplikasi kalian akan otomatis diperkecil, dan ini akan memberi tahu admission officer kalian bahwa kalian telah melanggar ketentuan yang telah diberikan).
4. Jangan lupa untuk proofread tulisan kalian (cek grammar, pengunaan tanda baca, dst). Walau tidak secara langsung mengurangi nilai esai kalian, ini akan menggangu konsentrasi pembaca, apabila jika kalimatnya sama sekali tidak bisa dimengerti. Do consult to your school’s English teacher and fix any error that you encounter.

Financial concern

I guess another main concern that I’ve receiving quite a lot is about scholarship. First of all, let me explain about financial aid. So in the US, most colleges offer something called financial aid, or finaid for short. Basically, financial aid is a form of scholarship awarded by the educational institution to the student to fulfill the financial cost of attending that school. At MIT, finaid is need-based, which means that scholarship is granted and adjusted to one’s financial condition. Contoh, misal orangtua mu hanya mampu menanggung uang sekolah dan biaya hidup kamu $3700 (atau sekitar Rp 50 jt) per tahun, maka orang tua kamu hanya diwajibkan untuk membayar segitu dan sisanya akan dilunasi oleh MIT lewat finaid. 

Finaid sendiri terbagi menjadi 3, yaitu: scholarship (uang yang diberikan ke kamu TIDAK perlu diganti), loan (‘hutang’, uang yang diberikan ke kamu adalah uang pinjaman dan harus dilunasi ketika kamu lulus sekolah. Dan seperti jenis pinjaman lainnya, semakin lama kamu mencicil hutang ini, maka bunga pinjamannya semakin besar) dan work (‘kerja’, kamu diharapkan untuk kerja part-time selama kuliah untuk menutupi biaya sekolah kamu). The amount of loan and work you take each year is entirely up to you. You may choose to take a loan and not work, or work more so you can borrow less. Terserah kamu deh! Normally, you are expected to take $2500 in loan and earn $3000 in work. 

The cost to attend MIT (tuition and living cost) each year is roughly $65000 or ~Rp 880 million (aside from expensive tuition, Boston’s living cost is also among the highest in the states). Imagine, if your parents can only pay up to $3700 a year, then MIT will have to grant you [$65000 - ($3700 + $2500 + $3000)] USD 55800, or Rp 753 million, for FREE due to their need-based policy!!!!! In fact, MIT is among the few, if not the only one in the US, who is extremely generous towards international students. Other colleges in US usually only award finaid to US citizens, but at MIT, everyone is treated equally. Since most international students are financially poorer than average US citizens, MIT has to come up with more money to afford having us! That is why MIT can only accept ~130 international students every year.

Also, the thing with finaid at MIT, is that as long as you are enrolled at the academy and provide necessary documents to prove your parents’ financial status (through tax returns, wage documents, etc), you are almost always GUARANTEED of getting a finaid!!! Maka dari itu, gak usah khawatir lagi mengenai biaya dan lain-lain. Just focus on the task at hand: getting accepted!

Kalau kamu merasa, nih, ga mau ambil part-time work atau loan, kamu juga bisa nyari beasiswa eksternal baik di Indonesia maupun Amerika Serikat sendiri. Since it is in Massachusetts’ state law to provide education to everyone regardless of their nationalities, there is a lot of scholarship opportunities around Boston, even to international students.  Just google it, or talk to the locals once you get here and you will definitely get one!

Others

So I have these questions that don’t fall into any of the categories above:

Yang pertama adalah “Aktifitas Perhimpunan Pelajar Indonesia di MIT gimana?” Ya aktivitas kita oke-oke aja sih, so far (We haven’t caused any trouble, yet). Usually, we always have a gathering with Harvard students like once every 2-3 months (for instance, during the start of semester, end of semester, someone’s birthday). Kita juga yang bertugas mengatur acara-acara tema Indonesia di MIT, contoh tahun ini Ibu Susi Pudjiastuti dan Bapak Ridwan Kamil sempat memberi seminar di MIT. So, we helped to facilitate them while they were at MIT. Other than that, we are pretty low-profiled, not doing much the rest of the semester as most of us are busy with our own thing.

Next is “Ada kemungkinan apply kalo blm lulus SMA?” Hmmm, I don’t know how to say this, but why the heck would you want to apply early? Even though technically you can (since you don’t have to have a high school diploma to apply here, if I'm not mistaken), I am strongly against you applying here too early. Tell me, if you were to apply at this very moment, do you have enough qualifications to have MIT admit you? Do you have a good relationship with your teachers to have them write strong letter of recommendations? Do you have enough scholastic and non-scholastic awards on your application? Do you even have interesting stories to tell on your essays? If you do, then go ahead! But if you don’t, then don’t even think about it. Emang kenapa sih mau daftar cepat-cepat ke MIT? Takut ketuaan gitu? Lol, santai aja kali. If I were you, I would take my time. Don’t make MIT your end game. Instead, apply sideways! Moments in high school don’t come twice, you know! Enjoy every bit of moment you have left. Spend it with your friends, pursue your hobbies more. If you do it right, all of these puzzle pieces will surely come together, and if you still feel the strong urge to apply, then I won’t stop you. So, no need to worry about this now, okay?    

Last, but not least, I want to address the question: “Kalau misalnya saya hanya dari SMA umum (SMA swasta/negeri lokal) apakah masih ada kemungkinan untuk diterima di MIT?”. Lol, kamu kirain aku dari sekolah mana coba? Sekolah alien? Ya pasti ada kemungkinan lah, asal kamu coba. Aku aja dari sekolah daerah di Kubu Raya, Kalimantan Barat, aja bisa keterima apalagi kamu yang di Tangerang haha…  

Jadi, begitu aja buat postingan AMA ini. If you need to contact me to ask (if and only if it’s important. Not a spam. Question must be carefully thought up beforehand, otherwise I won’t even reply. Heck, I gave you the chance to ask all you want here) or simply say 'Hi' (I will appreciate this haha), you can shoot me an email at vsudaryo@mit.edu or comment below. I will try to get back to you as quickly as possible. Also, don’t hesitate to ask MIT admission officers question regarding application at ask.mitadmissions.org, since I don’t know everything there is to know about the application (they don’t even pay me to do this job). Good luck for your application. See you at MIT!