It is conclusively not an everyday thing for a layperson like me to have the opportunity to meet alumni of one of the top universities in the world, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

MIT definitely needs no introduction (although some people who previously must have lived in caves popped out this very oblivious question of “What is MIT?” and had me laughing from the inside and chirpily replying “Malaysia Institute of Technology”.) . Consistently ranked among the top universities in the world along with Harvard University and Stanford University, MIT managed to find itself a niche in various scientific and technology disciplines (as its name suggested), though it fared well in other disciplines too.

A quick check on Google Earth tells me that MIT is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Now, the trivia. It is actually a stone throw away from Harvard University, and they both are located at the bank of the same river.

On 14 April 2007, I was privileged enough to witness and experience myself an inspiring event, organized by the MIT Alumni Association of Malaysia. The association held a talk to enlighten or encourage those who plan to enroll in MIT either in 2008 or 2009. To my recollection, there weren’t any event like this last year, or I could be wrong (I used to be quite ignorant). This year, they were extremely proud to present to us an admission talk featuring a panel of distinguished speakers who were once MIT students (now MIT alumni), probably because of the encouraging number of Malaysians successfully gaining admission into MIT for fall 2007.

There are FIVE Malaysians who were selected to enroll in class 2011, the highest number of prospective students from the Bolehland in recent times. In the past, there was only one or two achieving such a feat. The association hopes to see more prospective students from Malaysia – as there have been rivalries between Malaysia and Singapore on the number of Ivy-League bound students; hence the admission talk.

The talk was divided into 3 parts. The first part was an introduction and overview of what MIT is (which I believe is utterly redundant, though some things are definitely nice to know), the second part was centered around the very crucial question of what MIT is looking for in a prospective student. The final part was to explore the application process (e.g. what needs to be included in personal statements, etc.)

The first speaker was very articulate, looking very professional, whose eloquence played a very inspiring role, I thought. His name is Prem (or something that sounded like this word). He gave us an insight on what MIT is all about, touching on a range of subjects and information, including notable MIT alumnus, important MIT inventions, and the UROP program.

Some of the most notable MIT alumni are former Secretary General of the United Nation Kofi Annan, while the most interesting MIT invention ( I thought) was the Campbell soup (The irony of it is that such not-so-technologically-demanding product is able to call MIT its birthplace). Sir Tim Bernes-Lee, frequently known as the inventor of World Wide Web, founded W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) in MIT, an organization working to develop standards for the World Wide Web.

I find the UROP program very attractive and noteworthy. UROP stands for Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program. As its name suggested, it is a program to enable students to obtain funding to conduct research on their own at UNDERGRADUATE level, a rarity in universities around the world. Research in graduate and post-graduate is common, but not at undergraduate level. Only top schools with huge endowment and with a plethora of funding available to them at their disposal are capable of providing that kind of opportunities to students. Interestingly, MIT has been conducting such program from as early as 1969 (the year when Malaysia was busy attending to racial violence and issues). It was founded based on MIT’s philosophy of “learning by doing”.

The next part interest most people and I supposed that was precisely why we’re there. Another speaker took the floor to address the crucial question of what MIT is looking for. Firstly, it is your academic qualification (like duh, it is MIT…). 48% of freshmen who were admitted are the top 10% of their class (wait, not really sure about this, is it top 1% or 10 %?). Of course, SATs have to be like super high, as close to 800-800-800 as possible.

Nevertheless, these academic figures are just a small fraction of a big picture. And of course, what would an American education be without extra curricular activities. 75% of freshmen were club president in their high school senior year, according to statistics by MIT.

They are also looking for passionate people; people who had actually bring their passion to a higher level, like emerging champion in the whole country, representing the nation, etc, etc. I personally called this “demonstrated passion”. They also want to see students who actually took initiatives to get things done, overcome adversities and challenges to attain goals. Wow, seemed like a daunting task ahead!

The last part of the talk explores the application process. The speaker first recommends all interested applicants to build up their resume. From course selection and SAT, from ECA to community services, they all take time to build up. Next, applicants should know their referee for the recommendation letter well, and vice versa. Not really surprising, as referee are important people in giving important insight into an individual.

With that, I left the place, planning and thinking of what to do next as soon as I get home. Time must be used efficiently from now on, for there are plenty to do for the next 12 months.