Those are my odds of getting into one of the groups at the MIT Media Lab. I had a meet-and-greet with one of the professors at the Media Lab yesterday, and it felt like a good one. My personal interests seem to be aligned with the main focus and projects of the research group. But at the end of the meeting, the professor indicated that there were 100 applicants for two spots. Yes, that’s one in fifty.
I guess this is expected and I’m up against some great talents out there. To illustrate my point further, here’s a simple illustration.
At this point, I must ponder the following. I would suspect that the professor could not possibly have met all 100 applications. There are issues with applicants being far away and simply the lack of time. So I’m estimating that only 30 applicant were interviewed. So maybe my odds are actually 2 out of 30. Or one in 15, that’s a bit better than before. But 6% is still a small number.
Pondering further, the factors in determining the person(s) that gets to be orange. Is it based on the interview? Credentials? Shear luck? Chaos theory? Who knows. In the end, time will provide an answer. It always does.
