Talk to Sara at MIT | MIT Student Advice

Sara Mastered Grit and Curiosity to Earn Admission into MIT

For Sara Wilson, swinging on a flying trapeze wasn’t just a hobby—it was a metaphor for her mindset. While most applicants shy away from discussing failure, Sara leaned into it—literally. In one of her MIT essays, she described the sting of the safety net not as defeat, but as a satisfying invitation to try again. Sara didn’t follow a perfectly polished path to college. Instead, she carved out a space defined by experimentation, risk-taking, and resilience. She was drawn to MIT because it was “a place where people make things happen,” and her path—though nonlinear—was grounded in a relentless drive to understand and improve the world around her.

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accepted at: MIT

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5.0 rating

acceptances

Stats

COLLEGE

mitclass of '19regular decisionmech eng, creative writing, theater

HIGH SCHOOL

high school: the buckley schoollos angeles, ca

TEST SCORES

SAT: n/aACT: 35GPA: n/aAPs: 11

Bio

Sara Wilson

Trapeze flyer. Systems thinker. Not your average MIT nerd. Sara didn’t play it safe in her college apps—and she definitely doesn’t play it safe in life. One of her MIT essays was literally about falling off a flying trapeze… and why she loved it. For her, messing up wasn’t failure—it was momentum. That mindset carried her from baking experiments in her kitchen to tackling real-world healthcare problems with consulting firms and startups. She wasn’t the straight-A, perfectly packaged applicant. She was the one who tried stuff, failed sometimes, and came back smarter. She figured out that MIT wanted people who could dream big and get their hands dirty. So that’s exactly how she showed up. She’s done a little bit of everything: design, consulting, 3D printing, sports, swimming, strategy—and somehow connected it all. Sara is the kind of person who reads the instructions, then rewrites them to work better. And she’ll be the first to tell you that you don’t need some “tragic story” to write a great essay—just your real voice and the guts to be a little weird. Message Sara if you want advice on writing authentic college essays, navigating MIT, turning curiosity into action, or just figuring out how to build your own path (even if you fall a couple times on the way up). She didn't think she would get into MIT, so she's the perfect person for a pep-talk if you're having doubts.