Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts | Admissions Phone: 617-253-3400
E-mail: admissions@mit.edu | Website: www.web.mit.edu
ADMISSION
Admission Rate: 7%
Admission Rate - Men: 5%
Admission Rate - Women: 11%
EA Admission Rate: 7%
ED Admission Rate: Not Offered
Admission Rate (5-Year Trend): -1%
ED Admission Rate (5-Year Trend): Not Offered
% of Admits Attending (Yield): 76%
Transfer Admission Rate: 4%
# Offered Wait List: 460
# Accepted Wait List: 383
# Admitted Wait List: 0
SAT Reading/Writing (Middle 50%): 720-770
SAT Math (Middle 50%): 780-800
ACT Composite (Middle 50%): 34-36
Testing Policy: ACT/SAT Required
SAT Superscore: Yes
ACT Superscore: Yes
% Graduated in Top 10% of HS Class: 97%
% Graduated in Top 25% of HS Class: 100%
% Graduated in Top 50% of HS Class: 100%
ENROLLMENT
Total Undergraduate Enrollment: 4,602
% Part-Time: 1%
% Male: 54%
% Female: 46%
% Out-of-State: 91%
% Fraternity: 43%
% Sorority: 28%
% On-Campus (Freshman): 100%
% On-Campus (All Undergraduate): 92%
% African-American: 6%
% Asian: 28%
% Hispanic: 15%
% White: 31%
% Other: 7%
% Race or Ethnicity Unknown: 2%
% International: 11%
% Low-Income: 16%
ACADEMICS
Student-to-Faculty Ratio: 3:1
% of Classes Under 20: 71%
% of Classes Under 40: 84%
% Full-Time Faculty: 81%
% Full-Time Faculty w/ Terminal Degree: 92%
Top Programs
Biology
Chemistry
Computer Science
Economics
Engineering
Finance
Mathematics
Physics
Retention Rate: 99%
4-Year Graduation Rate: 85%
6-Year Graduation Rate: 94%
Curricular Flexibility: Somewhat Flexible
Academic Rating: 
FINANCIAL
Institutional Type: Private
In-State Tuition: $53,450
Out-of-State Tuition: $53,450
Room & Board: $16,390
Required Fees: $340
Books & Supplies: $820
Avg. Need-Based Aid: $49,010
Avg. % of Need Met: 100%
Avg. Merit-Based Aid: $0
% Receiving Merit-Based Aid: 0%
Avg. Cumulative Debt: $22,696
% of Students Borrowing: 29%
CAREER
Who Recruits
1. Hudson River Trading
2. Nvidia
3. Five Rings Technology
4. Stripe
5. AB InBev
Notable Internships
1. Jane Street Capital
2. Airbnb
3. Shell
Top Industries
1. Business
2. Engineering
3. Education
4. Research
5. Operations
Top Employers
1. Google
2. Apple
3. Microsoft
4. Amazon
5. IBM
Where Alumni Work
1. Boston
2. San Francisco
3. New York City
4. India
5. Washington, DC
Median Earnings
College Scorecard (Early Career): $104,700
EOP (Early Career): $98,500
PayScale (Mid-Career): $155,200
RANKINGS
Forbes: 4
Money: 7
U.S. News: 3 (T), National Universities
Wall Street Journal/THE: 2
Washington Monthly: 3, National Universities
Inside the Classroom
A beacon of egalitarianism and meritocracy, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is less about legacy and more about the future. MIT doesn’t care who your grandfather was or how far you can throw a football; it is seeking the world’s sharpest and most innovative minds in engineering, the sciences, mathematics, and related fields who, one day, will create the world the rest of us will merely inhabit. Graduate students account for the majority of students enrolled at MIT, but the nearly 4,500 undergraduates pursue one of fifty-three majors and fifty-eight minors in this world-class research institution that continues to be one of the world’s most magnetic destinations for science geniuses.
There are five separate schools within MIT: the School of Architecture and Planning; the School of Engineering; the School of Humanities, Arts, and the Social Sciences; the Sloan School of Management; and the School of Science. There are a number of broad academic requirements across all five schools including an eight-subject humanities, arts, and social sciences requirement and a six-subject science requirement that includes two terms of calculus, two terms of physics, one term of chemistry, and one term of biology. Additionally, students must complete two courses under the designation of “restricted electives” in science and technology, a laboratory requirement, and a physical education course.
The student-to-faculty ratio is an astonishing 3-to-1, and even with a substantial focus on graduate programs, the class sizes are intimate. An exceptional 43 percent of class sections have single-digit enrollments, and 70 percent of courses contain fewer than twenty students. MIT is known for having one of the best formalized undergraduate research programs in the country. The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) operates year-round and helps connect 91 percent of undergrads to a research experience with an MIT faculty member. Studying abroad is strongly encouraged, and the school offers some fantastic opportunities through programs such as MIT Madrid, Imperial College Exchanges (London), and departmental exchange programs in South Africa, France, and Japan.
The highest numbers of degrees conferred in 2018 were in the following majors: computer science and engineering (251), electrical engineering and computer science (161), mathematics (76), and physics (55). Just about every program at MIT sits at or near the top of any rankings. The most sought after employers and grad schools aggressively recruit alumni. Graduates win nationally competitive fellowships and scholarships on a routine basis. In 2019, five students were awarded Marshall Scholarships; in 2018, eight of the forty finalists for Hertz Fellowships were MIT grads, and fourteen students in the Department of Chemistry alone were awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.
Outside the Classroom
The campus’ 166 acres include twenty-six acres of playing fields, twenty acres of green spaces and gardens, and eighteen student residences that house the 90 percent of students who live on campus, a requirement for freshmen. It may be a bit of a surprise that the school’s thirty-seven fraternities, sororities, and living groups attract 43 percent of male students and 28 percent of females. Around half live in frat/sorority/living group housing, and the other half reside in dorms. Falling victim to stereotypes, one might not immediately assume that MIT would have an athletically-inclined student body. However, the school fields thirty-three varsity sports teams (16 women’s, 15 men’s, 2 co-ed), most of which compete in NCAA Division III against other New England colleges. The intramural program is bursting at the seams with over 4,000 participants annually. Another 800 students are members of thirty-three club teams. Plenty of culture/creativity can be found on campus in one of MIT’s twelve museums and galleries (The MIT Museum draws 150,000 visitors each year). There are also more than sixty arts, dance, music, and writing organizations for students. The school is devoted to environmental sustainability, and the campus and surrounding area are designed for a car-free lifestyle that remains highly convenient. With forty-four bike-sharing stations, six subway stations, and twenty-nine bus routes in the surrounding area, students can navigate Cambridge with ease. Harvard’s campus is less than one mile away, and downtown Boston is easy to reach. For reference, Fenway Park is less than two miles from campus.
Career Services
MIT Global Education & Career Development (GECD) has sixteen professional staff members who are directly involved in employer relations, career counseling, and graduate school advising. That 278:1 student-to-advisor ratio is better than average compared to other schools featured in this guide. The office provides top-notch individualized counseling and also puts on phenomenal large-scale events. The MIT Fall Career Fair is an unmatched event that sees around 450 companies and 5,000 students attend. If you can think of a desirable tech/finance company, chances are it has a booth at the event. Even the less-epic Spring Career Fair attracts seventy employers including Northrup Grumman, Wayfair, Bank of America, the Walt Disney Company, Cisco, and Twitter.
With assistance from the GECD, 87 percent of MIT undergraduates complete at least one internship. Almost one-quarter of those participating in internships received a full-time job offer from that same organization. The GECD played a direct role in helping many others land jobs through various means as 20 percent found employment through on-campus recruiting, 19 percent through faculty/GECD connections, and 18 percent through career fairs. In a single year the GECD hosted 130 different employers, which led to a collective 2,609 interviews held on campus. An additional 1,072 employers posted 2,595 unique jobs online in an effort to lure MIT seniors. MIT students sell themselves, so career services staff have a role akin to managing the ’27 Yankees. Still, the office does a world-class job of setting up its highly desired undergrads with premium opportunities.
Professional Outcomes
The Class of 2018 saw 54 percent of its members enter the world of employment and 39 percent continue on their educational paths. By industry, the highest percentage of graduates found jobs in engineering (24 percent), computer technologies (23 percent), consulting (14 percent), and finance/banking (14 percent). The top employers included Accenture, Oracle, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, Goldman Sachs, Google, General Motors, the US Navy, Apple, Bain & Company, Boeing, and McKinsey. The mean starting salary for an MIT bachelor’s degree holder was $88,381, and the median was $85,000.
The most frequently attended graduate schools are a who’s who of elite institutions including MIT itself, which accounted for 177 members of the Class of 2017 with Stanford a distant second, attracting twenty-two graduates. Also making the list were Princeton, California Institute of Technology, Columbia, Northwestern, University of Chicago, University of California at Berkeley, and University of Michigan. The most common degree being pursued was a PhD (43 percent), and the second most common was a master’s of engineering (41 percent). Only 6 percent were entering medical/dental/veterinary school, and 1.6 percent were headed to law school. Medical school acceptance rates typically land in the 80-95 percent range for grads/alumni, more than double the national average.
Admission
Applicants for a place in the Class of 2022 encountered a murderous 6.7 percent acceptance rate. Freshmen entering MIT in the fall of 2018 possessed SATs with a middle-50 percent range of 1500-1570 and ACTs with middle-50 percent scores of 34-36. Students were almost unanimously from the top 10 percent of their high school classes—97 percent boasted that achievement. MIT offers a nonbinding early action option with a November 1 deadline, but it yields little in the way of an admissions edge. The acceptance rate for the early round is usually almost identical to that of the regular round.
The MIT admissions committee rates character/personal qualities as “very important,” and just about everything else—rigor of courses, GPA, test scores, essays, recommendations, interview, extracurricular activities—in the next tier of importance. While a nice nod to the importance of character, every one of the aforementioned factors ranked as merely “important” have to be close to perfect for it to even enter the equation. Legacy status is not considered at MIT, a rarity among elite universities, meaning that the alumni connection of your mother, grandfather, or brother plays zero role in helping you gain admission. Despite a large intercollegiate sports program, athletic prowess plays a minimal role in admissions decisions as well. MIT is as close to a true meritocracy as you can find in the world of higher education. The most brilliant and innovative minds from around the globe are admitted regardless of family name or lacrosse skills. Rather, a sparkling academic record, near-perfect test scores, and impressive STEM-focused experiences/accomplishments outside the classroom will rule the day.
Worth Your Money?
Yes…Need more? Going to MIT is punching your ticket to any number of lucrative careers. If you need financial assistance, this school will meet 100 percent of your demonstrated need; the average grant is for roughly $49,000. The full cost of attendance is $73,160.