Massachusetts Institute of Technology
What MIT's own numbers say, from its Common Data Set 2025-26.
See your odds at MIT →All 3 insights at MIT PRO
Getting harderMIT
Getting into MIT is 1.5× harder than in 2019.
The admit rate fell from 6.7% (2019-20) to 4.6% (2025-26).
2019-206.7%
2025-264.6%
Source: MIT's Common Data Set 2025-26
WaitlistMIT
MIT's waitlist is a long shot: 2.1%.
10 of 468 students who stayed on the list got in.
Admitted off the list2.1%
Not admitted98%
Source: MIT's Common Data Set 2025-26
MoneyMIT
MIT meets 100% of need.
The average need-based grant is $73,398 a year, against tuition of $66,720.
Average grant$73k
Tuition$67k
Source: MIT's Common Data Set 2025-26
5 more things the data says PRO
- Taking out the EA round, regular-decision applicants were admitted at about 3.6% (613 of 17,264).
- 468 students stayed on the waitlist and 10 were admitted from it (2.1%).
- 86% of admitted students chose to enroll, higher than 95% of similar colleges.
- It reports meeting 100% of financial need for first-years who have need.
- Applications rose 35% from 2018-19 to 2025-26 (21,706 to 29,281), faster than 56% of colleges here.
What students say PRO
From students' own posts on Reddit and admissions forums: self-reported, unverified, never used in your odds.
- Most admits who named a round (about 33 of 46) applied Early Action, with SAT scores mostly 1490 to 1600 and GPAs near 4.0.
- Many admits had real research, often with a professor, like first-author or co-authored papers, preprints, conference talks or published ML or physics work.
- Many founded a program or nonprofit, like a youth robotics program, an education nonprofit in 65+ countries, an AI startup or a physics simulation platform with 50,000 monthly users.
- Many had a top competition spike, like math olympiads, USACO, science fairs, robotics team captaincy or chess, alongside the research.
- About 16 first-gen or family-duty admits showed heavy obligations, like 21 to 25 hours a week of caregiving, translating for family or full-time work.
- Students stress MIT is extremely selective, with an overall rate near 4.5% and under 2% for international applicants, and that perfect scores and 1540 to 1600 SATs still get rejected.
- Students report MIT defers roughly two-thirds of early applicants into the regular pool, and some deferred applicants were later admitted.
- Students describe alumni interviews as friendly and wide-ranging, noting they depend on local alumni and cannot guarantee admission.
- Students and parents report MIT is need-blind and meets 100% of demonstrated need, and that aid is very generous for low and middle incomes.
- Students report recruited athletes need MIT standards met years ahead, are encouraged to apply Early Action, and may be reconsidered in regular decision if deferred.
Every number, year by year: Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Open College Data. Something wrong? Suggest a correction.