This spring, many university press releases proclaim record-breaking volume and lowest admit rates in their history. The elite college admissions landscape has never been more competitive (or more confusing for applicants to navigate).
To kick off our new series on Regular Decision acceptance rates, we’re covering the newly released Class of 2028 acceptance rate for Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Founded in 1861, MIT is a top tier university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is ranked the #2 university in the nation by the U.S. News & World Report and has an undergraduate enrollment of about 4,500.
MIT OVERALL ACCEPTANCE RATE
This year, 28,232 students applied to join the MIT Class of 2028 through Early Action (non-binding) and Regular Decision. MIT offered admission to 1,275 students, for an overall acceptance rate of 4.5% (slightly lower than last year’s 4.8%). Among the admitted students, all 50 states, as well as 58 countries, are represented.
“[These admitted students] are united by a shared standard of rigorous academics, high character, and a strong match with MIT’s mission to use science, technology, and other areas of scholarship to work wisely, creatively, and effectively for the betterment of humankind,” said Chris Peterson, the Director of Special Projects at MIT Admissions.
MIT REGULAR DECISION ACCEPTANCE RATE
For those considering applying early to MIT next year, it’s important to know that 12,563 students applied early to the MIT Class of 2028 and 661 were offered early admission for a slightly higher acceptance rate of 5.26%. The higher acceptance rate in the Early Action pool suggests a Regular Decision acceptance rate of roughly 3-4%. Meanwhile, 8,052 applicants were deferred — 64.1% of applicants.
“I know [8,052 deferrals] looks like a large number, and it is. As a matter of philosophy, we have typically preferred to defer, rather than deny, a majority of our early applicants, because we want to make the most informed decision we can in Regular Action,” said Chris Peterson, the Director of Special Projects at MIT Admissions.
Peterson said MIT placed a “modest number” of applicants on their waitlist. According to past data, between 10-35 students get off the waitlist each year, primarily because MIT has a high yield rate — around 85% of admitted students joined the Class of 2027.
Last year, 32 of 619 waitlisted students were admitted, or 5.2%. Of the deferred students last year, only 1.8% were admitted during Regular Decision.
TTA Takeaway: MIT has some very specific application requirements. They require the SAT or the ACT for both prospective first year and transfer students. They also require two letters of recommendation from teachers — one from a math or science teacher and one from a humanities, social science or language teacher (this is not the case for most colleges). Interviews are also a bit different at MIT. After you apply, an Educational Counselor (EC), if one is available, will contact you to set up the interview. These interviews are critical; typically, we have heard that MIT only admits 1% of students who are offered an interview and choose not to take it. Based on our student data (and confirmed by the Common Data Set), successful applicants to MIT have SAT scores in the 1550-1600 range.
At Top Tier Admissions, we are committed to making the college admissions process more transparent. Easy access to clear data helps families understand trends in college admissions to make more informed decisions. We’re collecting regular decision acceptance rate data at selective schools and providing insight and analysis of our own. For historical data, see our collection of Ivy League and Top College Acceptance Rates and Admissions Statistics, including the Class of 2027 Ivy League admissions data and admissions stats for a range of additional selective schools.
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- Dartmouth: Class of 2028 Acceptance Rate - May 3, 2024
- Columbia University: Class of 2028 Acceptance Rate - April 26, 2024
- Brown University: Class of 2028 Acceptance Rate - April 19, 2024
