What To Do In High School

When we admit a class of students to MIT, it's as if we're choosing a 1,000-person team to climb a very interesting, fairly rugged mountain - together. We obviously want people who have the training, stamina and passion for the climb. At the same time, we want each to add something useful or intriguing to the team, from a wonderful temperament or sense of humor, to compelling personal experiences, to a wide range of individual gifts, talents, interests and achievements. We are emphatically not looking for a batch of identical perfect climbers; we are looking for a richly varied team of capable people who will support, surprise and inspire each other.

Preparing yourself for MIT, then, means doing two things:

1. making sure you're ready to do the work, and
2. taking the time to really explore things that interest you, both inside and outside of school.

Academics

A strong academic foundation in high school both improves your odds of getting into MIT and will help you make the most of the Institute when you're here. We recommend that your high school years include the following:

• One year of high school physics
• One year of high school chemistry
• One year of high school biology
• Math, through calculus
• Two years of a foreign language
• Four years of English
• Two years of history and/or social sciences

Overall, you should try to take the most stimulating courses available to you. If your high school doesn't offer courses that challenge you, you may want to explore other options, such as local college extension or summer programs.

MIT OpenCourseWare Highlights for High School is also a resource which highlights MIT courses selected specifically to help you prepare for AP exams, learn more about the skills and concepts you learned in school, and get a glimpse of what you'll soon study in college.

Extracurricular Activities

Some students feel so much pressure to get into the "right" college that they want to make sure they do everything "right" - even do the "right" extracurricular activities. Fortunately, the only right answer is to do what's right for you - not what you think is right for us.

Choose your activities because they really delight, intrigue and challenge you, not because you think they'll look impressive on your application. Go out of your way to find projects, activities and experiences that stimulate your creativity and leadership, that connect you with peers and adults who bring out your best, that please you so much you don't mind the work involved. Some students find room for many activities; others prefer to concentrate on just a few. Either way, the test for any extracurricular should be whether it makes you happy - whether it feels right for you.

By the same token, some applicants struggle to turn themselves into clones of the "ideal" MIT student - you know, the one who gets triple 800s on the SAT. Fortunately, cloning is still for sheep. What we really want to see on your application is you being you - pursuing the things you love, growing, changing, taking risks, learning from your mistakes, all in your own distinctive way. College is not a costume party; you're not supposed to come dressed as someone else. Instead, college is an intense, irreplaceable four-year opportunity to become more yourself than you've ever been. What you need to show us is that you're ready to try.

Deadlines & Requirements

Early Action (EA)

For documents submitted electronically, the deadline listed above is the submission date.  For documents submitted via postal mail, deadlines listed above are postmark dates.

Regular Action (RA)

For documents submitted electronically, the deadline listed above is the submission date. For documents submitted via postal mail, deadlines listed above are postmark dates.

Other Dates & Deadlines

• All students who are applying for financial aid should submit materials by February 15th (see Financial Aid Deadlines)
• Early Action applicants will receive an admissions decision in mid-December
• Regular Action students will receive an admissions decision in mid-March
• Admitted students must inform MIT of their enrollment decision by May 1

If you are admitted to MIT, we will make sure that you can afford to come to MIT.

That's a strong statement with which to begin this page, but it's also true. MIT is committed to being financially accessible to the students that we accept. If you belong here, then we will work with you and your parents to help you finance your education.

There are three principles that govern financial aid and admissions at MIT. They are:

Need Blind Admissions

The admissions process at MIT is need-blind. We do not know what your finances are when we read your application. The financial aid office is completely separate from the admissions office. At no point during the process does the question of how much money your family does - or doesn't - have enter the process.

As such, we consider your application regardless of your family's financial need or lack thereof. We won't admit you because you can pay full-freight, and we won't deny you because you can't pay a nickel. It's your mettle, not your money, that gets you in to MIT. 

Need-based Aid 

MIT only confers financial aid on the basis of financial need. We do not award money based on any measure of merit - academic, athletic, artistic, or anything else.

You may qualify for private scholarships based on your merits; if you do, then they become part of your financial aid package. Many students use fastweb to search for outside scholarships.  

Meet Full Need

MIT will meet every single cent of your family's demonstrated financial need.

The total price for MIT - tuition and fees, housing and dining, expenses, etc - is in excess of $59,000 a year. Believe it or not, this price is actually thousands of dollars less than what it actually costs to be a student at MIT - even students who don't receive financial aid are already receiving a considerable subsidy to study here!

For the students that do receive financial aid, the size of the award depends entirely on your own family's financial situation. Because of this, "average" numbers will only give a very general snapshot of what some individuals are offered.

Last year, MIT awarded over $88 million in MIT Scholarships to our ~4,300 undergraduates. The median debt upon graduation is $15,000; the average annual starting salary for graduates is well in excess of $60,000. With the generous MIT financial aid - and terrific programs like Income Based Repayment - MIT is within your financial reach.

Cost to attend

Average cost for a student with an MIT scholarship

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