let’s talk about financial aid by Aiden H. '28

It’s admissions season! To all of you who were that right combination of smart, kind, and lucky to be granted early admission to MIT, congrats!!!! I’m sure you’re off somewhere floating between denial and pride like I was.⁠01 albeit, I applied regular decision, so the fight isn't over!! you all got this!! and if not everything will be okay!! But just as much as I remember the little confetti Tim’s bedazzling my screen or receiving the famed and mysterious silver tube in the mail, I remember another, equally shocking letter upon admission: my financial aid package.

I’m a student who has to go to a full need college–the cost of tuition at a four-year university is 2-3x what my family makes in a year, AKA impossible to pay. So I did the natural thing and applied to as many as I could, and hoped that even just one would let me in, and very very luckily, some did. But throughout this process, I didn’t have anyone in my life who had gone through anything similar, leaving me lost in what different financial aid packages meant and which college is actually cheapest. Not only is the entire process of applying for financial aid confusing, but the letter itself you may or may not receive can be hard to decipher.

I want to talk about what people might be going through right now with MIT admissions; confusion about what you have to pay or shock once you figure it out. I also want to point out the little ways that MIT’s generous financial aid differed from what I got from similar schools and why that makes MIT a leader in aid.

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Important Note #1: I am not the final say on how financial aid works! Most of this will be anecdotal and from personal/heard experiences. Please see official aid packages or MIT Student Financial Services (SFS) websites for the most up-to-date information.

Important Note #2: MIT has not told me to write this! I feel sometimes content like this can come off as propaganda-y, but no one told me to write this or is editing it before it goes online. This is all an actual, heartfelt opinion straight from me. 

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“We are one of only nine colleges in the U.S. that is need blind and full need for all of our undergraduate students, domestic and international.” – MIT Student Financial Services

Okay, great! This is a good starting point.

But vague, “we have financial aid” quotes like this appear over a bunch of college websites all the time. What does that actually mean for the MIT student and how does it reflect in MIT’s undergrad population, not just financial aid website?

“Need blind” indicates that your financial background and ability to pay tuition aren’t considered during the admissions process.

In high school, I was a huge skeptic of this idea–can’t you just kinda vibe out someone’s income based on where they grew up, if they wrote an essay about growing up poor, if they went to an expensive private school, if their parents are CEOs, etc. And while the answer is “uh, yeah pretty much”, I’ve always felt comforted by MIT’s “need-blindness” because of the sheer amount of students admitted that receive financial aid–about 60%. Also, MIT also takes a notably high number of QuestBridge students, a number that is consistently increasing year after year. Students under QuestBridge receive similar financial aid packages to non-QuestBridge students who qualify for high or complete aid. So even if you do read as a student with a certain financial background, it’s not some trick way for the admissions office to put you aside or secretly categorize your application.

(Tangent, but important: because so many students receive financial aid, I have absolutely never ever felt ostracized socioeconomically. Compared to preconceptions about being at a top university, there are plenty of middle- and lower-class students, and I couldn’t even tell you who the rich students are because people here are more likely to flex math grades than daddy’s money. There’s no–or at least very little–overt rich bias among undergrad students).

I’m not here to sugarcoat the truth: MIT does have a budget to balance, and part of that money comes from families paying tuition. However, compared to every other school I know of and/or received aid from, MIT’s budget is notably the most lenient and able to help applying students, and a very large number of them.

“Full need” means that MIT tries to cover the estimated cost of tuition/housing/fees etc. that a student would not be able to provide (and would likely have to take out in loans). As a result, over 80% of students have no debt, and those who do are below the national average.

This is the bigger deal. While a lot of schools are starting to become need blind (which is still very very very important!), there are very few colleges that will also cover the entire cost for students if necessary. While criteria can change yearly and you should 1000% not consider this the final “how much financial aid would I get from MIT” metric, last year it was announced that students with a family annual income of less than $200,000 would receive free tuition, and families with an annual income of less than $100,000 can expect to pay nothing. Yes, nothing means nothing–housing, dining, tuition, and even private health insurance under the school are covered.

But even past covering the cost of MIT, MIT provides students stipend money to live off of during the semester. This is meant to cover the cost of flights for move-in/Thanksgiving/winter break, buying stuff for your dorm room, groceries, school supplies, etc. The money goes directly to you, whatever bank account you choose. MIT trusts its students to use their money correctly, and you don’t have to continually prove purchases and get reimbursed.

The amount of your stipend can change depending on your specific aid package. As someone on maximum financial aid, I receive over $5000 a semester for living expenses, on top of the cost of MIT being covered. This means that I have not paid a single thing to attend MIT. In fact, I have net earned money from MIT by qualifying for aid and being smart about using my money. It has created not only a small emergency fund of savings for me to dip into if anything happens, but also a pool of savings for me to use once I leave college. This is not the goal of the financial aid, nor is it possible for everyone and their individual aid package, but it is something that MIT’s financial aid has specifically enabled me to have.

“But how does MIT know how much everything is going to cost? Do you pay out of pocket and get reimbursed? Do they just guess?”

Answer: MIT will just cover whatever cost they would’ve charged you for non-negotiable payments, like tuition. Then, costs that can change, like dining plans or housing, are calculated as a direct result of your choices. This makes MIT’s aid notably adjustable to the lifestyle you’ll have in college, not just how you lived before. Choices on what dining plan and dorm/ FSILG⁠02 Fraternities, sororities, and independent living groups you live in can directly affect how much your return is–which is great!

For example, last year I was in a dorm with a dining hall, which required me to be on a meal plan. But, my financial aid package is the same year over year, so MIT “set aside” a certain amount of money for me to eat. Now that I’m in a different dorm and not on a meal plan, instead of just pocketing the money, MIT gave me the cost of the meal plan so that I could afford groceries throughout the semester.

There’s no catch-22 with aid here–if you qualify for aid, they will give it to you.

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Unfortunately, despite all of this, it still doesn’t mean MIT can be affordable for everyone. While I’d like to think that MIT is one of the best in the world, there will always be students who are in an awkward spot between income and aid, and might have to turn down MIT for another school. It’s an important decision, and you should compare every option before fully committing to one path. Nonetheless, I can’t say that MIT’s aid has been anything but life-changing for me, and because of that, it is the absolute number one thing I feel the need to share with people making their college decisions.