If you’re thinking about applying to MIT, you’re probably curious, love to learn, and want to work on big problems to make the world a better place. It can be tricky to sum up all that you’re passionate about and capable of in a college application.
As admissions officers, we open your MIT application without knowing anything about you, and we use all the information you share with us—your coursework, your essays, what your recommenders write—to better understand you and your achievements in the context of your life.
It’s important to think of any college application as a chance to share your personal context: what has shaped you into who you are today, who you’d like to become, and why MIT is the right place for your next step. This kind of self-reflection isn’t easy, and if you’re feeling lost about where to start, there are resources that help all kinds of students figure out their educational journeys.
Climbing the mountain
The most important way to prepare for MIT is dedicating time to your education, your interests, and your community. We care about community so much because we don’t just admit individuals, we admit a class. It’s as if we’re choosing a 1,100-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’re looking for people who will contribute their unique strengths to the journey, from a fiercely hopeful outlook to a deep sense of connection with wherever they call home. We are emphatically not looking for identical, “perfect” climbers; we welcome a wide range of individual perspectives, personalities, talents, and interests, and we are looking for a richly varied team of capable people who will support, surprise, and inspire each other.
With all that in mind, preparing yourself for MIT means doing two things:
- taking the time to really explore things that interest you, both inside and outside of school
- making sure you’re ready to do the work
Becoming your best self
What you shouldn’t do is build your life and your expectations around the narrow goal of trying to get into MIT (or any specific college, for that matter). We want to know what you are passionate about and what is most important to you—not what you think we want to see.
College isn’t a costume party; you’re not supposed to come dressed as someone else. College is an intense, four-year opportunity to become more yourself than you’ve ever been, at a place that is the right fit for you.
The reality is…we admit less than 10% of applicants. If you set your goal as being admitted to MIT, you’re likely to be disappointed. If, however, you set your goals as learning a lot, developing a better sense of yourself, and being a positive influence on those around you, then you can succeed on your own terms and be a better applicant to any college you apply to—including MIT.
As our Dean Stu Schmill wrote:
In simple terms, we want students to pursue the things that interest them with energy and enthusiasm. We want students to make decisions that are educationally sound for them to best prepare them to succeed in college and beyond. We want students to challenge themselves appropriately in the areas that are most interesting to them. We want students to engage with their community in their pursuits. And, we want students who demonstrate strong ethical character. In short, we want young people to be students and community members first, and applicants second.
