Class of 2022 Wait List by Matt McGann '00

According to the admissions profession’s Code of Ethics and Professional Practices, May 1 is the “National Candidates Reply Date,” the agreed upon date by which students reply to offers of admission. Following May 1, we take about a week to determine the state of the incoming class, and to assess how many, if any, students we will admit from our wait list.

That same document (the Code of Ethics and Professional Practices) states that admissions offices may keep students on a wait list through the summer, all the way to August 1. However, our goal has always been to give every student a decision as soon as we possibly can. We want students to be able to make plans for their college enrollment with as little uncertainty as possible.

Based on the higher than expected enrollment from our admitted group this year, we have found ourselves unable to admit students from the wait list without exceeding our enrollment capacity for the year. We hope to enroll 1,100 first-year students this year, and we expect that by Registration Day in September, we will be slightly above that number.

As such, we are notifying all students today that they will not be admitted from the wait list. While this is neither the outcome that wait listed students or MIT were hoping for—we think you are awesome!—we wanted to provide you with this information and closure as soon as we could. It is our loss that we will not be able to offer you admission. We hope that we might be so fortunate as to see you at MIT in the future, perhaps as a graduate student, or as a faculty member, or as an employer looking to work with our community.

Thank you for all the wonderful updates that many of you have submitted. We appreciate the time and effort you have put in to letting us know how much you love MIT, and regret that we did not have more room.

On behalf of the entire MIT Admissions staff, we wish you all the very best in college and beyond. We know you will make a huge impact on the world.