MIT is a jock school by Emiko P. '25
the secret is out
As MIT Admissions’ one and only “jockblogger,” I have decided it’s my task—no, my duty—to finally say what needs to be said: MIT is a jock school.
Yes, that MIT. The one that has swept the Putnam competition for the last five years, the one with lunar rovers and Nobel Laureates and famously nerdy culture.
But also: the MIT where 25% of the undergraduates participate in one of the 33 varsity sports. The MIT where, underneath all the academic success, lurks an astounding amount of athletic success.
Let me prove it to you.
Dominating our Conference
MIT is the most successful school in our conference, the NEWMAC, with 199 conference titles. And just to be clear, this isn’t one team carrying everyone else on their back, but success across the board.
- Every MIT team in the NEWMAC has won a conference championship
- Men’s cross country has won every single NEWMAC championship since the conference was founded in 1998
- Men’s tennis has won 24
- Women’s track and field has won 15
- Women’s and men’s swim and dive have won the past 14 conference championships straight
- Women’s tennis: 14
- Women’s soccer: 10
- Women’s volleyball: 9
- This past weekend, I watched women’s lacrosse destroy Babson (ranked 14th in the country) by 10 goals to win their second NEWMAC championship
Take that in: your MIT friends on sports teams are part of some pretty phenomenal programs with a long history of being a feared team in the NEWMAC. I’m sure the friends and families of these other NEWMAC schools often scoff and say, “Why are you so afraid of MIT? Those nerds? There’s no way they can play sports!” And I bet these NEWMAC athletes are so very tired of that being everyone’s response, because some of them literally dread playing MIT every year—because they know the truth: that MIT is a jock school. They know that these nerds are faster, stronger, and grittier than they are. They know that these beavers can bite.
Competitive at a National Level
And while the NEWMAC demonstrates success at a regional scale, you might be thinking: Surely there is not this much success at a national level, too?
WRONG!
The limits of MIT athletics cannot simply be bound to the regional level.
- MIT has won 5 team national championships in the past 3 years: men’s track and cross country (2022, 2023), women’s track and cross country (2024, 2025), women’s swim and dive (2025)
- We have won 71 individual national championships
- At least seven01 men's/women's T&F, women's tennis, men's/women's swim and dive, women's soccer, and women's volleyball teams were ranked in the top 10 nationally this year
Awards (so many awards)
To me, the coolest stat about MIT athletics is this: we have more Academic All-Americans than anyone in the country. With 444 honorees as of August 2024, MIT dominates the lead, outpacing schools like Stanford, Notre Dame, and Alabama. The Academic All-American award is one of the most prestigious awards that a student-athlete can receive—won by the likes of Caitlin Clark, Katie Ledecky, Patrick Mahomes, and Peyton Manning!
Proof!
MIT also has 22 NCAA Elite 90 Award winners, which recognizes the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA who has reached the national championship level of the NCAA tournament. This is such a cool award to win, because it’s the epitome of brains and brawn. Contending for a national championship and having a 4.0 GPA? Now that’s a flex.
Conclusion
It’s not every day you see athletics like these. Even I, as a recruited soccer athlete, didn’t realize just how much of a powerhouse MIT was. But if you think about it, it makes sense. Students come to MIT for the greatest possible academic experience, and if you’re an elite athlete who also happens to be smart, the draw of an amazing academic school is too much to resist. MIT is a magnet, drawing all the academically motivated jocks straight to it.
I learned that MIT was a jock school by living in it. I saw my friends winning nationally acclaimed awards; I saw my soccer teammate win the NCAA Woman of the Year award; I heard the other teams grumble as our soccer team swept the conference 11–0 this year; I saw my classmates pubbing their conference finals, and I saw the new shirts they would wear the following week with NEWMAC Champion spelled out in bright letters; I saw how girls in my sorority would leave for a weekend and return as national champions.
I’ve learned through firsthand experiences that MIT is a jock school—but we’re past the point where that should surprise anyone. By now, MIT athletics has earned its reputation. When people step onto campus, they should know that they’re entering not only an academic powerhouse, but an athletic one as well.
Let the truth be known from here on out: MIT is a jock school.
- men's/women's T&F, women's tennis, men's/women's swim and dive, women's soccer, and women's volleyball back to text ↑