At a Glance
MIT admits 4.6% of applicants.
What You'll Actually Pay
See what families at different income levels actually pay after aid.
What families actually pay, by income level
After grants and scholarships. Before loans. Public school prices shown at in-state rates.
Source: College Scorecard / IPEDS, 2024-25
Where the Sticker Price Goes
Based on average need-based grant. Actual cost varies by family income — see chart above.
Debt at Graduation
Not reported by this school
receive need-based grant aid
$41,297
average debt at graduation
MIT graduates carry an average of $41,297 in debt.
Merit Aid
Not reported by this school — some schools award aid based on need alone, without merit scholarships.
Getting In
MIT admits 4.6% of applicants.
SAT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 83% of the class submitted
ACT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 31% of the class submitted
97% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What They Value
Academic
Nonacademic
Massachusetts Institute of Technology considers your essay Important — a strong essay can differentiate an otherwise average application. Demonstrated interest is Not Considered here — campus visits and emails to admissions won't affect your odds.
Student Life
68.5% of MIT classes have fewer than 20 students.
Share of undergraduate class sections at each size, from CDS Section I-3. More red = more large lectures.
At MIT, 68.5% of your classes will have fewer than 20 students.
Class size data reflects all undergraduate sections including labs, seminars, and lectures. Large research universities often have smaller upper-division and graduate-level sections that improve the overall distribution. First and second-year students typically experience larger classes than these averages suggest.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section I-3 (class sizes)
8:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus Life
Live on campus
93%
Men in fraternities
42%
Women in sororities
26%
Who Attends
Racial and ethnic breakdown of enrolled undergraduates, as reported in each school's Common Data Set. "Unknown / Other" includes students who did not report or selected "other."
MIT's student body is 21.6% white.
Popular Majors
Will They Graduate?
MIT graduates 85.9% of students in 4 years.
Graduating late means paying for extra semesters. The 6-year rate tells you who eventually finishes — the 4-year rate tells you what it actually costs.
MIT graduates 85.9% of students in 4 years.
What finishing late actually costs
Based on each school's published cost of attendance. Public school costs shown at in-state rates.
MIT
85.9%
4-yr grad rate
Most finish on time
Graduation rate data from Common Data Set 2025–26, Fall 2018 cohort (most recent available). 4-year rate = students completing in 4 years or less. 6-year rate = students completing within 6 years.
96%
Overall 6-yr rate
91%
Pell recipient rate
There's a 5 point gap between overall and Pell Grant graduation rates. Worth asking the school about support resources.
Freshman Retention
98.6%
98.6% of first-year students return for sophomore year.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Cambridge.
The campus runs along the Charles River in Cambridge, facing Boston across the water, with Kendall Square — one of the densest concentrations of biotech and software anywhere — starting at its edge. Harvard is a twenty-minute walk up Massachusetts Avenue. Everything is reachable on foot or by subway.
Notable Alumni
Richard Feynman
Shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics for quantum electrodynamics, and taught a generation how to think about it. He took his bachelor's degree here in 1939.
Class of 1939
Buzz Aldrin
Second person to walk on the Moon. He earned his doctorate here in 1963 with a thesis on orbital rendezvous — the manoeuvre Apollo depended on.
Class of 1963
Kofi Annan
Secretary-General of the United Nations and joint winner of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He took a master's in management here in 1972.
Class of 1972
I. M. Pei
Designed the Louvre Pyramid and the East Building of the National Gallery. He graduated here in architecture in 1940.
Class of 1940
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
The City
Major city
Cambridge, MA
Best For
Traditions
Hacks
Elaborate, technically ambitious pranks staged on campus — a police car and a fire truck have both appeared on the Great Dome overnight. The unwritten rules are that a hack must be safe, must not damage anything, and should be funny.
The Brass Rat
The class ring, redesigned by every class and worn with the beaver facing inward until graduation, then turned outward.
IAP
Independent Activities Period, the month of January when the ordinary curriculum stops and students take, or teach, whatever they like — from glassblowing to a course on nuclear reactor operation.
Course numbers instead of names
Students say they are in Course 6 or Course 18 rather than electrical engineering or mathematics, and the numbering is used in conversation as fluently as the names.
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Cambridge
Boston across the river
About 15 minutes by subwayMuseums, the North End, Fenway. Close enough that it is an evening rather than a trip.
The White Mountains
About 2 hours 30 minutesNew Hampshire's high peaks, for hiking in autumn and snow in winter.
Cape Cod
About 1 hour 30 minutesBeaches and dunes; the standard warm-weather escape from the city.
Vermont ski country
About 3 hoursKillington and Stowe, reachable for a long weekend.
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Boston Logan International (BOS)
About 20 minutes from campus
Flies international — you can start a trip abroad from here.
Pro sports nearby
- Boston Red Sox MLB
- Boston Celtics NBA
- Boston Bruins NHL
- New England Patriots NFL
Career Proximity
Kendall Square begins at the edge of campus, which is why so much of the work students do for pay is a walk from their dorm.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Moderna
- Novartis
- Draper Laboratory
- Amazon
Kendall Square, immediately adjacent, with downtown Boston across the river
Who Thrives Here
MIT admits 4.6% and requires the SAT or ACT, having reinstated the test when most of its peers did not — the middle half of enrolled first-years scored 1520 to 1570, so scores are a gate here rather than an option. It is small for its reputation, 4,561 undergraduates, and taught at that scale: an 8:1 student-faculty ratio and 68.5% of class sections under 20. Outcomes are what the selectivity implies, 85.9% finishing in four years and 96.0% within six. On money the answer is unusually clean — 100% of demonstrated need is met — and the debt figure needs reading carefully rather than at face value: graduates who borrow leave owing about $41,297, but only a small minority borrow at all, so that average describes a narrow group rather than the typical student. The part families underestimate is the culture. 93.0% live in university housing and 42.0% of men join a fraternity against 26.0% of women, which makes this a far more residential, more Greek place than its problem-set reputation suggests. A student who wants to be left alone with the work will find the dorm floor is the social unit whether they like it or not.