<p>[The</a> Selection Process | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/apply/process/selection]The”>Our selection process | MIT Admissions)</p>
<p>How This All Works
After you click the submit button, it’s easy to feel as though your application has entered a black hole. So what really happens between when you apply and when you receive your decision? We understand that not knowing the details can add a lot of stress to the waiting period, so we’re happy to shed some light into that black hole.</p>
<p>Once your application is complete, it will first be read by a senior admissions officer who will consider your application in a holistic manner, within its proper context. Strong applications will then be evaluated by additional admissions officers, who will summarize it at length for the committee.</p>
<p>These summaries, along with your entire application, will then go to the selection committee, where multiple groups of different admissions staff and faculty members will weigh in. At least a dozen people will significantly discuss and debate an application before it is placed in the admit pile.</p>
<p>This is all very intentional: committee decisions ensure that every decision is correct in the context of the overall applicant pool, and that no one individual’s bias or preferences or familiarity with a given case has any chance of swaying a decision unfairly.</p>
<p>Our process is a student-centered process, not a school or region centered process. This means that we do not read your application along with other students from your school or region to compare you against each other; each applicant stands on their own. We have no quotas by school, state, or region. You are not at any disadvantage if other excellent students from your school or area are also applying.</p>
<p>At MIT we try to be as transparent as possible about our process. If you have any questions, just ask.</p>