MIT Athletics

How much could being a recruited athlete my MIT help you in the admissions process, considering you have the proper test scores and academics to apply? Could you get in to play a sport at the college?

The anecdotal stories I hear is that coaches have no influence at MIT. Just because that is the rumor doesn’t always make it true in every case. Ask the coach if he/she can assist in admissions, he/she will tell you. Curious - what sport?

Varsity Basketball

Recruited athletes at MIT have a small boost in admissions, just not as much of a guarantee as Ivy League recruiting.
A close family member just went through the recruiting process - the coach gave her an ballpark estimate to her chances of getting in, and that estimate was higher than the 7.1% admit rate.

It helps, but of course it depends on the sport and how strong an athlete the applicant is. I know some students who were admitted to MIT and felt that their athletics boosted their chances, but they were top tier students and were very well qualified for admissions without their athletic hooks…

There is almost no negligible difference in regular students vs most athletes at MIT. My son was recently given a set of academic standards to be considered and it was crazy. You pretty much need to be a perfect student and your test scores can go “as low” as about a 34 on the ACT, lol.
My son is s good student and was asked for a recent transcript from a coach for review. My son has mostly A’s and A- in honors level classes with plenty of STEM extra curriculars and will be taking subjects like AP Stats, AP Physics, etc. In Freshman year he finished with a B+ in Honors biology. The coach told him that a B+ in honors Bio in his Freshman year would be a huge obstacle to overcome in admissions. Ha, LOL.

My connection had a very high academic index (35 ACT, NMF, 2 perfect SATs, and a 4.0 in one of the best HS in the state). But a teammate of hers was accepted to MIT with a 31 ACT.

Level of talent might be a factor. My connection was not a top recruit for MIT, but her teammate was. And I think that without coach support, both girls probably would have been rejected.

For those who know a recruited athlete at MIT, did the student get admitted early action or did they have to wait until regular decision to get in?

friend’s daughter got “recruited” to MIT for soccer. I use the word “recruited” loosely because the coach told her he will support her application but he cannot guarantee admissions. he asked her to apply Early Action. she was a valedictorian, Intel science competition finalist, first chair violinist for school orchestra, perfect standardized test scores, etc. She got accepted. she may have gotten in on her own but I think the coach’s support tipped the scale a bit to the positive side.

My connection was admitted RD. She didn’t speak with the coach until late December.

When my son asked, the coach told him it didn’t matter if he applied Early Action or not. He did not and he was accepted during regular decision. This is something to ask the coach about.

Being a very good athlete is a hook which means getting accepted is much, much easier as long as the student has strong grades, scores, and recommendation letters. Without a sport, those qualifications alone will surely get a student rejected unless he or she is hooked for another reason. Gaining acceptance is so hard, I would take the sports route if that’s a possibility.

@henryb15:
This site is filled with numerous threads on athletic recruiting at MIT. Although it’s handled differently than at many schools, for the applicant it’s still an emotional roller coaster. I encourage you to read through those threads.

Also, if you’re an athlete who gets accepted to MIT, if you break a leg the first week of school or decide you don’t want to play, will you still be a match for MIT? The adcoms will be looking for that.

@henryb15 My son is currently a football recruit at MIT. He’s met with coaches several times and participated in their football camp. He was offered a position on the team and athletic support during admissions on the condition he applies early, which he plans to do. As already stated, it is not an Ivy golden ticket but should help in the process…BUT…key is to be qualified candidate without athletics (son has an academic index of 236 with published article in physics and other great extracurriculars)…He is 75% in all scores/grades for admitted students…so he has a fighting chance without athletics. The coach’s support will help distinguish between two otherwise qualified candidates. The broken-leg anecdote is often repeated at MIT.

My son’s experience and qualifications are very similar to those described by @brazos21, but he’s on a different team than football. His coach also asked him to apply early; he was deferred and then admitted in the RD round.

My son was a recruited athlete and asked to EA and was accepted early. Not sure how much the coach could help but he had good academics. He was valedictorian and had the 2nd highest GPA out of five high schools.

I think for white males it may help a little more than other students, especially for football, where MIT has a very hard time finding smart football players. Basketball, I am not sure. The GPA, test scores have to be top and the student needs to be evaluated athletically to be sure that he/she really can play at a college level. Its not that easy, for instance, soccer at the college level is WAY harder than the top level in high school. MIT’s football team, I don’t know, I think it may not be a very top Division 3 team, so maybe a tad easier than some other sports to qualify.

Most athletes need to be playing the top clubs in their state to qualify as Division 3 college athletes is my understanding. So not just a high school lettered athlete but year round training at the club level in the sport and the coaches saying the athlete is a college level athlete. then, the student has to want to study at an MIT level AND travel and play the sport. Its pretty over the top for most students to study at MIT and be an athlete, but a few scholar athletes out there can do all of that.

Football players get injured frequently, so they need a bigger team, so football talent really helps, to get into MIT I have heard, but the student must be a very top student as well as an athlete, or they will simply flunk out of MIT. Admissions knows the scores needed so in some ways, its not a worry, if you can in, you can probably do the work, if you work very hard around your athletic practice schedule and touring out of state. Its a LOT, I would say, and I ran for MIT’s Women’s Cross Country team, years ago, as a walk on, only in senior year, and never traveled as the women’s cross country team was brand new. It was fun but it really cut into my study time, but I only did that one semester, fall of my senior year. So I got out of MIT in four years, whew.