<p>^ Questbridge applicants who were not matched through Questbridge and stick in the regular pool are considered with the rest of the regular pool. They’re not in a separate pile.</p>
<p>Hey,
Recently I was deferred from EA at MIT and I know there are statistics posted from last year of the chances of deferred students getting in the second go around, but they seem uncharacteristically low compared to previous years. I was just wondering if MIT has started emphasizing that deferral means a postponed rejection, or if the deferral then acceptance rate is back at around 10%. I have discovered that only around 660 students got accepted EA when over 770 got accepted EA last year. This question may seem insignificant but I’ve been trying to instill hope in myself that I have a good chance so any kind of an answer would be greatly appreciated. Also if possible, is the number of admitted students projected to increase along with the increased amount of applications received? Any other info regarding deferred students for this year would be helpful.</p>
<p>By the way, thank you Chris for your delightful post and blogs on the admissions site. You are one of the reasons why I so heavily long to attend MIT due to the fact that you represent a fun, intelligent, interactive side to MIT’s personality that I also experienced when visiting the campus for the first time over the summer.</p>
<p>Regards from Houston,
Zach C</p>
<p>Chris/Mollie,
I have a question, relating partly to ZachCroowley’s though, how MIT sets the number of admitted students vis-a-vis the number that will finally matriculate, which is the percentage yield, I guess. Would the admitted number represent MIT’s total capacity that could well accommodate all of them if they decided to choose MIT? If that is the case, does MIT eventually accept those deferred applicants to fill up all the balance of the yield, and why not? If it is not the case, then MIT should already have an idea in mind when announcing the admitted number how many it would accept in total (those who opt for MIT plus those deferred). My point is probably it could help lessen the stress of those deferred by making it public how many deferred applicants could possibly be admitted at the end.</p>
<p>
No. The number of students MIT will admit for the year is determined after projecting the yield, so n_admitted*projected yield = target class size. There’s tolerance in the system, so it’s fine if the actual yield is a few percentage points higher than the projected yield, but the admissions office is pretty good at predicting this number. </p>
<p>
MIT does have numbers at that time on how many students will be admitted in total, but there is no target for deferred students in particular – there is a target for the RD pool as a whole.
No. Each applicant is admitted or not admitted without regard to whether he or she applied EA or RD. No one is ever admitted to fill a quota.</p>
<p>
All deferred students could be admitted, or none. It depends on the strength of the RD pool.</p>
<p>
No, absolutely not. There’s some year-to-year variation in the number of deferred students accepted RD, but MIT’s philosophy on deferral has remained the same. But as I said above, the number of deferred students accepted RD depends on the strength of those students in the RD pool.</p>
<p>
The number of admitted students will increase or decrease according to the yield figures MIT has projected. MIT is looking for a target class size of around 1100 – that’s the number of students per year who can comfortably fit into MIT’s classrooms and dorms. (This is about 100 students per year more than when I was at MIT, because a new dorm was built, and the powers that be determined that MIT’s resources could then accomodate a larger average class size.)</p>
<p>Thanks Mollie. I have a little further query.</p>
<p>No. Each applicant is admitted or not admitted without regard to whether he or she applied EA or RD. No one is ever admitted to fill a quota.</p>
<p>What I mean is after the yield result comes about and there remains a number of seats left. Those deferred could be reviewed to fill it, which I think it’s being done anyway? This way MIT could always approximate the percentage of deferred applicants that stands the chance.</p>
<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I was also wondering about the international acceptance rate. MIT says they accept 150 int each year, does that represent the number accepted or the number that accepts MIT’s offer and is actually going to MIT?</p>
<p>Thz</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I submitted my MYR without seeing that MIT had wanted my CIE results (I thought they only wanted my transcript). I have also won some national scholarship awards which I had found out recently. So I was wondering if it’s too late to send an update?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You just answered your own question.</p>
<p>
There’s not ever a point where there is a particular number of seats “left”. The admissions officers go into selection committee knowing the approximate number of students they can admit. They discuss every application and come to a decision on it individually, regardless of whether the applicant originally applied EA or RD. They are never in the situation where they want to admit fewer students than there are spots available, and in the event that they were in that situation, they would not preferentially fill those spots with deferred EA students.</p>
<p>As I understand it, the typical case is that the admissions office comes to the end of selection and has more students in the “admit” pile than the number of admission offers they’re able to make. So rather than “filling up” the class according to the yield projection, they are winnowing the class according to the yield projection.</p>
<p>
MIT accepts about 150 internationals per year, and about 100-125 of those students decide to come to MIT.</p>
<p>
Yes, it’s almost certainly too late to send an update.</p>
<p>Hey guys I’m in seventh grade and throughout my life I’ve known that I really really want to go to MIT. If I could have any tips on ECs to take when I’m in highschool or just general advice towards the admissions process would be great. From what I’m sure you can tell I like to prepare early :D. Also I scored a 1540 on the SAT which I took in January and was wondering if that would affect anything in the college app process (not saying that it counts as my norm SAT score just wondering)</p>
<p>@Connor11 </p>
<p>You should never plan your activities to fit what you think a college wants. Do what makes you happy and hopefully the admissions officers will see that you are passionate about what you do. It’s better to have a few activities that you really care about than have ECs every day of the week that you only go to so that you can put them on your transcript. And admissions officers know how to tell the difference.</p>
<p>MIT looks at your SAT superscore (meaning the best score you get in each part), so it’s likely that all of your scores will improve over the next 5 years and your current score will not affect your application at all.</p>
<p>I know you say you want to preape early, but this is MUCH too early. Just enjoy learning and activities, do your best in the classes you are interested in, and relax! Maybe when you’re 4/3 your age, it’ll be more appropriate to be worried about college schtuffs.</p>
<p>Connor, you are about 11 or 12, right? I say this with a warm heart and caring concern: PLEASE please get off College Confidential until you are at least 4 years older. Really sweetie, it is too easy to obsess over this when you are a high school upperclassman, do not let it be how you approach life as a middle schooler! Just relax, find your REAL passions and everything will fall into place. Also, be open to the concept that “things can change” … it’s kinda scary to hear an 11 year old say they’ve “known ALL my life that I really really want to go to MIT.” Why does a 5 year old even know what MIT is? Enjoy the swings, slides, snowmen and sleds now … i still do! be well :)</p>
<p>How signifcant is an upward trend in the gpa of a student who challenged himself to the max in his given school environment after sophomore year to MIT? Just curious. Because it seems to me that while MIT would appreciate the change in a student’s academic attitude, they would appreciate a student who was smart enough to challenge himself throughout all 4 years of high school more. Took me until junior year to realize school was important.
-Sincerely,
Captain Hindsight</p>
<p>Connor, college may seem like the most important thing in the world, but don’t fret about it man, not even when you’re a senior. You should live your life and do the things that make you happy. Do that and you’ll find a passion, for me it was community service, believe me it was the last thing I expected to enjoy lol. But don’t mold yourself to become something you think colleges want to see, because if you truly belong, they’ll accept you for you. I had a friend get so stressed out about college he tried to kill himself, what good would college have done him dead? My advice, forget about college until you need to apply, and until then just have fun and do the extracurriculars that make you happy, because contrary to what you’ll read on this site, EC’s are meant to be fun, not tools for crafting the ideal college applicant.</p>
<p>Or how about a student that was excellent in all three years of high school EXCEPT junior year - due to switching to a new school/country/curriculum, etc.? Automatically out, or are other factors also considered?</p>
<p>Hmm it seems pretty unfair that only 150 international students are accepted a year! Sounds like a quota to me? Perhaps there’s no quota by STATE, but probably internationally, there is? I guess all colleges do it though, so it’s not that big of a deal…</p>
<p>ATM we (applicants) can’t see our applications at mymit. Will they be available to us after the decisions are released?</p>
<p>
Yes, there is a quota on international students, which is set each year by MIT administrators higher-up than the admissions office. The quota comes about partly because MIT meets full financial need for all students, international and domestic, but international students do not qualify for many federal-government-backed sources of financial aid. </p>
<p>The US government provides a great deal of university funding, but the expectation is that universities will use that funding primarily to educate US citizens. As a result, MIT and other top universities, which receive disproportionate levels of federal funding, must limit the number of international undergraduates they admit.</p>
<p>Thanks, Mollie 
That really helped clarify a lot! But I’m just wondering - if international students are willing to finance their own education, does the quota still apply to them?</p>
<p>Another small question: at MIT specifically, what defines an international student? Do people who qualified to apply EA not qualify as international?</p>
<p>^ MIT is need-blind.</p>
<p>I believe international students are defined as those who are not US citizens or permanent residents. But this information is on the website, you should go there.</p>
<p>
Yes, because the actual cost of educating an undergraduate is much greater than what MIT charges in tuition and fees, and because federal grant money permeates the resources of the school. The international quota is set by very senior people in the MIT administration (not by the admissions office) in response to the many competing pressures with which they have to contend. It’s not about any individual student and how much he or she would cost to educate, but about much larger forces and sums than that.</p>
<p>In an analogous way, though MIT’s class size is in some sense limited by the financial aid budget and MIT’s commitment to need-blind admissions for all, a student’s wealth and ability to finance his or her own education fully is not considered. This is both as a matter of admissions philsophy as well as a concession to larger forces at play – MIT could admit any number of wealthy students as an addition to each class, but there would not be dorm rooms or classroom space for these additional students.</p>