<p>Hi, I'm a high school senior trying to decide where to go next year. I've been accepted into MIT and Georgia Tech, and I'd like to go to MIT, but I'll have very cheap in state tuition plus substantial scholarships at Georgia Tech. My parents have pointed out that if I go to Georgia Tech, I'll have a lot of money left over for grad school, and I could go to MIT then if I don't go for undergrad. My question is, how hard is this to pull off? How many people go from Georgia Tech to MIT, and how well would I have to do there to have a reasonable chance of getting in? I don't want to miss out on getting to go to MIT, and I just want to see if I'm closing any doors by choosing to go to Georgia Tech first. Thanks!</p>
<p>Georgia Tech should have the exact placement numbers for students from your specific field who end up going to MIT for graduate school, but there are definitely more students in grad school at MIT who went to MIT as undergrads than there are students who went to Georgia Tech as undergrads. If you go to Georgia Tech, you’ll need to be one of the top students in your department to be considered for grad school at MIT.</p>
<p>Just as a note, most science and engineering grad students at MIT don’t pay for grad school – they are funded by fellowships or assistantships from their departments, and are generally paid a reasonable stipend during the time they’re students.</p>
<p>It’s hard to answer this question without more details and even then there isn’t really good data on this question (contra mollie I don’t think detailed graduate school placement data for undergrads is all that common). In say math I think it would be quite rare for a Georgia Tech student to get into MIT for graduate school as math grad programs are pretty selective in general and especially so if you don’t come from a top undergrad for math (which Georgia Tech isn’t). In certain engineering fields where Georgia Tech is stronger than I would guess the odds of getting into MIT for grad school are much higher. MIT undergraduates are also considerably stronger on average and probably have a stronger preference for MIT so it’s unclear how to determine the actual effect attending MIT as an undergrad (as opposed to the same group attending different schools) had on graduate admissions. I will also note that wanting to attend MIT just because it’s MIT is a rather odd goal and one that is likely to change in the future.</p>
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They’ll have it. Whether they would distribute it to outsiders is another question.</p>
<p>Interestingly, on the subject of data – the year I analyzed choice of undergrad school for the admissions office (that is, where students accepted to MIT that year decided to matriculate), Georgia Tech was a considerably more popular choice for MIT admits than Berkeley. I think among state schools, GT was second only to Michigan.</p>