Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a midsize city, with 4,535 undergraduates. Engineering and computer science are its signature fields: together they make up 57% of its bachelor's degrees, about five times their share across the colleges we cover. 96% of students finish within six years, and former students who are working earn a median of $143,372 ten years after starting.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology admitted 1,334 of 29,281 applicants for the fall 2025 entering class (4.6%).
- Acceptance rate
- 4.6%
- Fall 2025 class
- Tuition and fees
- $62,396
- 2024–25 school year
- Paid after aid
- $20,111
- Average, students with aid
- SAT, middle 50%
- 1520–1570
Every figure on this page is published by the college or a federal survey, compiled by GoodGoblin, and carries the source it came from. They describe the fall 2025 entering class, a read on the school, not a prediction about any one applicant.
What Massachusetts Institute of Technology is known for
Measured by the 1,419 bachelor's degrees it awarded in 2022–23, and what its graduates went on to earn.
Engineering
29.7%
of its bachelor's degrees: about four times the 6.9% share across the colleges we cover.
Computer science
27.7%
of its bachelor's degrees: about five times the 5.6% share across the colleges we cover.
- Computer Science38927.4% of degrees$225,141+110% vs $107,009 nationally
- Mechanical Engineering1419.9% of degrees$131,967+43% vs $92,135 nationally
- Mathematics1399.8% of degrees$174,951+152% vs $69,562 nationally
- Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering876.1% of degrees$161,118+60% vs $100,647 nationally
- Physics795.6% of degrees$131,025+71% vs $76,786 nationally
- Cognitive Science614.3% of degreesToo few graduates to publish
Source: the College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), field-of-study data. Degrees are bachelor's degrees awarded in 2022–23. Earnings are the median for 2017–18 and 2018–19 graduates, in 2024 dollars, working and not enrolled, four years after graduating. Shares across the colleges we cover count every bachelor's degree at the colleges with a page here.
The place
Where it is, how big it is, and how students live.
Setting
Midsize city
Cambridge, MA
Undergraduates
4,535
Fall 2024
Type
Private, nonprofit
Doctoral university, very high research activity
Living on campus
Half or more
of undergraduates live on campus
Students per faculty member
3 to 1
Fall 2024
International students
12%
of undergraduates, fall 2024
Source: the College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), including the Carnegie Classification and the federal locale code it publishes.
What stands out at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Three things Massachusetts Institute of Technology published, ranked by how much each could change what you actually do, not by how impressive it looks. Every one describes a class that has already enrolled.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology required a test score of the fall 2023 entering class.
That is the school’s answer on the federal survey for that class. A test policy can change between surveys, so treat it as the last measured position rather than today’s rule. 83% of the enrolled class sent an SAT.
Source: the federal IPEDS survey, fall 2023
10 admitted from a waitlist of 561.
468 students accepted a place on that list, and 10 were admitted from it, 2.1% of the students who waited. A waitlist offer here is not a near-miss anyone can plan around.
Source: their Common Data Set, fall 2025
Families paid $20,111 on average after aid.
Averaged across students who received federal aid: the price after grants and scholarships, not the sticker price.
Source: the College Scorecard
Every figure, in full
The same measured fields on every one of these pages. Nothing is filled in where the school published nothing.
Acceptance rate
4.6%
1,334 admitted of 29,281 applicants
Source: their Common Data Set, fall 2025
SAT, middle 50%
1520–1570
Source: their Common Data Set, fall 2025
ACT, middle 50%
34–35
Source: their Common Data Set, fall 2025
Enrolled students who sent an SAT
83%
Counted per test: a student may send both.
Source: their Common Data Set, fall 2025
Enrolled students who sent an ACT
31%
Counted per test: a student may send both.
Source: their Common Data Set, fall 2025
Where do you actually stand at Massachusetts Institute of Technology?
The figures on this page describe a class that already enrolled. GoodGoblin reads them against your own transcript, scores, activities and budget, then builds the balanced list, the essay plan and the deadline calendar around what it finds.
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What Massachusetts Institute of Technology costs
The published price first, then what students who received aid actually paid, by family income.
Tuition and fees for 2024–25 were $62,396, and the full cost of attendance, with housing, food and books, was $82,730. After grants and scholarships, students who received financial aid paid $20,111 a year on average.
Tuition and fees
$62,396
2024–25 school year
Full cost of attendance
$82,730
Tuition, fees, housing, food and books
Paid after aid
$20,111
Average, students who received aid
What students paid, by family income
Each bar is that figure as a share of the $82,730 full cost.
- $30k–$48k$93Typical public university: $10,847
- $48k–$75k$1,480Typical public university: $13,703
- $75k–$110k$11,555Typical public university: $17,979
- Over $110k$48,479Typical public university: $22,475
Source: the federal College Scorecard. Tuition and cost of attendance are for the 2024–25 school year; colleges usually raise them each year. What students paid is the average net price for first-year students who received federal financial aid. Typical public university: the median across the 338 public universities on GoodGoblin, for in-state students, compiled by GoodGoblin from the same federal data.
Where it leads
Who finishes, who stays, and what they earn and owe afterwards.
Finish within six years
96%
Our colleges' median: 63%
Return for a second year
99%
Our colleges' median: 79%
Earnings after 10 years
$143,372
Our colleges' median: $57,440
Median debt at graduation
$14,768
Our colleges' median: $23,725
Source: the College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education). Six-year completion describes students who started in fall 2018; second-year return describes students who started in fall 2023; earnings describe students who started in 2009–10 and 2010–11, measured in 2020 and 2021, in 2022 dollars; debt describes federal loans of students who graduated in fiscal years 2020 and 2021. Medians are across the 1,034 colleges with a page here.
What Massachusetts Institute of Technology says it weighs
The school's own words, from the form it fills in every year. Ranked as it ranks them.
- Essayrequired
Source: the federal IPEDS survey, fall 2023
- Course rigorrequired
Source: the federal IPEDS survey, fall 2023
- Test scoresrequired
Source: the federal IPEDS survey, fall 2023
- Recommendationsrequired
Source: the federal IPEDS survey, fall 2023
- GPAconsidered
Source: the federal IPEDS survey, fall 2023
- Class rankconsidered
Source: the federal IPEDS survey, fall 2023
Not considered
- Legacy
Source: the federal IPEDS survey, fall 2023
The waitlist, as the school reported it
Published counts, including the ones schools rarely lead with.
- Offered a waitlist place
- 561
- Accepted the place
- 468
- Admitted from the waitlist
- 10
Source: their Common Data Set, fall 2025
Essays on this application
8 essay prompts on the application: you would write all 8.
Published deadlines
Each date is read from the college's own materials and re-checked on a schedule.
Guides for Massachusetts Institute of Technology applicants
More colleges on the record
Each of these pages carries the same measured figures and sources.
Other colleges in Massachusetts
Closest acceptance rates in the same state.
Colleges with a similar acceptance rate
Closest acceptance rates anywhere in the country.
The GoodGoblin College Data Report: five findings counted across 1,034 colleges ›
Build the list this school belongs on.
The figures on this page describe a class that already enrolled. GoodGoblin reads them against your own transcript, scores, activities and budget, then builds the balanced list, the essay plan and the deadline calendar around what it finds.
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