Snapshot Statshot

Snapshot Statshot Tomorrow, I expect MITs student newspaper, The Tech, will publish our admissions statistics. But why wait until then? Heres an overview of the year to date in MIT Admissions. This year, we had 13,396 applicants, an 8% increase over last year. However, we couldnt admit many more students than last year: an increase of 1 student, to 1554. Thus, our admit rate fell nearly a percentage point, from 12.5% to 11.6%. This years rate, approximately 1 in 9, is a lot lower than when I applied in 1996 (1 in 4) and is even notably lower than it was for this years MIT seniors (1 in 6). MIT has traditionally been among the more conservative colleges in terms of waitlist size, usually keeping one of the proportionally smallest waitlists of our peer group. However, this year, with increased uncertainty around yield, we decided to significantly increase the size of our waitlist, to 739 students. We do not know how many will accept their offer of a waitlist place, or how many students we will ultimately admit from the waitlist. [More soon regarding the waitlist] Applications from international students saw a marked increase. There were 3,086 international applications, up 12% from last year. To keep to MITs international student quota of 8% of the class, we admitted 121 international students. In total, citizens of 138 countries applied; we admitted students from 60 of those countries, residing in 66 different nations. Needless to say, it was an extremely challenging year in choosing from the many, many awesome international applicants. Given the competition, it should come as no surprise that this years academic metrics are very high. For example, 92% of admitted students are in the top 5% of their class, the highest percentage in at least 5 years. The median SAT scores were 780 math (up 10 points from last year) and 730 critical reading. But I think that this years class is even more impressive in non-quantitative realms. Ben has been saying that this years class feels perfect, and I dont think thats far from the truth. I really feel like this class has an incredible set of skills, qualities, and experiences that should make for a really exciting and enriching four years at MIT. Im more than a little jealous!