Massachusetts Institute of Technology Overview

Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private not-for-profit institution. The location of MIT is great for students who prefer living in an urban area.

What Is Massachusetts Institute of Technology Known For?

• Students who want to work more closely with their professors have an easier time at MIT since the student to facuty ratio is 3 to 1.
• The 1% student loan default rate at MIT is better than the national rate of 10.1%. That's a good sign that you may be able to pay off student loans easier than your peers at other schools can.
• The highest award offered at MIT is the doctor's degree.
• In 2017-2018, 99% of the faculty were full-time.
• A student who earns a bachelor's degree from MIT makes roughly $104,700 a year. This is 157% more than their peers from other colleges and universities.
• It takes the average MIT student 4.1 years to graduate. This is pretty good when compared to the national rate of 4.4 years.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Rankings

We have ranked MIT as #4 out of 2,587 colleges and universities in the country in our 2022 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 1% of all schools in the nation! It is also ranked #1 out of 72 schools in Massachusetts.

Our rankings are based on an outcomes-based approach rather than subjective ones used by other media outlets. As such, we utilize data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard, among other sources. Visit our rankings and methodology section to learn more.

MIT has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#2	Best Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at MIT.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Architecture/Urban Planning Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Liberal Arts & Humanities Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Mathematics & Statistics Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Systems Engineering Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Biological & Biomedical Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Computer & Information Sciences Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Physical Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Engineering Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Business, Management & Marketing Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#8	Best Multi / Interdisciplinary Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards MIT has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#1	Best Physical Sciences Schools	College Factual
#1	Best Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities Schools	College Factual
#1	Best Mathematics & Statistics Schools	College Factual
#1	Best Architecture & Related Services Schools	College Factual
#2	Best Business Schools	Business Degree Central
#2	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual

Where Is Massachusetts Institute of Technology?

Contact details for MIT are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
Phone:	617-253-1000
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/MITnews
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/mit

How Do I Get Into MIT?

You can apply to MIT online at: my.mit.edu/

Admission Requirements for MIT

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	recommended
High School Rank	neither required nor recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	recommended
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	required
TOEFL	recommended

How Hard Is It To Get Into MIT?

With an acceptance rate of 7%, MIT is one of the most selective schools in the country. If the admissions department requests additional materials, be sure to submit them promptly. This could be a sign that you're on the border line of being accepted or denied.

Approximately 48% of accepted students are men and 52% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 5%, and the acceptance rate for women is 12%.

Average Test Scores

About 77% of students accepted to MIT submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 730 and 780. Math scores were between 780 and 800.

MIT received ACT scores from 42% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 35 and 36. Math scores were between 34 and 36. Composite scores were between 34 and 36.

Can I Afford Massachusetts Institute of Technology?

The overall average net price of MIT is $41,943. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At MIT, approximately 9% of students took out student loans averaging $10,070 a year. That adds up to $40,280 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at MIT is 1.1%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 4,361 undergraduate students at MIT, with 4,234 being full-time and 127 being part-time.

There are also 6,893 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 4,234 full-time undergraduates at MIT, 52% are male and 48% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Massachusetts Institute of Technology students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	1,377
Black or African American	282
Hispanic or Latino	661
White	1,066
International Students	448
Other Races/Ethnicities	400

Geographic Diversity

Massachusetts students aren't the only ones who study at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At this time, 49 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 134 countries are represented at MIT. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, India, and Canada.

Online Learning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In 2019-2020, 11,254 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at MIT has changed over the last few years.

Online Growth Rankings of MIT

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology was 3,988.2%. This is the #57 largest growth rate of all schools that are mostly online. This refers to all students at MIT regardless of major.

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Bachelor’s	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	30	676	0	706
Computer Science	424	239	41	704
Mechanical Engineering	147	130	57	334
Systems Engineering	0	177	7	184
Electrical Engineering	44	75	44	163
Mathematics	112	1	26	139
Applied Mathematics	14	112	0	126
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	53	52	19	124
Physics	83	4	31	118
Chemical Engineering	42	20	35	97
General Biology	35	1	44	80
Biomedical Engineering	50	4	22	76
Chemistry	24	5	45	74
Urban & Regional Planning	6	49	17	72
Economics	45	1	18	64
Radio, Television & Digital Communication	0	39	21	60
Architectural Sciences & Technology	0	54	3	57
Civil Engineering	6	42	9	57
General Business/Commerce	0	40	15	55
Materials Engineering	28	3	21	52
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	23	2	9	34
Nuclear Engineering	9	11	13	33
Real Estate Development	0	32	0	32
Biomathematics & Bioinformatics	18	10	4	32
Geological & Earth Sciences	7	4	17	28
Political Science & Government	7	3	14	24
Operations Research	0	8	15	23
Mathematics & Computer Science	23	0	0	23
Computer Information Systems	0	7	12	19
General Architecture	10	4	2	16
Communication & Media Studies	7	9	0	16
Philosophy	9	0	6	15
Environmental Engineering	4	3	4	11
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	5	2	4	11
Liberal Arts General Studies	10	0	0	10
Cognitive Science	9	0	0	9
Journalism	0	8	0	8
Music	8	0	0	8
Science, Technology & Society	1	0	6	7
Writing Studies	4	0	0	4
General English Literature	3	0	0	3
Astronomy & Astrophysics	0	1	1	2
Atmospheric Sciences & Meteorology	0	0	2	2
Drama & Theater Arts	2	0	0	2
Anthropology	1	0	0	1
History	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	1,303	1,828	584	3,715

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By InSapphoWeTrust under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.