Applying to college is always a daunting process, but applying to college in the United States as an international student comes with its own unique hurdles. To help you out, we’re breaking down the ins and outs of applying to some of the top American colleges and universities as an international student.
MIT, or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is broadly understood to be one of the top engineering schools not just in the US, but in the world. While engineering isn’t all that they do, MIT approaches subjects from a practical perspective aimed at transforming society for the better on a tangible level. The university is in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and accepted their first international student way back in 1866. Over just the past few years, MIT professors, scientists, researchers, and students have designed a plane that runs on ions, captured the first direct image of a black hole, and designed mechanisms for producing oxygen on mars. The world is changed at MIT, and undergraduate students play an active role in breakthroughs and advancements that shape the future of humanity.
Getting into MIT isn’t easy, though. The university has an overall undergraduate acceptance rate of just under 4%. Out of the 4,650 students pursuing an undergraduate degree, about 500, or 11%, are international students — and this includes both students coming from outside the US and those already in the US but without citizenship or permanent residency (but we’ll explain more about that later in this post). MIT doesn’t have a quota for how many students they’ll accept from any given country outside the US, but it is highly-competitive to gain admission and you need to figure out how to give the admissions committee everything they need to seriously consider your application. If you are feeling at all overwhelmed or like you’d appreciate an extra boost after reading this post, send us an email. We can help.
What is MIT looking for in International Students?
First, you need to determine if you are an international student by the MIT definition. Colleges have a range of definitions for what it means to be an international student, and for MIT you’re an international student if you are NOT a US citizen or permanent resident regardless of where you are currently enrolled in high school. If you are enrolled in high school outside the US and are not a US citizen, you are an international student. If you are in the US and you are not a US citizen and do not have a green card, you are also an international student. If you are in the US but in the process of obtaining a green card, you are still an international student until you receive the permanent residency in the form of a green card.
If you do not meet the MIT definition of an international student, you will apply as a standard applicant — yes, even if you don’t live or go to school in the US.
If you do meet the MIT definition of an international student, though, there are a few things that they are looking for from you that differ from expectations of a standard applicant.
Courses and Grades
Obviously, courses and grades matter no matter where you are enrolled in high school or what country you are a citizen of. They know that you, as an international student and especially if you are enrolled in a school outside the US, may have taken courses that look pretty different from a standard US high school transcript. This doesn’t scare them, and the MIT admissions officers are even specifically trained to understand transcripts from other cultures and countries. However, there are foundational buckets they look for on every transcript: science, math, and the humanities.
MIT doesn’t require any specific courses to be eligible for admission, but they do recommend:
English: 4 courses or units
Math: 4 courses
Science: 4 courses
Foreign Language (not your first language): 2 courses
Social Studies: 2 courses
These are the bare minimum that they are looking for, so we advise prospective international students to go above and beyond, although your version of “English” may be literature or language classes taught in the standard educational language of your country. For example, students in Tanzania generally go to high school in English, whereas in France, they would expect you to be going to high school in French unless you are at an international school that emphasizes a different language. The primary language of instruction not being English doesn’t harm your application, but does require some additional work to show your readiness to excel at MIT (see “Standardized Tests” below).
Extracurriculars
In the most recent Common Data Set, MIT shared that they consider your character and personal qualities to be “very important.” In fact, it’s the only nonacademic factor that they rank as “very important.” What this tells us is that who you are — and how you show who you are through how you spend your time — matters immensely.
How do you show in an application who you are, though? Storytelling. But the best storytelling combines who you are with what you do. It could be what you do in the classroom, but we find the most impactful narratives for showing your character and personality are most often framed and formed outside of the classroom. Not all high schools offer access to clubs or organized sports, so don’t stress if those aren’t options for you, but however, you should seek out opportunities to spotlight what matters most to you, whether through a job, a hobby, family commitments, or volunteering. Cultivate at least one area of interest that shows collaboration, creativity, and tenacity in the face of challenges — all thing that are required to thrive as an MIT student.
Recommendations
MIT considers recommendations from your teachers to be important to your application, and we’ve found that they are especially important when you’re coming from outside of the US. Your teachers may not be used to the US college application recommendation system, so ask two teachers for recommendations far in advance of the deadlines for submission — at least 6-8 weeks. This will give them time to plan and write, and will result in the strongest possible letters of support for your application.
Since this may be their first time writing a recommendation for a college in the US, we also recommend asking if you can provide any teacher who has agreed to write a recommendation with a short list of 3-5 things that you’re hoping to highlight in your application. It’s even better if they’d be willing to have a 30-minute one-on-one conversation before they write the recommendation so you can share any particularly formative experiences in their classes along with your goals for the future.
Standardized Tests
Unlike many top US colleges and universities, MIT requires that all applicants submit SAT or ACT scores as part of their application. We advise students to plan to take either or both tests at least two times, especially if they are not hiring an essay prep tutor. The first time is an opportunity to get used to the format and, who knows, you may do an amazing job. By planning ahead to take the tests more than once, though, you lower the stress that can come with a disappointing early score.
While your SAT or ACT scores aren’t the end-all be-all of your MIT application, they are very important given how hard it is to get into MIT. If you don’t score a 35 or above on the ACT, or a 1550 or above on the SAT (the 50th percentile for each), for example, you are fighting a seriously steep uphill battle to have your application seriously considered.
If you are trying to pick between the ACT or SAT, it’s worth noting that most admitted and enrolled students (78%), sent the SAT.
MIT also strongly recommends that non-native English speakers submit the results of an English Proficiency Exam as part of any application. Simply submitting an application in English isn’t, they feel, proof enough that you are ready to attend school in English, so the test helps them make sure that you’re all set.
What about “Demonstrated Interest”?
You may have heard the term “demonstrated interest” used in regard to campus visits or meetings with admissions representatives. That can be daunting as an international student, as it may not be possible for you to visit campus before applying. Rest assured, though, that MIT does not consider demonstrated interest. They do, however, take an interview (including a virtual interview) into consideration if you can get one.
Final Thoughts
Being an international applicant comes with all the same expectations as a domestic applicant, with a few more hurdles to jump over. As you start thinking through your application (and ideally before your junior year, remember that simply being from somewhere other than the US isn’t interesting on its own. To make a case for yourself, you’ll need to tell your story alongside presenting compelling numbers in the form of grades and scores. MIT wants to see who you are as much as what you’ve accomplished.
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