If you received a waitlist decision from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, you’re probably pretty disappointed, frustrated, and confused. A waitlist decision is a tough spot to be. It’s not a no, but it’s also very far from a yes. We’re here to help.
MIT loves to share data and statistics, which is helpful as we assess what to do after a waitlist decision. The overall acceptance rate for MIT is under 5%. That represents a pool of students that is designed to whittle itself down to a class of 1,100 through students selecting where they want to go and committing. If the MIT admissions office does their job perfectly, this happens without ever having to look at the waitlist. Most years, though, they have some gaps to fill. That’s where the waitlist comes in.
The waitlist for MIT, though, is not ranked. They don’t have some master list of names with one person at the top and someone else at the bottom. That doesn’t exist. It’s more like the swimming in a pool. Once you join the waitlist, you’ve jumped in. Luckily, you don’t need to tread water.
In this post we’ll break down what you need to know when you’re offered a spot on the MIT waitlist, and how to increase your chances of admission. First, let’s talk more numbers.
MIT historically offers only about 2% of waitlisted students a spot in the first-year class. Some years they accept as few as zero students off of the waitlist, but other years it’s a few dozen — like 30ish. Honestly, that number is still very low. ‘Good’ years are still very hard years.
For first-year students beginning in the fall of 2023, MIT admitted 32 out of 558 students on the waitlist, or 5.7%. For the fall of 2021, they admitted 25 out of 501. But in-between, for the fall of 2022, they had a waitlist of 682 and admitted zero. Yes, 0. In the words of MIT, “It’s likely that most people on the wait list will not be admitted. But remember, any statistic against you (or for you) is associative but not causal.”
It's worth a shot, so let’s do this.
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Below are the four steps you must take now to increase your chances of getting into MIT, and charting a successful course to college regardless.
Step 1: Accept Your Spot on the Waitlist
The first thing you need to do is to accept your spot on the MIT waitlist. This may sound obvious, but it isn’t. Every year, someone (or many someones) forget to respond to the waitlist offer by the deadline given in the email you were sent. That’s silly. Don’t do that.
And if you’re wondering if it’s even worth joining the waitlist, we feel that it is. Getting on the waitlist doesn’t cost you anything, and it’s non-binding. There is no reason not to join the waitlist. If you are accepted and decide not to attend, that’s okay. But your waitlist can’t become a yes if you don’t join the waitlist.
Step 2: Pick a School
Now that you are on the MIT waitlist, you need to give yourself a Plan B. You also need to accept that this may become a Plan A.
Choosing to commit to a school that isn’t MIT may be scary, but it’s necessary. You will need to confirm with a school that accepted you and place the deposit. That deposit is nearly always not refundable, so you also need to know that you will lose it if you end up switching to MIT.
If you don’t have any college acceptances that you are super excited about that’s a bummer, but also not an excuse to not commit to a school. Applying again next year from scratch should not be considered an option. Transferring, though, can be. And we can help.
Step 3: Should you write a letter now?
Unfortunately, MIT does not want to hear from you. Seriously. Most of the time, we encourage students to write a Letter of Continued Interest or send another update if requested — but MIT specifically does not want this. Unlike most other colleges that have a waitlist, they do not want to hear from you. They are very clear about this:
“Here are some things you should NOT do: Submit additional documents or a whole new application. Fly to campus to make the case in person. Send us ridiculous things (or “things” in general). Bombard our office with way too much stuff. Be pushy. Be sketchy. Let your grades drop.”
Yes, they feel the need to ask you to please not “be sketchy.” Or send things. Or fly to campus. This is all because those are things people have done in the past thinking it would make them ‘stand out’ or ‘make a splash,’ and it did — but not in a good way. All they want is your wait list confirmation form.
This is important to hear and respect because the fastest way to ensure that your application won’t be accepted is to disregard their instructions. MIT is so specific and so transparent, that there isn’t any excuse not to listen to them. They didn’t leave things up to interpretation. They are abundantly clear.
However, there is still one thing you can try. Talk to your college counselor at school about whether they’d be willing to make an advocacy call on your behalf. This is not something your college counselor has to do just because you asked, but college counselors can call an admissions office directly to try to put in a good word. It can make a big difference if they do it right. Only ask, though, if you feel your college counselor is capable of advocating for you, meaning that they know you well enough to put in a good word that is specific and informed.
Step 4: Move On
Step four is the last and the hardest. You need to live your life. It’s easy to stay anxious and feel totally wrapped up in waiting for MIT. While you can let the question mark of MIT rule your life for the next few months, we’d argue that doing this would be a bad idea. Have fun, enjoy senior year, and keep your grades up. Seriously.
Getting into MIT off of the waitlist is unlikely, and them not waiting updates doesn’t make it easier. That said, we can help.
We help students navigate tough waitlists. Contact us to learn more.