How to Get into MIT: The Complete Guide for International Students 2026

At the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Memorial Drive stands a building with a dome that students regularly “hack,” placing a replica police cruiser or a T-Mobile phone on its summit. Inside, in the Infinite Corridor, at 4:30 PM in mid-November, a ray of the setting sun passes perfectly through the entire 251-meter hallway, an event MIT students celebrate like an astronomical holiday. A few hundred meters away, in the MIT Media Lab, someone is designing a thought-controlled prosthetic, while in the basement of Building 26, a team of students is building a fusion reactor. This isn’t science fiction. This is an ordinary Tuesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

MIT is a university that needs no introduction – but it does need an honest guide. Because the truth is: the acceptance rate is around 3.9%, making MIT one of the most selective universities in the world. For an international high school graduate, the chances are even slimmer – MIT admits only a few dozen students from all of continental Europe each year. But there’s a group of applicants from countries like Poland who have a realistic chance: winners of international science Olympiads. If you have a medal from IMO, IPhO, IOI, or IChO, MIT takes you seriously – because these are the minds they seek.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through the entire MIT application process: from the MyMIT portal (no, MIT doesn’t use the Common App), through SAT/ACT requirements, essays, interviews, all the way to costs, need-blind scholarships, and a realistic comparison with European alternatives like ETH Zurich, EPFL, and Imperial College London. If you dream of world-class STEM education, this article will tell you exactly what you need to know, without embellishment or false promises.

Rankings and MIT’s Global Position

MIT doesn’t just compete in rankings; it dominates them. In the QS World University Rankings, the institution has held the #1 position globally continuously since 2012, thirteen consecutive years. This is a record no other university has even come close to breaking. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026, MIT ranks 2nd globally, trailing only Oxford, which is mainly due to THE’s methodology that favors universities with a large number of international students (and MIT is relatively small). In U.S. News & World Report, MIT holds the 2nd place among American universities, right after Princeton.

But it’s the subject rankings that truly demonstrate MIT’s dominance. In the QS by Subject ranking, the university holds the first place globally in as many as 11 fields: Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics, Architecture, Economics, and Linguistics. Read that list again – MIT is #1 in half of all existing STEM disciplines. If you’re interested in the best technology universities in the USA, MIT is at the top of every one of those lists.

What truly distinguishes MIT, even from Stanford or Caltech, is the ratio of scale to research quality. MIT has only 11,800 students (for comparison: UCL has 46,000, and the University of Manchester has 40,000), yet it generates more patents, spin-offs, and groundbreaking publications than universities five times its size. MIT alumni have founded companies that collectively generate revenues exceeding the GDP of many nations; Dropbox, Intel, Qualcomm, Koch Industries, Bose, and iRobot are just a few examples.

A comparison with European alternatives is natural. ETH Zurich, #7 in QS, with low tuition fees and excellence in engineering and natural sciences, is probably the closest European equivalent to MIT. EPFL (#14 QS) combines Swiss quality with a more accessible entry threshold. Imperial College London (#2 in QS UK) offers STEM at the highest European level. All three are realistic for ambitious international high school graduates; MIT, let’s be honest, is realistic mainly for Olympiad winners.

MIT Admissions – Step-by-Step Application

The first thing you need to know: MIT does not use the Common App. Unlike most American universities, MIT has its own admissions portal – MyMIT (my.mit.edu). This is a separate application, with its own essays, forms, and system. If you are simultaneously applying to other US universities via the Common App or Coalition App, be prepared for double the work.

The MIT admissions process is holistic; the committee doesn’t just look at grades and test scores, but at the overall profile: achievements, passions, character, potential for collaboration, and contribution to the MIT community. But let’s be realistic: without strong test scores and impressive STEM achievements, an international applicant’s chances are close to zero. MIT officially states that “there is no formula for admission,” but unofficially, the profile of an admitted student is quite distinct.

Required documents:

1. MyMIT Form – personal data, school information, extracurricular activities (up to 4 main activities)
2. 5 short essays (100–250 words each) – MIT asks about your passions, way of thinking, collaborative experiences, and how you handle challenges
3. SAT or ACT scores – MIT reinstated the test requirement starting with the 2022/2023 cycle. Median SAT for admitted students: 1540–1580. Practice with okiro.io – the platform offers full SAT practice tests with AI feedback
4. TOEFL or IELTS scores – TOEFL iBT minimum 90 (100+ recommended), IELTS Academic minimum 7.0 (7.5 recommended). Prepare with prepclass.io
5. 2 letters of recommendation from teachers – one from a math/science teacher, the other from a humanities/social sciences teacher
6. Academic transcript – MIT understands national education systems and does not require GPA conversion
7. Application fee: 75 USD (waivers possible for financial hardship)

A key difference for international applicants: MIT does not treat you as an “international student” with a separate pool of places (as, for example, the University of Cambridge does). MIT evaluates all applicants – American and international – through the same process. This sounds fair, but in practice, it means you’re competing directly with students from elite American schools who have had access to more advanced courses (AP), research opportunities, and professional advisors. Your excellent performance on your national high school exams, such as the Polish Matura (extended level) with 95%+, is impressive – but in the MIT applicant pool, it’s a starting point, not a differentiator.

What truly distinguishes international applicants, especially from countries with strong STEM traditions like Poland? International Olympiads. A medal from IMO (International Mathematical Olympiad), IPhO (Physics), IOI (Informatics), IChO (Chemistry), or IBO (Biology) is probably the strongest signal an applicant can send to the MIT admissions committee. Poland has a long tradition of success in science Olympiads, with Polish high school students regularly winning medals at IMO and IPhO. If you are a medalist, your application lands in a completely different pile. If you are not, your chances are statistically minimal, though not zero.

Other elements that strengthen an international applicant’s profile:

• Maker portfolio – if you build things (robots, applications, electronic devices, open-source projects), MIT values this more than any other university. The MIT Maker Portfolio is an optional addition to the application.
• Research projects – participation in young scientist programs, scientific publications, collaboration with universities.
• MIT programs – MIT THINK, MIT Launch, RSI (Research Science Institute); participation in these programs is a strong signal.
• Programming and tech projects – GitHub portfolio, applications with users, open-source contributions.

Remember to check our guide on converting national high school exam results, which explains how your grades are interpreted by foreign universities. You can find more about the SAT exam in our complete SAT guide, and about the scores needed for European studies in our article what SAT score for studies in Europe.

Fields of Study – What Do You Study at MIT?

MIT organizes its studies into five Schools: the School of Engineering, School of Science, School of Architecture and Planning, Sloan School of Management, and School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. But this isn’t a classic European system where you choose your major on the day of application. At MIT, during your first year, you follow a common core curriculum including mathematics (calculus, linear algebra), physics (mechanics, electricity and magnetism), chemistry, and biology. Only at the end of your first year do you declare your major. You can also choose a double major or a minor, and many students do.

The School of Engineering is the heart of MIT and the reason most students apply here. The Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS, Course 6) is arguably the strongest computer science program in the world; graduates flock to Google, Meta, Apple, NVIDIA, and Silicon Valley startups. Mechanical Engineering (Course 2), Chemical Engineering (Course 10), and Aerospace Engineering (Course 16) – each of these programs ranks #1 or #2 globally. If you dream of a career in tech, robotics, AI, or space engineering, the School of Engineering is your Mecca.

The School of Science includes Mathematics (Course 18), Physics (Course 8), Chemistry (Course 5), Biology (Course 7), and Earth Sciences (Course 12). MIT’s physics program is legendary; Feynman and Lewin taught here, and the foundations of particle physics and cosmology were laid here. Mathematics at MIT combines pure theory with applications, with graduates going into both academia and hedge funds and quant trading firms.

The MIT Sloan School of Management offers an undergraduate program (Course 15) that combines management with data analytics and technology. This is not a classic “business studies” program in the European sense; Sloan is deeply technological, with an emphasis on fintech, operations, and technological entrepreneurship. If you are interested in business but with a technical background, Sloan is a better choice than traditional European business schools.

The School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) is a surprise for many applicants – MIT has strong humanities, economics, and linguistics programs. The Economics program (Course 14) is #1 in the world in the QS ranking (yes, MIT even surpasses LSE and Harvard here). Many STEM students choose a minor in economics or philosophy, which gives them an exceptionally broad perspective.

The MIT Media Lab deserves a separate mention; it’s an interdisciplinary research laboratory at the intersection of technology, art, science, and design. Projects that sound like science fiction are born here: artificial leaves producing energy, machines reading emotions, brain-computer interfaces. Undergraduate students can get involved in Media Lab projects through the UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program), and many do so from their very first semester.

Cost of Study and Living in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Let’s be honest upfront: MIT is expensive. Tuition for the 2025/2026 academic year is 65,500 USD. In addition, there are costs for housing, food, health insurance, materials, and personal expenses. MIT estimates the total annual Cost of Attendance to be around 86,000 USD. Over four years, this amounts to over 344,000 USD – a sum that could buy you an apartment in a major European city.

But – and this is a big “but” – MIT employs a 100% need-met policy. The university commits to covering 100% of the demonstrated financial need of every admitted student, regardless of their citizenship. In practice: if your family earns below 75,000 USD annually (which would include the vast majority of families with similar income levels in many countries), MIT covers the entirety of tuition, housing, and food. Families earning below 200,000 USD pay no more than 10% of their income. Approximately 58% of MIT students receive financial aid, and the average scholarship package exceeds 60,000 USD per year.

Living costs in Cambridge/Boston are high, but comparable to other major US cities. MIT dorms cost approximately 12,500–14,000 USD annually (included in the Cost of Attendance). On-campus dining – about 6,500 USD annually. Health insurance – about 4,000 USD (mandatory). Textbooks and supplies – 800–1,200 USD. Transportation (T subway) – 90 USD per month with a student discount. Personal expenses – 2,000–3,000 USD annually.

Remember: international students on an F-1 visa can work on campus for up to 20 hours per week during the semester. MIT offers the UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program), which not only provides research experience but is also paid – typically 15–20 USD/hour. Many students finance part of their personal expenses through UROP.

Scholarships and Financial Aid

MIT employs a need-blind admission policy for all applicants, both American and international. This is extremely rare: among thousands of universities in the USA, only a few (MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Amherst) offer need-blind admission for international students. This means your financial situation does not affect the admission decision; the admissions committee does not know your parents’ income when reviewing your application.

Upon admission, MIT guarantees to cover 100% of your demonstrated financial need. How does this work in practice? You must complete the CSS Profile (a College Board tool) and provide your parents’ financial documents – tax returns, income statements, translated into English. Based on this data, MIT calculates your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) – the amount your family should be able to pay. MIT covers the rest, in the form of scholarships (not loans), on-campus work, and small student loans.

Specific thresholds: families with an income below 75,000 USD annually, receive full coverage of all costs, including travel. Families with an income of 75,000–200,000 USD have tuition covered entirely or almost entirely, with a family contribution not exceeding 10% of their income. Even families with incomes above 200,000 USD often receive partial aid.

For most international families with similar income levels (e.g., median income in Poland is approximately ~24,000 USD net annually), this means that studying at MIT would effectively be free – if you could only get in. The paradox of MIT is that the hardest part isn’t the financing, but getting admitted. If you are accepted, money will not be an issue.

Additional external options for international students:

• Fulbright Program – scholarships for graduate (Master’s/PhD) students, not undergraduate, but good to know for the future.
• Kosciuszko Foundation – grants for Polish students in the USA (keeping this specific as it’s a known foundation for Polish students).
• NAWA (Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange) – scholarship programs for studying abroad (keeping this specific as it’s a known agency for Polish students).
• MIT Externships and UROP – paid internships and research programs on campus (15–20 USD/hour).

MIT vs ETH Zurich: ETH Zurich is the closest European equivalent to MIT – #7 in the world, with dominance in engineering, physics, and computer science. The key difference: ETH costs 1,500 CHF in annual tuition (vs. 65,500 USD at MIT) and is realistically accessible for an international high school graduate with strong academic results. Downsides: undergraduate studies are conducted in German (English only for Master’s degrees), and the Basisprüfung exam after the first year eliminates 30–40% of students. If MIT is your dream, ETH should be your Plan A.

MIT vs EPFL: EPFL in Lausanne is the “MIT of Europe,” smaller, more international, with a beautiful campus on Lake Geneva. BSc studies are in French (but with the option of the CMS entrance exam, which bypasses the French language requirement), MSc in English. Tuition: 1,266 CHF/year. EPFL is strong in computer science, engineering, and neurosciences, with close ties to CERN. For an international student, EPFL is a realistic alternative; you need to pass an entrance exam, but you don’t need to be an Olympiad winner.

MIT vs Imperial College London: Imperial is the best STEM university in the UK, #2 in QS (UK), with strong engineering, computer science, and medical programs. Post-Brexit, tuition for international students (including those from countries like Poland) is approximately 38,000 GBP/year – expensive, but with a more predictable admissions process than MIT. An acceptance rate of 12–15% is far from MIT’s 3.9%, making Imperial a viable option for ambitious international applicants.

Student Life at MIT

The MIT campus stretches along the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts, facing the Boston skyline. This isn’t an idyllic English campus with sandstone walls like Oxford or Cambridge; MIT’s architecture is eclectic, from the neoclassical dome of Building 10 to Frank Gehry’s deconstructivist Stata Center, which looks like a building after an earthquake. MIT students navigate the campus by building numbers (Building 26, Building 4), not names – because it’s more efficient that way.

MIT culture is a culture of hackers – not in the sense of cybercrime, but of creatively bending rules. MIT hacks are a legendary tradition: students secretly place strange objects on the Great Dome (a police cruiser, a replica TARDIS from Doctor Who, a cow), solve campus-hidden puzzles, and wage nerf gun wars lasting for weeks. MIT’s unofficial motto – IHTFP – officially stands for “I Have Truly Found Paradise,” but every student knows the true expansion is “I Hate This F***ing Place” – and it embodies both meanings simultaneously, because MIT is both the best and the most challenging experience of your life.

Academic stress at MIT is real and openly discussed. The freshman year program is graded on a pass/no record system; if you fail, the grade disappears from your transcript. This isn’t altruism, but a necessity; “drinking from the firehose” is MIT’s official metaphor for the intensity of the first year. Every student simultaneously takes 4–5 subjects, each requiring 12–15 hours of work per week – totaling 60–70 hours of study per week. MIT students sleep less, drink more coffee, and build more things at 3 AM than students at any other university in the world.

But the MIT community is also exceptionally supportive. The living groups system (dorms with unique cultures, from the quiet, studious MacGregor House to the chaotic, party-oriented East Campus) creates an immediate sense of belonging. Over 500 student organizations cover everything from the MIT Robotics Team and Solar Electric Vehicle Team to the MIT Outing Club (climbing, kayaking) and the MIT Shakespeare Ensemble. The MIT Polish Club organizes events integrating the Polish community, though it is small (there are usually 0–3 Polish undergraduate students at MIT in any given year).

Cambridge and Boston form one of the best student cities in the world. Harvard is literally around the corner (a 15-minute walk). Kendall Square, home to Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Moderna, and hundreds of biotech startups, borders the MIT campus. Boston boasts an excellent music, sports (Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots, Bruins), and culinary scene, and New England in the fall (fall foliage) is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

Prospects After MIT – Why It’s Life-Changing

Let’s be honest: MIT on your resume opens doors that don’t open for anyone else. The median salary for an MIT graduate one year after completing their BSc is approximately 115,000 USD – more than many earn in a decade. In the technology and financial sectors (quant trading), initial earnings can exceed 200,000 USD with bonuses. Companies like Jane Street, Citadel, and Two Sigma aggressively recruit on the MIT campus, offering starting packages that sound absurd from many international perspectives.

But a career after MIT isn’t just about earnings. The MIT alumni network is one of the most powerful networking tools in the world. MIT graduates have founded over 30,000 companies – if the “Country of MIT” were a nation, its GDP would be approximately 1.9 trillion USD, making it the 10th largest economy in the world. It’s a network you join once and stay connected to forever.

FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions about MIT

Summary – Who is MIT For?

MIT is the best technical university in the world – and simultaneously one of the most selective institutions on the planet. For an international high school graduate without a medal from an international science Olympiad, the chances of admission are statistically close to zero. This isn’t pessimism – it’s realism that should shape your application strategy. Apply to MIT if you have an exceptional profile – an IMO/IPhO/IOI medal, impressive technical projects, an SAT score of 1550+ – but don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

If your goal is STEM education at the absolute highest global level, Europe offers options that are both realistic and excellent. ETH Zurich is probably the best alternative, #7 in the world, with tuition of 1,500 CHF annually, stronger in many engineering fields than anything the UK offers. EPFL combines Swiss quality with a beautiful campus and close ties to CERN. Imperial College London offers prestige and access to the London job market. Also check out our ranking of the best technology universities in the USA; MIT is at the top, but Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, and UC Berkeley are universities with higher acceptance rates and comparable quality in specific fields.

Next Steps

1. Realistically assess your profile – do you have an international Olympiad medal, exceptional projects, or other achievements that stand out against the global applicant pool?
2. Take the SAT (goal: 1550+, Math: 800) – practice on okiro.io, which offers full SAT practice tests with AI feedback.
3. Take the TOEFL (goal: 100+) or IELTS (goal: 7.5) – prepare with prepclass.io.
4. Build a Maker Portfolio – show that you build things, not just take tests.
5. Apply simultaneously to European alternatives – ETH Zurich, EPFL, Imperial as a realistic Plan A.
6. Start preparations at least 18 months before the deadline – MIT requires a long-term strategy, not a last-minute sprint.

Good luck – and remember: even if MIT says “no,” the path to a world-class STEM career also leads through Zurich, Lausanne, and London. Check out our other guides on studying in Switzerland and studying in the UK.