Admissions Blog

MIT has made the decision to no longer consider the SAT Subject Tests as part of the admissions process. You can find MIT’s full revised testing requirements here.

MIT states: “…in fairness to all applicants, we won’t consider them (Subject Tests) for anyone. We think it would be unfair to consider scores only from those who have scored well and therefore choose to send them to us. They are neither recommended nor optional; they are simply not a part of our process anymore.”

While the announcement comes as the Coronavirus spreads from China to all corners of the world, MIT claims the decision was not taken in response to the pandemic. Earlier this week, Case Western University used the pandemic as its excuse for going fully SAT-ACT optional for the high school class of 2021.

For a full list of colleges that currently require, recommend, or favorably consider SAT Subject Test scores, visit ConvertYourScore.org.

MIT Dean of Admissions and Student Financial Services, Stu Schmill, has provided context relating to the Early Action notifications that MIT will be sharing with students on December 14 at 6:28 p.m EST.

According to Schmill, MIT received approximately 9,700 applications, which is 16% more compared with last year’s Early Action pool.

“Last year, we admitted 657 students in Early Action; we plan to admit a similar number this year. As you may know, our early admission rate tends to be relatively low, as we try to avoid admitting a disproportionate percentage of our class in Early Action,” Schmill shared. Taking that information at face value, that would mean that MIT’s EA acceptance rate would be roughly 6.8% this year.

“Because our applicant pool is so strong, we defer many applicants to Regular Action for further review. While many of them are not ultimately admitted, we do admit some portion of our deferred applicants. In the last few years, we’ve typically admitted ~100–300 deferred applicants,” Schmill continued.

Finally, Schmill added, “While this is always difficult, we will give definitive decisions to applicants if we are certain they will be denied admission this year, so that they can focus on their other college options.”

If you do get the unfortunate deferral letter, please read this important article: How to Respond to an Early Decision or Early Action Deferral. If you get the stinging rejection letter, please read this article: How to Recover from Early Decision or Early Action Rejection.

If you get in, congratulations!

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