MIT Acceptance rate 8-10%?

Question

I read somewhere (either here or BW forums) that the MIT acceptance rate last year was 8-10%. That's insane, but conceivable given the small class size (e.g., same reason why stanford has such a low acceptance rate vs. hbs).

It would also explain the crazy amount of dings we saw in last year's MIT applicant thread to people with pretty strong profiles.

Can anyone confirm or deny this?

boogs · Answer

IIRC (I can check my notes at home), but at the Sloan on the Road event, the adcom reported something like 11% from 18-19% interviewed.

gregarious · Answer

Interesting numbers, definitely lower than I would have thought. I've seen other posts here and on BW speculating that MIT gets a lot of "hail mary pass" applications from engineers based upon the overall reputation of the school for science and tech. If this is true, it could explain why the acceptance rate is at Stanford levels.

nink · Answer

Last year, round 1 was a bloodbath for many of us. MIT rejected everyone here at GMATClub except for one or two. (I think msday was the only one who passed through round 1 last year)

MIT result freaked out so many people last year. But don't worry. MIT tend to have weird criteria for judging applicants. Many people who didn't even get an interview invite from MIT R1 last year ended up at great programs such as Tuck, Kellogg, Booth, CBS, NYU etc etc.

boogs · Answer

I double-checked my notes and the numbers I cited before are correct. I think MIT may also be less predictable because the application is so different - no place to list ECs, cover letter, minimal interest in goals, behavioral essay questions, etc. If you think about it, getting an interview invite to MIT is as competitive as getting in to many top schools.

tmino · Answer

In the year before that the acceptance rate was 15%, so a massive drop down to 8-10% would be quite steep. The 11% quoted above is probably more realistic (maybe even on the low end of what the official figure will be). I wouldn't be surprised if other more finance oriented schools see much lower acceptance rates. The typical applicants to MIT (tech and engineering) weren't hit as badly in the crisis.

asimov · Answer

I think last year was just bad in general with the economy crashing. I'm hoping this year will be better.

Even schools like Haas has a huge drop in acceptance rate. The published enroll of 239 for 4064 applicants (they didn't publish acceptance rate, which I'm sure is a huge drop).

clarksdv2 · Answer

It was 11% inclusive of LGO, BEP, HKS and straight two year program types. Total 400 seats/class.
The ~9% is if you just consider regular MBA program applicants. This portion is 350 of 400 total seats.

MIT Acceptance rate 8-10%?

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