Receiving an Early Action rejection from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is understandably early-shaking. This is not the way things were supposed to go. You knew MIT is exceptionally hard to get into — but you expected a deferral, at least. The big question in this moment is: what comes next?
MIT is all about data transparency and optionality. They don’t offer Early Decision, and they give us a lot of numbers to break down after disappointing EA results. MIT does not give early applicants preference in the admissions process, which plays out in the numbers.
The overall MIT acceptance rate is 4.5%. The acceptance rate in the EA round is 5.3%, a negligible difference. Of the 12,563 early applicants for the Class of 2028, 64% were deferred to the Regular Decision round. It is much more likely to be deferred EA than it is to be rejected. What does this tell us about your application? A lot.
If you were rejected by MIT EA there is something foundationally wrong with the application you submitted. There are a lot of possibilities. Below, we break down the steps you need to take to address the issues MIT found to achieve a fantastic acceptance in the RD (or ED II) round.
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It’s harsh but true that getting rejected from MIT in the EA round is not only a tough pill to swallow, but a warning sign for your future applications. MIT saw that your application was missing something that they felt meant it wasn’t worth another look. For us, this triggers warning bells. Your application needs an overhaul, and there are only so many things that you have control over. Each piece you can change must be addressed. Below we get into how.
Step One: Take a Break
First, you need to breathe. You had a dream for how this was going to go, and it isn’t working out that way. Even if you knew an acceptance was a far reach, you probably thought you would at least get the affirmation of a deferral. Without that, where do you go from here? First, you go get yourself a bowl of your favorite snack and curl up with a binge-worthy show or a favorite childhood movie. Before you can dive into revamping your applications, you need to recharge your battery. Give yourself a few days to do just that…but just a few days. Then, it’s time to strategize.
Step Two: Strategize
In general, we advise that students who are rejected from a highly-selective school Early Action or Early Decision need to reassess their college strategy, but don’t necessarily need to throw it out. MIT is different, though. Because they defer two-thirds of Early Action students, receiving a rejection in the Early Action cycle requires that your application fell flat on a few fronts:
Your grades were not up to MIT’s bar.
Your test scores did not measure up, either.
And the stories you told and activities you do did not make up the difference.
All three of those have to be true for MIT to reject you in the Early Action cycle. This means that your entire college strategy needs to be rethought. Is that harsh? Yes. Is it unavoidable if you want a successful college application outcome? Also, yes.
First, start with what you have to work with. Give your scores and grades a fresh look, and compare them with the class profiles of some of your top-choice schools. You must be within the ranges they have published to be seriously considered as an applicant. If you are not within those ranges, those school should not be on your list. You can keep 1-2 as reaches, but you require 3-4 targets (i.e., you are at the middle/top of the range) and as many safety schools (i.e., you are at the top or beyond the range).
Next, look at your activities and how you have spent your time over the past four years — especially as relates to your major. Highlight the three most impressive things that both of these boxes:
Directly relevant to prospective major
Participated in during 11th or 12th grade, or both.
Those are the activities that you need to amplify in your supplements going forward. Next up, telling those stories.
Step Three: Essays
If you didn’t apply anywhere that uses the Common App early, you may not have a finished Common App essay. If this is the case, that’s actually good news because this is when we tell you to toss it out and start over.
If you had the grades and scores for MIT, you wouldn’t have been rejected except if something felt really wonky about your writing. If it felt unbelievable, made you seem unlikeable or like a bad community member, or if they suspected that you did not write it yourself, they would resort to a rejection over a deferral even if you had the grades and scores to be a competitive applicant. Basically, you made it easy to say no to you.
Now it’s time to make yourself hard to say no to. That means writing a main essay, and school-specific supplements, that do more than make the case for yourself as a strong candidate for admission — they need to connect with readers hearts.
We have free school-specific guides for how to pull this off for dozens of top colleges and universities across the country, but the best thing you could have in your toolbelt right now is a real person giving tailored advice that is shaped to fit your precise situation.
Step Four: Ask For Help
Call us biased, but the best thing you could have following an EA rejection from MIT is an expert on your team. As we’ve said, being rejected from MIT in the EA round means that something is deeply wrong with your application. This could be content, positioning, strategy, or all three. Getting to a prestigious acceptance with the cards stacked against you is possible, but it isn’t straightforward. We work with students every year to reassess after disappointment and reach a top school in the RD and EDII rounds. We know it is possible, and that the time to start working is yesterday.
Our goal here isn’t to hit you when you are down, nor is it to be unnecessarily harsh. We hope, though, that the message is loud and clear. Something had to be wrong with your MIT application to not receive a deferral. Red flags were raised. Not addressing them will only lead to further rejections. The best thing that you can do now, then, is to get to work.
We help students bounce back from disappointing admissions decisions. Learn more.