The Selection Process: Application Reading, Committee, And Decisions

Ben recently summarized the selection process in a blog entry:

First you apply. Your application is read by a senior staff member who will look for deal-breakers (like a bunch of D's, for example). Assuming you're competitive, your application is then read by a primary reader who will summarize it at length for the committee. Then a second reader (and sometimes a third) will read and write their own summaries.

Then it will go to selection committee, where multiple groups of different admissions staff and faculty members will weigh in on it. Assuming you've made it that far, the senior staff will then review it again, and then finally the Dean of Admissions will spend some time with it before it gets put definitively into the admit pile. Approximately 12 people (give or take) will significantly discuss and debate your application before you're admitted.

This is all very intentional; committee decisions ensure that every decision is correct in the context of the overall applicant pool, and that no one individual's bias or preferences or familiarity with a given case has any chance of swaying a decision unfairly.

As we go through this process together, Matt, Ben, Bryan, Stu, and others will do our best to keep you updated on the selection of MIT's next class. You'll find our recent updates and stories in the blog entries to your left.

At MIT, we try to be as transparent as possible - so if you have a question, just ask.