66 Percent Accept MIT’s Offer Of Admission; May Admit Off Waitlist
Two-thirds of the 1,554 students admitted to the Class of 2012 have accepted MIT’s offer of admission. This year’s 66 percent yield is the third highest in MIT’s history, and only a slight drop from last year’s record high 69 percent yield.
For the third year in a row, MIT will accept some students off its waitlist. “We’re in committee and we’re making decisions,” said Stuart Schmill ’86, Dean of Admissions, regarding waitlist admissions. They expect to send out offers to “approximately thirty-five students” within the week. MIT admitted 40 and 20 waitlisted students for the 2010 and 2011 classes, respectively. While waiting for replies, “we’ll still keep some number of students on the waitlist,” said Schmill, since other schools will also being going to theirs and “we don’t know” exactly what to expect.
The target class size, which is limited by the availability of housing, is 1,040 students, said Schmill. This is a slight decrease from the 1,069 students enrolled in the class of 2011.
Currently, 1,031 students have accepted admission offers, but that number will vary slightly. Some students have extensions while their financial aid packages are finalized. Others may switch enrollments as they are accepted off of waitlists at other schools. Schmill said he hopes the waitlist shuffles are settled by June.
This year, MIT and other top-tier colleges such as Harvard and Princeton increased their financial aid offers, and both Harvard and Princeton also eliminated their early admissions programs. Though MIT increased its financial aid, some schools with larger endowments were able to increase their aid even more. These changes in the admissions landscape made the yield unpredictable, with some concern that there would be decreased yields at top universities.
But for most schools, the yield remained steady or only dipped slightly. Harvard’s and Yale’s yields were near 78 percent and 69 percent respectively, similar to past yields. Princeton’s yield dropped one percent from 69 to 68. Schmill said yield fluctuated because of “more students who applied to more schools and were admitted to more schools.” Thus, more students had a wider variety of options to choose from.
The current demographic makeup of the class, which may change as waitlisted students are admitted, is 46 percent female, 25 percent under-represented minorities, and 18 percent first-generation college students. “Despite all the uncertainty of the admissions process this year, I’m really quite pleased how the class has shaped up,” said Schmill.