Record yield of 73 percent for admitted Class of 2017
1,125 out of 1,548 take Institute’s offer of admission
The yield for the incoming Class of 2017 is MIT’s highest ever. According to Dean of Admissions Stu Schmill ’86, 1,125 took up MIT’s offer of admission, representing 73 percent of the pool of 1,548 accepted students, who themselves made up only 8.2 percent of the 18,989 applicants. The yield is up from 2012 and 2011, when 70 percent and 65 percent of accepted students chose to enroll at MIT, respectively.
The tentative incoming class is slightly smaller than the Class of 2016, with five fewer students. However, the 2017 class size is likely to decrease with the “summer melt” as some students may elect to take gap years or choose to attend other schools.
Regardless, the yield is a record, which Schmill attributed to an excellent, though slightly rainy, CPW, and the overall culture of MIT. “Students are really excited about the learning environment at MIT and the opportunities that they will have to explore their interests and grow as individuals,” he said. With the increasing importance of science and technology in our daily lives, “there really has never been a better time to be a student at MIT.”
Many of MIT’s peer institutions also saw increased yields. Harvard saw 82 percent of its 2,029 accepted applicants take up its offer, up from 80 percent the year before. Princeton saw its yield rise from 65 percent to 67 percent for the Class of 2017. In California, Caltech’s yield rose from 41 percent to 43 percent, and Stanford saw a record 77 percent of accepted students enroll, up from 73 percent for its Class of 2016.
With MIT’s Class of 2017 roughly the same size as the Class of 2016, no students will be taken from off waitlist for the second year in a row. Schmill expressed that he was disappointed that no one would be admitted from the waitlist: “There were so many great students on that list and we were hoping to be able to admit some of them.” For the Class of 2018, Schmill says that the admissions office is “pretty sure” that they will be more conservative. However, many others factors will still influence the number of students admitted in the next cycle, according to Schmill.
In terms of demographics, the Class of 2017 is 45 percent women, 22 percent underrepresented minorities (African American, Hispanic, or Native America), 16 percent first-generation college students, and 8 percent international. They come from 48 of the 50 states and are citizens of 52 countries. These demographics are fairly representative of the admitted students pool, of which 48 percent were women, 24 percent underrepresented minorities, 16 percent first-generation, and 8 percent international.