MIT released it's Class of 2027 Acceptance Rates at 6:28 PM (Tau Time) 4.68%

For the first time since the pandemic started, MIT's overall acceptance rate went up not down.

This is purely a function of getting about 20% fewer applications due to mandatory standardized testing requirements. Had MIT been test-optional, the admit rate would be based on 33,796 students, not 26,914 students, and the rate would have dropped to 3.73%.

Here are the MIT admit rates from the past 8 cycles.

2016-7.81%

2017-7.10%

2018-6.74%

2019-6.62%

2020-7.26%

2021-4.03%

2022- 3.96%

2023 -4.68%

The bottom line is that it was just as hard to get into MIT as in the last 2 cycles and now you can't really shoot your shot because they require mandatory SAT or ACT scores and most of those admitted have 99% percentile scores.

When I compare and contrast Columbia to MIT, I think over the next decade Columbia's admission rates will be lower than MIT's because they have moved to an indefinite test-optional policy which will encourage more high school students from around the world to apply. While both schools claim to use a holistic evaluation approach, it appears MIT's selection process is more quantitative data-driven than qualitative.