New Info for Fall
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2025 Application Cycle:
- The
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- Grad Admissions Chair for AY25 is Luca Carlone.
- The Graduate Program Staff includes Rachael Draper and Erinn Taylor Barroso.
- (Completed) The early admissions process for the 5-year combined SB/SM program opens on June 1, 2024. Review will run through mid-August, with decisions being sent by September 1, 2024.
- Our current process flowchart can be found here. This is a detailed step-by-step explanation of the graduate admissions review process. Note that the threshold for a candidate to advance to Round 2 is currently set to 2.5, but an increase of this threshold is being discussed as a potential change for this year.
- Starting Fall 2025, all faculty are member of the Graduate Admissions Committee (GAC).
Useful Information for Reviewers:
Useful information for All Reviewers
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- The main application review site is here https://gradapplyapply.mit.edu/aeroastromanage/reviewreader/
- There is now a "My Unread Files" button on the left of your review interface in the Query menu, to show you your unread folders only.
- New GRE Quantitative and Verbal Scoring band, conversations and explanations are here: New GRE
- Average AA test scores of admitted students from Fall 2016 are here: 2017 Average Test Scores (also gives TOEFL information).
- The 2010 US News and World Report Rankings for Engineering Schools are here: USN&WR Rankings
- Peterson's Online Guide! Just type the school you're looking for into the search bar at the top! http://www.petersons.com/
- Rankings on Indian engineering schools here
- Fulbright Fellowships
- Brazilian national Fellowships (MIT specific)
- 2016 US Air Force Academy Statistics (sorted by GPA)
- Council of Graduate Schools Publication Resource
- Dealing with Application Fraud (confidentiality, privacy, etc.)
- Spring 2013 Grad Admissions Transition Update (from Dean Christine Ortiz)
- Fall 2014 deadlines for Competitor Programs
- Admissions Update from Christine Ortiz (2013)
- Misrepresentation of Information in Graduate Admissions Memo and spreadsheet (from Dean Christine Ortiz, 7/10/14)
- QS World University Rankings by Subject (4/29/15) (AA/MechE rankings on page 19)
- GE Applicants: Please take extra care in reviewing applicants who are working full time for GE - we currently have 3 cases where students from GE are performing poorly mostly due to the time constraints imposed by GE, and HQ asks for careful review before they can be admitted to our program, going forward.
GAC-specific information
- You can send mail to the entire GAC via aagac@mit.edu.
- Any difficulties, please mail Brian Wardle (wardle@mit.edu) or Beth Marois (bethamar@mit.edu)
- The 2016-2017 GAC members are here: Aero Astro Grad Admissions Committee Members
- Dec 2011 Faculty News Letter article on Institute Grad Admissions by Christine Ortiz
- There is now a "My Unread Files" button on the left of your review interface in the Query menu, to show you your unread folders only.
- Letter templates (admissions, waitlist, rejections, etc.) are here
- Tag meaning: They are tagged as such when these items are missing. Complete with Tag in () means the unofficial copy is here so we're going forward with the review, but a favorable decision would be held until receipt of the actual document. They are all cleaned up before we send out decisions.
- E = IELTS or TOEFL
- G = GRE
- T = transcript
- Intended meaning of scores for GAC:
- 4: Definite Admit
- 3: Admissible
- 2: Possibly admissible (unlikely to be admitted – probably shouldn't be read by sector)
- 1: Probable reject (not worth sending to sector)
- 0: Definite reject (consider summary rejection by GAC chair)
(The parenthetical interpretation of the scores above is at the GAC level only. The scores at the sector level are purely for ranking candidates.)
- As of 2011, we no longer fast-track students.
- Send to sector criterion:
- A folder will be sent to the sectors for additional reviews if it receives no more than one score of 2 or lower.
- Under-represented groups will be sent to the sector for additional reviews if it receives two scores of 2 or higher. If a woman or URM gets a 3+ as their first review, they will immediately be sent for faculty review.
- A tiebreaker application will only be sent to the 2nd round with a 3 or better as the tie review
- Reject criterion:
- GAC will usually not ask sector for review if it receives 2 or more scores of 2 or lower.
- "0 & 1 policing" will be done by GAC Chair to facilitate efficient review of applications. Chair Note: via Action pulldown, unassign GAC Reader via "Remove assignment". Beth officially marks later as "Probable Reject" via "Add tag"
GAC 2016-2017 Schedule
- (SLATE)
- Navigate to "Queue" to view your unread assigned applications for review
- Overview of the Grad Admissions process and information for new faculty
- Have a look at our suggested Scoring Guidelines here. Feel free to use these guidelines if needed, when you are choosing the numerical score of an applicant you are reviewing.
- Intended meaning of review scores:
- 4: Definitely Admit
- 3.5: Admit
- 3: Admissible
- 2: Probably Admissible
- 1: Reject
- All official decisions from the department will not be sent until end of February
- For any difficulties, please mail Luca Carlone (lcarlone@mit.edu) or Rachael Draper (rdraper@mit.edu)
- Further information:
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Admissions
- Departmental Fellowships
- USAF and USSF Applicant Data forthcoming
- Council of Graduate Schools Publication Resource: April 15 Resolution
(The April 15 resolution is an agreement among the signatory graduate schools to provide applicants until April 15 to consider offers of admission that also include financial support.)
Resources on Rankings:
- US News and Reports (Best Global Universities): https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/rankings
- US News and Reports (Best Engineering Schools): https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/eng-rankings
- QS World University Rankings: https://www.topuniversities.com/qs-world-university-rankings
GAC 2024-2025 Schedule:
- December 1, 2024: Grad applications website closes.
- December 2-8, 2024: Triaging by Graduate Program Staff and GAC Chair.
- December 9, 2024: Round 1 Folder Reviews begin.
- January 10, 2025: Round 1 completed. All Round 1 folders have two GAC reads.
- February 1, 2025: All Round 2 reviews completed.
- February 5-7, 2025: Sector Admissions Meetings
- All decisions released morning of February 21, 2025.
- March 12-13, 2025: AeroAstro Open House
- April 15, 2025: Reply to Offer deadline
- May 30, 2025
- Nov 7, 2016, 10:00am: Kickoff Meeting
- December 15, 2016: Grad applications website closes
- December 8, 2016 - January 9, 2017 - GAC Folder Reading
- January 16, 2017: All folders have two GAC reads
- Wed. Jan 18, 2017: 1st GAC Review Meeting
- January 23, 2017: All folders completed
- February 7-15, 2017: Sector Admissions Meetings
- Week of Feb 20, 2017: Students notified of admissions decisions - all decisions sent by March 1, 2017
- March 17, 2017: Open house
- April 15, 2017: Graduate Reply Deadline
- May 31, 2017: Wait List is released.