New Info for Fall 2025 Application Cycle:
- The 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:
Current Status
- 12/1/10: 100 submitted, 31 complete
- 12/9/10: 156 submitted, 59 complete
- 12/16/10: 481 submitted, applications closed.
- 12/29/10: 337 complete and assigned, 54 pending assignment, 74 missing transcript or more, 16 rejected due to low TOEFL
- 1/4/11: 403 complete and assigned, 62 missing transcript or more, 16 rejected due to low TOEFL
- 1/5/11: 415 complete and assigned, 49 missing transcript or more, 17 rejected due to low TOEFL
- 1/9/11: 438 complete and assigned, 26 missing transcript or more, 17 rejected due to low TOEFL
- 1/13/11: 445 complete and assigned, 18 incomplete, 18 rejected due to low TOEFL.
89 Admissible, sent for sector review
21 Fast track, sent for sector review
117 Inadmissible, no further action
Of those 227, 49 had a third review.
Of the remaining 218:
18 ready for decision
53 Pending GAC 3rd review
147 Pending initial GAC review
Useful information
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- The main application review site is here here https://gradapplyapply.mit.edu/aeroastromanage/review/
- The 2010-2011 GAC members are here: Aero Astro Grad Admissions Committee Members
- Average AA test scores of admitted students from Fall 2010 are here: 2010 Average Test Scores (also gives TOEFL information).
- The 2010 US News and World Report Rankings for Engineering Schools are here: USN&WR Rankings
- You can send mail to the entire GAC via aa-gac@mit.edu.
- Any difficulties, please mail me (Nick) at nickroy@csail.mit.edu or call my cell at 617-875-2506.
Issues
- The complete transcripts are not yet available. They should be available by the beginning of January at the latest.
- The major codes (i.e., 16) correspond to MIT Course numbers. i.e., a major in 16 would be Aero/Astro. 61 is Course VI, 6-1, 63 is Course VI, 6-3. These are selected by the applicant from a drop-down list. Fixed 12/21/10.
GAC Specific Info
- Intended meanings of scores:
- 4: Fasttrack
- 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)
(This interpretation of the scores is at the GAC level. The scores at the sector level are purely for ranking candidates, and don't have a specific interpretation.)
- Fast-track criteria:
- A folder will be fast-tracked if both initial reviewers give the folder a '4', or if two of three reviewers give the folder a '4' and GAC discussion indicates a fast-track is warranted.
- A candidate admitted as a fast-track will receive an early admission letter and individual faculty can begin contacting the student, but the student will be invited to attend the open house with regular admits. As of 2010, we no longer invite fast-track students to visit early as our success rate with students visiting outside the open house has not been high.
- 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.
- Reject criterion:
- A folder will most likely not receive additional reviews from the sector if it receives 2 or more scores of 2 or lower.
GAC Schedule
- Nov 10: 2:30-3:30 Kick-off Meeting
- Dec 1: Initial assignment of folders
- Dec 1: Associate Dept. Head to contact sectors for data on number of advisees and funding offers anticipated.
- Dec 15: Admissions deadline. Try to get folders of all early applicants read (at least the first 10).
- Jan 10: All folders read with 2 reviews.
- Jan 14: Review meeting. Agenda and Minutes
- Jan 24: All folders with at least 1 score of 3 or higher AND at least one score with 2 or lower read by 3rd reviewer
- Jan 28: All folders read, sent to sectors.
- reader/ (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: Wait List is released.
General Admissions Information (not updated in AY25):
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