MIT's Class of 2017

What makes the Class of 2017 unique is “their talent, energy, creativity, optimism, diversity, and passion,” wrote Dean of Admissions Stu Schmill ’86 in an email to The Tech. Last week, the Office of Admissions released a more detailed profile of the 1,116 members of the new freshman class.

This admissions cycle saw 18,989 hopefuls, 880 more than last year, apply to MIT, and 1,548 receive admission. The acceptance rate was 8.2 percent, MIT’s lowest-ever and down from 8.9 percent the previous cycle. The success rate was even lower for international students, with only 115 of 4,363 foreign applicants being offered acceptance. While 531 more students applied through early action than last year, 30 fewer people were accepted early. For the second year in a row, no students were accepted from the waitlist. The 75th percentile of SAT scores in the math, reading, and writing sections were 800, 790, and 790, respectively.

Of the 72.1 percent of admitted students who chose to enter MIT this fall, 1 percent were Native American, 7 percent were African American, 15 percent were Hispanic, 29 percent were Asian-American, and 39 percent were Caucasian. This distribution of ethnicity stayed fairly constant compared to freshman class statistics from previous years in the Office of the Provost’s Common Data Set, as did the proportion of women in the class at 45 percent.

Two thirds of these students went to a public school, while 15 percent went to independent schools, 8 percent to religious schools, 9 percent to foreign schools, and only one percent were homeschooled. There are a total of 848 different high schools represented in the Class of 2017.

The best-represented U.S. region was the Mid-Atlantic at 21 percent, while the most-represented U.S. state was California.

—Deborah Plana

http://tech.mit.edu/V133/N36/2017.html