Acing MIT’s 2024-2025 Supplemental Essays
2024-2025 MIT SUPPLEMENTAL ESSAY PROMPTS
If you are applying to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for regular decision, then this is a must-read post for you. MIT does not use the Common App. They have their own application, which means they ask questions unique to them. Therefore, it’s crucial that you write these essays from scratch. Taking essays you’ve written for other schools and changing a thing or two so they vaguely match what the prompt is asking for isn’t going to cut it. But don’t worry, after reading this, you’ll be a champ at writing these essays from scratch. Let’s dive in!
1. What field of study appeals to you the most right now? (Note: Applicants select from a drop-down list.) Tell us more about why this field of study at MIT appeals to you. (100-200 words)
This is both a "Why Major" and "Why MIT" question. MIT wants to know why you are choosing to study a particular field there. For this essay, you want to lean into your hook, which should explain how studying your chosen academic area will help change the world for the better. To do this, start the essay by explaining how your preferred field of study can make the world a better place, and provide a reason why making this change is personal to you. Afterward, cite something specific at MIT that you can leverage to make your dream a reality.. Pick something that has a degree of permanence at MIT, such as tenured professors who have a history of working with undergraduates, a demonstrable specialization of one of their academic departments , or an MIT institute whose mission aligns with yours.
2. We know you lead a busy life, full of activities, many of which are required of you. Tell us about something you do simply for the pleasure of it. (100-200 words)
The goal of this essay is to showcase how either your quantitative or qualitative reasoning skills enable you to derive more joy from ordinary activities. For example, let's say you love to play Yu-Gi-Oh. In an effort to have the most consistent deck possible, you might use principles from probability to compute the ideal ratios of card types for your deck. Or if you love watching sports, you can dive into the technical aspects of the game, such as the betting analysis, which is math-intensive. The aim of this essay is to show that you can intertwine critical thinking—either quantitative or qualitative—into your daily life, where you take abstract principles such as Bayesian reasoning, the laws of physics, or Occam’s Razor, and apply them to everyday situations. As always remember: show, don't tell. Make sure readers can visualize you performing these activities. While some reach their goals by following well-trodden paths, others blaze their own trails, achieving the unexpected. In what ways have you done something different than what was expected in your educational journey?
3. While some reach their goals following well-trodden paths, others blaze their own trails achieving the unexpected. In what ways have you done something different than what was expected in your educational journey? (100-200 words)
For this essay, you should showcase your agency. To do this, discuss how you went above and beyond what was required of you, and provide compelling reasons for your choices. Perhaps you found a flaw in your mandated curriculum, or you started questioning an academic path that, given your interests and experience, had seemed natural for you to take. Examples could include competing in a competition or convincing a professor to accept you into their lab. The key is demonstrating agency—showing that you are capable of shaping your academic journey independently and that you have clear interests and goals.
4. MIT brings people with diverse backgrounds together to collaborate, from tackling the world’s biggest challenges to lending a helping hand. Describe one way you have collaborated with others to learn from them, with them, or contribute to your community together. (100-200 words)
For this essay, you want to give the reader a vivid picture of you in a community that, to the best of your abilities and experiences, is as close as possible to the types of peer communities you will find on MIT's campus. Ideally, you'll write about how being in a community of your peers enabled you to learn something vital related to the area of study you chose for the first MIT essay. You want MIT to see that you will benefit from being around fellow MIT students. If you focus more on the contribution part, be sure to give them a clear before and after picture. You want the reader to be able to visualize the exact impact you had on your community.
5. How did you manage a situation or challenge that you didn’t expect? What did you learn from it?
For this question, you should not talk about challenging classes that many other MIT applicants will have taken and could have aced while half asleep. Your answer to this question should revolve around something that won't hint that you might struggle to keep up with your peers at MIT. Instead aim for something like this for instance. Let's say you were doing research, and something in the papers you were reading didn't make sense. Upon looking into it deeper, you discovered an error in those papers, perhaps an equation was misprinted. Alternatively, you can talk about having disagreements with peers and how you resolved them. Another topic to consider is how you were writing a persuasive essay on a position you hold dear, and as you were doing research on the counter-arguments, you started to lose faith in your position. Showing specifically how you handled situations like these would make for a really strong essay.
If you would like a review of your MIT essays by an admissions expert or have any further questions about MIT’s essays or other college admissions essays, please schedule a free consultation with us below. We would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.
