research experience

[molliebatmit]

<p>First, you do not apply to a specific school at MIT as an undergraduate. All the prospective Sloan students are considered under the same criteria as the prospective scientists and the prospective engineers.</p>

<p>Research is a great EC to have when applying to MIT, but it is certainly not required, and applicants without research experience are not at an automatic disadvantage.</p>

<p>Incidentally, associate director of admissions [Matt</a> McGann](<a href=“http://matt.mitblogs.com%5DMatt”>http://matt.mitblogs.com) answered both of these questions in his latest [blog</a> entry](<a href=“http://matt.mitblogs.com/archives/2006/07/july_questions_1.html]blog”>http://matt.mitblogs.com/archives/2006/07/july_questions_1.html):

Claire wrote, “Does MIT give any admissions ‘weight’ to those wishing to major in a field that is not innately techical, such as Comparative Media Studies, Writing and Humanistic Studies, or History?”</p>

<p>When you apply to MIT, you don’t apply to a specific department, but rather to MIT as a whole. And when we admit a student, we admit that student to all of MIT, and at the conclusion of freshman year, that student may choose from any of MIT’s majors, regardless of what was written on the application. This means that every student we admit we know can do the work in both MIT’s science & math core (9 classes in math, science, engineering and technology) as well as the HASS requirement (8 classes in humanities, arts, and social science). So in short, no, we don’t weight specific majors.

Most students who are admitted to MIT have not performed any formal scientific research prior to coming to MIT.

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