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Tuition-Free MIT in 2025: Why MIT May Become More Affordable Than Ever Before
11/26/2024•12 minute read
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Free Tuition for More Families in 2025
Commitments to Affordability & Inclusion
How To Calculate Demonstrated Need
This blog post explores MIT's transformative financial aid expansion, just announced and set to begin in 2025, including plans to make MIT tuition-free to undergraduates from families earning under $200,000. Keep reading to discover who qualifies, about additional financial aid commitments MIT is making, and how this may change your own calculations if you're thinking about applying to MIT next year.
MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ranks #2 on Crimson Education's list of Top 25 US Colleges and Universities and on US News & World Report rankings, and it's ranked #1 for undergraduate engineering programs by US News.
QS ranks MIT the #1 university in the world.
These rankings are no surprise for most students. But fewer people know that MIT top also gets top marks for overall value and affordability from US News and other outlets.
Now MIT is poised to maintain its status for affordability and access, announcing plans to make MIT more affordable for more families, beginning in 2025.
Students from families with less income sometimes assume that the tuition costs at top-ranked schools put the best institutions out of reach financially.
But there's really much more to calculating college costs than meets the eye in the world of university financial aid.
In this post, we explain how MIT's recent announcement confirms the school's commitment to affordability for students from all backgrounds, and why MIT will be even more affordable for more families beginning in 2025.
Free Tuition for Families With Incomes Under $200,000 Beginning in 2025
Weighed against high tuition rates, schools like Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, and other highly selective universities, can still be worth the cost, offering a transformative educational experience.
The good news is that efforts to increase need-based financial aid are on the rise, including at many top schools, as US universities want to increase inclusion through affordability.
One such school is MIT.
On November 20, 2024, MIT officials announced that students with family income below $200,000 can expect to attend MIT tuition free, starting in 2025.
Adding support like this should encourage a greater number of qualified students to apply and promote greater inclusion of more students with exceptional STEM talents and potential. With the knowledge that an MIT education is financially within reach for all qualified admits, more outstanding students, regardless of resources, are likely to apply to and — if accomplished enough to be accepted — attend MIT.
How Many Families Qualify for the Expanded Tuition Offset?
It’s hard to say how many applicants and how many admits will fall into different income categories from year to year at MIT in particular, but about 80% of US families earn less than $200,000.
Free-Ride Support for Families Earning Less Than $100,000
In other good news for MIT hopefuls, MIT already, this year, raised another income threshold for financial aid. This means more students are now qualifying for support that covers much more than just tuition.
This “free ride” financial aid package is now available for most students with family incomes less than $100,000, an increase from last year’s threshold of $75,000.
For the students who qualify, MIT covers not just the cost of tuition, but virtually all significant educational costs, including fees, housing, and dining, along with stipends that pay for books and offset some personal expenses.
What This Means for Students and Parents
Based on MIT’s recent announcement, here’s a snapshot of what students should expect to pay vs. not pay if admitted to MIT:
- Income Below $100,000: Starting in the Fall of 2024, families with income below $100,000 who have typical assets or less and qualify, can expect to pay almost nothing for the full cost of attendance.
- Income Below $200,000: Starting in the Fall of 2025, families with income below $200,000 will no longer need to pay tuition (the current threshold for tuition-free attendance is $140,000).
- Income Greater Than $200,00: Some students of families earning more than $200,000 may still qualify for need-based scholarships to offset some educational costs, with funding for need-based financial aid up 70% at MIT from a decade ago.
Snapshot of Increased Financial Aid Coverage at MIT
| Income Level | Increased MIT Financial Aid for Families | Change From Prior Year |
|---|---|---|
| Below $100,000 | Tuition/Fees + Room & Board fully covered | Threshold increased from $75,000 to $100,000 |
| $100,000 - $200,000 | Tuition fully covered | Threshold increasing from $140,000 this year to $200,000 in 2025 |
| Above $200,000 | May qualify for varying levels of need-based financial aid based on financial circumstances | MIT has earmarked $167.3 million in need-based financial aid this year for undergraduate students, up 70% over the past ten years |
Source: MIT News, 20 November, 2024
“With the need-based financial aid we provide today, our education is much more affordable now than at any point in the past even though the sticker price of MIT is higher now than it was when I was an undergraduate.”
- Stu Schmill (Class of '86), MIT Dean of Admissions, MIT News, 20 November, 2024
Affordability & Inclusion at MIT: "Don't let concerns about cost stand in your way"
MIT is clearly making it possible for more families to qualify for a greater amount of financial aid, so if you’re accomplished and fortunate enough to get admitted to this school — despite a less than 5% acceptance rate — a lack of family income will hopefully not hold you back!
In fact, it can't be overemphasized that how much you pay to attend MIT may be far less than the school’s sticker price, especially for students from families with less income and fewer assets.
Sticker Price vs. Real Costs
Students from families with less income and resources need to remember that the actual cost to attend MIT may be far less than the school's advertised sticker price.
For example, MIT News reports that in 2023, “the median annual cost paid by an MIT undergraduate receiving financial aid was $12,938, allowing 87 percent of students in the Class of 2024 to graduate debt-free.” Those who did rely on student loans graduated with a median debt of $14,844.
Affordability Impacts Your Education ROI Too
MIT's affordability also means you can access an absolutely stellar technology and engineering school and graduate with impressive credentials — you also get all of this at a lower cost.
When you compare the average debt after graduation with the average starting salary of an MIT graduate — which is about $125,000 — that’s a pretty good return on investment.
Therefore, if you’re up to the challenge of getting into MIT, don’t let the school's $62,000 tuition figure keep you from applying. You need to look at the cost in the context of your family finances and demonstrated need before you try to guess what you’ll really have to pay.
MIT's recent decision to raise the income threshold to receive full tuition coverage also reflects the school's larger commitments to affordability and inclusion:
- MIT does not expect students on aid to take loans
- MIT does not favor children of alumni and donors for admissions
- 18 percent of current MIT undergraduates are first-generation college students
“We’re determined to make this transformative educational experience available to the most talented students, whatever their financial circumstances. To every student out there who dreams of coming to M.I.T.: Don’t let concerns about cost stand in your way.”
- MIT President Dr. Sally Kornbluth, MIT News, 20 November, 2024
How To Calculate Your Own Family's Demonstrated Need
Wondering how much aid you might qualify for at MIT?
The most straight-forward approach is to try to calculate your family's "demonstrated need" (how much support you'll need), or your family's "estimated contribution" (what portion of expenses a family with your resources would be expected to pay).
Unfortunately, trying to make sense of financial aid and how its calculated can feel challenging.
The good news is that online calculators can make it easier to estimate in advance your costs to attend MIT:
- MIT has an online financial need calculator you can use.
- A similar tool you can use, for a wide range of colleges and universities, is the MyinTuition Quick College Cost Calculator.
Remember though, it's a good idea to gather some general information about your family's finances before getting started, such as total family income, taxes paid, uncovered medical expenses, mortgage debt, total family assets... and so forth.
Final Thoughts
Today it is more and more common to find schools seeking to lower financial barriers to attendance, and this is true even for some of the most selective schools in the US.
What does this mean for students? Above all, it means that you shouldn’t let “sticker prices” drive your decision making about which schools belong on your application list and which don’t.
Instead, you should focus on which schools, academically are a good fit for you, creating a list of reach, target, and safety schools — based on your qualifications and academic goals, not your financial position.
That said, financial aid commitments do differ across schools, so you will want to research the costs of attending schools you’re targeting or discuss all of your options with a qualified college counselor who can help.
Crimson Education strategists are also great partners to have in your corner when navigating all aspects of your college journey. With personalized application support from our team members, Crimson students increase there chances for success by 7x on average, and see results like these:
- 100% of Crimson students are admitted to at least one of their safety schools
- 98% of Crimson students are admitted to at least one of their target schools
- 55% of Crimson students are admitted to at least one of their reach schools
- 30% of Crimson students admitted to at least one of their extreme reach schools
That's right, almost 1 in 3 of our students get an offer from one of their extreme reach schools!
To get answers to your questions or to find out if our services are the right fit for your college dreams, schedule your own free feedback session today.
Talking to a Crimson strategist is an effective way to see what it’s like to have an expert from a world-leading admissions team on your side, and it’s the fastest way for us to learn more about your college goals and interests.
Key Resources & Further Reading
About the Author
Keith Nickolaus
Keith Nickolaus is a former educator with a passion for languages, literature, and lifelong learning. After obtaining a B.A. from UC Santa Cruz and exploring university life in Paris, Keith earned his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley, and then worked for 16 years in K12 education before setting up shop as a freelance writer.
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