Scholarships and grants are forms of financial aid that do not need to be repaid. Beyond the MIT Scholarship, undergraduates may receive scholarships and grants from government and private sources.
Federal grants
You’ll automatically be considered for federal grant programs when you apply for financial aid each year. If you’re eligible, we’ll include the grants in your financial aid award. MIT administers four federal grant programs:
- Federal Pell Grant
- Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant
- Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grant
- Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant
State grants
Some states have their own financial aid programs, including need-based grants and merit-based scholarships. If you’re a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, you may qualify for financial aid from your home state.
If you receive a state grant, we’ll include it in your aid award as soon as we receive it from your state.
Outside scholarships and grants
There are many private scholarships that you can apply for on your own. MIT considers outside scholarships as additional money that you have available to reduce or cover your student contribution. When we calculate your financial aid, we consider all the resources your family has available. Outside scholarships are considered available resources. Any outside scholarship will first be used to reduce your student contribution. If your outside scholarship is more than the $5,400 student contribution, the remainder will reduce your MIT scholarship. An outside scholarship cannot be used to replace the parent contribution.
If you would like to apply for private scholarships to cover your student contribution, we recommend the following resources. There are many scholarship search engines that can help you find additional funding. Please know that you should never pay for a scholarship search service. You can also reach out to any groups or organizations that you have been involved with to see if they offer private scholarships.
We recommend the following sites to get you started:
What you should do if you get a private scholarship or grant
First, congratulations! If you receive outside scholarships or grants, you will need to submit the Outside Award Reply Form. This lets us update your financial aid award.
Please note: If you, or your scholarship organization, do not let us know how to distribute your award (all to one semester or split evenly between the two), the funds will be distributed evenly between the fall and spring semesters.