We work closely with all families who qualify for financial aid to develop an individual affordability plan tailored to their financial circumstances.
Meeting the needs of all students
We are proud to be one of the very few institutions in the United States that are need blind and full need01 <a href="/glossary#term-need-blind-admissions">Need blind</a> means that we don’t consider your ability to pay for college in the admissions process; <a href="/glossary#term-full-need">full need</a> means we are committed to meeting 100% of demonstrated financial need with our aid. for all of our undergraduate students, domestic and international, and most MIT students receive need-based aid. The median annual price paid by an undergraduate who received an MIT Scholarship was $10,26802 2024–2025 is the last year for which we have full data. for the 2024–2025 academic year.
Tuition-free
Beginning with the 2025–2026 academic year, students from families with an annual income under $200,000—about the 80th percentile income for American families—typically attend MIT tuition-free. This means that your total grant and scholarship aid will cover at least the cost of MIT’s tuition.
$0 Parent contribution
For the 50% of American families with income below $100,000, parents can expect to pay nothing at all toward the full cost of their students’ MIT education,03 Students, however, are still expected to contribute toward their own expenses from their summer savings contribution and student employment during the school year. As a student, you may be able to offset your expected student contribution with an outside scholarship or a Federal Pell Grant if eligible. which includes tuition as well as housing, dining, fees, and an allowance for books and personal expenses.
How our financial aid helps families
We plan to award $176 million in MIT need-based scholarships in 2025–2026, compared to the $162 million awarded in 2024–2025.
57% of full-time undergraduates received an MIT Scholarship during the 2024–2025 academic year. Among those, the median family contribution after student term-time work04 Term-time work means work that you do <i>during</i> the school year, and is considered a part of your financial aid offer by a suggested amount on your offer letter. This is separate from your summer earnings expectation. Not everyone decides to take advantage of work opportunities during the school year, and some choose to meet their term-time work amount by using <a href="https://sfs.mit.edu/undergraduate-students/types-of-aid/other-scholarships-grants/">outside scholarships or grants</a> (including the Pell Grant), or student loans. was $10,268.
39.47% of undergraduates received scholarships and grants equal to or greater than tuition. Their remaining expenses were covered by their family or by the students themselves, through paid work or student loans. For families with incomes less than or equal to $140,000 in 2024–2025, the median student loan among those who took loans was $5,442.05 This amount reflects a $5,500 federal loan after the origination fee has been deducted.
MIT Scholarship by family income range
The chart below shows how we award an MIT Scholarship based on your family’s income and assets. MIT Scholarships are grants that do not need to be repaid, and 57% of undergraduates received one in 2024–2025. The median net price is the amount of money you will still need to pay toward your education, because we expect that students share in this commitment. Families choose how to pay for their MIT education in a variety of ways, including from income and savings, outside scholarships, student employment, and loans.
| Income range | Applicants who received MIT Scholarship | Median MIT Scholarship | What it covers | Median net price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $65,000 | 100% | $76,825 | Tuition, fees, housing, and $4,289 toward dining costs | $564
46% of students with a family income under $65,000 attended MIT with the full cost of attendance covered |
| $65,000– $100,000 |
99% | $71,291 | Tuition, fees, and $11,135 toward housing costs | $8,847 |
| $100,000– $140,000 |
97% | $66,345 | Tuition, fees, and $6,189 toward housing | $14,859 |
| $140,000– $175,000 |
97% | $60,627 | Tuition, fees, and $471 toward housing | $20,969 |
| $175,000– $225,000 |
96% | $48,169 | 81% of tuition | $33,460 |
| Over $225,000 | 58% | $27,031 | 45% of tuition | $52,376 |
Please note: The information above reflects the 2023–2024 academic year, the last year for which we have full data.
Other personal financial resources
We calculate your financial aid offer such that we believe you shouldn’t need to take out any loans to afford MIT; and indeed, 88% of MIT students graduate debt-free. However, some MIT families choose to take out loans for a variety of reasons (for example, to advantageously manage other assets, shift when and how you want to work, and so on), and our staff can help you understand your options.
Rather than borrow, most students opt to work during the academic year. At MIT, this work often provides students not only a way to help pay for college but also with world-class research experience. Through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program for example, over 90% of MIT undergraduates work on paid research projects before they graduate.
We should note that the actual cost—to MIT—of administering an MIT education is about twice the listed tuition. Thus, even those students who attend MIT without any need-based aid effectively receive a 50% discount on the actual cost of paying our world-class faculty, operating the research laboratories where students conduct experiments and learn cutting edge skills, providing included care at MIT Health, and so on.
If you’re business-minded, you may ask why we offer our widely-desired education at a loss. The main reason is that, as a nonprofit educational institution, our North Star is the MIT mission: to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship to best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.
Advancing that mission means attracting, enrolling, and educating the world’s most promising talent for the benefit of future generations. Thus, we establish our tuition and aid not as a product company would set a price (to cover operating costs with some margin for profit), but based on what we think is required to recruit, enroll, and educate the problem-solvers who will make the world a better place. We operate our education at a short-term loss to MIT in order to make a long-term investment in our common future. This model would not be possible if we were tuition-dependent, and is instead floated by an endowment funded by our alumni who benefited from this mission.
- Need blind means that we don’t consider your ability to pay for college in the admissions process; full need means we are committed to meeting 100% of demonstrated financial need with our aid. back to text ↑
- 2024–2025 is the last year for which we have full data. back to text ↑
- Students, however, are still expected to contribute toward their own expenses from their summer savings contribution and student employment during the school year. As a student, you may be able to offset your expected student contribution with an outside scholarship or a Federal Pell Grant if eligible. back to text ↑
- Term-time work means work that you do during the school year, and is considered a part of your financial aid offer by a suggested amount on your offer letter. This is separate from your summer earnings expectation. Not everyone decides to take advantage of work opportunities during the school year, and some choose to meet their term-time work amount by using outside scholarships or grants (including the Pell Grant), or student loans. back to text ↑
- This amount reflects a $5,500 federal loan after the origination fee has been deducted. back to text ↑