MIT does not publish a minimum GPA for undergraduate or graduate admission. Graduate departments decide for themselves, and the ones we checked name no cutoff at all. The bar is still very high. MIT’s graduate programs made offers to about 9% of applicants for Fall 2025, and applicants who report MIT results to The GradCafe show an average undergraduate GPA of 3.83.
So the honest answer to “what GPA do you need for MIT” is: no fixed number, but a strong record in the subjects closest to your field. This guide covers both undergraduate and graduate admission, with every figure linked to its source. Most of it is about grad school, where the rules differ by department.
What GPA do you need to get into MIT?
For undergraduate (first-year) admission: MIT does not set a minimum GPA, and unlike most selective universities it does not publish an average high school GPA for admitted students. Admission is extremely selective. For the Class of 2029, MIT received 29,281 applications and admitted 1,334 students, an admit rate of 4.6%, according to MIT Facts. The student newspaper The Tech reported a similar 4.6% for the Class of 2030.
For graduate admission (master’s and PhD): MIT’s Office of Graduate Education does not set a university-wide GPA minimum. Each department runs its own admissions and reads your record in context. Some say so directly: Civil and Environmental Engineering tells applicants that faculty care about how you did in related subjects, not necessarily your overall GPA. The Center for Computational Science and Engineering says it does not track the average GPA of admitted students at all, because applicants come from so many grading systems.
“No minimum” does not mean “easy”. It means MIT looks at the whole file, and the competition sets the real bar.
MIT undergraduate GPA: what admitted students have
If you are applying as a first-year student, here is what MIT actually publishes:
- Admit rate: 4.6% for the Class of 2029 (1,334 of 29,281 applicants).
- GPA: no average published. In MIT’s 2024-25 Common Data Set, 96% of enrolled students who submitted a class rank were in the top 10% of their high school class.
- Testing: MIT requires the SAT or ACT. It reinstated the requirement in March 2022, ahead of most of its peers.
In practice, nearly every admitted student has top grades in the most demanding math and science courses available to them. The rest of this guide covers graduate admission, which is what The GradCafe’s data tracks.
MIT grad school acceptance rate
MIT is one of the few universities that publishes an overall graduate admit rate. For Fall 2025, MIT Facts reports:
| Fall 2025 graduate admissions | Number |
| Applications | 39,985 |
| Offers of admission | 3,754 |
| Admit rate | 9% |
| New graduate students enrolled | 2,275 |
That 9% is an average across every master’s and PhD program. Rates for the most popular programs, such as EECS, are much lower. MIT does not publish department-level rates on that page.
MIT graduate GPA requirements by department
MIT has no single graduate GPA rule. Here is what departments with published admissions pages say, checked on official MIT pages in November 2026:
| Department | GPA requirement | GRE for Fall 2027 | English minimum |
| EECS (PhD track) | None stated; “admission is extremely competitive” | Not used (except the LGO program) | TOEFL 100, IELTS 7 |
| Mechanical Engineering | No general minimum | Not required (except the 2N naval programs) | TOEFL 100, IELTS 7 |
| Civil and Environmental Engineering | No minimum; grades in related subjects matter most | Optional (required for Transportation) | TOEFL 100, IELTS 7.5 |
| Physics | No minimum | GRE and Physics GRE optional but recommended | TOEFL 100, IELTS 7 |
| Computational Science and Engineering | No minimum; admit GPAs not tracked | Optional | TOEFL 100, IELTS 7 |
| Economics (PhD) | None stated | Required last cycle | TOEFL 100, IELTS 7 |
| MIT Sloan MBA | None stated | GMAT or GRE | See Sloan |
For context on business school: the MIT Sloan MBA Class of 2028 reported a median undergraduate GPA of 3.74 (Clear Admit).
Three things stand out.
Not one department publishes a GPA cutoff. Unlike Stanford Computer Science, which names a typical admit GPA, MIT departments stay silent on numbers. Your transcript is read in context, course by course.
MIT grades its own students on a 5.0 scale. In the MIT course catalog, graduate students must keep a GPA above 4.0 on MIT’s 5.0 scale. You may see figures like “4.8” on MIT pages: Mechanical Engineering, for example, encourages MIT seniors applying for early admission to have about a 4.8 overall. That number is on MIT’s internal scale. It is not a 4.8 out of 4.0, and it does not apply to outside applicants.
Don’t convert your GPA unless the application asks you to. Physics, for example, asks you to enter your cumulative GPA as it appears on your transcript. Committees read international grading systems all the time. If a specific form asks for a conversion, follow its instructions exactly.
What GPA do admitted MIT applicants report?
Published policies tell you what MIT expects. Reported outcomes show who actually applied and got in.
Across 15,267 MIT results reported to The GradCafe, the average undergraduate GPA is 3.83, and 3,483 reports recorded an acceptance (a reported admit share of 22.8%). You can browse recent decisions, many with GPAs attached, on the MIT admissions results page.
Read this number carefully. MIT’s official graduate admit rate is 9%. The GradCafe share is more than twice that, because admitted applicants are far more likely to report their result. These figures come from applicants who chose to share their outcome, so they are not MIT’s official statistics or a representative sample. Treat 3.83 as “the typical GPA of an MIT applicant who reports to The GradCafe,” not as a requirement.
The MIT programs with the most reports on The GradCafe:
- Physics: 1,023 results
- Mechanical Engineering: 969 results
- Economics: 928 results
- Computer Science: 803 results
- EECS: 546 results
Open the MIT admissions results page and scan the latest results for your program. One report of a 3.5 admitted to your exact program tells you more than any average.
Does MIT require the GRE?
There is no MIT-wide GRE rule. MIT’s graduate office says departments decide whether GRE scores are required, and that there is no minimum score. For Fall 2027 entry, most engineering departments have dropped it, but not all programs:
- Not used or not required: EECS (except LGO), Mechanical Engineering (except the 2N programs)
- Optional: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computational Science and Engineering, Physics (GRE and Physics GRE recommended)
- Required: the Transportation program in CEE, which looks for scores around the 80th percentile in all three sections; Economics required it last cycle
MIT’s institution code for score reports is 3514. Sloan uses its own codes.
Not sure whether to send an optional score? Our guide to GRE-optional grad programs for Fall 2027 walks through the decision, and what counts as a good GRE score shows how scores are read.
Can you get into MIT grad school with a 3.5 GPA or lower?
Yes, it happens, but a lower GPA needs strong evidence elsewhere in the file. MIT departments say they review applications as a whole, and CEE says outright that related-subject grades matter more than the overall number.
What committees weigh alongside your transcript:
- Grades in your field. A 3.4 overall with top marks in math, physics or core engineering courses reads very differently from a flat 3.4. Point to it in your CV and statement.
- Research. For PhD programs, sustained research, a paper or a detailed letter from a research supervisor carries real weight.
- An upward trend. Strong final years count, especially if you can explain an early dip in a sentence or two.
- Test scores, where they count. In programs that consider the GRE, a strong quantitative score can help. Where the GRE is “not used”, sending one does nothing.
- Recent coursework. Graduate-level classes taken after your degree give committees current evidence of what you can do.
For a full plan, read how to get into grad school with a low GPA. For PhD applicants, contacting faculty early can matter too: see how to email a professor about a PhD.
None of this guarantees an outcome. The most reliable check is to see what applicants with profiles like yours reported for your program.
International applicants: GPA and English requirements
Report your grades as they are. MIT’s admissions process for international applicants is the same as for domestic applicants, apart from the language requirement. Enter your GPA, percentage or CGPA as your transcript shows it unless your program’s form says otherwise.
English test minimums. Most international applicants whose first language is not English must send a test score. MIT’s graduate office recommends these minimums, and department minimums override them:
| Test | MIT recommended minimum |
| TOEFL iBT | 100 |
| TOEFL iBT (new 2026 scale) | 5 |
| IELTS Academic | 7 |
| Duolingo English Test | 135 |
| Cambridge English | 190 |
Some departments ask for more. CEE, for example, expects an IELTS of 7.5. Exemptions and waivers exist, so check MIT’s English proficiency policy and your department’s page before you book a test.
How MIT compares with similar schools
Reported GradCafe figures for schools often on the same list as MIT:
| School | Reported admit share | Results reported | Avg reported UGPA |
| MIT | 22.8% | 15,267 | 3.83 |
| Stanford | 23.5% | 21,539 | 3.84 |
| Harvard | 27.2% | 17,185 | 3.81 |
| Carnegie Mellon | 37.9% | 13,304 | 3.84 |
| Georgia Tech | 43.7% | 8,097 | 3.82 |
All five checked live on November 10, 2026.
The reported admit share almost doubles from MIT to Georgia Tech, yet the average GPA barely moves (3.81 to 3.84). The lesson: at this level, GPA rarely separates applicants. Research, letters and fit with a lab or advisor do.
For school-by-school detail, see Stanford GPA requirements, UT Austin GPA requirements and Duke GPA requirements.
FAQ
What is the minimum GPA for MIT?
There isn’t one. MIT does not publish a minimum GPA for undergraduate admission, and its graduate departments set their own expectations without a stated cutoff. Admitted students still have very strong records: GradCafe users who report MIT graduate results average a 3.83.
What GPA do you need for MIT grad school?
No fixed GPA is required. Departments review your full application, and some, like Civil and Environmental Engineering, say grades in related subjects matter more than your overall GPA. A record near the top of your class in your field is typical among admits.
What is MIT’s graduate acceptance rate?
For Fall 2025, MIT made 3,754 offers from 39,985 graduate applications, an overall admit rate of about 9%. Rates vary widely by program, and popular programs such as EECS are more selective than the average.
Can I get into MIT with a 3.5 GPA?
For graduate school, it is possible, especially with strong research, letters and top grades in your major. For undergraduate admission, a 3.5 is well below the typical admitted student, most of whom rank in the top 10% of their high school class.
Does MIT require the GRE?
It depends on the program. For Fall 2027, EECS and Mechanical Engineering do not require it, CEE, CCSE and Physics make it optional, and some programs such as CEE’s Transportation program require it. Check your department’s page.
What does a 4.8 GPA at MIT mean?
MIT grades its own students on a 5.0 scale, so figures like 4.8 on MIT pages refer to MIT students’ internal grades. They are not a requirement for outside applicants and should not be compared with a 4.0-scale GPA.
Before you apply
MIT won’t give you a GPA cutoff. It gives you a full review, a published 9% graduate admit rate, and departments that care most about your work in your field.
Search the MIT admissions results for your program and compare the GPAs people reported next to their decisions. Confirm your program’s GRE and English rules on its own page before you book a test. If you are still building your file, start with the grad school application checklist and how to write a CV for grad school.
Already applied? Read when grad school decisions come out, join MIT applicants on the GradCafe forum, and when you hear back, submit your result. It takes two minutes and helps the next applicant.
GradCafe figures are self-reported by applicants and are not MIT’s official statistics. Requirements change every cycle: always confirm GPA, test and English rules on your program’s official admissions page.
