How to get into MIT as an International Student?

How to get into MIT, Caltech, Stanford, CMU, or any other top-tier technical university for undergraduate and master's degrees as an international student.

▬ In this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
I go though previously unpublished admission statistics for international students. We reconstructed these number from old blog posts in MIT's archive. Afterwards, I talk about ways to maximize your chances of getting admitted into MIT. Next up, I have a discussion with successfully admitted international students from Europe (Albania), Latin America (Mexico), and Asia (India).

▬ Follow me for more tips ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

▬ Follow my friends/classmates ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Another alternative to science olympiads might be the International Chess Olympiad!

▬ Timestamps ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
0:00 - Intro
1:09 - Admission Stats for Internationals
2:19 - Tips to get Admitted
5:20 - Discussion with my International Classmates
11:22 - Alternative Option: Master's Degrees
12:23 - Conclusion
12:43 - Bloopers

[SamuelBoschMIT]

Do you have any questions about getting into MIT (or other schools) for me? Let me know in separate comments, so I can reply to everything individually 😊

[quark]

seeing that even a penguin (the one from Antarctica) got accepted to MIT really shows that anyone can get into a top uni if they have something special

[TheArizus]

When talking about Olympiads like IPhO, IMO, IOI and IChO I think it is very important to mention how elite these competitions really are. For the IMO, only 6 students from the entire country get selected through a multi-stage rigorous selection process. It's not the type of thing you can just be like "Oh I'm 16 now, I want to go to MIT, I'll just go and do the IMO." Really for these competitions you have to have experience with the subject from a very young age. (I think IPhO and IChO might be a bit easier but by no means "easy").

A much more achievable goal would be to do well in your country's national Olympiad. (Speaking about the UK in maths), around 1500 people (mostly aged 16-18) take part in the British Maths Olympiad Round 1 and around 120 in Round 2. Both of these contribute to selection for the IMO team but there are elite camps held in Oxford, Hungary (training with the Hungarian team) and Cambridge with 20 or so people which are used for selecting teams for a multitude of international competitions like the Balkan maths Olympiad, Romiania master of mathematics, European maths Olympiad for girls and a few more (the Cambridge camp is the most important).

Those types of goals are much more attainable for someone to start to learn later in life because really to have a chance in this type of stuff, you need experience over a very long time. (The same is true for chess)

Most importantly knowing Olympiad kids, their mindset isn't "I am doing this just to go to MIT (or whatever top university)." Instead they just really enjoy the subject and are extremely talented so just so happen to get into top universities. If the only reason to do Olympiads is to get into a top university, then it isn't really worth it. You have to enjoy it too.

[sisyphus_strives]

I'm quite envious of these opportunities people have at a young age, I went to an extremely poor school that did not care about academics at all; the work was not rigorous and I found every class boring/infantile which led me to develop a great apathy towards academic work. There was no place for me, nor any recommendations from teachers for how I could challenge myself-I was not even conscious of the fact that I could download pdfs online and learn on my own. But I suppose the past is the past and there is no use regretting it, I'll simply keep taking solid steps forward in the direction I want to go, to become the person I aim to be.

[elilouise]

Another international competition worth mentioning on uni application is the International Chess Olympiad. I was privileged enough to have participated and competed at the 39th one in Russia at only 11-year-old (the youngest at that time). I mentioned it on my uni application. Pretty sure it helped me to stand out. Btw I'm currently studying physics at a world's top 10 university.

[NN-yygb]

Within the computer science routes, working on individual projects (especially open source ones) can really show your interest in the subject and great collaborative efforts. MIT has a massive open source culture there so it is worth giving a look at

[Abc-vcml]

Definitely one of the ACTUALLY useful videos out there for international students. Great job! However, you mentioned that you don't need to be a genius, just regularly smart. Of course, there isn't a strict definition for 'genius' or 'smart', but I'm almost certain that you, and the people in this video aren't just 'regularly smart'. Sure, maybe not geniuses, but way above regularly smart. It takes a lot of innate talent and skill to make it to the International Olympiads, I don't think it's something that anyone who's 'regularly smart' can achieve, even with a lot of hard work (please correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't done Olympiad prep so far). Please don't think I'm Criticising you, I loved this video, it's probably the best out there, but I'd be interested to hear your opinion on the significance of talent for Olympiads and the like, I'm quite curious about this!

[Adrian-dxyz]

i love the buff man with perfect english giving me good college advice

[icicles_]

Hey Sam, I just stumbled upon your channel since it was recommended to me. Your information matches with what I’ve heard from other people. I just applied to MIT (I am from USA/domestic) and yeah I medaled at one of the international science olympiads/represented team USA this past year so hoping to get in as class of 2027!!! I also published a research paper by myself which happened to be huge for my field so I submitted that as part of my portfolio!

I highly disagree with building up everything just to apply to college. The mindset almost all top olympiad kids have is just we do everything for fun :D Many medalists and campers I know do olympiads purely for fun, and everyone studies hard because it’s something they are truly passionate about and not because they want to get into Harvard or MIT or any other college.

If you are good at what you do, you will automatically be recognized and offered admission to top colleges :)

[s.f.]

Hey Samuel, great video!

Could you perhaps also do a more detailed video in which you talk about what exactly is needed to get accepted in your opinion (e.g. grades, scholarships, internships etc.) and how one should go about creating such a resume for oneself (that is, tips on how to get good scholarships, internships etc)?

[nicohambauer]

Hi Samuel,
Mega Video! Das ist genau was ich suche! Das wird mir bei meinem Bewerbungsprozess als ML (CV und NLP) Researcher in meinem Auslandssemester während meinem Master sehr helfen! Ich habe bereits zwei Publikationen und werde dank deines loopholes es mal wagen! :) Danke dir!
Grüße,
Nico

[sproos]

Totally vouch for the sports tip! I’m an international student from the UK who just got admitted to MIT’s class of 2026 and while of course the rest of your application, academics and character is important, I think it might have been the extra push from the coach that made my application stand out! If it’s an option available to you, definitely give it a shot!

Also, while a lot of the fellow admits I’ve met did participate in Olympiads, it’s by no means a requirement. I think a more general tip is to pursue what interests you to a really high degree - if that happens to be mathematics, physics or informatics, then the Olympiad is a good bet. However, if you’re an international applicant reading this, don’t be disheartened if you don’t have Olympiad experience.

[ammarhaider]

This has been probably the most (and only) helpful video for prospective international students. As a Pakistani, I do consider myself among relatively smart students (good grades and standardised test scores - type 1 as you mentioned) but unfortunately I didn’t know of Olympiads until my junior year started. I do have applied to a very selective summer program though, and with some more extra-academic exposure I might just get in (probably not - thoughts and prayers needed). With that said, thanks a lot for this video; I am glad I came across this!

[XXX-fdwc]

I really like this video and am going to put my challenging goals here.

1.To finish watching a course of clinical psychology.

2.to keep jogging for 20 times every month at least.


3.to watch a course about finance. I am not a finance major student, but I guess I can watch some videos about the finance growing or the country finance growing.

4.Finish reading the book named the view of giant’s back, which is a book about the Chairman Mao.

BTE, I'm an undergraduate from China, glad and lucky to see your videos！

Subscribed！

[flo]

Learned a lot! Thank you for sharing your experience with all of us!

[itzopsniper]

it'd be nice to see a video of you interviewing more international MIT students on how they got in to see the likelihood of getting admitted for Athletics or other reasons

[Thatengineerguy]

I do know Lay Jain (the indian guy) he's been in my coaching institute and he's the IIT-JEE topper from India
Great to see him here .
I am from COEP(College of Engineering Pune) and some of my teachers have also graduated from MIT
Wish to come here soon, I love the vibes this is giving me ❤️

[JudeMarchisio]

Great video! I got admitted to an M.S. at MIT as an international student, I was thinking of pursuing a PhD but I'm not sure I want to commit 6 years of my life to research, especially in my field, but who knows what the future holds, I may change my mind.

I didn't know that the admissions rates for Masters programs were that much higher! It was 3% for the program I got into.

[kwmx]

Arber, you are so cool, you sure can be proud of yourself, and so should be Albanians of you. I wish you the best on your academic career.

[kurudivedavyasa]

Nice info from you as always sir.
Thank you so much to tak about rare topics