MIT is the final word “dream” school for American highschool college students within the strategy of making use of to college—regardless of it costing tens of hundreds of {dollars} to attend.
In its 2023 School Hopes and Worries survey, The Princeton Overview polled 12,225 folks throughout all 50 states and Washington D.C.—72% of whom have been highschool college students making use of to school, and the opposite 28% being mother and father of faculty candidates.
The survey discovered that the varsity most excessive schoolers dreamed of attending wasn’t an Ivy League college—though it was a globally prestigious school.
Massachusetts Institute of Know-how (MIT) was the primary decide among the many pupil respondents, with Stanford, Harvard, NYU and UCLA rounding out the highest 5.
MIT is regularly ranked as among the best universities within the nation, with Forbes naming it America’s prime school for the primary time in 2022.
Dad and mom, nevertheless, favored Princeton, the survey discovered, with Harvard and Stanford coming in second and third place respectively. MIT was the fifth hottest school among the many 3,423 mother and father who took half within the research.
Whereas securing a spot at MIT was the dream of most college students within the ballot, the varsity is notoriously tough to get into.
For the category of 2026, MIT obtained nearly 34,000 purposes—and fewer than 4% have been profitable.
College students hoping to safe a spot at MIT even have to attain distinctive take a look at scores.
These admitted to MIT’s class of 2026 achieved a median rating between 790 and 800 for SAT Math, whereas median ACT scores have been round 35 throughout the board.
It’s additionally one among America’s priciest schools to attend, with tuition, charges and fundamental residing prices coming in at round $70,000 in only one yr.
Though many excessive schoolers will dream about attending school forward of Nationwide Determination Day in Could, school enrollment has plummeted in recent times, dropping 8% between 2019 to 2022, in keeping with information from the Nationwide Scholar Clearinghouse.
Economists have warned fewer school graduates might exacerbate labor shortages being felt in numerous sectors.
Nevertheless, with the price of increased schooling and the ensuing pupil debt remaining a turn-off for a lot of potential college students, many Gen Zers are questioning whether or not getting a level is value it.
The debt burden is very heavy for debtors who’re nonwhite, low-income, and girls, a current research discovered—and the price of a school diploma might be undoing the American dream.
