How should I approach the MITES application essays for 2026?

MITES, along with RSI and SSP, is one of the premier feeder programs for MIT. MITES is specifically designed for students who are underrepresented in STEM or come from financially disadvantaged backgrounds. If you're someone who hasn't been dealt an easy hand in life but has pushed yourself as far as possible in pursuit of excellence in STEM, here's how to approach each essay:

Essay 1: Lived Experience and Aspirations (Maximum 1805 characters)

Don't try to tell your entire life story in just ~300 words. Instead, focus on one or two meaningful events. I recommend opening the essay with a vivid, first-person depiction of one of these moments. The event could be a loved one falling ill, a natural phenomenon that sparked your curiosity, an experience that made you question the natural order of the world, a reaction to learning something in class, a moment when your life intersected with a real-world problem that science can help solve, etc.
The key is to demonstrate agency. After introducing the event, show the reader how this experience led you to pursue science, especially science beyond your school's standard curriculum. Describe, in the first person and with specific details, how your pursuit of science deepened your understanding of your chosen field and how you handled challenges along the way.

After describing how fully you have pursued every STEM opportunity available to you, explain how that experience, combined with the formative moment you used as your essay's hook, has shaped your aspirations. To conclude the essay, give the reader a vivid picture of how, by realizing those aspirations, you will tangibly make the world a better place and improve the lives of real people.

Essay 2: What Are You Passionate About? (Maximum 1805 characters)

There's no need for an origin story. Instead, open by showing the reader you, fully immersed in this passion, and having the time of your life. This moment can take place inside or outside the classroom. Give them a front-row seat to your mind as you engage in this passion.

Then explain why doing this passion is so meaningful to you right now. From there, describe how you deepen your interest in this passion. Illustrate how your personal way of approaching this passion, grounded in your lived experiences, pushes you to pursue certain avenues of growth both inside and outside the classroom.

Show how you go above and beyond in pursuing this passion. Show the reader how you discuss this passion with others, and how those conversations, or your involvement in communities centered around it, have sharpened your understanding.
Make sure this essay includes the favorite thing you have learned while pursuing this passion. To conclude, show how this passion has fostered your growth, sense of identity, or what it means to you personally today.

Essay 3: Challenge or Obstacle (Maximum 1805 characters)

Don't talk about struggling in classes. MITES expects its students to find coursework easy so they have plenty of time to pursue extracurricular activities and make their campus vibrant. You might describe the fallout of disagreeing with someone and how you navigated that. You might discuss generational differences between you and your parents, doing the right thing and being punished for it, or difficulty making friends in high school.

If you experienced any illnesses, talk about overcoming those illnesses or how you balanced that illness or injury with schoolwork. If you're a researcher, you can talk about when something went wrong in the lab—when a machine broke, your data was corrupted, or you thought you had made significant progress, but one small error invalidated all of your work. The key with this essay is to create some type of metaphorical dragon that you slayed.

Essay 4: Subject or Field of Study (Maximum 1805 characters)

Start this essay with a strong personal anecdote that enables you to establish an emotional connection to this topic. Then introduce the topic and explain how this anecdote gives you a personal connection to it. From there, nerd out about the topic and explain, without directly addressing the reader, why they should care about it as well. You want to make the reader believe we need more people studying this topic and why you should be one of them.

Finally, conclude by discussing what it would mean personally for you to further explore this topic in college or to use the knowledge from studying this topic to tangibly improve the world in some way.

Essay 5: What Would You Invent? (Maximum 1805 characters)

Remember, every essay you write is ultimately about you. The reader wants to understand who you are as an applicant. That means you should not spend the entire essay describing what you want to invent. Instead, begin with a personal experience from your life that was shaped by a real-world problem affecting others.

Then show how your experiences since that moment have influenced the solution or treatment you hope to create. You are not trying to sell the reader on the technical merits of your product. Rather, you are helping them understand the personal reasons behind the design choices you envision, and the deeper motivations, beyond your own self-interest, that drive you to care about solving this problem in the first place.

To conclude the essay, give the reader a vivid picture of how the solution you hope to invent will tangibly improve the lives of real people, and explain why creating that impact matters so profoundly to you.

Essay 6: Optional - Additional Information (Maximum 1805 characters)

Unlike the Common App's Additional Information section, MITES expects most students to write a response to this open-ended prompt. They genuinely want to learn more about you and don't want the rigidity of a narrowly defined question to limit what you can share.

Take time to reflect on what MITES actually values: intellectual curiosity, team players, applicants who elevate the social and academic experience of their peers, students who hold well-thought-out compelling perspectives that enrich classroom discussions, and character, social skills, and willingness to learn by doing. MITES favors people who like to get their hands dirty, literally, when creating, building, or understanding something.

Once you identify moments and experiences in your life that align with one or more of these qualities, choose the trait you haven't yet highlighted in your other essays. Then write a vivid, first-person narrative that shows how your actions and experiences demonstrate that quality.