How much harder is it to get into MIT than Boston University for undergraduate admissions?

MIT is much harder to get into than Boston University, and not just by a small margin. Both schools are selective, but MIT sits in a different tier of undergraduate admissions difficulty because it draws an unusually concentrated pool of top academic applicants from around the world. Boston University is also competitive, but a strong student can be realistically in range there in a way that is far less true for MIT.

MIT tends to be the kind of place where even applicants with near-perfect grades, the hardest coursework available, and very strong testing or advanced math and science preparation are still far from assured admission. The bar is not only academic excellence, but also exceptional fit with MIT’s style: deep curiosity, evidence of initiative, and meaningful accomplishment, often in technical, research, maker, or problem-solving spaces. For many students, MIT is a high reach no matter how strong their profile looks on paper.

A useful way to think about it is that BU is selective in the way many strong national universities are selective, while MIT is selective in the way a tiny group of ultra-restrictive institutions are selective. If you are building a balanced college list, MIT should be treated as a major reach almost regardless of profile, whereas BU may be a reach or target-ish option depending on the rest of your record and the specific school within BU.