10-yr median earnings
$143,372
Federal aid recipients only
Private Nonprofit · Cambridge, Massachusetts
Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private nonprofit institution in Cambridge, Massachusetts. as a private nonprofit, published Scorecard outcomes cover federal-aid recipients at this campus — endowment and sticker price sit outside those cohort fields.
The verdict
Massachusetts Institute of Technology pairs top-1% former-student earnings with a highly selective admit.
According to the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard.
Institution data retrieved July 2026; field-of-study data retrieved March 2026.
Figures above come from IPEDS institution records published through the College Scorecard (retrieved July 2026 for institution fields; March 2026 for field-of-study). Peer groups and cost cohorts follow IPEDS ownership sector, Carnegie class ("Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activity"), and locale, not an editorial shortlist.
Average net price subtracts grant and scholarship aid from cost of attendance for full-time, first-time undergraduate Title IV recipients. It is a defined cohort average, not a personalized price; income-band fields add context but do not replace the school's current net-price calculator.
Earnings use Treasury-linked records for federally aided former students who were working and not enrolled in the measurement year (completers and noncompleters). IPEDS completion and retention use separate first-time, full-time cohorts, so those denominators are not the earnings cohort. Read cost, completion, and earnings as distinct historical measures, not a causal verdict or individual forecast.
A 6-metric composite of earnings, cost, and completion outcomes benchmarked against every reporting US college, not a ranking of teaching quality, campus life, or fit for any individual student. See the full methodology.
Each axis is the percentile score shown in the breakdown at left; the shape shows this school's overall profile at a glance.
10-yr median earnings
$143,372
Federal aid recipients only
Avg net price
$20,111
After grants and scholarships
150%-time completion
96.2%
Full-time, first-time cohort
Four-year-institution cohort
Each dot is a college plotted by 10-year median earnings (x-axis) vs average net price (y-axis), colored by completion within 150% of normal time. Bottom-right = high earnings/lower price; top-left = lower earnings/higher price.
Where this school's former-student earnings fall within the full national distribution of every US college that reports to the College Scorecard, not just its peer set.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: former-student earnings vs. every US college
10-year median earnings, College Scorecard
$143,372 Top 1% higher than all other reporting US colleges
Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more US colleges. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard · Mar–Jul 2026 retrievals
| Metric | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | National rank | Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-yr median earnings | $143,372 | #1 of 5103 | 100th |
| Average net price | $20,111 | #3107 of 5020 | 38th (lower is better) |
| 150%-time completion | 96.2% | #46 of 4858 | 99th |
| Undergraduate enrollment | 4,535 | #807 of 5462 | 85th |
National ranks count every operating US college reporting each metric to the College Scorecard, separate from the earnings histogram above.
State rank among 106 reporting Massachusetts colleges with College Scorecard data, a separate lens from the national distribution above.
| Metric | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | State rank | Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-yr median earnings | $143,372 | #1 of 106 | 99th |
| Average net price | $20,111 | #45 of 117 | 62nd (lower is better) |
| 150%-time completion | 96.2% | #2 of 109 | 98th |
| Undergraduate enrollment | 4,535 | #18 of 128 | 86th |
| # | School | 10-yr earnings | Net price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThis school | $143,372 | $20,111 |
| 2 | Franklin W Olin College of Engineering | $129,455 | $25,171 |
| 3 | Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences | $125,557 | $39,545 |
| 4 | Babson College | $123,938 | $40,514 |
| 5 | Bentley University | $120,959 | $37,930 |
| 6 | Boston College | $103,937 | $41,704 |
| 7 | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | $103,470 | $43,071 |
| 8 | Harvard University | $101,817 | $19,066 |
| 9 | Lawrence Memorial Hospital School of Nursing | $101,466 | - |
| 10 | Northeastern University | $92,538 | $30,915 |
| 11 | Northeastern University Professional Programs | $92,538 | - |
| 12 | College of the Holy Cross | $90,543 | $38,782 |
| Admission Rate | 4.5% |
| SAT Average | 1,560 |
| SAT Math (25th-75th) | 780 – 800 |
| SAT Reading (25th-75th) | 740 – 780 |
| ACT (25th-75th) | 34 – 36 |
Average annual net price after grants; Title IV recipient cohort by income bracket
$0 – $30k
$-2,533 net price / yr
$30k – $48k
$93 net price / yr
$48k – $75k
$1,480 net price / yr
$110k+
$48,479 net price / yr
What this shows Need-based aid pulls net price down at lower brackets at Massachusetts Institute of Technology - compare the bar for your income band, not the overall average alone.
| In-State Tuition | $62,396 |
| Out-of-State Tuition | $62,396 |
| Average Net Price | $20,111 |
Across 11 reported years between 2013 and 2023, the average net price here has ranged from $5,084 to $23,547 without settling into a rise or a fall. Comparing only the first and last years would read as -9.2%, but the years in between do not follow that line, so the honest summary is the range rather than a trend. Budget against the upper end, not the average.
11 reported years. Nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation.
Over the same years, enrollment went +1.4% (4,510 → 4,571 students).
Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, per-year fields (2013–2023). Net price is the average cost after grant and scholarship aid for federally-aided undergraduates.
| Measure | Cohort / horizon | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Completion within 150% of normal time | First-time, full-time | 96.2% |
| First-year retention | First-time, full-time freshmen | 99.1% |
| Median earnings | 6 years after entry | $131,633 |
| Median earnings | 10 years after entry | $143,372 |
| Share earning over $25,000 | Working, not enrolled | 87.2% |
| Loan repayment rate | Completers, 3 years after leaving | 94.7% |
| Median federal student debt | At completion | $14,768 |
| Estimated monthly payment | Standard 10-year plan | $157/mo |
| Credential | Programs | Award count | Avg earnings | Top earnings | Avg debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor's | 17 | 1,183 | $146,739 | $225,141 | $13,496 |
| Master's | 11 | 1,431 | $174,793 | $258,152 | $44,705 |
| Doctoral | 8 | 351 | $178,486 | $214,070 | - |
Median earnings of program completers, College Scorecard field-of-study file
Business/Commerce, General
$258,152 median earnings
Systems Engineering
$227,052 median earnings
Computer Science
$225,141 median earnings
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering
$214,070 median earnings
Mechanical Engineering
$200,732 median earnings
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering
$199,245 median earnings
Biology, General
$189,144 median earnings
Chemical Engineering
$184,436 median earnings
What this shows The highest-earning programs at a school are not necessarily its most popular ones - a small specialized program can post strong median earnings without reflecting the outcome most students here actually see.
| Program | Credential | Completers | Median Earnings | Median Debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business/Commerce, General | Master's | 0 | $258,152 | $41,000 |
| Systems Engineering | Master's | 211 | $227,052 | $44,052 |
| Computer Science | Bachelor's | 384 | $225,141 | $11,077 |
| Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering | Doctoral | 64 | $214,070 | - |
| Mechanical Engineering | Master's | 112 | $200,732 | $45,290 |
| Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering | Master's | 70 | $199,245 | - |
| Biology, General | Doctoral | 47 | $189,144 | - |
| Chemical Engineering | Doctoral | 39 | $184,436 | - |
| Mathematics | Bachelor's | 126 | $174,951 | $9,751 |
| Biomedical/Medical Engineering | Doctoral | 43 | $167,374 | - |
| Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering | Bachelor's | 73 | $161,118 | $10,967 |
| Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical/Space Engineering | Master's | 48 | $151,237 | - |
| Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities | Bachelor's | 11 | $147,998 | $11,935 |
| Chemistry | Doctoral | 50 | $137,404 | - |
| Mechanical Engineering | Bachelor's | 142 | $131,967 | $11,507 |
Independent Scorecard matches among reporting colleges — not recommendations from the institution or a counselor.
Other Private Nonprofit institutions closest in reported enrollment, preferring the same Carnegie classification.
Other Private Nonprofit institutions with the nearest reported average net price.
Private-nonprofit profiles emphasize Scorecard cost-after-aid and completion alongside IPEDS Carnegie class. Endowment, gifts, and sticker price are not Scorecard fields on this page.
Figures are the Mar–Jul 2026 federal retrievals. Nonprofit campuses vary widely in aid practice — net price here is the Title-IV-recipient cohort average, not an individual award letter. Read the full methodology for how the data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Where to go next from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nonprofit Scorecard medians describe federal-aid recipients who were working and not enrolled — they are not sticker-price ROI and not advice.
Every figure on PlainCollege is rendered directly from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard data, no number is typed in by an editor. Private-nonprofit profiles compile Scorecard net-price and earnings cohorts with IPEDS structure fields — no editor-typed figures. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error on this page. Review the public data changelog. Data current as of Mar–Jul 2026 retrievals.