Additional Instructions

This page is designed to help you fill out the Graduate Admissions Application Form.

We recommend that you apply online as it is the easiest and most direct way to apply. Online applications should include a "Statement of Objectives" and any personal/biographical information, as well as financial statements and international student data forms, if applicable. The required writing sample must be submitted in paper form via mail. Transcripts may be sent directly to us; recommendations may be submitted online or mailed to us.

In filling out the application, please be sure to answer all appropriate questions. You must apply for either the SM Program or the Ph.D. Program. Your initial and final degree objectives must be the same. When indicating your "Area of research or interdisciplinary program" select the field that most closely matches your interests. We also ask that when preparing the "Statement of Objectives," you indicate why you would like to study Political Science at MIT. In this statement it would be helpful if you would touch on the following set of questions:

  1. What was your major in college? Why did you pick that major?
  2. Are there any special features of your past academic record that you feel need to be explained?
  3. What do you want from your graduate work in Political Science? For what type of career do you hope to prepare yourself?
  4. If your own previous study has been largely in a field other than Political Science, explain the relationship between your interests in that field and in Political Science.
  5. What work experience have you had? What did you get out of it?
  6. In what extracurricular, social, or community action groups have you been active, and in what ways?
  7. What areas of Political Science have you enjoyed the most? In what areas are you presently most interested?

As appropriate, you may wish to discuss the role your family and community have played in your own personal and academic development. (This may either be included in the "Statement of Objectives" described above or submitted as a brief personal essay.)

The Admissions Committee requests a writing sample from all applicants (brief in length--approximately 5-15 pages) that you feel best represents the quality of your written work. The written work should also state the initial purpose for its writing. All writing samples must be in English.

Applications will not be transmitted to the Admissions Committee for consideration until they are complete. Completed applications must include the following items:

  1. The application fee
  2. Grade transcripts, or attested copies of academic credentials
  3. GRE (general exam) scores
  4. A statement of objectives, the personal essay (you may incorporate the personal essay with the "Statement of Objectives")
  5. A writing sample (brief in length - approximately 5-15 pages)
  6. Three letters of recommendation
  7. The TOEFL for all applicants whose native language is not English

The final deadline for applications is December 31st. Applications that arrive after December 31st will not be considered. However, supplementary materials such as transcripts and recommendations that arrive in early January will be added to existing applicant folders.

If there are any further questions you may have regarding admission to the Department of Political Science, please call the Graduate Administrator at 617-253-8336.

Mailing address for the completed application:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room E53-467
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307