Federal grants for undergraduates

MIT administers four federal grant programs you’ll automatically be considered for when you apply for financial aid each year. If you’re eligible, we include these federal grants in your aid package. 

Pell Grant
– A grant from $400 to $5,350 per year to undergraduates with the greatest financial need. MIT will match your Pell Grant with additional funding over and above any MIT scholarship you receive, meaning that your MIT Pell Matching Grant will be used to reduce or eliminate your self-help.

Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG)
– A grant of $750 for freshmen and $1,300 for sophomores. Recipients must:

• Receive a Federal Pell Grant in the same award year
• Be enrolled at least half time in an associate’s, bachelor’s, or combined undergraduate/graduate (if it includes at least three years of undergraduate education) degree program, in a two-year program acceptable for full credit toward a bachelor’s degree, or in a one- or two-year certificate program
• Be enrolled in the first or second year of a program of study at an eligible two-year or four-year degree-granting institution
• Have successfully completed a rigorous secondary school program of study and graduated after January 1, 2006, for first-year students and after January 1, 2005, for second-year students
• If first-year students, not have been enrolled previously as regular students in an ACG-eligible college program when they were still in high school, or if they were in such a program, the courses must have been part of their high school program as well: and
• If second-year students, have successfully completed their first year and have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.* (This is checked one time only, at the end of the first year. Subsequent changes to the student’s GPA do not affect ACG eligibility for the second year).
• Requires completion of rigorous secondary school program

National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (National SMART Grant)
– A grant of $4,000 for juniors and seniors who are majoring in science, technology or certain foreign languages. Recipients must:

• Be a Federal Pell Grant recipient in the same award year
• Be enrolled at least half time in a bachelor’s or combined undergraduate/graduate (if it includes at least three years of undergraduate education) degree program
• Be enrolled in the third, fourth, or fifth (for programs that require a fifth year) year of their program of study at an eligible four-year degree-granting institution
• Have successfully completed the previous year
• Have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale for all the courses in their program* ( not only those in the major) through the most recently completed payment period
• Be majoring in physical, life or computer science, engineering, mathematics, technology, or a critical foreign language.

* In order to determine your GPA, you will be required to submit documentation of your hidden grades.

We'll deduct the dollar amount of your Pell, ACG or National SMART Grant from your self-help amount, so you can work fewer hours at your term-time job and/or borrow less in student loans.

Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Award (Federal SEOG)
– A grant of up to $4,000 per year to undergraduates with the greatest financial need.

Since we administer the Federal SEOG program and choose the recipients, we don’t reward you by reducing your self-help; the Federal SEOG reduces your MIT scholarship.