Massachusetts Institute of Technology · Last verified September 8, 2026
MIT
The strongest measured outcomes in the index.
TRI Score
96.8
Elite
#1 Best Universities
Overview
Our assessment
MIT leads on the metrics we weight most heavily: graduate earnings relative to net cost, research output and completion rates. Selectivity is not what earns the position.
Best for
- Engineering and science
- Research careers
- Entrepreneurial technical founders
Not ideal for
- Students seeking a low-pressure environment
Score breakdown
Why it scored 96.8
- Capability30%
- 99
- Value20%
- 94
- Ease of Use15%
- 88
- Reliability15%
- 98
- Professional Utility10%
- 99
- Momentum10%
- 92
How much the product can actually do, and how well it does the core job.
What you get for the price, including what the free plan really covers.
Time from signup to useful result, without training or a consultant.
Consistency, uptime, support responsiveness and predictable behaviour.
How well it fits real professional workflows, not demos.
Rate of meaningful improvement over the last two evaluation cycles.
Trade-offs
Strengths and weaknesses
- Exceptional graduate outcomes
- Need-based aid keeps net cost competitive
- Extremely demanding workload
- Very low admission rate
Score history
How the score moved
- Jan 202694.4
- Apr 202695.2
- Jun 202696.0
- Sep 202696.8Latest evaluation cycle.
Head-to-head
Compared with
- No published head-to-heads yet.
Evidence
Sources
- Public dataPublic pricing and documentation
Where a claim could not be verified, we label it rather than estimate it. Read the methodology.