Why MIT prefer IELST to TOEFL

[AngryRobot!]

I have been confused about this for years. They stated the preference of IELST in general with many individual programs does not even accept TOEFL. To me MIT is very prestigious and I thought as long as the person has a TOEFL score above 100, and a strong research potential that deserves an interview, wouldn't an interview justify English fluency? It would be a shame just to eliminate the application just because they did not take IELST.

Edited January 17, 2016 by AngryRobot!

[FeelTheBern]

On 1/17/2016 at 10:06 AM, AngryRobot! said:

To me MIT is very prestigious and I thought as long as the person has a TOEFL score above 100, and a strong research potential that deserves an interview, wouldn't an interview justify English fluency? It would be a shame just to eliminate the application just because they did not take IELST.

Hi @AngryRobot!, I am not sure that I completely understand your question, but I work in the International Services office at my university, so I will try to answer your question to the best of my ability. I cannot tell you why the IELTS is preferred to the TOEFL due to the fact that the school I work at allows students to submit either, although from my experience, more students submit their TOEFL score to us rather than the IELTS. Why, I do not know.

In regards to an interview justifying English proficiency, although that may be true, unfortunately, a school cannot issue an I-20 for an international student to come to the US unless they have the minimum TOEFL/IELTS score. This is the reason that all schools must receive the score and also require that students receive a particular minimum score.

This being said, the system is very flawed because in certain countries it is extremely simple to have someone else take the test for you. Because of this, many students have enrolled at our school with very poor English skills that did not reflect their IELTS/TOEFL score.

[fuzzylogician]

OP -- MIT accepts both the TOEFL and the IELTS. See here: http://web.mit.edu/admissions/graduate/graduate/international.html. It says nothing about a preference. Beyond that I didn't understand your question.

8 hours ago, FeelTheBern said:

In regards to an interview justifying English proficiency, although that may be true, unfortunately, a school cannot issue an I-20 for an international student to come to the US unless they have the minimum TOEFL/IELTS score. This is the reason that all schools must receive the score and also require that students receive a particular minimum score.

I don't know about this, my department offers to waive the TOEFL requirement for international students who can demonstrate a high proficiency in the language through other means (e.g. a degree from an English-speaking university, evidence of extensive background in English). I don't think anyone has had an issue getting their I-20 or DS-2019. 

[AngryRobot!]

On 1/31/2016 at 9:02 AM, fuzzylogician said:

OP -- MIT accepts both the TOEFL and the IELTS. See here: http://web.mit.edu/admissions/graduate/graduate/international.html. It says nothing about a preference. Beyond that I didn't understand your question.

I don't know about this, my department offers to waive the TOEFL requirement for international students who can demonstrate a high proficiency in the language through other means (e.g. a degree from an English-speaking university, evidence of extensive background in English). I don't think anyone has had an issue getting their I-20 or DS-2019. 

The link you provided is a overall requirement. If you download the brochure of graduate programs, you will see that the prefer IELTS overall, with programs such as mechanical engineering, bioengineering does not accept TOEFL at all. I personally was going to apply Bioengineering and then realized that they indicate they do not accept TOEFL explicitly and by then I do not have enough time to do it. Though it is not that I would have a shot in MIT by any chance.

Edited February 1, 2016 by AngryRobot!

[AngryRobot!]

On 1/31/2016 at 1:44 AM, FeelTheBern said:

Hi @AngryRobot!, I am not sure that I completely understand your question, but I work in the International Services office at my university, so I will try to answer your question to the best of my ability. I cannot tell you why the IELTS is preferred to the TOEFL due to the fact that the school I work at allows students to submit either, although from my experience, more students submit their TOEFL score to us rather than the IELTS. Why, I do not know.

In regards to an interview justifying English proficiency, although that may be true, unfortunately, a school cannot issue an I-20 for an international student to come to the US unless they have the minimum TOEFL/IELTS score. This is the reason that all schools must receive the score and also require that students receive a particular minimum score.

This being said, the system is very flawed because in certain countries it is extremely simple to have someone else take the test for you. Because of this, many students have enrolled at our school with very poor English skills that did not reflect their IELTS/TOEFL score.

I dont know if it is very possible to let someone else take TOEFL. After all you will be pictured on site. But it is true that in some country, people violate what they sign at the beginning of the TOEFL test that they will not release the test questions by memory afterwards. You can easily find memorized TOEFL questions online.

[Bharath Reddy]

hi all ... i Am from south india i was googling something. am here and unable to tell the situation how am feeling and i have only +2 passed out long back now working for a little organisation. 

[fuzzylogician]

7 hours ago, AngryRobot! said:

The link you provided is a overall requirement. If you download the brochure of graduate programs, you will see that the prefer IELTS overall, with programs such as mechanical engineering, bioengineering does not accept TOEFL at all. I personally was going to apply Bioengineering and then realized that they indicate they do not accept TOEFL explicitly and by then I do not have enough time to do it. Though it is not that I would have a shot in MIT by any chance.

Alright, so now we have a field. I can't guess what field you are in if you're not going to give that information in your post or profile, hence the link to the general admissions site. The bioengineering site indeed mentions the IELTS, but it says nothing about the TOEFL one way or the other. If I were you, I'd write the department to ask. I'm sure you're not the first student to encounter this problem, so I'm sure they have a policy in place for that. The only department that says explicitly that it won't accept the TOEFL is the DMSE: https://dmse.mit.edu/academics/graduate/prospective-students/faqs. 

It's probably too late now, but for others who are reading this and for future reference, one of the earliest things I did when I was applying was to create a spreadsheet with the requirements of each program. Mine all wanted either the IELTS or the TOEFL and I chose to take the TOEFL. If the common denominator were the IELTS, then obviously that would have been the one to take. If some only wanted the IELTS and some the TOEFL, then there would have been plenty of time to contact them to see if they'd still agree to accept the other exam, or to reevaluate how important it would be for me to apply to these different programs. Planning is the name of the game. 

[AngryRobot!]

35 minutes ago, fuzzylogician said:

Alright, so now we have a field. I can't guess what field you are in if you're not going to give that information in your post or profile, hence the link to the general admissions site. The bioengineering site indeed mentions the IELTS, but it says nothing about the TOEFL one way or the other. If I were you, I'd write the department to ask. I'm sure you're not the first student to encounter this problem, so I'm sure they have a policy in place for that. The only department that says explicitly that it won't accept the TOEFL is the DMSE: https://dmse.mit.edu/academics/graduate/prospective-students/faqs. 

It's probably too late now, but for others who are reading this and for future reference, one of the earliest things I did when I was applying was to create a spreadsheet with the requirements of each program. Mine all wanted either the IELTS or the TOEFL and I chose to take the TOEFL. If the common denominator were the IELTS, then obviously that would have been the one to take. If some only wanted the IELTS and some the TOEFL, then there would have been plenty of time to contact them to see if they'd still agree to accept the other exam, or to reevaluate how important it would be for me to apply to these different programs. Planning is the name of the game. 

Thank you for your answer. The application deadline was December and I wrote this post just to comment on the situation and wondering if anyone knows why MIT prefer IELTS over TOEFL. You can see here http://web.mit.edu/admissions/graduate/pdfs/MIT_department_info.pdf the information of all graduate programs 2016. Page 18 indicated preference of IELTS overall and lots of programs prefer IELTS or not accepting TOEFL. It is not important. I am just curious. I was able to apply to two programs accepting TOEFLs anyway.