College application is an extremely challenging process not largely for its complicated format, but for the mountains of stress and pressure to compile all of your achievements and hardships into letters, transcripts, and 500-word essays.

The usual requirement to send in academic transcripts, letters of recommendation, and short answer essays can often make it difficult to portray your passions, so MIT offers a unique opportunity for students to showcase their projects through a portfolio: the MIT Maker Portfolio.

What is the MIT Maker Portfolio?

The MIT Marker Portfolio is a type of portfolio students can submit to MIT, allowing students to showcase their projects that require creative insight, technical skill, and a hands-on approach to learning by doing.

The Maker Portfolio uniquely allows individuals to use technical creativity—from carpentry to coding to cosplay.

Some examples include: Demos at a hackathon Projects at a Maker Faire Creations made with friends!

The portfolio consists of images, videos that total no more than 120 seconds, and up to one PDF of technical documentation and/or specifications.

You may document one project or many, and your work may have been done inside or outside school, alone or with a team.

The Engineering Advisory Board, a group of MIT faculty, staff, and alumni with expertise in different modes of making will evaluate your submission.

The fee to submit each portfolio is $1

0. If the submission fee presents a hardship to you and your family, you may qualify for a fee waiver.

The deadlines align with early action and regular action deadlines.

Although the MIT Maker Portfolio is crucial, it's one part of many other aspects in the application process.

PlayTo scale your chances, check out Rishab's Stats for Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and more!

Optimize Your Portfolio For seniors, choose your projects wisely.

Focus on projects highlighting your soft skills, creativity, and passion for the subject.

In this case, less is more.

For students younger interested in finding a project through your passion, check out our guide on picking research topics!

For every project you have in your portfolio, clearly describe the project, its purpose, your role in the project, tools and materials used, and any setbacks or issues you faced during the process.

Additionally, you want to explain how you came up with the idea for your project, the steps it took, and any modifications you made.

Take plenty of photos, diagrams, and/or videos to enhance your story.

Take a look at a student’s portfolio who was accepted into the MIT class of 2025: https://www. youtube. com/watch?v=2sOGvDlVT1Q If your project involves collaboration with others, share the credit!

Acknowledge their contributions and explain your specific role in the project.

MIT values teamwork and collaboration, so it's important to present moments of cooperation.

Reflect: Explain how the project affected you or others.

What did it solve?

What did it lead to?

Scaling out how impactful this was demonstrates your ability to make something out of your passion.

This portfolio is meant to fuel and enhance the admission officer’s understanding of who you are as an individual.

Admission officers want to see the process to success and your motivations, not the result.

Always be thorough in your portfolio, and take this opportunity to showcase your potential and success as a possible student at MIT and a future life-changer.

Resources For those inspired by Rishab’s journey and eager to follow in his footsteps, check out Rishab's video reflecting on his way of being accepted into Harvard!

Whether your dream school is MIT or Harvard, Rishab gives his fair share of advice and ideas of getting accepted into prestigious schools.

PlayHow I ACTUALLY Got Into Harvard (My Admissions File).