How I Got Into MIT With Zero Coding Experience (And Graduated Early)

I got into MIT and graduated early with my computer science degree. Here's how I did it. Hi friends, I'm Maddie. I'm now a senior software engineer and I graduated a semester early with my bachelor's in computer science and engineering from MIT. I previously worked at Google and during MIT I companies including Amazon, Microsoft,

Morgan Stanley, and IBM. If you're new here, I post coding memes and tech insights over on Instagram. So, go and follow me there if that interests you. And I always get people asking me how I got into MIT in my comments and DMs. In this video, I'll give my take on not just how I got in, but also how I

survived as someone who honestly isn't naturally that good at coding. I'll go into what I did to get accepted and graduate early, what I would change if I applied in 2025, and tips to help you with your application. My background for MIT was very much not coding heavy. Sure, I took AP computer science in high

school, but honestly, I never thought I would become a software engineer or study computer science. I was always pretty good at math and science, but coding wasn't exactly my strong suit or favorite class. A lot of my classmates had been coding since middle school, had published apps and papers, and won national competitions. Well, I just knew

how to make a for loop and barely understood what object-oriented programming meant. However, I really did have a fascination with how the world worked. When I was little, I once asked my grandfather, who is a chemical engineer, so many questions about how the world worked and got into such a deep rabbit hole that my mom eventually

got tired of hearing of us talk for hours and hours and banished us to the guest room to finish the conversation. During high school, I cold emailed UC Berkeley professors until I got one to take me on as an intern at his phytomediation lab for the summer. Let's talk about what MIT is truly looking for