The letter explicitly calls out that undergrads may request an exemption so that they can stay on campus.

  - International students who have concerns that they would not be allowed to return to MIT due to visa issues.
  - International students who will have difficulty returning to their home country if it has been hard-hit by COVID-19.
  - Students who do not have a home to go to, or for whom going home would be unsafe given the circumstances of their home country or homelife.

(just cutting down the dorm population by 90% will have a huge effect at slowing the disease, so I imagine there'll be plenty of room to give exemptions for students without safe/stable homes to return to)

Do you mean less privileged MIT students? I though MIT is pretty good about giving scholarships and grants to those who are admitted. If your family income is below some threshold they fully cover the costs.

Flights may be reimbursed to go home for low-income students, but not all students have a safe home to go back to. A common issue could be homophobia or transphobia. Some students are also highly reliant on on-campus jobs for income that makes gives them a living wage. This whiplash relocation may make finding new sources of income really hard for certain geographies/students.

The list of complications just goes on... and let it be known that there are still some classes that haven't canceled exams or other large milestones through this Friday.

Okay didn't realize they have to leave the dorm also when I first read it. But it looks like they can make exceptions for...

> Students who do not have a home to go to, or for whom going home would be unsafe given the circumstances of their home country or homelife.

For accuracy and transparency (since I can't edit the original): all exams and homework in the CS department are postponed until after Spring Break as of five minutes ago (March 28th).

I think the point was, what happens to working class or poor students who don't have a stable home--with broadband, adequate study space, food, etc--to go back to? Those needs were covered by MIT while the students were on campus; will they be covered by MIT now that students are forced to leave? If not, it seems like this is a ham-fisted response that ignores the needs of students who don't come from comfortable backgrounds.

The can make exceptions to allow students to stay:

> Students who do not have a home to go to, or for whom going home would be unsafe given the circumstances of their home country or homelife.

That exception only specifies students with an "unsafe" home life. It doesn't say anything about students who aren't in danger at home but nevertheless will lose the income from a part time job, access to quiet study areas, good study partners, and many other significant downsides.

That doesn’t mean they have somewhere they can go home and still commit to studying.

Some folks will go home to places with their own bedrooms, or even a family study, or a good local library.

Some will go home to nothing like anything of the above.

There are students at MIT/Harvard that will temporarily be rendered homeless. Some are depending on the generosity of local friends/classmates to find temporary lodging.

It's getting kinda wild.

can you please not spread misinformation. there's obviously exceptions in the policy for such cases. they're not going to toss students to the street. the goal is to drastically reduce the number of students living on campus and sharing dorm space (rooms, bathrooms/showers, eating halls).

This is not misinformation. The methods and procedures for appealing are not clear yet (we leave in seven days!) and there are students who are moving into local houses with friends. If you think MIT won't "just toss students to the street" you haven't been paying attention to the closures of Bexley Hall, Senior House, and the upcoming closure of Eastgate (which was only recently amended to be slightly better).

The source is that I am currently here and it is unfolding before my eyes and in my community.

Are you an MIT student or employee?

There are probably only a handful of MIT undergrads that are actually underprivileged per year (its unlikely enough with a middle class upbringing). I doubt this will be much of an issue, at least as much of an issue as it would be if my alma mater did this. They'll be fine.

Some data on the economic background of MIT students: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobilit...

This is interesting data I hadn't seen, thanks. Intuitively its a little bewildering to see the Median family income of someone from MIT be around the same as someone from UNC (a school I got into) - I wonder how the median incomes of international admits factor in.

The bottom 20% of US incomes is between $0 to $25k a year for a household - call me a skeptic but I think its unlikely ~58 (938 x 6.2%) people came from backgrounds like that in America,

Confused, you think it’s just too improbable to believe that MIT admitted 60 kids whose parents make <25k yearly? MIT can cherry pick the highest achieving kids in pretty much any national, heck even global, cohort. It seems reasonable to me that there are (way more than) 60 such kids.

Makes sense globally. Nationally, not as much

Top private US schools provide very good financial aid packages and are a very good choice for underprivileged students if they can get in. Schools in turn want such students for diversity and metrics.

> if they can get in.

These questions are framed in the wrong way. The filter isn't cost, it's getting in, and people from middle class and poor families are at a disadvantage in terms of accomplishments.

You may be interested in Paul Tough’s “The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us”. Tough makes similar points like this throughout the book.

>These questions are framed in the wrong way. The filter isn't cost, it's getting in, and people from middle class and poor families are at a disadvantage in terms of accomplishments.

Yes and no. In that there is correlation but probably not direct causality. For example, Asian middle and poor families seem to do fairly well in getting their kids to have the right achievements.

High correlation, yes. Poor kids don't know how. I didn't grow up poor but nobody in my circle knew how.

Or maybe you tried and it just didn't work out ? What were your test scores ? Did you have something that set you apart academically or otherwise ? Did you castigate MITs prestige in your essay as you seem to do on HN ?

I don’t even remember the MIT essays actually. I do know that they shouldn’t be treated better than me though.

Is there anyone who should be treated better than you ?

MIT is going to be one of the first choices of any student who has a chance to get in. Even though the vast majority don't overcome their disadvantages, MIT still has more qualified applicants from any large background such that they cannot accept them all.