Incoming first-year undergraduate MIT students, including students whose primary academic language is not English, should take the FEE over the summer.
When you register for the online FEE, you will be asked if English is your first language, and if not, whether you speak and write English as fluently as you speak and write your first language.
After the FEE is scored, staff in the Program in English Language Studies (ELS) will review the essays of non-native English speaking students who receive scores of “CI-HW Required.” ELS Staff will determine whether a student must take a CI-HW (Foundational Writing) subject, or whether they must take 21W.222 or 21W.220, which are Foundational Writing classes specifically designed for bilingual students from different pedagogical, rhetorical, and language backgrounds.
IMPORTANT: Non-native English speakers who take the FEE over the summer and are required to take 21W.222 based on their FEE results will be given priority for registration in this subject.
Students whose primary academic language is not English and who do not take the FEE over the summer (and who do not submit exempting AP/IB scores) should contact fee-help@mit.edu.
If you have any questions, please email fee-help@mit.edu.
Additional information about MIT’s English Language Studies Program is available.