In response to the increasingindustrialization of the United States,William Barton Rogers organized a school in Boston to create "useful knowledge." Initially funded by afederal land grant, the institute adopted a polytechnic model that stressed laboratory instruction inapplied science andengineering. MIT moved from Boston to Cambridge in 1916 and grew rapidly through collaboration with private industry, military branches, and new federal basic research agencies, the formation of which was influenced by MIT faculty likeVannevar Bush. In the late twentieth century, MIT became a leading center for research incomputer science,digital technology,artificial intelligence andbig science initiatives like theHuman Genome Project. Engineering remains its largest school, though MIT has also built programs in basic science, social sciences, business management, and humanities.
The institute has an urban campus that extends more than a mile (1.6 km) along theCharles River. The campus is known for academic buildings interconnected by corridors and many significantmodernist buildings. MIT's off-campus operations include theMIT Lincoln Laboratory and theHaystack Observatory, as well as affiliated laboratories such as theBroad andWhitehead Institutes. The institute also has a strongentrepreneurial culture and MIT alumni have founded or co-founded many notable companies.[10][11]
[...] a school of industrial science aiding the advancement, development and practical application of science in connection with arts, agriculture, manufactures, and commerce [...][17]
— Massachusetts General Court,Acts of 1861, Chapter 183
The true and only practicable object of a polytechnic school is, as I conceive, the teaching, not of the minute details and manipulations of the arts, which can be done only in the workshop, but the inculcation of those scientific principles which form the basis and explanation of them, and along with this, a full and methodical review of all their leading processes and operations in connection with physical laws.[25]
The Rogers Plan reflected theGerman research university model, emphasizing an independent faculty engaged in research, as well as instruction oriented around seminars and laboratories.[26][27]
Two days after MIT was chartered, thefirst battle of theCivil War broke out. After a long delay through the war years, MIT's first classes were held in the Mercantile Building in Boston in 1865.[28] The new institute was founded as part of theMorrill Land-Grant Colleges Act to fund institutions "to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes" and was a land-grant school.[29][30] In 1863 under the same act, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts founded theMassachusetts Agricultural College, which developed as theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. In 1866, the proceeds from land sales went toward new buildings in the Back Bay.[31]
Tech electrical engineering students with dynamos
MIT was informally called "Boston Tech".[31] The institute adopted theEuropean polytechnic university model and emphasized laboratory instruction from an early date.[26] Despite chronic financial problems, the institute saw growth in the last two decades of the 19th century under PresidentFrancis Amasa Walker.[32] Programs in electrical, chemical, marine, and sanitary engineering were introduced,[33][34] new buildings were built, and the size of the student body increased to more than one thousand.[32]
The curriculum drifted to a vocational emphasis, with less focus on theoretical science.[35] The fledgling school still suffered from chronic financial shortages which diverted the attention of the MIT leadership. During these "Boston Tech" years, MIT faculty and alumni rebuffedHarvard University president (and former MIT faculty)Charles W. Eliot's repeated attempts to merge MIT with Harvard College'sLawrence Scientific School.[36] There would be at least six attempts to absorb MIT into Harvard.[37] In its cramped Back Bay location, MIT could not afford to expand its overcrowded facilities, driving a desperate search for a new campus and funding. Eventually, the MIT Corporation approved a formal agreement to merge with Harvard and move to Allston, over the vehement objections of MIT faculty, students, and alumni.[37] The merger plan collapsed in 1905 when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that MIT could not sell its Back Bay land.[38]
In 1912, MIT acquired its current campus by purchasing a one-mile (1.6 km) tract offilled lands along the Cambridge side of the Charles River.[39][40] Theneoclassical "New Technology" campus was designed byWilliam W. Bosworth[41] and had been funded largely by anonymous donations from a mysterious "Mr. Smith", starting in 1912. In January 1920, the donor was revealed to be the industrialistGeorge Eastman, an inventor of film production methods and founder ofEastman Kodak. Between 1912 and 1920, Eastman donated $20 million ($304.2 million in 2024 dollars) in cash and Kodak stock to MIT.[42] In 1916, with the first academic buildings complete, the MIT administration and the MIT charter crossed the Charles River on the ceremonial bargeBucentaur built for the occasion.[43][44]
Needing funds to match Eastman's gift and cover retreating state support, PresidentRichard MacLaurin launched an industry funding model known as the "Technology Plan" in 1920.[45][46][47] As MIT grew under the Tech Plan, it built new postgraduate programs that stressed laboratory work on industry problems, including a new program in electrical engineering.[45]Gerard Swope, MIT's chairman and head ofGeneral Electric, believed talented engineers needed scientific research training.[45] In 1930, he recruitedKarl Taylor Compton to helm MIT's transformation as a "technological" research university and to build more autonomy from private industry.[45][47]
... a special type of educational institution which can be defined as a university polarized around science, engineering, and the arts. We might call it a university limited in its objectives but unlimited in the breadth and the thoroughness with which it pursues these objectives.[48]
In the 1930s, PresidentKarl Taylor Compton and Vice-President (effectivelyProvost)Vannevar Bush emphasized the importance of pure sciences like physics and chemistry and reduced the vocational practice required in shops and drafting studios.[49] The Compton reforms "renewed confidence in the ability of the Institute to develop leadership in science as well as in engineering".[50] UnlikeIvy League schools, MIT catered more to middle-class families, and depended more ontuition than onendowments orgrants for its funding.[46]
Still, as late as 1949, the Lewis Committee lamented in its report on the state of education at MIT that "the Institute is widely conceived as basically a vocational school", a "partly unjustified" perception the committee sought to change. The report comprehensively reviewed the undergraduate curriculum, recommended offering a broader education, and warned against letting engineering and government-sponsored research detract from the sciences and humanities.[51][52] TheSchool of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and theMIT Sloan School of Management were formed in 1950 to compete with the powerful Schools ofScience andEngineering. Previously marginalized faculties in the areas of economics, management, political science, and linguistics emerged into cohesive and assertive departments by attracting respected professors and launching competitive graduate programs.[53][54] Humanities and social science programs continued to develop under the successive terms of the morehumanistically oriented presidentsHoward W. Johnson andJerome Wiesner between 1966 and 1980.[55]
These activities affected MIT profoundly. A 1949 report noted the lack of "any great slackening in the pace of life at the Institute" to match the return to peacetime, remembering the "academic tranquility of the prewar years", though acknowledging the significant contributions of military research to the increased emphasis on graduate education and rapid growth of personnel and facilities.[64] The faculty doubled and the graduate student body quintupled during the presidential terms ofKarl Taylor Compton (1930–1948),James Rhyne Killian (1948–1957), and chancellorJulius Adams Stratton (1952–1957), whose institution-building strategies shaped the expanding university. By the 1950s, MIT no longer simply benefited the industries with which it had worked for three decades, and it had developed closer working relationships with new patrons, philanthropic foundations and the federal government.[65]
In late 1960s and early 1970s, student and faculty activists protested against theVietnam War and MIT's defense research.[66][67] In this period MIT's various departments were researching helicopters, smart bombs and counterinsurgency techniques for the war in Vietnam as well as guidance systems for nuclear missiles.[68] TheUnion of Concerned Scientists was founded on March 4, 1969 during a meeting of faculty members and students seeking to shift the emphasis on military research toward environmental and social problems.[69] MIT ultimately divested itself from the Instrumentation Laboratory and moved all classified research off-campus to theMIT Lincoln Laboratory facility in 1973 in response to the protests.[70][71] The student body, faculty, and administration remained comparatively unpolarized during what was a tumultuous time for many other universities.[66] Johnson was seen to be highly successful in leading his institution to "greater strength and unity" after these times of turmoil.[72] However six MIT students were sentenced to prison terms at this time and some former student leaders, such asMichael Albert andGeorge Katsiaficas, are still indignant about MIT's role in military research and its suppression of these protests.[73] (Richard Leacock's film,November Actions, records some of these tumultuous events.[74])
In the 1980s, there was more controversy at MIT over its involvement in SDI (space weaponry) and CBW (chemical and biological warfare) research.[75] More recently, MIT's research for the military has included work on robots, drones and 'battle suits'.[76]
TheMIT Media Lab houses researchers developing novel uses of computer technology and shown here is the 1985 building, designed byI.M. Pei, with an extension (right of photo) designed byFumihiko Maki opened in March 2010.
MIT was named asea-grant college in 1976 to support its programs in oceanography and marine sciences and was named aspace-grant college in 1989 to support its aeronautics and astronautics programs.[84][85] Despite diminishing government financial support over the past quarter century, MIT launched several successfuldevelopment campaigns to significantly expand the campus: new dormitories and athletics buildings on west campus; theTang Center for Management Education; several buildings in the northeast corner of campus supporting research intobiology,brain and cognitive sciences,genomics,biotechnology, andcancer research; and a number of new "backlot" buildings on Vassar Street including theStata Center.[86] Construction on campus in the 2000s included expansions of the Media Lab, the Sloan School's eastern campus, and graduate residences in the northwest.[87][88] In 2006, President Hockfield launched the MIT Energy Research Council to investigate the interdisciplinary challenges posed by increasingglobal energy consumption.[89]
Former two-color MIT logo used from 2003 to 2023.
In 2001, inspired by theopen source andopen access movements,[90] MIT launchedOpenCourseWare to make the lecture notes,problem sets, syllabi, exams, and lectures from the great majority of its courses available online for no charge, though without any formal accreditation for coursework completed.[91] While the cost of supporting and hosting the project is high,[92] OCW expanded in 2005 to include other universities as a part of the OpenCourseWare Consortium, which currently includes more than 250 academic institutions with content available in at least six languages.[93] In 2011, MIT announced it would offer formal certification (but not credits or degrees) to online participants completing coursework in its "MITx" program, for a modest fee.[94] The "edX" online platform supporting MITx was initially developed in partnership withHarvard and its analogous "Harvardx" initiative. The courseware platform is open source, and other universities have already joined and added their own course content.[95] In March 2009 the MIT faculty adopted anopen-access policy to make its scholarshippublicly accessible online.[96]
MIT has its own police force. Three days after theBoston Marathon bombing of April 2013,MIT Police patrol officerSean Collier was fatally shot by the suspectsDzhokhar andTamerlan Tsarnaev, setting off a violent manhunt that shut down the campus and much of the Boston metropolitan area for a day.[97] One week later, Collier's memorial service was attended by more than 10,000 people, in a ceremony hosted by the MIT community with thousands of police officers from the New England region and Canada.[98][99][100] On November 25, 2013, MIT announced the creation of the Collier Medal, to be awarded annually to "an individual or group that embodies the character and qualities that Officer Collier exhibited as a member of the MIT community and in all aspects of his life". The announcement further stated that "Future recipients of the award will include those whose contributions exceed the boundaries of their profession, those who have contributed to building bridges across the community, and those who consistently and selflessly perform acts of kindness".[101][102][103]
In September 2017, the school announced the creation of anartificial intelligence research lab called the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab.IBM will spend $240 million over the next decade, and the lab will be staffed by MIT and IBM scientists.[104] In October 2018 MIT announced that it would open a newSchwarzman College of Computing dedicated to the study of artificial intelligence, named after lead donor andThe Blackstone Group CEOStephen Schwarzman. The focus of the new college is to study not just AI, but interdisciplinary AI education, and how AI can be used in fields as diverse as history and biology. The cost of buildings and new faculty for the new college is expected to be $1 billion upon completion.[105]
MIT's central and east campus from above theHarvard Bridge. Left of center is the Great Dome over Killian Court, with the Stata Center behind.MIT's Building 10 and Great Dome overlooking Killian Court
MIT's 166-acre (67.2 ha) campus in the city ofCambridge spans approximately a mile along the north side of theCharles River basin.[6] The campus is divided roughly in half byMassachusetts Avenue, with most dormitories and student life facilities to the west and most academic buildings to the east. The bridge closest to MIT is theHarvard Bridge, which is known for being marked off in anon-standard unit of length – thesmoot.[115][116]
TheKendall/MITMBTA Red Line station is located on the northeastern edge of the campus, inKendall Square. The Cambridge neighborhoods surrounding MIT are a mixture of high tech companies occupying both modern office and rehabilitated industrial buildings, as well as socio-economically diverse residential neighborhoods.[117][118] In early 2016, MIT presented a development plan for Kendall Square the City of Cambridge, adding high-rise educational, retail, residential, startup incubator, and office space around the MBTA station. TheMIT Museum has moved immediately adjacent to a Kendall Square subway entrance, joining theList Visual Arts Center on the eastern end of the campus.[119]
Each building at MIThas a number (possibly preceded by aW,N,E, orNW) designation, and most have a name as well. Typically, academic and office buildings are referred to primarily by number while residence halls are referred to by name. The organization of building numbers roughly corresponds to the order in which the buildings were built and their location relative (north, west, and east) to the original center cluster of Maclaurin buildings.[120] Many of the buildings are connected above ground as well as through an extensive network of tunnels, providing protection from the Cambridge weather as well as a venue forroof and tunnel hacking.[121][122]
The campus' primary energy source is natural gas. In connection with capital campaigns to expand the campus, the Institute has also extensively renovated existing buildings to improve their energy efficiency. MIT has also taken steps to reduce its environmental impact by runningalternative fuel campus shuttles, subsidizingpublic transportation passes, constructingsolar power offsets, and building acogeneration plant to power campus electricity, heating, and cooling requirements.[123][124]
MIT's on-campus nuclear reactor[125] is one of the most powerful university-basednuclear reactors in the United States. The prominence of the reactor's containment building in a densely populated area has been controversial,[126] but MIT maintains that it is well-secured.[127]
MIT Nano, also known as Building 12, is an interdisciplinary facility for nanoscale research. Its 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m2)cleanroom and research space, visible through expansive glass facades, is the largest research facility of its kind in the nation.[128] With a cost of US$400 million, it is also one of the costliest buildings on campus. The facility also provides state-of-the-art nanoimaging capabilities with vibration damped imaging and metrology suites sitting atop a 5×10^6 lb (2,300,000 kg) slab of concrete underground.[129]
Other notable campus facilities include a pressurizedwind tunnel for testingaerodynamic research, atowing tank for testing ship and ocean structure designs, and previouslyAlcator C-Mod, which was the largest fusion device operated by any university.[130][131] MIT's campus-wide wireless network was completed in the fall of 2005 and consists of nearly 3,000 access points covering 9.4×10^6 sq ft (870,000 m2) of campus.[132]
MIT's School of Architecture, founded in 1865[133] and now called the School of Architecture and Planning, was the first formal architecture program in the United States,[134] and it has a history of commissioning progressive buildings.[135][136] The first buildings constructed on the Cambridge campus, completed in 1916, are sometimes called the "Maclaurin buildings" after Institute presidentRichard Maclaurin who oversaw their construction. Designed byWilliam Welles Bosworth, these imposing buildings were built ofreinforced concrete, a first for a non-industrial – much less university – building in the US.[137] Bosworth's design was influenced by theCity Beautiful Movement of the early 1900s[137] and features thePantheon-esque Great Dome housing the Barker Engineering Library. The Great Dome overlooks Killian Court, wheregraduation ceremonies are held each year. The friezes of the limestone-clad buildings around Killian Court are engraved with the names of important scientists and philosophers.[a] The spacious Building 7 atrium at77 Massachusetts Avenue is regarded as the entrance to theInfinite Corridor and the rest of the campus.[118]
TheSimmons Hall undergrad dormitory was completed in 2002.
Undergraduates are guaranteed four-year housing in one of MIT's 11 undergraduate dormitories.[147] Those living on campus can receive support and mentoring from live-in graduate student tutors, resident advisors, and faculty housemasters.[148] Because housing assignments are made based on the preferences of the students themselves, diverse social atmospheres can be sustained in different living groups; for example, according to theYale Daily News staff'sThe Insider's Guide to the Colleges, 2010, "The split between East Campus and West Campus is a significant characteristic of MIT. East Campus has gained a reputation as a thriving counterculture."[149] MIT also has 5 dormitories for single graduate students and 2 apartment buildings on campus for married student families.[150]
MIT has an active Greek andco-op housing system, including thirty-sixfraternities,sororities, and independent living groups (FSILGs).[151] As of 2015[update], 98% of all undergraduates lived in MIT-affiliated housing; 54% of the men participated in fraternities and 20% of the women were involved in sororities.[152] Most FSILGs are located across the river inBack Bay near where MIT was founded, and there is also a cluster of fraternities on MIT's West Campus that face the Charles River Basin.[153] After the 1997 alcohol-related death of Scott Krueger, a new pledge at thePhi Gamma Delta fraternity, MIT required all freshmen to live in the dormitory system starting in 2002.[154] Because FSILGs had previously housed as many as 300 freshmen off-campus, the new policy could not be implemented untilSimmons Hall opened in that year.[155]
In 2013–2014, MIT abruptly closed and then demolished undergrad dorm Bexley Hall, citing extensive water damage that made repairs infeasible. In 2017, MIT shut down Senior House after a century of service as an undergrad dorm. That year, MIT administrators released data showing just 60% of Senior House residents had graduated in four years. Campus-wide, the four-year graduation rate is 84% (the cumulative graduation rate is significantly higher).[156]
MIT is a state-charterednonprofit corporation governed by a privately appointedboard known as theMIT Corporation.[160] The Corporation has 60–80 members at any time, some with fixed terms, some with life appointments, and eight who serveex officio.[160][161][162][163] The Corporation approves the budget, new programs, degrees and faculty appointments, and elects a president to manage the university and preside over the Institute's faculty.[160][118] The current president isSally Kornbluth, a cell biologist and former provost atDuke University, who became MIT's eighteenth president in January 2023.[164]
MIT has five schools (Science,Engineering,Architecture and Planning,Management, andHumanities, Arts, and Social Sciences) and one college (Schwarzman College of Computing), but no schools of law or medicine.[165][b][167] Faculty committees have control over many areas of MIT's curriculum, research, student life, and administrative affairs,[168] the chair of each of MIT's academic departments reports to the dean of that department's school, who in turn reports to the Provost under the President.[169] Academic departments are also evaluated by "Visiting Committees", specialized bodies of Corporation members and outside experts who review the performance, activities, and needs of each department.
MIT'sendowment, real estate, and other financial assets are managed through by the MIT Investment Management Company (MITIMCo), a subsidiary of the MIT Corporation created in 2004.[170] A minor revenue source for much of the Institute's history, the endowment's role in MIT operations has grown due to strong investment returns since the 1990s, making itone the largest U.S. university endowments.[171] Among its holdings are a majority of shares in the audio equipment manufacturerBose Corporation, as well as a commercial real estate portfolio inKendall Square.[172][173]
MIT is a large, highly residential, research university with a majority of enrollments in graduate and professional programs.[176] The university has beenaccredited by theNew England Association of Schools and Colleges since 1929.[177] MIT operates on a4–1–4 academic calendar with the fall semester beginning afterLabor Day and ending in mid-December, a 4-week "Independent Activities Period" in the month of January, and the spring semester commencing in early February and ceasing in late May.[178]
MIT students refer to both their majors and classes using numbers or acronyms alone.[179] Departments and their corresponding majors are numbered in the approximate order of their foundation; for example, Civil and Environmental Engineering isCourse 1, while Linguistics and Philosophy isCourse 24.[180] Students majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), the most popular department, collectively identify themselves as "Course 6". MIT students use a combination of the department's course number and the number assigned to the class to identify their subjects; for instance, the introductory calculus-basedclassical mechanics course is simply "8.01" (pronouncedeight-oh-one) at MIT.[181][c]
The four-year, full-time undergraduate program maintains a balance between professional majors and those in the arts and sciences. In 2010, it was dubbed "most selective" byU.S. News,[188] admitting few transfer students[176] and 4.1% of its applicants in the 2020–2021 admissions cycle.[189] It isneed-blind for both domestic and international applicants.[190] MIT offers 44 undergraduate degrees across its five schools.[191] In the 2017–2018 academic year, 1,045 Bachelor of Science degrees (abbreviated "SB") were granted, the only type of undergraduate degree MIT now awards.[needs update][192][193] In the 2011 fall term, among students who had designated a major, the School of Engineering was the most popular division, enrolling 63% of students in its 19 degree programs, followed by the School of Science (29%), School of Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences (3.7%), Sloan School of Management (3.3%), and School of Architecture and Planning (2%).[needs update] The largest undergraduate degree programs were in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Course 6–2), Computer Science and Engineering (Course 6–3), Mechanical Engineering (Course 2), Physics (Course 8), and Mathematics (Course 18).[182]
All undergraduates are required to complete a core curriculum called the General Institute Requirements (GIRs).[194] The Science Requirement, generally completed during freshman year as prerequisites for classes in science and engineering majors, comprises two semesters of physics, two semesters of calculus, one semester of chemistry, and one semester of biology. There is a Laboratory Requirement, usually satisfied by an appropriate class in a course major. The Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) Requirement consists of eight semesters of classes in the humanities, arts, and social sciences, including at least one semester from each division as well as the courses required for a designated concentration in a HASS division. Under the Communication Requirement, two of the HASS classes, plus two of the classes taken in the designated major must be "communication-intensive",[195] including "substantial instruction and practice in oral presentation".[196] Finally, all students are required to complete aswimming test;[197] non-varsity athletes must also take four quarters ofphysical education classes.[194]
Most classes rely on a combination of lectures, recitations led by associate professors or graduate students, weekly problem sets ("p-sets"), and periodic quizzes or tests. While the pace and difficulty of MIT coursework has been compared to "drinking from a fire hose",[198][199][200] the freshmen retention rate at MIT is similar to other research universities.[188] The "pass/no-record" grading system relieves some pressure for first-year undergraduates. For each class taken in the fall term, freshmen transcripts will either report only that the class was passed, or otherwise not have any record of it. In the spring term, passing grades (A, B, C) appear on the transcript while non-passing grades are again not recorded.[201] (Grading had previously been "pass/no record" all freshman year, but was amended for the Class of 2006 to prevent students fromgaming the system by completing required major classes in their freshman year.[202]) Also, freshmen may choose to join alternative learning communities, such asExperimental Study Group,Concourse, or Terrascope.[201]
MIT's curriculum encourages students to apply scientific knowledge in practical domains, an idea summarized in the institute motto ofmens et manus or "mind and hand."[203][204] Courses emphasizes uses of engineering knowledge in arenas like product design competitions and control design.[205][206] In 1969,Margaret MacVicar founded theUndergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) to enable undergraduates to collaborate directly with faculty members and researchers. Students join or initiate research projects ("UROPs") for academic credit, pay, or on a volunteer basis through postings on the UROP website or by contacting faculty members directly.[207] A substantial majority of undergraduates participate.[208][209] Students often becomepublished, filepatent applications, and/or launchstart-up companies based upon their experience in UROPs.[210][211] The program has been widely emulated at other U.S. universities.[212]
In 1970, the then-Dean of Institute Relations, Benson R. Snyder, publishedThe Hidden Curriculum, arguing that education at MIT was often slighted in favor of following a set of unwritten expectations and that graduating with good grades was more often the product of figuring out the system rather than a solid education. The successful student, according to Snyder, was the one who was able to discern which of the formal requirements were to be ignored in favor of which unstated norms. For example, organized student groups had compiled "course bibles"—collections of problem-set and examination questions and answers for later students to use as references. This sort of gamesmanship, Snyder argued, hindered development of a creative intellect and contributed to student discontent and unrest.[213][214]
MIT's graduate program has high coexistence with the undergraduate program, and many courses are taken by qualified students at both levels. MIT offers a comprehensive doctoral program with degrees in the humanities, social sciences, andSTEM fields as well as professional degrees, including theMaster of Business Administration (MBA).[176] The Institute offers graduate programs leading to academic degrees such as the Master of Science (which is abbreviated as MS at MIT), various Engineer's Degrees, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), andDoctor of Science (DSc) and interdisciplinary graduate programs such as theMD-PhD (withHarvard Medical School) and a joint program inoceanography withWoods Hole Oceanographic Institution.[215][216][217][218]
Admission to graduate programs is decentralized; applicants apply directly to the department or degree program. More than 90% of doctoral students are supported by fellowships, research assistantships (RAs), or teaching assistantships (TAs).[219]
The university historically pioneered research and training collaborations between academia, industry and government.[241][242] In 1946, President Compton, Harvard Business School professorGeorges Doriot, and Massachusetts Investor Trust chairman Merrill Grisswold foundedAmerican Research and Development Corporation, the first Americanventure-capital firm.[243][244] In 1948, Compton established the MIT Industrial Liaison Program.[245] Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, American politicians and business leaders accused MIT and other universities of contributing to adeclining economy bytransferring taxpayer-funded research and technology to international – especiallyJapanese – firms that were competing with struggling American businesses.[246][247] On the other hand, MIT's extensive collaboration with the federal government on research projects has led to several MIT leaders serving aspresidential scientific advisers since 1940.[d] MIT established a Washington Office in 1991 to continue effectivelobbying for research funding and nationalscience policy.[249][250]
TheUS Justice Department began an investigation in 1989, and in 1991 filed anantitrust suit against MIT, the eightIvy League colleges, and eleven other institutions for allegedly engaging inprice-fixing during their annual "Overlap Meetings", which were held to prevent bidding wars over promising prospective students from consuming funds for need-based scholarships.[251][252] While the Ivy League institutionssettled,[253] MIT contested the charges, arguing that the practice was not anti-competitive because it ensured the availability of aid for the greatest number of students.[254][255] MIT ultimately prevailed when the Justice Department dropped the case in 1994.[256][257]
Walker Memorial is a monument to MIT's fourth president,Francis Amasa Walker.MIT main campus seen from Vassar Street, as The Great Dome is visible in the distance and the Stata Center is at right
The mass-market magazineTechnology Review is published by MIT through a subsidiary company, as is a special edition that also serves as analumni magazine.[264][265] TheMIT Press is a majoruniversity press, publishing over 200 books and 30 journals annually, emphasizing science and technology as well as arts, architecture, new media, current events, and social issues.[266]
MIT Microphotonics Center andPhotonDelta founded the global roadmap for integrated photonics: Integrated Photonics Systems Roadmap – International (IPSR-I). The first edition has been published in 2020. The roadmap is an amalgamation of two previously independent roadmaps: the IPSR roadmap of MIT Microphotonics Center and AIM Photonics in the United States, and the WTMF (World Technology Mapping Forum) of PhotonDelta in Europe.[267] In 2022, Open Philanthropy donated $13,277,348 to MIT to study potential risks from AI.[268]
The MIT library system consists of five subject libraries: Barker (Engineering), Dewey (Economics), Hayden (Humanities and Science), Lewis (Music), and Rotch (Arts and Architecture). There are also various specialized libraries and archives. The libraries contain more than 2.9 million printed volumes, 2.4 million microforms, 49,000 print or electronic journal subscriptions, and 670 reference databases. The past decade has seen a trend of increased focus on digital over print resources in the libraries.[269] Notable collections include the Lewis Music Library with an emphasis on 20th and 21st-century music and electronic music,[270] theList Visual Arts Center's rotating exhibitions of contemporary art,[271] and the Compton Gallery's cross-disciplinary exhibitions.[272] MIT allocates a percentage of the budget for all new construction and renovation to commission and support its extensive public art and outdoor sculpture collection.[273][274]
TheMIT Museum was founded in 1971 and collects, preserves, and exhibits artifacts significant to the culture andhistory of MIT. The museum now engages in significant educational outreach programs for the general public, including the annualCambridge Science Festival, the first celebration of this kind in the United States. Since 2005, its official mission has been, "to engage the wider community with MIT's science, technology and other areas of scholarship in ways that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century".[275]
MIT was elected to theAssociation of American Universities in 1934 and isclassified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity";[276][176] research expenditures totaled $952 million in 2017.[277] The federal government was the largest source of sponsored research, with theDepartment of Health and Human Services granting $255.9 million,Department of Defense $97.5 million,Department of Energy $65.8 million,National Science Foundation $61.4 million, andNASA $27.4 million.[278] MIT employs approximately 1300 researchers in addition to faculty.[279] In 2011, MIT faculty and researchers disclosed 632 inventions, were issued 153 patents, earned $85.4 million in cash income, and received $69.6 million in royalties.[280] Through programs like the Deshpande Center, MIT faculty leverage their research and discoveries into multi-million-dollar commercial ventures.[281]
Allegations ofresearch misconduct or improprieties have received substantial press coverage. ProfessorDavid Baltimore, aNobel Laureate, became embroiled in a misconduct investigation starting in 1986 that led to Congressional hearings in 1991.[310][311] ProfessorTed Postol has accused the MIT administration since 2000 of attempting towhitewash potential research misconduct at the Lincoln Lab facility involving aballistic missile defense test, though a final investigation into the matter has not been completed.[312][313] Associate ProfessorLuk Van Parijs was dismissed in 2005 following allegations of scientific misconduct and found guilty of the same by theUnited States Office of Research Integrity in 2009.[314][315]
In 2019,Clarivate Analytics named 54 members of MIT's faculty to its list of "Highly Cited Researchers". That number places MIT eighth among the world's universities.[316]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers the MIT Introduction to Engineering and Science (MITES), a six-week summer program for rising high school seniors. Its purpose is to expose students from underserved and underrepresented backgrounds to the fields of science and engineering. The program also aims to foster an interest in these subject matters and prepare students for the pressures and lifestyle of college life.
MITES was founded in 1974 as the MITE (Minority Introduction to Engineering) Program with the purpose of increasing the number of people from underrepresented backgrounds in the engineering profession. It started out as a two-week intensive program, and later evolved into what is now a six-week program for 60-80 students.[citation needed]
Digital circuits –Claude Shannon, while a master's degree student at MIT, developed the digital circuit design theory which paved the way for modern computers.[323]
Manyupperclass students and alumni wear a large, heavy, distinctiveclass ring known as the "Brass Rat".[356][357] Originally created in 1929, the ring's official name is the "Standard Technology Ring".[358] The undergraduate ring design (a separate graduate student version exists as well) varies slightly from year to year to reflect the unique character of the MIT experience for that class, but always features a three-piece design, with the MIT seal and the class year each appearing on a separate face, flanking a large rectangular bezel bearing an image of abeaver.[356] TheinitialismIHTFP, representing the informal school motto "I Hate This Fucking Place" and jocularlyeuphemized as "I Have Truly Found Paradise", "Institute Has The Finest Professors", "Institute of Hacks, TomFoolery and Pranks", "It's Hard to Fondle Penguins", and other variations, has occasionally been featured on the ring given its historical prominence in student culture.[359]
MIT also shares a well-knownrivalry with theCalifornia Institute of Technology (Caltech), stemming from both institutions' reputations as two of the highest ranked and most highly recognized science and engineering schools in the world.[360] The rivalry is an unusual college rivalry given its focus on academics and pranks instead of sports, and due to the geographic distance between the two (their campuses are separated by about 2580 miles and are onoppositecoasts of the United States). In 2005, Caltech students pranked MIT's Campus Preview Weekend by distributing t-shirts that read "MIT" on the front, and "...because not everyone can go to Caltech" on the back.[361][362][363] Additionally, the word Massachusetts in the "Massachusetts Institute of Technology" engraving on the exterior of the Lobby 7 dome was covered with a banner so that it read "That Other Institute of Technology". In 2006, MIT retaliated by posing as contractors and stealing the 1.7-ton, 130-year-oldFleming cannon, a Caltech landmark. The cannon was relocated to Cambridge, where it was displayed in front of theGreen Building during the 2006 Campus Preview Weekend.[364][365] In September 2010, MIT students unsuccessfully tried to place a life-sized model of theTARDIS time machine from theDoctor Who (1963–present) television series on top of Baxter Hall at Caltech. A few months later, Caltech students collaborated to help MIT students place the TARDIS on top of their originally planned destination.[366] The rivalry has continued, most recently in 2014, when a group of Caltech students gave out mugs sporting the MIT logo on the front and the words "The Institute of Technology" on the back. When heated, the mugs turned orange and read, "Caltech, The Hotter Institute of Technology".[367]
Fraternities and sororities provide a base of activities in addition to housing. Approximately 1,000 undergrads, 48% of men and 30% of women, participate in one of several dozen Greek Life men's, women's and co-ed chapters on the campus.[370]
TheIndependent Activities Period is a four-week-long "term" offering hundreds of optional classes, lectures, demonstrations, and other activities throughout the month of January between the Fall and Spring semesters. Some of the most popular recurring IAP activities are Autonomous Robot Design (course 6.270), Robocraft Programming (6.370), and MasLabcompetitions,[371] the annual"mystery hunt",[372] andCharm School.[373][374] More than 250 students pursueexternships annually at companies in the US and abroad.[375][376]
MIT's intercollegiate sports teams, called the Engineers, have won 22 Team National Championships and 42 Individual National Championships. MIT is the all-time Division III leader in producingAcademic All-Americas (302) and ranks second across all NCAA Divisions, behind only theUniversity of Nebraska–Lincoln.[384] MIT Athletes won 13Elite 90 awards and ranks first among NCAA Division III programs, and third among all divisions.[385] In April 2009, budget cuts led to MIT eliminating eight of its 41 sports, including the mixed men's and women's teams in alpine skiing and pistol; separate teams for men and women in ice hockey and gymnastics; and men's programs in golf and wrestling.[386][387]
MIT enrolled 4,602 undergraduates and 6,972 graduate students in 2018–2019.[389] Undergraduate and graduate students came from all 50 US states as well as from 115 foreign countries.[390]
MIT received 33,240 applications for admission to the undergraduate Class of 2025: it admitted 1,365 (4.1 percent).[391] In 2019, 29,114 applications were received for graduate and advanced degree programs across all departments; 3,670 were admitted (12.6 percent) and 2,312 enrolled (63 percent).[392] In August 2024, after theU.S. Supreme Court overruled race-basedaffirmative action inStudents for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023), the university reported that for the class of 2028, Black and Latino student enrollment decreased from previous averages to 5 and 11 percent, respectively, whileAsian American enrollment increased to 47 percent.[393][394]
Undergraduate tuition and fees for 2019–2020 was $53,790 for nine months. 59% of students were awarded a need-based MIT scholarship. Graduate tuition and fees for 2019–2020 was also $53,790 for nine months, and summer tuition was $17,800. Financial support for graduate students are provided in large part by individual departments. They include fellowships, traineeships, teaching and research assistantships, and loans.[395] The annual increase in expenses had led to a student tradition (dating back to the 1960s) of tongue-in-cheek "tuition riots".[396]
MIT has been nominallyco-educational since admittingEllen Swallow Richards in 1870. Richards also became the first female member of MIT's faculty, specializing insanitary chemistry.[397][398] Female students remained a small minority prior to the completion of the first wing of a women's dormitory,McCormick Hall, in 1963.[399][400][401] Between 1993 and 2009 the proportion of women rose from 34 percent to 45 percent of undergraduates and from 20 percent to 31 percent of graduate students.[182][402] As of 2009[update], women outnumbered men in Biology, Brain & Cognitive Sciences, Architecture, Urban Planning, and Biological Engineering.[182][403]
As of 2025[update], MIT had 1,090faculty members.[4] Faculty are responsible for lecturing classes, for advising both graduate and undergraduate students, and for sitting on academic committees, as well as for conducting original research. Between 1964 and 2009 a total of seventeen faculty and staff members affiliated with MIT wonNobel Prizes (thirteen of them in the latter 25 years).[404] As of October 2020, 37 MIT faculty members, past or present, have won Nobel Prizes, the majority inEconomics orPhysics.[405]
As of October 2013[update], current faculty and teaching staff included 67Guggenheim Fellows, 6Fulbright Scholars, and 22MacArthur Fellows.[4] Faculty members who have made extraordinary contributions to their research field as well as the MIT community are granted appointments asInstitute Professors for the remainder of their tenures.Susan Hockfield, a molecularneurobiologist, served as MIT's president from 2004 to 2012. She was the first woman to hold the post.[406]
MIT faculty members have often been recruited to lead other colleges and universities. Founding faculty-memberCharles W. Eliot became president of Harvard University in 1869, a post he would hold for 40 years, during which he had influence both on American higher education and on secondary education. MIT alumnus and faculty memberGeorge Ellery Hale played a central role in the development of theCalifornia Institute of Technology (Caltech), and other faculty members have been key founders ofFranklin W. Olin College of Engineering in nearbyNeedham, Massachusetts.
In addition, faculty members have been recruited to lead governmental agencies; for example, former professorMarcia McNutt is president of theNational Academy of Sciences,[407] urban studies professorXavier de Souza Briggs served as the associate director of theWhite House Office of Management and Budget,[408] and biology professorEric Lander was a co-chair of thePresident's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.[409] In 2013, faculty memberErnest Moniz was nominated by President Obama and later confirmed asUnited States Secretary of Energy.[410][411] Former professor Hans Mark served as Secretary of the Air Force from 1979 to 1981. Alumna and Institute Professor Sheila Widnall served as Secretary of the Air Force between 1993 and 1997, making her the first female Secretary of the Air Force and first woman to lead an entire branch of the US military in the Department of Defense. A 1999 report, met by promises of change by President Charles Vest, found that senior female faculty in the School of Science were often marginalized, and in return for equal professional accomplishments received reduced "salary, space, awards, resources, and response to outside offers".[412]
As of 2017[update], MIT was the second-largest employer in the city of Cambridge.[157] Based on feedback from employees, MIT was ranked No. 7 as a place to work, among US colleges and universities as of March 2013[update].[413] Surveys cited a "smart", "creative", "friendly" environment, noting that thework-life balance tilts towards a "strong work ethic" but complaining about "low pay" compared to an industry position.[414]
Many of MIT's over 120,000 alumni have achieved considerable success in scientific research, public service, education, andbusiness. As of October 2020[update], 41 MIT alumni have won Nobel Prizes, 48 have been selected asRhodes Scholars,[415] 61 have been selected asMarshall Scholars,[416] and 3 have been selected asMitchell Scholars.[417]
MIT alumni have founded or co-founded many notable companies, such asIntel,McDonnellDouglas,Texas Instruments,3Com,Qualcomm,Bose,Raytheon,Apotex,Koch Industries,Rockwell International,Genentech,Dropbox, andCampbell Soup. According to the British newspaperThe Guardian, "a survey of living MIT alumni found that they have formed 25,800 companies, employing more than three million people including about a quarter of the workforce of Silicon Valley. Those firms collectively generate global revenues of about $1.9 trillion (£1.2 trillion) a year". If the companies founded by MIT alumni were a country, they would have the 11th-highestGDP of any country in the world.[419][420][421]
^The Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) offers joint MD, MD-PhD, or Medical Engineering degrees in collaboration withHarvard Medical School.[166]
^Course numbers are sometimes presented inRoman numerals, e.g. "Course XVIII" for mathematics.[182] At least one MIT style guide now discourages this usage.[183] Also, some Course numbers have been re-assigned over time, so that the subject area of a degree may depend on the year it was awarded.[180]
^abAlexander, Philip N."MIT-Harvard Rivalry Timeline".MIT Music and Theater Arts News. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Archived fromthe original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved2014-07-07.
^Lecuyer, Christophe (1992). "The making of a science based technological university: Karl Compton, James Killian, and the reform of MIT, 1930–1957".Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences.23 (1):153–180.doi:10.2307/27757693.JSTOR27757693.
^Leslie, Stuart (1993).The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford. Columbia University Press.ISBN0-231-07959-1.
^Hechinger, Fred (1969-11-09). "Tension Over Issue of Defense Research".The New York Times.
^Stevens, William (1969-05-05). "MIT Curb on Secret Projects Reflects Growing Antimilitary Feeling Among Universities' Researchers".The New York Times.
^Warsh, David (1999-06-01)."A tribute to MIT's Howard Johnson".The Boston Globe. Retrieved2007-04-04.At a critical time in the late 1960s,Johnson stood up to the forces of campus rebellion at MIT. Many university presidents were destroyed by the troubles. OnlyEdward Levi,University of Chicago president, had comparable success guiding his institution to a position of greater strength and unity after the turmoil.
^Life members end their terms at 75 years old.Ex officio members are the Corporation's elected officers—its Chair, President, Treasurer, and Secretary—and the president of the MIT Alumni Association, theGovernor of Massachusetts, the Chief Justice of theMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and the Massachusetts Secretary of Education.
^"Massachusetts Institute of Technology".Roster of Institutions. New England Association of Schools and Colleges Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. 2018-07-26. Archived fromthe original on 2018-08-03. Retrieved2018-08-03.
^"Majors & Minors". MIT Admissions Office. Retrieved2008-08-13.MIT is organized into academic departments, or Courses, which you will often hear referred to by their Course number or acronym.
^Morell, Nicole (2014-12-18)."MIT's Wettest Test".MIT Technology Review. Archived fromthe original on 2015-07-04. Retrieved2015-07-03.
^"The Boston Globe". 1959-02-01. p. 51.'Getting an education at MIT is like drinking from a fire hose' is generally attributed to former President Jerome Wiesner. However, in the 1 February 1959 (p. 51) issue of the Boston Globe, there is the following, "Quoting an MIT student Dr. [Julius] Stratton cited the quickening pace of science and said: 'Getting a technical education today is like getting a drink from a firehose.'"
^Schön, Donald A. (1986)."Leadership as Reflection-in-Action". In Thomas J. Sergiovanni; John Edward Corbally (eds.).Leadership and Organizational Culture: New Perspectives on Administrative Theory and Practice. University of Illinois Press. p. 59.ISBN0-252-01347-6. Retrieved2008-08-13.[In the sixties] Students spoke of their undergraduate experience as "drinking from a fire hose."
^Avery, Christopher; Glickman, Mark E.; Hoxby, Caroline M; Metrick, Andrew (December 2005). "A Revealed Preference Ranking of U.S. Colleges and Universities".NBER Working Paper No. W10803. National Bureau of Economic Research.SSRN601105.
^Coughlan, Sean (2014-09-15)."What makes a global top 10 university?".BBC News.It's the third year in a row that [MIT] ... has been top of the QS World University Rankings. The biggest single factor in the QS rankings is academic reputation ... calculated by surveying more than 60,000 academics ... Universities with an established name and a strong brand are likely to do better.
^"A Survey of New England: A Concentration of Talent".The Economist. 1987-08-08.MIT for a long time ... stood virtually alone as a university that embraced rather than shunned industry.
^Roberts, Edward B. (1991). "An Environment for Entrepreneurs".MIT: Shaping the Future. Cambridge, Massachusetts:MIT Press.ISBN0262631415.The war made necessary the formation of new working coalitions ... between these technologists and government officials. These changes were especially noteworthy at MIT.
^Shlaes, Amity (2008-05-14). "From the Ponderosa to the Googleplex: How Americans match money to ideas".State Department Press Release. U.S. Department of State.Griswold, [MIT president] Compton, and various politicians handpicked Doriot to head American Research & Development, a new firm that would invest in [the] small, innovative companies that had been underserved by traditional capital markets.
^Simon, Jane (1985-07-01)."Route 128: How it developed, and why it's not likely to be duplicated".New England Business. Boston. p. 15.Compton co-founded in 1946 what is believed to be the nation's first venture capital company. ... [He] and a group led by a Harvard professor [Doriot] founded one of the first venture capital companies, American Research & Development Corp.
^Geraci, Diane (2010-06-30)."Information Resources"(PDF).MIT Reports to the President 2009–2010. MIT Reference Publications Office. Retrieved2012-06-26.
^Abel, David (2002-11-29). "MIT Faces Charges of Fraud, Cover-up on Missile Test Study".The Boston Globe.
^Pierce, Charles P. (2005-10-23)."Going Postol".The Boston Globe. Archived fromthe original on 2005-10-25. Retrieved2008-01-27.
^"Case Summary – Luk Van Parijs". Office of Research Integrity, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. 2009-01-23. Archived fromthe original on 2009-06-11. Retrieved2009-12-02.
^Bernanke, Ben S. (2006-06-09)."2006 Commencement Speech at MIT". Archived fromthe original on 2006-10-07. Retrieved2007-01-02.Mathematical approaches to economics have at times been criticized as lacking in practical value. Yet the MIT Economics Department has trained many economists who have played leading roles in government and in the private sector, including the current heads of four central banks: those ofChile,Israel,Italy, and, I might add, theUnited States.
^"Does MIT provide any academic or athletic scholarships?".MIT Admissions. Retrieved2023-02-25.MIT provides financial aid on the basis of financial need only. We don't award money based on any measure of merit—academic, athletic, artistic, or anything else.
^B., Mollie (2006-07-16)."Standing out".MIT Admissions. Retrieved2023-02-25.MIT doesn't rank, and nobody graduates with Latin honors or anything foofy like that.
^Kathryn Krtnick, Asst. Dir. of Communications (2012-11-28)."Re: NCAA Media Inquiry"(PDF). Natl. Collegiate Athletic Assn.List of institutions that sponsor the most sports: Bowdoin College and Williams College – 32; MIT – 31.
^Stratton, J. A. (1960).The president's report 1960(PDF). p. 49. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved2009-11-12.Registration: In 1959–60 ... [o]ne hundred and fifty-five women were enrolled, [2.5 percent of student body]. ...
Angulo, A. J. (2007). "The Initial Reception of MIT, 1860s–1880s".History of Higher Education Annual.26:1–28.
Bridger, Sarah (2015).Scientists at War, The Ethics of Cold War Weapons Research. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.ISBN9780674736825.
Etzkowitz, Henry (2006).MIT and the Rise of Entrepreneurial Science. London: Routledge.ISBN9780415435055.
Jarzombek, Mark (2004).Designing MIT: Bosworth's New Tech. Boston, Mass.: Northeastern University Press.ISBN9781555536190.
Keyser, Samuel Jay (2011).Mens et Mania: The MIT Nobody Knows. Cambridge, Massachusetts:MIT Press.ISBN9780262015943.
Lecuyer, Christophe (1992). "The Making of a Science Based Technological University: Karl Compton, James Killian, and the Reform of MIT, 1930–1957".Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences.23 (1):153–180.doi:10.2307/27757693.JSTOR27757693.
Leslie, Stuart W. (1993).The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford. New York: Columbia University Press.ISBN9780231079587.
Mitchell, William J. (2007).Imagining MIT: Designing a Campus for the Twenty-first Century. Cambridge, Massachusetts:MIT Press.ISBN9780262134798.
Nelkin, Dorothy. (1972).The University and Military Research: Moral politics at MIT (science, technology and society). New York: Cornell University Press.ISBN0-8014-0711-7.
Prescott, Samuel C. (1954).When MIT was "Boston Tech", 1861–1916 (Reprint. ed.).MIT Press.ISBN9780262661393.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
Servos, John W. (December 1980). "The Industrial Relations of Science: Chemical Engineering at MIT, 1900–1939".Isis.71 (4). The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society:531–549.doi:10.1086/352591.JSTOR230499.S2CID145327416.
Shrock, Robert Rakes (1982).Geology at MIT 1865–1965: A History of the First Hundred Years of Geology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, Massachusetts:MIT Press.ISBN9780262192118.
Simha, O. Robert (2003).MIT Campus Planning, 1960–2000: An Annotated Chronology. Cambridge, Massachusetts:MIT Press.ISBN9780262692946.
.jpg)
![Physics Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, SB 1939[426]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aRichard_Feynman_Nobel.jpg)
![Economics Nobel laureate Esther Duflo,[427] PhD 1999](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aEsther_Duflo_-_Pop%21Tech_2009_-_001_(cropped).jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
![Chemistry Nobel laureate Robert Burns Woodward, SB 1936, PhD 1937[428]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aRobert_Woodward_Nobel.jpg)
_map.jpg){kind=link}