Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Hi everyone, and welcome to the page for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology! (We’d prefer you just go by MIT – it’s a lot easier). We’re a research university of around 4,500 undergraduate students located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, right across the river from downtown Boston. Boston is known as a vibrant city, and with over 80 colleges and universities in the city and its suburbs, the nickname of “America’s College Town” is very fitting. Within walking distance or a quick ride on the subway you can find all sorts of restaurants, shops, art and entertainment venues, and just about anything else your heart desires. Academics Academics are the core of MIT just as with any school. We offer 49 majors and 56 minors across five different undergraduate schools (Engineering, Science, Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, the Sloan School of Management, and Architecture and Planning). As the “T” in our name suggests, we are very well known for our prowess in STEM subjects, and we are often considered the global standard to receive a college education in a science or engineering field. Most undergrads do major in the schools of engineering and science, but that by no means indicates that the other departments are neglected. All of the other schools are recognized as among the best programs in the nation and the world, and their smaller size relative to the other two schools allows you to really get to know your professors well and maximize the effectiveness of your learning experience. On top of this, there are many ways to express your non-science side. From being involved in one of more than 10 a cappella groups and countless other visual and performing art groups on campus, to taking one of your eight required HASS (Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences) classes for graduation, or even deciding to design a video game in your spare time, there is a lot of freedom to do what you please and explore drastically different areas at the same time. Our world-renowned faculty not only have a true dedication to their research in their field, but also a passion for sharing their knowledge with students and inspiring the next-generation frontier of scientific advancements. This means that our 8:1 student-to-faculty ratio isn’t skewed by professors who live in labs and only teach one class per semester. Every class you take, including your introductory classes, will be taught by someone who is not only an expert in their field and may have (literally) written the textbook for the course, but that also actually cares about you learning the material. MIT also offers many other special programs that all students can take advantage of at any point in time. There are several programs that many MIT students take advantage of. The most popular is the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), in which nearly 90% of all students will participate during their time at MIT. UROPs can take a wide variety of forms based on the field of research, the time frame, and some of them are even paid. Another very popular program is the MIT International Science & Technology Initiative (MISTI), which provides fully-funded internship opportunities in many countries all around the globe. More than 950 students take part in MISTI every year and greatly expand their boundaries to include other parts of the globe. Yet another popular program is the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special four-week term in January designed for you to either continue your regular course studies or try something completely different. In between the fall and spring terms, you can stay for the entire month of January on campus and take part in one or more of the more than 700 subject offerings, some for credit and some without. IAP is a very popular way to explore everything MIT has to offer in an uninhibited way and to find new passions that you never knew existed within you. There are countless other programs that MIT students have at their disposal, such as gaining up to $25,000 in seed funding for a start-up through the MIT Sandbox Fund, or researching in the state-of-the-art Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research or the highly creative and innovative MIT Media Lab. You can even cross-register to take for-credit course offerings at Harvard University, Wellesley College, the Massachusetts College of Art, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University without paying any extra tuition. Student Life Beyond academics, MIT has even more to offer. We have a unique culture in the way that we view the world and education. Rather than pursuing competition as a way to learn, we place a strong focus on creating a collaborative and helpful learning atmosphere. We don’t focus on trying to outcompete your classmates for good grades/internships/jobs; MIT creates an environment where students help each other out and learn as a group instead of as an individual. Real-world problems are solved in terms of teamwork amongst professionals and not by competing individuals; we take this to heart by creating our collaborative culture and maintaining it throughout your college experience. We are also very proud of our diverse and welcoming culture. 47% of our undergraduates identify as a racial or ethnic minority, 46% are female, and around 14% come from the bottom two quintiles of household income (~$45,000 or less), one of the highest rates out of selective colleges in the U.S. At MIT, you can really be who you are and be accepted into a supportive group of people. No matter what your identity is or what interests you may have, there will be other students with similar experiences and ideals that you can bond with. Our more than 500 student organizations allow you to pursue those interests in earnest outside of an academic setting – and possibly even develop some new ones! Our very unique housing situation allows you to be flexible with the type of people you live with and lets you gain a new sub-culture to enjoy on campus. Our 11 separate dorms provide 11 different cultures depending on your interests, wants, and needs. Whether you’re all about art and video games, connecting with your classmates over shared meals, or just really want to take your cat with you to college (yes, two of our dorms let you keep cats!), you can find a group you mesh with and another support system to enjoy. During your first few days on campus, the MIT REX (Residential Exploration) period lets you enjoy activities and social events that each dorm puts on, so that you can find the right group of people for you. REX lets you discover which dorm has your people, and even change which dorm you’re in to make you most comfortable and happy. Each floor, level, entry, corridor, and suite has its own even smaller culture, meaning you can live around people that share many values with you and whose company you can really enjoy. Several of our dorms are cook-for-yourself communities and come equipped with plenty of kitchens so that you can make as many meals on your own as well. This is especially attractive if you’re looking to save some money on food by opting out of the meal plans. Like any college, MIT has some traditions that align with the unique culture of the school. From dropping a piano off the roof of Baker House, to freezing pumpkins in liquid nitrogen and smashing it to pieces from the tallest building on campus as stress relief, to building a life-size and functioning wooden roller coaster for our admitted students weekend, CPW (Campus Preview Weekend), we like to let loose and have fun. The most famous of all of our traditions is undoubtedly the one called “hacking”. Before you freak out: no, this does not mean that we hack people’s computers and phones and are involved in an international cybercriminal cartel. At MIT, a hack is an always clever and “ethical”, typically benign, and possibly administration and/or police-irking prank or visual spectacle. Many of them are wonderful statements of the power of engineering, and are often thought-provoking or just downright hilarious. After all, who wouldn’t love to see police struggling to use a helicopter to remove one of their own police cars from the roof of the Great Dome? My Story I’ll go ahead and admit a couple of things right now before I get started.
Yes, I am a proud science and math nerd.
No, I never thought I would go to MIT.
Yes, I did say several times in my senior year (as close as a week before I applied) that I would “never ever in a million years” even want to apply to MIT, not to mention go.
No, I have absolutely no regrets about my decision.
Alright, now let’s explore what changed my mind so quickly. I’ve always loved science and have had an insatiable curiosity about the natural world. But over the last few years of my high school career, I realized that I have interests that extend far beyond just STEM. I loved history, philosophy, psychology, art, business, public policy, and much more. So, when I began to make my college application list, I wanted to find schools that I thought had fantastic science and engineering academics and research resources, yet still would be able to give me a valuable education in those other areas. I also wanted to find a school that had plenty of social interaction, where I could really connect with the people around me. So, uneducated 16 and 17 year-old me dismissed MIT and said that I would “never ever in a million years” even want to apply to MIT, because I didn’t think it could meet either of my two criteria for the schools I wanted to apply to. MIT is only for people who want to become astrophysicists or career lab researchers, I thought to myself. Sure, I loved science and wanted to major in biological engineering; but I wanted the freedom to explore other subjects too, and I immediately assumed that MIT couldn’t offer that to me. Besides, MIT kids don’t value socialization and everyone is so swamped with homework that they can’t really get out. I mean, it must be, right? They just aren’t the type of people that will enjoy conversations, parties, and excursions regularly. I don’t want to go to a school where people are like that. I could not have been more wrong. My family and friends were all surprised that I didn’t want to even apply to MIT, and when I told them the reasoning some of them wanted me to prove my assumptions. So, I rolled my eyes and started searching the internet for the validation of my stereotypes. But then I found the MIT Admissions Blog site. I began to discover things about MIT that I hadn’t known. First of all, not everyone lives and breathes STEM here; 50% of undergrads are either taking art classes or involved in an art extracurricular group on or off campus at any given moment. On top of this, all students take at least 8 HASS classes to graduate, which is more than enough to get a minor in, say, creative writing. On top of this, MIT is phenomenal in these other areas. I know that college rankings aren’t all they cracked up to be, but they’re usually accurate enough to know that if a school is ranked second in the U.S. for undergraduate business, sixth in the world for social sciences, and among the top twenty schools for arts and humanities in the world, their programs can’t be too bad. All of these numbers aren’t random, by the way: MIT is actually recognized as being an incredible place to study all of these non-engineering and non-natural science subjects. Second of all, the people aren’t all robots. They have incredible amounts of quirks, personality, and a determination to not just study their way through college, but to really engage with their surroundings and have fun. They have plenty of parties and nights out in Cambridge and Boston, movie nights and time spent curled up in pajamas during the winter, and just really living life to the fullest. I was stunned to find that my two biggest stereotypes and obstacles for applying to MIT were not only wrong, but the complete opposite of the truth. I still had some reservations about attending, but I decided at the last second to give it a go. December 15th rolled around so quickly, and tau time (6:28 p.m., 2 pi and/or the better circle constant, and the time that MIT decisions always come out) gave me such a surprise. I was in! All that was left was to wait and see if MIT was the right fit for me. I still wanted to know if what I had read about the social environment was true and needed to know if I could afford to go to a school with an advertised tuition of around $50,000 a year. So, I did just that: I waited. As it turns out, MIT’s financial aid is incredible. They meet 100% of your financial need, and if your household income is below $80,000, your package is guaranteed to be loan-free. I was overjoyed when I saw that the (once again, advertised) price of $68,000 a year became far, far less and transformed into one that my family could actually afford without selling our house. With financial aid, low-income students don’t realize that they are often actually better off by attending an expensive private college because they provide incredibly comprehensive financial aid. Here’s an important lesson for you: apply for financial aid! So many students and families don’t realize that they can pay very little for such an incredible education, and spending just a few hours to do FAFSA and the CSS Profile may save you several hundred thousand dollars. Seriously. Just do it. Okay, so now I know I can afford to go… but I need to find out if I fit in here. I joined the official Facebook® group and the even more important MIT GroupMe® groupchat. That groupchat kept me sane through the next few harrowing months of graduating from high school while staving off senioritis and making a final college decision. I learned first-hand that what I had read was true. No, MIT students don’t spend 20 hours a day immersed in a lab or a textbook. Turns out that they’re actually humans! We’re real people, real young adults. We like the same things as just about anyone else; we watch TV, listen to music, (sometimes at least) love sports, and just generally enjoy people’s company. In my fellow adMITs, I found an eclectic group of people family that I can trust to support me when I’m in need and that can allow me to truly be myself. That was the final straw for me. I was accepted to several other great schools that I’m not going to name and was even offered a full-ride to two of them, but I turned those offers down for MIT. I was able to visit campus in April, and right when I first stepped foot on that grass I knew that this was the place for me. I was so sure that I actually comMITted while sitting on a sculpture, the Great Dome on my right and the Charles River on my left. It was the greatest feeling of my life, and I’ll never forget it. So, I think I’ve blabbed for long enough. MIT is a truly wonderful place with an incredibly unique culture and vibe, and if any of this has piqued your interest or excited you, then keep on learning about MIT! Of course, visit web.mit.edu to find lots of things, and I would highly advise reading through the MIT Admissions Blogs. Just warning you, though: they’re pretty addictive, and you may binge-read if you aren’t careful. Also feel free to reach out with any other questions in the comments section, and we can even find a way to connect you with current MIT students. I hope to see you on campus soon, and GO ENGINEERS!!!
