Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT ) is a private research university located in Cambridge , Massachusetts , United States . MIT has five schools and one college , containing a total of 32 academic departments , with a strong emphasis on scientific , engineering , and technological education and research . Founded in 1861 in response to the increasing industrialization of the United States , the institute adopted the European polytechnic university model and emphasized laboratory instruction from an early date . MIT ' s early emphasis on applied technology at the undergraduate and graduate levels led to close cooperation with industry . Curricular reforms under Karl Compton and Vannevar Bush in the 1930s re - emphasized basic scientific research . MIT was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1934 . Researchers were involved in efforts to develop computers , radar , and inertial guidance in connection with defense research during World War II and the Cold War . Post - war defense research contributed to the rapid expansion of the faculty and campus under James Killian . The current campus opened in 1916 and extends over along the northern bank of the Charles River basin . In the past 60 years , MIT ' s educational disciplines have expanded beyond the physical science s and engineering into fields such as biology , economics , linguistics , political science , and management . MIT enrolled 4 , 384 undergraduates and 6 , 510 graduate students for the 2011 – 2012 school year . MIT received 18 , 109 undergraduate applicants for the class of 2016 , with only 1 , 620 offered admittance , an acceptance rate of 8 . 9 % . It employs around 1 , 000 faculty members . Seventy - eight Nobel laureates , 52 National Medal of Science recipients , 45 Rhodes Scholars , and 38 MacArthur Fellow s are currently or have previously been affiliated with the university . MIT has a strong entrepreneurial culture . The aggregated revenues of companies founded by MIT alumni would rank as the eleventh - largest economy in the world . MIT managed $ 718 . 2 million in research expenditures and an $ 8 . 0 billion endowment in 2009 . The " Engineers " sponsor 33 sports , most teams of which compete in the NCAA Division III ' s New England Women ' s and Men ' s Athletic Conference ; the Division I rowing programs compete as part of the EARC and EAWRC . History . Foundation and vision . In 1859 , various individuals and Bostonian organizations submitted to the Massachusetts General Court a proposal to use newly opened lands in Back Bay , Boston for a " Conservatory of Art and Science " , but the proposal failed . A later proposal by William Barton Rogers led to a charter for the incorporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , which was signed by the governor of Massachusetts on April 10 , 1861 . Rogers sought to establish a new institution of higher education to address the challenges posed by the mid - 19th century ' s rapid scientific and technological advances . Though he valued first - hand experience as part of a proper education , he did not intend to found a professional school , but advocated instruction in useful knowledge that combined elements of both professional and liberal education , writing that " 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 . " The Rogers Plan , as it came to be known , reflected the German research university model , emphasizing an independent faculty engaged in research as well as instruction oriented around seminars and laboratories . Early developments . Just two days after the issuance of the charter , the first battle of the Civil War broke out . After years of delay caused by wartime funding and staffing difficulties , MIT ' s first classes were held in rented space at the Mercantile Building in downtown Boston in 1865 . Though it was a private institution to be located in the middle of urban Boston , the new institute had a mission that matched the intent of the 1862 Morrill Land - Grant Colleges Act to fund institutions " to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes " , and was thus named a land - grant school . In 1866 , the proceeds from land sales went toward new buildings in the Back Bay neighborhood . MIT soon came to be called " Boston Tech " . After surviving a period of financial uncertainties , the institute saw significant expansion in the last two decades of the 19th century under President Francis Amasa Walker . Programs in electrical , chemical , marine , and sanitary engineering were introduced , new buildings were built , and the size of the student body increased to well over 1000 . The curriculum became increasingly vocational ; less and less focus was placed on theoretical topics . During these " Boston Tech " years , MIT faculty and alumni repeatedly rejected overtures from former MIT faculty turned Harvard University president Charles W . Eliot , to merge MIT with Harvard College ' s Lawrence Scientific School . MIT reinforced its independence in 1916 when it moved to its new campus on a mile - long tract on the Cambridge side of the Charles River , almost entirely on landfill . The neoclassical " New Technology " campus was funded by donations from industrialist George Eastman and designed by William W . Bosworth . Curricular reforms . In the 1930s , President Karl Taylor Compton and Vice - President ( effectively Provost ) Vannevar Bush reformed the applied technology curriculum by re - emphasizing the importance of " pure " sciences like physics and chemistry and by reducing the vocational practice required in shops and drafting studios . Despite the challenges of the Great Depression , the Compton reforms " renewed confidence in the ability of the Institute to develop leadership in science as well as in engineering . " The expansion and reforms cemented MIT ' s academic reputation , though unlike Ivy League schools , MIT catered more to middle - class families , and depended more on tuition than on endowments or grants . The school was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1934 . 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 . The School of Humanities , Arts , and Social Sciences and the MIT Sloan School of Management were formed in 1950 to compete with the powerful Schools of Science and Engineering . 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 . The School of Humanities , Arts , and Social Sciences continued to develop under the successive terms of the more humanistically oriented presidents Howard W . Johnson and Jerome Wiesner between 1966 and 1980 . Defense research . MIT ' s involvement in military research surged during World War II . In 1941 , Vannevar Bush was appointed head of the federal Office of Scientific Research and Development and directed funding to only a select group of universities , including MIT . Engineers and scientists from across the country gathered at MIT ' s Radiation Laboratory , established in 1940 to assist the British military in developing microwave radar . The work done there significantly impacted both the war and subsequent research in the area . Other defense projects included gyroscope - based and other complex control system s for gunsight , bombsight , and inertial navigation under Charles Stark Draper ' s Instrumentation Laboratory ; the development of a digital computer for flight simulations under Project Whirlwind ; and high - speed and high - altitude photography under Harold Edgerton . By the end of the war , MIT became the nation ' s largest wartime R & D contractor ( attracting some criticism of Bush ) , employing nearly 4000 in the Radiation Laboratory alone and receiving in excess of $ 100 million ( $ billion in 2012 dollars ) before 1946 . Work on defense projects continued even after then . Post - war government - sponsored research at MIT included SAGE and guidance systems for ballistic missile s and Project Apollo . 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 tranquillity 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 . Indeed , the faculty doubled and the graduate student body quintupled during the terms of Karl Taylor Compton , president of MIT between 1930 and 1948 , James Rhyne Killian , president from 1948 to 1957 , and Julius Adams Stratton , chancellor from 1952 to 1957 , whose institution - building strategies shaped the expanding university . By the 1950s , MIT no longer merely benefited the industries it had worked so closely with three decades prior , and was much closer to its new patrons , philanthropic foundations and the federal government . In late 1960s and early 1970s , student and faculty activists protested against the Vietnam War and MIT ' s defense research . The Union 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 towards environmental and social problems . MIT ultimately divested itself from the Instrumentation Laboratory and moved all classified research off - campus to the Lincoln Laboratory facility in 1973 in response to the protests , and the student body , faculty , and administration remained comparatively unpolarized during what was a tumultuous time for many other universities . Recent history . MIT has kept pace with and helped to advance the digital age . In addition to developing the predecessors to modern computing and networking technologies , students , staff , and faculty members at Project MAC , the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory , and the Tech Model Railroad Club wrote some of the earliest interactive computer video game s like " Spacewar ! " and created much of modern hacker slang and culture . Several major computer - related organizations have originated at MIT since the 1980s : Richard Stallman ' s GNU Project and the subsequent Free Software Foundation were founded in the mid - 1980s at the AI Lab ; the MIT Media Lab was founded in 1985 by Nicholas Negroponte and Jerome Wiesner to promote research into novel uses of computer technology ; the World Wide Web Consortium standards organization was founded at the Laboratory for Computer Science in 1994 by Tim Berners - Lee ; the OpenCourseWare project has made course materials for over 2 , 000 MIT classes available online free of charge since 2002 ; and the One Laptop per Child initiative to expand computer education and connectivity to children worldwide was launched in 2005 . MIT was named a sea - grant college in 1976 to support its programs in oceanography and marine sciences and was named a space - grant college in 1989 to support its aeronautics and astronautics programs . Despite diminishing government financial support over the past quarter century , MIT launched several successful development campaigns to significantly expand the campus : new dormitories and athletics buildings on west campus ; the Tang Center for Management Education ; several buildings in the northeast corner of campus supporting research into biology , brain and cognitive sciences , genomics , biotechnology , and cancer research ; and a number of new " backlot " buildings on Vassar Street including the Stata Center . Construction on campus in the 2000s included expansions of the Media Lab , the Sloan School ' s eastern campus , and graduate residences in the northwest . In 2006 , President Hockfield launched the MIT Energy Research Council to investigate the interdisciplinary challenges posed by increasing global energy consumption . In 2001 , inspired by the open source and open access movement s , MIT launched OpenCourseWare to make the lecture notes , problem set s , syllabuses , exams , and lectures from the great majority of its courses available online for no charge , though without any formal accreditation for coursework completed . While the cost of supporting and hosting the project is high , 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 least six languages . 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 . The " edX " online platform supporting MITx was initially developed in partnership with Harvard and its analogous " Harvardx " initiative . The courseware platform is open source , and other universities have already joined and added their own course content . Campus . MIT ' s campus spans approximately a mile of the north side of the Charles River basin in the city of Cambridge . The campus is divided roughly in half by Massachusetts Avenue , with most dormitories and student life facilities to the west and most academic buildings to the east . The bridge closest to MIT is the Harvard Bridge , which is known for being marked off in a non - standard unit of length – the smoot . The Kendall MBTA Red Line station is located on the far northeastern edge of the campus in Kendall 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 . Each building at has a number ( possibly preceded by a " W " , " N " , " E " , or " NW " ) 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 . Many of the buildings are connected above ground as well as through an extensive network of underground tunnels , providing protection from the Cambridge weather as well as a venue for roof and tunnel hacking . MIT ' s on - campus nuclear reactor is one of the most powerful university - based nuclear reactor s in the United States . The prominence of the reactor ' s containment building in a densely populated area has been controversial , but MIT maintains that it is well - secured . Other notable campus facilities include a pressurized wind tunnel and a towing tank for testing ship and ocean structure designs . MIT ' s campus - wide wireless network was completed in the fall of 2005 and consists of nearly 3 , 000 access points covering of campus . In 2001 , the Environmental Protection Agency sued MIT for violating Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act with regard to its hazardous waste storage and disposal procedures . MIT settled the suit by paying a $ 155 , 000 fine and launching three environmental projects . 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 running alternative fuel campus shuttles , subsidizing public transportation passes , and building a low - emission cogeneration plant that serves most of the campus electricity , heating , and cooling requirements . Between 2007 and 2009 , campus security and local police received reports of 8 forcible sex offences , 5 robberies , 9 aggravated assaults , 409 burglaries , 2 cases of arson , and 15 cases of motor vehicle theft , affecting a community of around 13 , 000 students and employees . Architecture . MIT ' s School of Architecture , now the School of Architecture and Planning , was the first in the United States , and it has a history of commissioning progressive buildings . The first buildings constructed on the Cambridge campus , completed in 1916 , are sometimes called the " Maclaurin buildings " after Institute president Richard Maclaurin who oversaw their construction . Designed by William Welles Bosworth , these imposing buildings were built of reinforced concrete , a first for a non - industrial – much less university – building in the US . Bosworth ' s design was influenced by the City Beautiful Movement of the early 1900s , and features the Pantheon - esque Great Dome housing the Barker Engineering Library . The Great Dome overlooks Killian Court , where commencement is held each year . The friezes of the limestone - clad buildings around Killian Court are engraved with the names of important scientists and philosophers . The imposing Building 7 atrium along Massachusetts Avenue is regarded as the entrance to the Infinite Corridor and the rest of the campus . Alvar Aalto ' s Baker House ( 1947 ) , Eero Saarinen ' s Chapel and Auditorium ( 1955 ) , and I . M . Pei ' s Green , Dreyfus , Landau , and Wiesner buildings represent high forms of post - war modernist architecture . More recent buildings like Frank Gehry ' s Stata Center ( 2004 ) , Steven Holl ' s Simmons Hall ( 2002 ) , Charles Correa ' s Building 46 ( 2005 ) , Fumihiko Maki ' s Media Lab Extension ( 2009 ) stand out among the Boston area ' s classical architecture and serve as examples of contemporary campus " starchitecture " . These buildings have not always been well received ; in 2010 , " The Princeton Review " included MIT in a list of twenty schools whose campuses are " tiny , unsightly , or both " . Housing . Undergraduates are guaranteed four - year housing in one of MIT ' s 12 undergraduate dormitories , Those living on campus can receive support and mentoring from live - in graduate student tutors , resident advisors , and faculty housemasters . 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 the Yale Daily News Staff ' s " The 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 . " MIT also has 5 dormitories for single graduate students and 2 apartment buildings on campus for married student families . MIT has a very active Greek and co - op housing system which includes 36 fraternities , sororities , and independent living groups ( FSILGs ) . In 2009 , 92 % of all undergraduates lived on MIT - affiliated housing , 50 percent of the men in fraternities and 34 % of the women in sororities . Most FSILGs are located across the river in the Back Bay owing to MIT ' s history there , and there is also a cluster of fraternities on MIT ' s West Campus . After the 1997 death of Scott Krueger , a new member at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity , MIT required all freshmen to live in the dormitory system starting in 2002 . Because FSILGs had previously housed as many as 300 freshmen off - campus , the new policy did not take effect until 2002 after Simmons Hall opened . Organization and administration . MIT is chartered as a non - profit organization and is owned and governed by a privately appointed board of trustees known as the MIT Corporation . The current board consists of 43 members elected to five - year terms , 25 life members who vote until their 75th birthday , 3 elected officers ( President , Treasurer , and Secretary ) , and 4 " ex officio " members ( the president of the alumni association , the Governor of Massachusetts , the Massachusetts Secretary of Education , and the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ) . The board is chaired by John S . Reed , the former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup . The corporation approves the budget , new programs , degrees , and faculty appointments as well as electing the President to serve as the chief executive officer of the university and presiding over the Institute ' s faculty . MIT ' s endowment and other financial assets are managed through a subsidiary MIT Investment Management Company ( MITIMCo ) . Valued at $ 9 . 7 billion in 2011 , MIT ' s endowment is the sixth - largest among American colleges and universities . MIT has five schools ( Science , Engineering , Architecture and Planning , Management , and Humanities , Arts , and Social Sciences ) and one college ( Whitaker College of Health Sciences and Technology ) , but no schools of law or medicine . While faculty committees assert substantial control over many areas of MIT ' s curriculum , research , student life , and administrative affairs , the chair of each of MIT ' s 32 academic departments reports to the dean of that department ' s school , who in turn reports to the Provost under the President . The current president is L . Rafael Reif , who formerly served as provost under President Susan Hockfield , the first woman to hold the post . Collaborations . The university historically pioneered research and training collaborations between academia , industry and government . In 1946 President Compton , Harvard Business School professor Georges Doriot , and Massachusetts Investor Trust chairman Merrill Grisswold founded American Research & Development Corp . , the first American venture - capital firm . In 1948 , Compton established the MIT Industrial Liaison Program . Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s , American politicians and business leaders accused MIT and other universities of contributing to a declining economy by transferring taxpayer - funded research and technology to international – especially Japanese — firms that were competing with struggling American businesses . On the other hand , MIT ' s extensive collaboration with the federal government on research projects has led to several MIT leaders serving as Presidential scientific advisers since 1940 . MIT established a Washington Office in 1991 to continue to lobby for research funding and national science policy . The Justice Department began an antitrust investigation in 1989 , and in 1991 filed an antitrust suit against MIT , the eight Ivy League colleges , and eleven other institutions for allegedly engaging in price - fixing in their annual " Overlap Meetings " , which were held to prevent bidding wars over promising prospective students from consuming funds for need - based scholarships . While the Ivy League institutions settled , 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 . MIT ultimately prevailed when the Justice Department dropped the case in 1994 . MIT ' s proximity to Harvard University ( " the other school up the river " ) has led to a substantial number of research collaborations such as the Harvard - MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology and Broad Institute . In addition , students at the two schools can cross - register for credits toward their own school ' s degrees without any additional fees . A cross - registration program between MIT and Wellesley College has also existed since 1969 , and in 2002 the Cambridge – MIT Institute launched an undergraduate exchange program between MIT and the University of Cambridge . MIT has more modest cross - registration programs with Boston University , Brandeis University , Tufts University , Massachusetts College of Art , and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts , Boston . MIT maintains substantial research and faculty ties with independent research organizations in the Boston area , such as the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory , Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research , and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution as well as international research and educational collaborations through the Singapore - MIT Alliance , MIT - Politecnico di Milano , MIT - Zaragoza International Logistics Program , and other countries through the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives ( MISTI ) program . Since the establishment of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology , MIT has been co - operating with the new institution to adapt an academic curriculum and credit system for the first time to Bangladesh . The mass - market magazine " Technology Review " is published by MIT through a subsidiary company , as is a special edition that also serves as an alumni magazine . The MIT Press is a major university 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 . Academics . MIT is a large , highly residential , research university with a majority of enrollments in graduate and professional programs . The university has been accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges since 1929 . MIT operates on a 4 – 1 – 4 academic calendar with the fall semester beginning after Labor Day and ending in mid - December , a 4 - week " Independent Activities Period " in the month of January , and the spring semester beginning in early February and ending in late May . MIT places among the top ten in many overall rankings of universities ( see right ) and rankings based on students ' revealed preferences . For several years , " U . S . News & World Report " , the QS World University Rankings , and the Academic Ranking of World Universities have ranked MIT ' s School of Engineering first , as did the 1995 National Research Council report . In the same lists , MIT ' s strongest showings apart from in engineering are in computer science , the natural sciences , business , economics , linguistics , mathematics , and , to a lesser extent , political science and philosophy . MIT students refer to both their majors and classes using numbers or acronyms alone . Departments and their corresponding majors are numbered in the approximate order of their foundation ; for example , Civil and Environmental Engineering is , while Linguistics and Philosophy is . 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 ; the introductory calculus - based classical mechanics course is simply " 8 . 01 " at MIT . Undergraduate program . The four - year , full - time undergraduate program maintains a balance between professional majors and those in the arts and sciences , and is selective , admitting few transfer students and 9 . 7 % of its applicants in the 2010 – 2011 application season . MIT offers 44 undergraduate degrees across its five schools . In the 2010 – 2011 academic year , 1 , 161 bachelor of science ( abbreviated " SB " ) degrees were granted , the only type of undergraduate degree MIT now awards . In the 2011 fall term , among students who had designated a major , the School of Engineering was the most popular division , enrolling 62 . 7 % of students in its 19 - degree programs , followed by the School of Science ( 28 . 5 % ) , School of Humanities , Arts , & Social Sciences ( 3 . 7 % ) , Sloan School of Management ( 3 . 3 % ) , and School of Architecture and Planning ( 1 . 8 % ) . The largest undergraduate degree programs were in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science ( ) , Computer Science and Engineering ( ) , Mechanical Engineering ( ) , Physics ( ) , and Mathematics ( ) . All undergraduates are required to complete a core curriculum called the General Institute Requirements ( GIRs ) . 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 " , including " substantial instruction and practice in oral presentation " . Finally , all students are required to complete a swimming test ; non - varsity athletes must also take four quarters of physical education classes . Most classes rely on a combination of lectures , recitations led by associate professors or graduate students , weekly problem sets ( " p - sets " ) , and tests . Although keeping up with the pace and difficulty of MIT coursework has been compared to " drinking from a fire hose " , the freshmen retention rate at MIT is similar to that at other national research universities . The " pass / no - record " grading system relieves some of the 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 . ( Grading had previously been " pass / no record " all freshman year , but was amended for the Class of 2006 to prevent students from gaming the system by completing required major classes in their freshman year . ) Also , freshmen may choose to join alternative learning communities , such as Experimental Study Group , Concourse , or Terrascope . In 1969 , Margaret MacVicar founded the Undergraduate 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 . A substantial majority of undergraduates participate . Students often become published , file patent application s , and / or launch start - up companies based upon their experience in UROPs . In 1970 , the then - Dean of Institute Relations , Benson R . Snyder , published " The 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 to be used as references for later students . This sort of gamesmanship , Snyder argued , hindered the development of a creative intellect and contributed to student discontent and unrest . Graduate program . MIT ' s graduate program has high coexistence with the undergraduate program and offers a comprehensive doctoral program with degrees in the humanities , social sciences , and STEM fields as well as professional degrees . The Institute offers graduate programs leading to academic degrees such as the Master of Science ( SM ) , various Engineer ' s Degrees , Doctor of Philosophy ( PhD ) , and Doctor of Science ( ScD ) ; professional degrees such as Master of Architecture ( MArch ) , Master of Business Administration ( MBA ) , Master of City Planning ( MCP ) , Master of Engineering ( MEng ) , and Master of Finance ( MFin ) ; and interdisciplinary graduate programs such as the MD / PhD ( with Harvard Medical School ) . 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 , or teaching assistantships . MIT awarded 1 , 547 master ' s degrees and 609 doctoral degrees in the 2010 – 11 academic year . In the 2011 fall term , the School of Engineering was the most popular academic division , enrolling 45 . 0 % of graduate students , followed by the Sloan School of Management ( 19 % ) , School of Science ( 16 . 9 % ) , School of Architecture and Planning ( 9 . 2 % ) , Whitaker College of Health Sciences ( 5 . 1 % ) , and School of Humanities , Arts , and Social Sciences ( 4 . 7 % ) . The largest graduate degree programs were the Sloan MBA , Electrical Engineering and Computer Science , and Mechanical Engineering . Libraries , collections , and museums . 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 . Notable collections include the Lewis Music Library with an emphasis on 20th and 21st - century music and electronic music , the List Visual Arts Center ' s rotating exhibitions of contemporary art , and the Compton Gallery ' s cross - disciplinary exhibitions . 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 . The MIT Museum was founded in 1971 and collects , preserves , and exhibits artifacts significant to the life and history of MIT as well as collaborating with the nearby Museum of Science . Research . MIT was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1934 and remains a research university with a very high level of research activity ; research expenditures totaled $ 718 . 2 million in 2009 . The federal government was the largest source of sponsored research , with the Department 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 , and NASA $ 27 . 4 million . MIT employs approximately 1300 researchers in addition to faculty . 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 . Through programs like the Deshpande Center , MIT faculty leverage their research and discoveries into multi - million - dollar commercial ventures . In electronics , magnetic core memory , radar , single electron transistor s , and inertial guidance controls were invented or substantially developed by MIT researchers . Harold Eugene Edgerton was a pioneer in high speed photography . Claude E . Shannon developed much of modern information theory and discovered the application of Boolean logic to digital circuit design theory . In the domain of computer science , MIT faculty and researchers made fundamental contributions to cybernetics , artificial intelligence , computer languages , machine learning , robotics , and cryptography . At least nine Turing Award laureates and seven recipients of the Draper Prize in engineering have been or are currently associated with MIT . Current and previous physics faculty have won eight Nobel Prizes , four Dirac Medals , and three Wolf Prize s predominantly for their contributions to subatomic and quantum theory . Members of the chemistry department have been awarded three Nobel Prizes and one Wolf Prize for the discovery of novel syntheses and methods . MIT biologists have been awarded six Nobel Prizes for their contributions to genetics , immunology , oncology , and molecular biology . Professor Eric Lander was one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project . Positronium atoms , synthetic penicillin , synthetic self - replicating molecules , and the genetic bases for Lou Gehrig ' s disease and Huntington ' s disease were first discovered at MIT . Jerome Lettvin transformed the study of cognitive science with his paper " What the frog ' s eye tells the frog ' s brain " . In the domain of humanities , arts , and social sciences , MIT economists have been awarded five Nobel Prizes and nine John Bates Clark Medal s . Linguists Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle authored seminal texts on generative grammar and phonology . The MIT Media Lab , founded in 1985 within the School of Architecture and Planning and known for its unconventional research , has been home to influential researchers such as constructivist educator and Logo creator Seymour Papert . Spanning many of the above fields , MacArthur Fellowship s ( the so - called " Genius Grants " ) have been awarded to 38 people associated with MIT . Four Pulitzer Prize winning writers currently work at or have retired from MIT . Four current or former faculty are members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters . Given MIT ' s prominence , allegations of research misconduct or improprieties have received substantial press coverage . Professor David Baltimore , a Nobel Laureate , became embroiled in a misconduct investigation starting in 1986 that led to Congressional hearings in 1991 . Professor Ted Postol has accused the MIT administration since 2000 of attempting to whitewash potential research misconduct at the Lincoln Lab facility involving a ballistic missile defense test , though a final investigation into the matter has not been completed . Associate Professor Luk Van Parijs was dismissed in 2005 following allegations of scientific misconduct and found guilty of the same by the United States Office of Research Integrity in 2009 . Traditions and student activities . The faculty and student body highly value meritocracy and technical proficiency . MIT has never awarded an honorary degree , nor does it award athletic scholarships , ad eundem degree s , or Latin honors upon graduation . However , MIT has twice awarded honorary professorships : to Winston Churchill in 1949 and Salman Rushdie in 1993 . Many upperclass students and alumni wear a large , heavy , distinctive class ring known as the " Brass Rat " . Originally created in 1929 , the ring ' s official name is the " Standard Technology Ring . " 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 a beaver . The initialism IHTFP , representing the informal school motto " I Hate This Fucking Place " and jocularly euphemized as " I Have Truly Found Paradise , " " Institute Has The Finest Professors , " " It ' s Hard to Fondle Penguins , " and other variations , has occasionally been featured on the ring given its historical prominence in student culture . Activities . MIT has over 380 recognized student activity groups , including a campus radio station , " The Tech " student newspaper , an annual entrepreneurship competition , and weekly screenings of popular films by the Lecture Series Committee . Less traditional activities include the " world ' s largest open - shelf collection of science fiction " in English , a model railroad club , and a vibrant folk dance scene . Students , faculty , and staff are involved in over 50 educational outreach and public service programs through the MIT Museum , Edgerton Center , and MIT Public Service Center . The Independent 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 the 6 . 270 , 6 . 370 , and MasLab competitions , the annual " mystery hunt " , and Charm School . More than 250 students pursue externships annually at companies in the US and abroad . Many MIT students also engage in " hacking , " which encompasses both the physical exploration of areas that are generally off - limits ( such as rooftops and steam tunnels ) , as well as elaborate practical jokes . Recent high - profile hacks have included the theft of Caltech ' s cannon , reconstructing a Wright Flyer atop the Great Dome , and adorning the John Harvard statue with the Master Chief ' s Spartan Helmet . Athletics . MIT sponsors 31 varsity sports and has one of the three broadest NCAA Division III athletic programs . MIT participates in the NCAA ' s Division III , the New England Women ' s and Men ' s Athletic Conference , the New England Football Conference , the Pilgrim League for men ' s lacrosse and NCAA ' s Division I Eastern Association of Women ' s Rowing Colleges ( EAWRC ) for women ' s crew . Men ' s crew competes outside the NCAA in the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges ( EARC ) . In April 2009 , budget cuts lead 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 . The Institute ' s sports teams are called the Engineers , their mascot since 1914 being a beaver , " nature ' s engineer . " Lester Gardner , a member of the Class of 1898 , provided the following justification : MIT fielded several dominant intercollegiate Tiddlywinks teams through 1980 , winning national and world championships . MIT has produced 188 Academic All - Americans , the third largest membership in the country for any division and the highest number of members for Division III . The Zesiger sports and fitness center ( Z - Center ) which opened in 2002 , significantly expanded the capacity and quality of MIT ' s athletics , physical education , and recreation offerings to 10 buildings and of playing fields . The facility features an Olympic - class swimming pool , international - scale squash courts , and a two - story fitness center . People . Students . MIT enrolled 4 , 384 undergraduates and 6 , 510 graduate students in 2011 – 2012 . Women constituted 45 percent of undergraduate students . Undergraduate and graduate students are drawn from all 50 states as well as 115 foreign countries in the 2011 – 2012 school year . MIT received 17 , 909 applications for admission to the undergraduate Class of 2015 ; 1 , 742 were admitted ( 9 . 7 percent ) and 1128 enrolled ( 64 . 8 percent ) . 19 , 446 applications were received for graduate and advanced degree program across all departments ; 2 , 991 were admitted ( 15 . 4 percent ) and 1 , 880 enrolled ( 62 . 8 percent ) . The interquartile range on the SAT was 2030 – 2320 and 95 percent of students ranked in the top tenth of their high school graduating class . 97 percent of the Class of 2012 returned as sophomores ; 82 . 3 percent of the Class of 2007 graduated within 4 years , and 91 . 3 percent ( 92 percent of the men and 96 percent of the women ) graduated within 6 years . Undergraduate tuition and fees total $ 40 , 732 and annual expenses are estimated at $ 52 , 507 as of 2012 . 62 percent of students received need - based financial aid in the form of scholarships and grants from federal , state , institutional , and external sources averaging $ 38 , 964 per student . MIT awarded $ 87 . 6 million in scholarships and grants , the vast majority ( $ 73 . 4 million ) coming from institutional support . The annual increase in expenses has led to a student tradition ( dating back to the 1960s ) of tongue - in - cheek " tuition riots " . MIT has been nominally coeducation al since admitting Ellen Swallow Richards in 1870 . Richards also became the first female member of MIT ' s faculty , specializing in sanitary chemistry . Female students remained a very small minority ( less than 3 percent ) prior to the completion of the first wing of a women ' s dormitory , McCormick Hall , in 1962 . 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 . Women currently outnumber men in Biology , Brain & Cognitive Sciences , Architecture , Urban Planning , and Biological Engineering . A number of student deaths in the late 1990s and early 2000s resulted in considerable media attention to MIT ' s culture and student life . After the alcohol - related death of Scott Krueger in September 1997 as a new member at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity , MIT began requiring all freshmen to live in the dormitory system . The 2000 suicide of MIT undergraduate Elizabeth Shin drew attention to suicides at MIT and created a controversy over whether MIT had an unusually high suicide rate . In late 2001 a task force ' s recommended improvements in student mental health services were implemented , including expanding staff and operating hours at the mental health center . These and later cases were significant as well because they sought to prove the negligence and liability of university administrators " in loco parentis " . Faculty . MIT has 1 , 018 faculty members , of whom 217 are women . Faculty are responsible for lecturing classes , advising both graduate and undergraduate students , and sitting on academic committees , as well as conducting original research . Between 1964 and 2009 , a total of seventeen faculty and staff members affiliated with MIT were awarded Nobel Prizes ( thirteen in the last 25 years ) . MIT faculty members past or present have won a total of twenty - seven Nobel Prizes , the majority in Economics or Physics . Among current faculty and teaching staff , there are eighty Guggenheim Fellow s , six Fulbright Scholar s , and twenty - nine MacArthur Fellow s . Faculty members who have made extraordinary contributions to their research field as well as the MIT community are granted appointments as Institute Professor s for the remainder of their tenures . A 1998 MIT study concluded that a systemic bias against female faculty existed in its college of science , although the study ' s methods were controversial . Since the study , though , women have headed departments within the Schools of Science and Engineering , and MIT has appointed several female vice presidents , although allegations of sexism continue to be made . Susan Hockfield , a molecular neurobiologist , was MIT ' s president from 2004 to 2012 and was the first woman to hold the post . Tenure outcomes have vaulted MIT into the national spotlight on several occasions . The 1984 dismissal of David F . Noble , a historian of technology , became a " cause célèbre " about the extent to which academics are granted freedom of speech after he published several books and papers critical of MIT ' s and other research universities ' reliance upon financial support from corporations and the military . Former materials science professor Gretchen Kalonji sued MIT in 1994 alleging that she was denied tenure because of sexual discrimination . In 1997 , the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination issued a probable cause finding supporting James Jennings ' allegations of racial discrimination after a senior faculty search committee in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning did not offer him reciprocal tenure . In 2006 – 2007 , MIT ' s denial of tenure to African - American biological engineering professor James Sherley reignited accusations of racism in the tenure process , eventually leading to a protracted public dispute with the administration , a brief hunger strike , and the resignation of Professor Frank L . Douglas in protest . MIT faculty members have often been recruited to lead other colleges and universities ; former provost Robert A . Brown is president of Boston University , former provost Mark Wrighton is chancellor of Washington University in St . Louis , former associate provost Alice Gast is president of Lehigh University , former dean of the School of Science Robert J . Birgeneau is the chancellor of the University of California , Berkeley , and former professor David Baltimore had been president of Caltech . In addition , faculty members have been recruited to lead governmental agencies ; for example , former professor Marcia McNutt is the director of the United States Geological Survey , urban studies professor Xavier de Souza Briggs is currently the associate director of the White House Office of Management and Budget , and biology professor Eric Lander is a co - chair of the President ' s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology . Alumni . Many of MIT ' s over 120 , 000 alumni have had considerable success in scientific research , public service , education , and business . As of 2011 , twenty - four MIT alumni have won the Nobel Prize , forty - four have been selected as Rhodes Scholar s , and fifty - five have been selected as Marshall Scholar s . Alumni in American politics and public service include Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke , former MA - 1 Representative John Olver , former CA - 13 Representative Pete Stark , former National Economic Council chairman Lawrence H . Summers , and former Council of Economic Advisors chairwoman Christina Romer . MIT alumni in international politics include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi , Chief Economic Adviser of India Raghuram Rajan , physicist Richard Feynman , former British Foreign Minister David Miliband , former Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos , former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan , and former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi . MIT alumni founded or co - founded many notable companies , such as Intel , McDonnell Douglas , Texas Instruments , 3Com , Qualcomm , Bose , Raytheon , Koch Industries , Rockwell International , Genentech , Dropbox , and Campbell Soup . According to the British newspaper , " The 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 between them generate global revenues of about $ 1 . 9tn ( £1 . 2tn ) a year . If MIT was a country , it would have the 11th highest GDP of any nation in the world . " Prominent institutions of higher education have been led by MIT alumni , including the University of California system , Harvard University , Johns Hopkins University , Carnegie Mellon University , Tufts University , Rochester Institute of Technology , Rhode Island School of Design ( RISD ) , Northeastern University , Lahore University of Management Sciences , Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute , Tecnológico de Monterrey , Purdue University , Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Quaid - e - Azam University . More than one third of the United States ' manned spaceflights have included MIT - educated astronauts ( among them Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin ) , more than any university excluding the United States service academies . Noted alumni in non - scientific fields include author Hugh Lofting , sculptor Daniel Chester French , Boston guitarist Tom Scholz , the British " BBC " and " ITN " correspondent and political advisor David Walter , " The New York Times " columnist and Nobel Prize Winning economist Paul Krugman , " The Bell Curve " author Charles Murray , United States Supreme Court building architect Cass Gilbert , Pritzker Prize - winning architects I . M . Pei and Gordon Bunshaft . References . Explanatory notes Citations Bibliography < br >