MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is located in Boston, Massachusetts – about a 10-minute bus ride from what MIT students like to call “that other school,” also known as Harvard :) With just over 4,000 undergraduate students, MIT has smaller class (i.e. Class of 2013, Class of 2014, etc.) sizes than many other U.S. colleges. The students come from all over the world; in my class alone, there are people from Albania, India, Nepal, Vietnam, Canada, and more. The diversity at MIT makes it an incredible place to live, grow, and learn.

Since its founding in 1861, MIT has earned its reputation as one of the best engineering universities in the world and recently earned the title of ‘world’s top university’ from Quarelli Symonds, an organization that specializes in education and studying abroad. Over the years, MIT has produced accomplished individuals like Salman Khan (founder of Khan Academy) and Amar Bose (founder of Bose) and has become home to 77 Nobel Laureates, 52 National Medal of Science winners, and 38 Macarthur Fellows. What makes MIT professors fantastic, however, are not their accolades but rather their approachability. Despite the large size of some classes (ex. Introductory Bio – a class which every MIT student is required to take) tends to have more than 500 students each term!), students feel comfortable emailing their professor with questions, talking to them after class, setting up individual meetings, or sometimes even joining the professor’s research lab (as a side note, the majority of MIT students participate in some kind of research during their time at MIT). Moreover, every student has an academic advisor – a faculty member whose interests align with the students’ and whose role is to guide the student to pick the right classes and navigate MIT’s academic system.

The coursework itself is tough – some classes more so than others. Most professors assign problem sets, which are weekly or bi-weekly homework assignments that generally take several hours to complete. In addition to lectures, there are recitations (led by teaching assistants, who review the material from lecture) and office hours, which are held to help students with problem sets and exam preparation. The MIT environment is inherently collaborative. I know for a fact that I could not have made it through several of the classes I’ve taken had it not been for the friends who worked with me and encouraged me to give it my best shot. On average, students here take about 4 classes a semester, over 8 semesters (alternating between September-December and February- May) total. Depending on their major, some students have more flexibility than others in terms of which classes they can take when. As far as career options go: each semester, MIT hosts a career fair, where company representatives from all over the country come to MIT to recruit students. While many MIT students take on tech jobs at places like Facebook, Google, etc. immediately after graduation (after interviewing with companies following the career fair), many others go on to pursue higher degrees such as MBAs and MDs.

Hope you enjoyed this entry!