Overview

MIT is a private, research institution with an emphasis on science and engineering education. Undergraduate students at MIT complete degrees in traditional majors, fulfilling General Institute Requirements in science, math, and the humanities (17 subjects total) before graduation.

Location: Cambridge, MA

Number of 1^st years: 1,099

Undergraduates: 4,547

Graduates: 6,919

Faculty: 1,047

For more demographic data, see here.

First-Year Programs

Advising

At MIT, the Office of Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming assigns academic advisors for first-year students. Most first year advisors team up with an associate advisor, an upperclass student, who brings an undergraduate's perspective to the advising process. First-year students may choose from two different styles of advising, which they do over the summer through an online application:

1. Freshman advising seminars: available during the first term only, advising seminars are usually run by faculty who also serve as their first-year advisor. The seminars are academic in nature, cover a wide range of topics, and are small allowing students to interact more closely with their academic advisor. All advising seminars receive 6 units of credit and are P/D/F.
2. Traditional advising: students are assigned a faculty advisor whom they meet with one-on-one.

Once students declare their major at the end of their first year, they are assigned a faculty advisor within their departments.

Bridge Programs

Interphase EDGE is a two-year enrichment program that begins the summer prior to a student's first semester at MIT. The seven-week, residential summer program provides approximately 70 students with a rigorous academic experience in chemistry, math, physics, and communication. The program also seeks to build community amongst the scholars and expose them to campus life. During the academic year, scholars are encouraged to meet regularly with their Interphase EDGE advisors, and attend seminars, workshops, and networking events. Students from underrepresented groups are highly encouraged to apply to Interphase EDGE.

Diversity/Global Learning

• The Office of Multicultural Programs hosts the Diversity Orientation program as a part of first-year orientation. This session for all students includes a program of national diversity speakers, MIT speakers, and opportunities for students to share about their identities. Following the program, students are broken into groups for facilitated breakout conversations with trained faculty and staff facilitators. These breakout conversations are a result of the BSU recommendations. For more information about the Diversity Orientation program, please contact La-Tarri Canty, Assistant Dean and Director of Multicultural Programs.
• MIT offers a variety of global education opportunities open to all undergraduate students, including internships, study abroad, research, and service. MIT’s Global Education and Career Development (GECD) office serves as one clearinghouse for global education opportunities. MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) partners with leading companies, research institutes, and universities in 26 different countries to provide students with internship, entrepreneurship, teaching and research opportunities.

Early Warning Systems

The MIT early warning system for first-year students is known as the Fifth Week Flag system, and is a notification sent to any first-year student after the fifth week of the term who is currently below a passing level grade in any of their subjects. Students who receive a fifth week flag are connected with various academic resources.

A perspective of the Fifth Week Flag from The Tech (Faviero, B.B.F., 2011):

The flags are emails, CC’d to a student’s adviser and the UAAP. Most flags are specific to individual students, and can include observations by the instructor like, “I noticed you didn’t do well on the last exam,” or “you haven’t been to recitation lately”… Most flags also involve a follow-up from the UAAP with information on resources and suggestions on how to improve performance. Norman said that flags are intended to be something like, “Let’s pause. Where do you stand right now, and what do you need to do to be more successful?”

All flags are forwarded to housemasters and varsity coaches, and students with multiple flags get more attention from the UAAP. They also get an email on how students can get support, particularly when it comes to personal problems.

Each student with multiple flags is expected to develop a “recovery plan” with the help of their adviser and the associate dean for advising and academic programming. The UAAP also encourages these students to sign up for Seminar XL: Limited Edition — a not-for-credit version of Seminar XL — which matches 4–6 students with a TA for two 1.5-hour sessions every week to review material and do practice problems.

First-Year Seminars

The Freshman Advising Seminars (FAS) program, offered by the Office of Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming, is one advising option available to first-year students. Freshman advising seminars (FAS) are typically led by faculty or instructors who also serve as the freshman advisor for the students in the seminar. The purpose of Freshman advising seminars is to provide students with an opportunity to engage with faculty around a common topic. FAS are optional. First-year students choose whether or not to participate in an FAS in June of the summer prior to their first term on campus. About 50% of MIT first-year students participate in FAS. FAS tend to have smaller numbers of students, typically around 8, which lend them to be discussion or project-based and provide an opportunity for students to get to know each other as well as their advisor. FAS topics and intended learning outcomes vary widely but tend to have an academic focus. Last fall, FAS topics included black holes, blacksmithing, quantitative biology, leadership, design, and making. Freshman seminars are only offered in the fall term. FAS are not offered in the spring because students keep the same advisor for the first year. If students joined a new seminar in the spring, this is seen as an administrative complication. Freshman seminars meet weekly, are worth 6 units of credit, and are graded P/D/F.

Internships

• MIT’s Freshman/Alumni Summer Internship Program (F/ASIP) is a nine-month program that begins during IAP of the first year. F/ASIP is a series of two classes that teaches students the skills needed to find and secure an internship or other career-building opportunity for the summer after the first year. Participants in F/ASIP receive weekly newsletters with first-year only job postings and other summer opportunities.
• MISTI matches MIT students with international internship opportunities in over 25 countries. Students participate in prep and training sessions before their departure.

Learning Communities

MIT offers four first-year learning communities that have curricular and social components:

• Concourse weaves the humanities throughout special offerings of the math and science GIRs. Concourse also offers its own humanities subjects. Approximately 40-50 first-years are admitted into Concourse each year allowing for small class sizes. Concourse students are advised through the program. They are assigned an advisor and associate advisor (upper-class Concourse student), but the Concourse staff and faculty work as a team to support all students. Friday seminars support community building and advising. Concourse faculty, staff, and students come together for lunch and hear from a faculty guest speaker each week. The Concourse learning community also has a dedicated lounge where students can study or have group gatherings.
• Experimental Study Group (ESG) offers small science, math, and humanities GIRs for its community members. ESG only requires that students take 2 GIRs within ESG. Students can fulfill their other GIRs outside of ESG. ESG has common space including a lounge, a kitchen, and classrooms. ESG encourages an interactive approach to teaching and learning and has a dedicated group of TAs. Approximately 55 first-year students are admitted to ESG each year. ESG students have the same advising options as mainstream students.
• Terrascope offers students the opportunity to work on a thematic challenge in the area of earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences that differs each year. Terrascope students enroll in one Terrascope subject each term. The fall and spring subjects are complimentary. In the fall subject, Solving Complex Problems, students develop a plan to a solve a complex problem and present their plan to a panel of experts. In optional spring subjects, students design and prototype their solution and create a radio program that broadcasts their ideas to the wider world. Students can participate in a spring break field trip that relates to the year’s theme. Terrascope students participate in regular group lunches and study sessions and have access to the Terrascope student lounge. Terrascope community members are advised by faculty affiliated with the program and by upperclass peer advisors.
• Media Arts and Sciences (MAS) Freshman Program offers students a lens into the Media Lab, which does not grant degrees to undergraduates. Students attend mainstream GIR subjects but attend chemistry and physics recitations taught by MAS instructors. The recitations emphasize connections to Media Lab research. Students also participate in two MAS subjects each term and participate in MAS UROPs in the spring. MAS students are advised through specific MAS freshman advising seminars.

Orientation

During orientation, first-year students have many opportunities to mingle with classmates as well as MIT faculty and staff. Students explore academic options, register for their first semester of classes, learn about MIT Residence Life and student life programs, and explore the campus and its resources. Orientation includes the President’s Convocation, faculty lectures, and an academic expo for information on academic departments and programs. MIT’s orientation also includes programming for parents.

Before the official beginning of orientation, incoming students can participate in the Freshman Pre-Orientation Programs (FPOP). There more than 25 FPOPs that give new students the opportunity to participate in a 4- or 5-day program around a variety of topics including leadership, service, outdoors, arts, and academic programs. Many academic programs offer FPOPs. FPOP cohort sizes vary, but are generally smaller than 30.

Service Learning

While a number of students at MIT engage in service through student groups and FSILGs, other opportunities for service learning include:

• D-Lab: is MIT’s largest service learning effort. In D-Lab subjects, students apply their math, science, engineering, social science, and business skills to tackle a range of global poverty issues. Many D-Lab subjects include opportunities for fieldwork.
• Priscilla King Gray Public Service (PKG Center): The PKG Center helps to connect MIT students to public service opportunities. The center provides information, guidance, and funding to students.
• Freshman Urban Program (FUP): While FUP is unaffiliated with an academic subject, FUP encompasses important aspects of service learning, chiefly the opportunity for MIT students to reflect on their community service experiences and discuss social issues such as inequality, poverty, sustainability, and privilege.
• IDEAS Competition: An annual service and social entrepreneurship competition for students run by the PKG Center.

Undergraduate Research

The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) cultivates and supports research partnerships between MIT undergraduates and faculty. Projects occur during the academic year and/or in the summer session — lasting for an entire semester or continuing for a year or more. In addition to the traditional UROP program, two alternative UROP offerings are available:

• The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Mini-UROP program, which launched in 2016, pairs 1^st year undergraduates with graduate student mentors and provides opportunities for first-year students to engage in mini-research projects during IAP.
• The School of Engineering and the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences offer an advanced undergraduate research opportunities program called SuperUROP. Students participate in year-long research projects. Students spend 10 hours per week in lab working on their projects and are also enrolled in a 12-unit seminar in undergraduate research. While SuperUROP is an opportunity for juniors and seniors, it is worth mentioning because other institutions offer similar programs for first-year students, such as UT-Austin’s Freshman Research Initiative program.

Through the Facilitating Effective Research (FER) Program, the Teaching + Learning Lab in collaboration with the UROP office, supports the development of graduate student and postdoctoral research mentors. Program participants reflect on their individual mentoring and advising experiences and discuss: 1) how different behaviors influence mentoring relationships, 2) how to establish and articulate expectations, 3) how to keep communication channels open and flowing, and 4) how to apply strategies to begin planning and managing research projects and tasks.

Writing-Intensive Courses

MIT students are required to take one communication intensive (CI) course during their first year. CI-H subjects (Communication Intensive in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences) provide a foundation in effective writing and oral communication. CI-H subjects are writing classes or classes in the HASS curriculum in which students plan, organize, draft, and revise a series of assignments based on course material. CI-HW subjects are a subset of CI-H subjects with a larger emphasis on the writing process and the rhetorical dimensions of writing.

All incoming first-year students who did not score a 5 on either the AP Language and Composition exam or Literature and Composition exam, or a 7 on either the English A or B Higher Level International Baccalaureate (IB) exam must complete the Freshman Essay Evaluation (FEE) the summer before arriving on campus. The selection of writing subjects available to these student is determined by their performance on the FEE (students who meet AP/IB cutoffs can register for any CI-H/CI-HW subject).

Lecturers from Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication (WRAP) teach CI-HW subjects and co-teach numerous CI subjects with faculty.