The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is an independent, coeducational, endowed university committed to the extension of knowledge through teaching and research. From modest beginnings in 1861 as an institution where students would “learn exactly and thoroughly the fundamental principles of positive science with their leading application to the industrial arts,” the Institute has grown to embrace teaching and research programs of distinction in engineering, the physical and life sciences, architecture and planning, management, and humanities and social sciences.

MIT is broadly organized into five academic schools: Architecture and Planning, Engineering, Humanities and Social Sciences, Management, and Science. There are 27 degreee-granting departments, programs and divisions in these schools, as well as many interdepartmental centers, laboratories, and divisions which extend beyond the traditional boundaries of individual departments. MIT’s enrollment totals approximately 9,700, almost evenly divided between undergraduate and graduate students. There are about 1,000 faculty members at MIT.

Most faculty appointments are in one or more of the academic departments, but the faculty are also associated with many interdepartmental entities. The graduate students and the faculty actively participate in advanced research, often straddling traditional departmental boundaries.

The result is an academic environment with unusual diversity of interest and a focus on excellence.