Undergraduate Students: Alumni Survey

MIT Undergraduate alumni are surveyed on a range of topics years after graduating. The topics include their opinions on MIT and their education, their post-graduate career path, and graduate education.

Recent Findings (2009 Undergraduate Alumni Survey)

• Overall satisfaction with MIT: 91% of alumni respondents were "generally satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their undergraduate education. 85% would encourage a current H.S. senior similar to them to attend MIT.
• Among recent graduates, 66% have enrolled in further study. The figure increases to 67% and 71% for graduates of the 1990s and 1980s, respectively. Fully 86% of graduates indicated that MIT prepared them "more than adequately" or "very well" for their graduate or professional studies.
• Alumni were most likely to report working in a private for-profit organization (54%), in higher education (14%) or to be self-employed (11%). The most frequently reported occupations were engineer (20%), programmer/computer scientist/analyst (13%), physician (8%), college faculty member (8%), and financial manager or analyst (7%). Interestingly, approximately one-third of all graduates (31%) reported working in a field that is not related to their undergraduate major. 77% of graduates reported that MIT prepared them "more than adequately" or "very well" for their current career.
• With regard to specific skills and competencies, respondents indicated feeling most well-prepared to "think analytically and logically," "acquire new skills and knowledge on [their] own," and "use quantitative tools." "Understand social problems," "maintain a healthy lifestyle," and "read/speak a foreign language" were identified as relative areas of weakest preparation.
• Collectively, alumni suggested that MIT should increase the undergraduate program's emphasis on teaching leadership skills, faculty/student contact outside class, and overall emphasis on teaching. Graduates were most comfortable with the current emphases on fostering teamwork and cooperation and on a broad liberal arts education. Interestingly, emphasis on the liberal arts was also the area that the largest portion of alumni suggested reducing (though this portion is only 8% of respondents).
• Read more in the 2009 Results.