Find Support with MIT Together

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Chris Colombo
Dean for Student Life

Both graduate and undergraduate students tell me that there is a stigma associated with asking for help at MIT. After all, this campus celebrates working hard on complex and difficult challenges. We brag that we don’t get any sleep and that we drink from the firehose. If you’re struggling with feelings of stress or isolation, it can sometimes make you feel as if you are alone.

But this is not the true MIT. At MIT, projects and p-sets are assigned for working in teams. Labs organize around the intersection of complementary skills and disciplines. Even the original buildings reflect this idea; the architecture of the main complex deliberately facilitates strolling down the hallway to collaborate with someone in a different field. MIT is an engine whose parts have been designed to solve problems and overcome obstacles by working together.

At its core, the MIT community recognizes the value of working together, not alone. Reaching out for help when you need it is as much a part of MIT as the GIRs. And that’s why if you need support for a personal or academic problem—or during times when these troubles seem to go hand in hand—all you need to remember is one word: together....

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