The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university

in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1861 in response to the increasing indu

strialization of the United States, MIT adopted a European polytechnic universit
y model and stressed laboratory instruction in applied science and engineering.
Researchers worked on computers, radar, and inertial guidance during World War I
I and the Cold War. Post-war defense research contributed to the rapid expansion
of the faculty and campus under James Killian. The current 168-acre (68.0 ha) c
ampus opened in 1916 and extends over 1 mile (1.6 km) along the northern bank of
the Charles River basin.
MIT, with five schools and one college which contain a total of 32 departments,
is traditionally known for research and education in the physical sciences and e
ngineering, and more recently in biology, economics, linguistics, and management
as well. The "Engineers" sponsor 31 sports, most teams of which compete in the
NCAA Division III's New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference; the Divis
ion I rowing programs compete as part of the EARC and EAWRC.
MIT is often cited as among the world's top universities.[9][10][11][12] As of 2
014, 81 Nobel laureates, 52 National Medal of Science recipients, 45 Rhodes Scho
lars, 38 MacArthur Fellows, and 2 Fields Medalists have been affiliated with MIT
. MIT has a strong entrepreneurial culture and the aggregated revenues of compan
ies founded by MIT alumni would rank as the eleventh-largest economy in the worl
d.[13]
Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 Foundation and vision
1.2 Early developments
1.3 Curricular reforms
1.4 Defense research
1.5 Recent history
2 Campus
2.1 Architecture
2.2 Housing
2.3 Organization and administration
3 Academics
3.1 Undergraduate program
3.2 Graduate program
3.3 University rankings
3.4 Collaborations
3.5 Libraries, collections, and museums
3.6 Research
4 Traditions and student activities
4.1 Activities
4.2 Athletics
5 People
5.1 Students
5.2 Faculty and staff
5.3 Alumni
6 See also
7 References
7.1 Explanatory notes
7.2 Citations
7.3 Bibliography
8 External links
History[edit]
Main article: History of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Foundation and vision[edit]
.... a school of industrial science aiding the advancement, development and prac
tical application of science in connection with arts, agriculture, manufactures,

and commerce.
Act to Incorporate the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Acts of 1861, Chapter 183, [14]
Stereographic card showing an MIT mechanical drafting studio, 19th century (phot
o by E.L. Allen), left/right inverted.
Original Rogers Building, Back Bay, Boston, 19th century (photo by E.L. Allen)
In 1859, a proposal was submitted to the Massachusetts General Court to use newl
y filled lands in Back Bay, Boston for a "Conservatory of Art and Science", but
the proposal failed.[15][16] A proposal by William Barton Rogers a charter for t
he incorporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, signed by the gov
ernor of Massachusetts on April 10, 1861.[17]
Rogers, a professor from the University
itution to address rapid scientific and
ot wish to found a professional school,
professional and liberal education,[20]

of Virginia, wanted to establish an inst

technological advances.[18][19] He did n
but a combination with elements of both
proposing that:

"The true and only practicable object of a polytechnic school is, as I conceive,
the teaching, not of the minute details and manipulations of the arts, which ca
n be done only in the workshop, but the inculcation of those scientific principl
es which form the basis and explanation of them, and along with this, a full and
methodical review of all their leading processes and operations in connection w
ith physical laws."[21]
The Rogers Plan reflected the German research university model, emphasizing an i
ndependent faculty engaged in research, as well as instruction oriented around s
eminars and laboratories.[22][23]
Early developments[edit]
A 1905 map of MIT's Boston campus.
Two days after the charter was issued, the first battle of the Civil War broke o
ut. After a long delay through the war years, MIT's first classes were held in t
he Mercantile Building in Boston in 1865.[24] The new institute had a mission th
at matched the intent of the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act to fund instit
utions "to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes
", and was a land-grant school.[25][a] In 1866, the proceeds from land sales wen
t toward new buildings in the Back Bay.[26]
MIT was informally called "Boston Tech".[26] The institute adopted the European
polytechnic university model and emphasized laboratory instruction from an early
date.[27] Despite chronic financial problems, the institute saw growth in the l
ast two decades of the 19th century under President Francis Amasa Walker.[28] Pr
ograms in electrical, chemical, marine, and sanitary engineering were introduced
,[29][30] new buildings were built, and the size of the student body increased t
o more than one thousand.[28]
The curriculum drifted to a vocational emphasis, with less focus on theoretical
science.[31] The fledgling school still suffered from chronic financial shortage
s which diverted the attention of the MIT leadership. During these "Boston Tech"
years, MIT faculty and alumni rebuffed Harvard University president (and former
MIT faculty) Charles W. Eliot's repeated attempts to merge MIT with Harvard Col
lege's Lawrence Scientific School.[32] There would be at least six attempts to a
bsorb MIT into Harvard.[33] In its cramped Back Bay location, MIT could not affo
rd to expand its overcrowded facilities, driving a desperate search for a new ca
mpus and funding. Eventually the MIT Corporation approved a formal agreement to
merge with Harvard, over the vehement objections of MIT faculty, students, and a
lumni.[33] However, a 1917 decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

effectively put an end to the merger scheme.[33]

Plaque in Building 6 honoring George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak, who was
revealed as the anonymous "Mr. Smith" who helped maintain MIT's independence
In 1916, MIT moved to a spacious new campus largely consisting of filled land on
a mile-long tract along the Cambridge side of the Charles River.[34][35] The ne
oclassical "New Technology" campus was designed by William W. Bosworth[36] and h
ad been funded largely by anonymous donations from a mysterious "Mr. Smith," sta
rting in 1912. In January 1920, the donor was revealed to be the industrialist G
eorge Eastman of Rochester, New York, who had invented methods of film productio
n and processing, and founded Eastman Kodak. Between 1912 and 1920, Eastman dona
ted $20 million in cash and Kodak stock to MIT.[37]
Curricular reforms[edit]
In the 1930s, President Karl Taylor Compton and Vice-President (effectively Prov
ost) Vannevar Bush emphasized the importance of pure sciences like physics and c
hemistry and reduced the vocational practice required in shops and drafting stud
ios.[38] The Compton reforms "renewed confidence in the ability of the Institute
to develop leadership in science as well as in engineering."[39] Unlike Ivy Lea
gue schools, MIT catered more to middle-class families, and depended more on tui
tion than on endowments or grants for its funding.[40] The school was elected to
the Association of American Universities in 1934.[41]
Still, as late as 1949, the Lewis Committee lamented in its report on the state
of education at MIT that "the Institute is widely conceived as basically a vocat
ional school", a "partly unjustified" perception the committee sought to change.
The report comprehensively reviewed the undergraduate curriculum, recommended o
ffering a broader education, and warned against letting engineering and governme
nt-sponsored research detract from the sciences and humanities.[42][43] The Scho
ol of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and the MIT Sloan School of Manageme
nt were formed in 1950 to compete with the powerful Schools of Science and Engin
eering. Previously marginalized faculties in the areas of economics, management,
political science, and linguistics emerged into cohesive and assertive departme
nts by attracting respected professors and launching competitive graduate progra
ms.[44][45] The School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences continued to dev
elop under the successive terms of the more humanistically oriented presidents H
oward W. Johnson and Jerome Wiesner between 1966 and 1980.[46]
Defense research[edit]
MIT's involvement in military research surged during World War II. In 1941, Vann
evar Bush was appointed head of the federal Office of Scientific Research and De
velopment and directed funding to only a select group of universities, including
MIT.[47] Engineers and scientists from across the country gathered at MIT's Rad
iation Laboratory, established in 1940 to assist the British military in develop
ing microwave radar. The work done there significantly affected both the war and
subsequent research in the area.[48] Other defense projects included gyroscopebased and other complex control systems for gunsight, bombsight, and inertial na
vigation under Charles Stark Draper's Instrumentation Laboratory;[49][50] the de
velopment of a digital computer for flight simulations under Project Whirlwind;[
51] and high-speed and high-altitude photography under Harold Edgerton.[52][53]
By the end of the war, MIT became the nation's largest wartime R&D contractor (a
ttracting some criticism of Bush),[47] employing nearly 4000 in the Radiation La
boratory alone[48] and receiving in excess of $100 million ($1.2 billion in 2012
dollars) before 1946.[39] Work on defense projects continued even after then. P
ost-war government-sponsored research at MIT included SAGE and guidance systems
for ballistic missiles and Project Apollo.[54]
...a special type of educational institution which can be defined as a universit
y polarized around science, engineering, and the arts. We might call it a univer

sity limited in its objectives but unlimited in the breadth and the thoroughness
with which it pursues these objectives.
MIT president James Rhyne Killian, [55]
These activities affected MIT profoundly. A 1949 report noted the lack of "any g
reat slackening in the pace of life at the Institute" to match the return to pea
cetime, remembering the "academic tranquility of the prewar years", though ackno
wledging the significant contributions of military research to the increased emp
hasis on graduate education and rapid growth of personnel and facilities.[56] Th
e faculty doubled and the graduate student body quintupled during the terms of K
arl Taylor Compton, president of MIT between 1930 and 1948; James Rhyne Killian,
president from 1948 to 1957; and Julius Adams Stratton, chancellor from 1952 to
1957, whose institution-building strategies shaped the expanding university. By
the 1950s, MIT no longer simply benefited the industries with which it had work
ed for three decades, and it had developed closer working relationships with new
patrons, philanthropic foundations and the federal government.[57]
In late 1960s and early 1970s, student and faculty activists protested against t
he Vietnam War and MIT's defense research.[58][59] The Union of Concerned Scient
ists was founded on March 4, 1969 during a meeting of faculty members and studen
ts seeking to shift the emphasis on military research toward environmental and s
ocial problems.[60] MIT ultimately divested itself from the Instrumentation Labo
ratory and moved all classified research off-campus to the Lincoln Laboratory fa
cility in 1973 in response to the protests.[61][62] The student body, faculty, a
nd administration remained comparatively unpolarized during what was a tumultuou
s time for many other universities.[58] Johnson was seen to be highly successful
in leading his institution to "greater strength and unity" after these times of
turmoil.[63]