Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

The mission of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

MIT also has a strong culture of student collaboration. Students are encouraged and expected to work with each other on homework - or psets, in MIT parlance. For any given pset, you likely won't be able to do everything on your own, so you'll find (or make) a few friends in the class and go work together to get it done.

We do this because it's how problems are solved in the real world - by small teams of smart people contributing their individual expertise and understanding. When you graduate from MIT and go to work at a Fortune 500 company or a nonprofit, or as an entrepreneur delivering an elevator pitch, you're going to need to know how to work with others. So that's what you'll do here at MIT.

The flagship MIT student research program is UROP. When you do a UROP, you will find a professor who is working on something that you think is awesome. You and the Professor will work on a proposal, and then you will join their team. 89% of MIT students will participate in the UROP program at MIT. Many of them will be credited as co-authors on peer-reviewed publications. Some even earn patents - our Technology Licensing Office has signed 50-75 option and license agreements every year for the past five years.

If you think you might enjoy a more personalized, small-group approach to your first year at MIT, you may want to explore our four close-knit freshman learning communities,which emphasize initiative and close links between students and faculty.