1.2 Description

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is an independent, coeducational, privately endowed university committed to the extension of knowledge through teaching and research. It is organized into five academic Schools — Architecture and Planning; Engineering; Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences; Management; and Science — the Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, and numerous interdisciplinary programs and activities.* The campus is located on 168 acres along the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts, facing the city of Boston. Lincoln Laboratory is about 15 miles away in Lexington, Massachusetts. Information on MIT's current enrollment and statistics related to faculty and staff can be found in MIT Facts.

MIT offers the Bachelor of Science, the Master of Architecture, the Master of Business Administration, the Master in City Planning, the Master of Engineering, the Master of Science, the Master of Finance, Master of Business Analytics, Master of Applied Science, the Engineer's degree (field specific), the Doctor of Philosophy, and the Doctor of Science.

The Institute has a single campus and a single faculty serving both undergraduate and graduate students. Many of the classrooms and laboratories are in an interconnected group of buildings that facilitates informal interchange among departments and disciplines. With few exceptions, faculty appointments are in one or more of the Institute's academic departments, but interdisciplinary laboratories, centers, and programs provide support in numerous fields extending beyond the traditional boundaries of a single department. Many faculty members are associated not only with their home departments but also with one or more of these interdisciplinary activities.

The academic programs of undergraduate students are based upon a core of general Institute and departmental requirements, and most undergraduate students major in specific departments. There are ample opportunities, however, for students to share in the interdisciplinary activities of the faculty with whom they work, to major in fields that combine more than one discipline, or to develop an individual program of study in collaboration with a faculty advisor.

Graduate students, who are admitted directly by the departments to which they apply, also are able to pursue studies in more than one discipline, School, or in the College. Upperclass undergraduate students often register for some graduate classes; many undergraduates and almost all graduate students participate, often together, in advanced research.

*In Policies & Procedures, references to Schools include the College where applicable.