Best Global Universities #2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, founded in 1861, is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston. Around 11,000 students attend the university, with roughly 60 percent of them studying at the graduate level. MIT contains five schools: architecture and planning; engineering; humanities, arts, and social sciences; management; and science. English is the language of instruction at MIT. The academic calendar is a 4-1-4 system with a four-week "Independent Activities Period" in January. During this period, undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff and alumni participate in forums, lecture series, recitals and other special activities. 

First-year undergraduate students are the only ones required to live on campus but many students further along in their studies choose to reside on campus as well. There are many opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students to gain research experience at one of MIT’s many labs or centers, including the MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory, one of the largest university research reactors in the U.S. Nearly 90 percent of MIT undergraduates participate in the school’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, which partners students and faculty for research projects, by the time they graduate.​ More than $675 million was spent on research at MIT in a recent year, with additional federal funding going to MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, a Department of Defense research and development lab focused on technological solutions to national security issues.

The mission of 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. The Institute is committed to generating, disseminating, and preserving knowledge, and to working with others to bring this knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. MIT is dedicated to providing its students with an education that combines rigorous academic study and the excitement of discovery with the support and intellectual stimulation of a diverse campus community. We seek to develop in each member of the MIT community the ability and passion to work wisely, creatively, and effectively for the betterment of humankind. The Institute admitted its first students in 1865, four years after the approval of its founding charter. The opening marked the culmination of an extended effort by William Barton Rogers, a distinguished natural scientist, to establish a new kind of independent educational institution relevant to an increasingly industrialized America. Rogers stressed the pragmatic and practicable. He believed that professional competence is best fostered by coupling teaching and research and by focusing attention on real-world problems. Toward this end, he pioneered the development of the teaching..

Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private institution that was founded in 1861. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 4,512, its setting is Urban, and the campus size is 168 acres. It utilizes a 4-1-4-based academic calendar. Massachusetts Institute of Technology's ranking in the 2016 edition of Best Colleges is National Universities, 7. Its tuition and fees are $46,704 (2015-16).

School Mission and Unique Qualities

The essence of MIT is our appetite for problems-especially those big, intractable, complicated problems whose solutions make a permanent difference. While MIT is a research university committed to world-class inquiry in math, science, and engineering, MIT has equally distinguished programs in architecture, the humanities, management, and the social sciences. A diverse, supportive campus environment-with an incredible range of student groups and athletic and fitness opportunities-ensures that it's not all about the work. And in MIT's intensely creative atmosphere, the arts flourish in all their forms. MIT admits some of the most talented students in the world on a need-blind basis. 

The Institute is committed to meeting the financial need of each admitted undergraduate student through MIT scholarships; the average student scholarship was 34,551 per year in 2014. As a result, the MIT community is incredibly diverse, and organically collaborative, with students coming from many different backgrounds, across the country and around the world. Students are frequently encouraged to unite MIT's engineering excellence with public service. For example, the required senior capstone design course for mechanical engineering majors centers on making the world a better place through engineering. Recent years have focused on projects using alternative forms of energy, and machines that could be used for sustainable agriculture. Beyond academic coursework, MIT's D-Lab, Poverty Action Lab, and Public Service Center all support students and professors in the research and implementation of culturally sensitive and environmentally responsible technologies and programs that alleviate poverty and improve quality of life in low-income areas locally, nationally, and worldwide. 

The MIT community brings its energy and creativity outside the classroom as well with 450+ student-run groups, 33 varsity sports, 18 intramural sports, 33 club sports, and more than 60 music, theater, visual arts, writing, and dance groups. It's just a short walk across the Charles River to Boston where students can enjoy the city's fabulous restaurants or take in Boston culture. Many programs around MIT allow students to get reduced-price tickets to various events, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the American Repertory Theater, and Bruins, Celtics, and Red Sox games. Students get free admission daily to the Museum of Science, the Museum of Fine Arts, and all Harvard University and MIT museums.

University rankings

• MIT places among the top ten in many overall rankings of universities (see right) and rankings based on students' revealed preferences. For several years, U.S. News & World Report, the QS World University Rankings, and the Academic Ranking of World Universities have ranked MIT's School of Engineering first, as did the 1995 National Research Council report. In the same lists, MIT's strongest showings apart from in engineering are in computer science, the natural sciences, business, economics, linguistics, mathematics, and, to a lesser extent, political science and philosophy.
• In 2014, Money magazine ranked MIT as third in the US "Best Colleges for Your Money", based on its assessment of "the most bang for your tuition buck", factoring in quality of education, affordability, and career outcomes. 
• As of 2014, Forbes magazine rated MIT as the second "Most Entrepreneurial University", based on the percentage of alumni and students self-identifying as founders or business owners on LinkedIn.
• In 2015, Brookings Fellow Jonathan Rothwell issued a report "Beyond College Rankings", placing MIT as third in the US, with an estimated 45% value-added to mid-career salary.

Undergraduate Information

Applying

When applying to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it's important to note the application deadline is January 01, and the early action deadline is November 01. The application fee at Massachusetts Institute of Technology is $75. Scores for either the ACT or SAT test are due 15-FEB-15. It is most selective, with an acceptance rate of 7.9 percent and an early acceptance rate of 9 percent.

Academic Life

The student-faculty ratio at Massachusetts Institute of Technology is 8:1, and the school has 67.3 percent of its classes with fewer than 20 students. The most popular majors at Massachusetts Institute of Technology include: engineering, computer science, biological and biomedical sciences, physical sciences and mathematics, general. The average freshman retention rate, an indicator of student satisfaction, is 98 percent.

Student Life

Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a total undergraduate enrollment of 4,512, with a gender distribution of 54 percent male students and 46 percent female students. At this school, 87 percent of the students live in college-owned, -operated or -affiliated housing and 13 percent of students live off campus. Massachusetts Institute of Technology is part of the Ncaa iii athletic conference.

Cost & Financial Aid

At Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 59% percent of full-time undergraduates receive some kind of need-based financial aid and the average need-based scholarship or grant award is $39,576.

Annual tuition fees 2015/16:: UNDERGRADUATE :: DOMESTIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

All UG programs: US$46,704

POSTGRADUATE::DOMESTIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS::Most PG programs:

US$38,660

Campus Safety

Campus safety data were reported by the institution to the U.S. Department of Education and have not been independently verified. The numbers for criminal offenses reflect reports of alleged offenses to campus security and/or law enforcement authorities, not necessarily prosecutions or convictions. Experts advise prospective students and their families to do their own research to evaluate the safety of a campus as well as the surrounding area.

Campus Services

Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers a number of student services, including nonremedial tutoring, placement service, day care, health service, health insurance. Massachusetts Institute of Technology also offers campus safety and security services like 24-hour foot and vehicle patrols, late night transport/escort service, 24-hour emergency telephones, lighted pathways/sidewalks, controlled dormitory access (key, security card, etc). Of the students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 3 percent have cars on campus. Alcohol is permitted for students of legal age at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Research

MIT was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1934 and remains a research university with a very high level of research activity;[46][159] research expenditures totaled $718.2 million in 2009.[237] The federal government was the largest source of sponsored research, with the Department of Health and Human Services granting $255.9 million, Department of Defense $97.5 million, Department of Energy $65.8 million, National Science Foundation $61.4 million, and NASA $27.4 million.[237] MIT employs approximately 1300 researchers in addition to faculty.[238] In 2011, MIT faculty and researchers disclosed 632 inventions, were issued 153 patents, earned $85.4 million in cash income, and received $69.6 million in royalties.[239] Through programs like the Deshpande Center, MIT faculty leverage their research and discoveries into multi-million-dollar commercial ventures.[240]

Research

The GNU project and free software movement originated at MIT

In electronics, magnetic core memory, radar, single electron transistors, and inertial guidance controls were invented or substantially developed by MIT researchers.

Harold Eugene Edgerton was a pioneer in high speed photography and sonar. Claude E. Shannon developed much of modern information theory and discovered the application of Boolean logic to digital circuit design theory. In the domain of computer science, MIT faculty and researchers made fundamental contributions to cybernetics, artificial intelligence, computer languages, machine learning, robotics, and cryptography. At least nine Turing Award laureates and seven recipients of the Draper Prize in engineering have been or are currently associated with MIT.

Current and previous physics faculty have won eight Nobel Prizes, four Dirac Medals, and three Wolf Prizes predominantly for their contributions to subatomic and quantum theory. Members of the chemistry department have been awarded three Nobel Prizes and one Wolf Prize for the discovery of novel syntheses and methods. MIT biologists have been awarded six Nobel Prizes for their contributions to genetics, immunology, oncology, and molecular biology. Professor Eric Lander was one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project. Positronium atoms,synthetic penicillin,synthetic self-replicating molecules, and the genetic bases for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease) and Huntington's disease were first discovered at MIT.Jerome Lettvin transformed the study of cognitive science with his paper "What the frog's eye tells the frog's brain".

In the domain of humanities, arts, and social sciences, MIT economists have been awarded five Nobel Prizes and nine John Bates Clark Medals. Linguists Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle authored seminal texts on generative grammar and phonology. The MIT Media Lab, founded in 1985 within the School of Architecture and Planning and known for its unconventional research, has been home to influential researchers such as constructivist educator and Logo creator Seymour Papert.

Spanning many of the above fields, MacArthur Fellowships (the so-called "Genius Grants") have been awarded to 38 people associated with MIT.  Four Pulitzer Prize–winning writers currently work at or have retired from MIT. Four current or former faculty are members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Allegations of research misconduct or improprieties have received substantial press coverage. Professor David Baltimore, a Nobel Laureate, became embroiled in a misconduct investigation starting in 1986 that led to Congressional hearings in 1991.Professor Ted Postol has accused the MIT administration since 2000 of attempting to whitewash potential research misconduct at the Lincoln Lab facility involving a ballistic missile defense test, though a final investigation into the matter has not been completed. Associate Professor Luk Van Parijs was dismissed in 2005 following allegations of scientific misconduct and found guilty of the same by the United States Office of Research Integrity in 2009.Researchers developed a system to convert MRI scans into 3D printed physical models.