About MIT
The MIT community is driven by a shared purpose: to make a better world through education, research, and innovation. We are fun and quirky, elite but not elitist, inventive and artistic, obsessed with numbers, and welcoming to talented people regardless of where they come from.
Founded to accelerate the nation’s industrial revolution, MIT is profoundly American. With ingenuity and drive, our graduates have invented fundamental technologies, launched new industries, and created millions of American jobs. At the same time, and without the slightest sense of contradiction, MIT is profoundly global. Our community gains tremendous strength as a magnet for talent from around the world. Through teaching, research, and innovation, MIT’s exceptional community pursues its mission of service to the nation and the world.
Mission and Values
Key Facts
History
- Incorporated 1861
- Motto “Mens et manus” (“mind and hand”)
Campus
- Location Cambridge, MA USA
- Size 168 acres (0.68 km2)
- Student residences 19
- Playing fields 26 acres (0.11 km2)
- Gardens + green spaces 40+
- Publicly sited works of art 60+
Admissions (Class of 2027)
- Applicants 26,914
- Admits 1,291
Selected Honors
- Nobel laureates 101
- National Medal of Science winners 61
- National Medal of Technology and Innovation winners 33
- MacArthur Fellows 83
- A. M. Turing Award winners 17
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MIT Facts
A brief history of MIT
Community (as of 10/30/23)
- Employees (including faculty) 17,180
- Professors (all ranks) 1,089
- Other teaching staff 1,020
- Undergraduate student-to-faculty and instructional staff ratio 3:1
- Students 11,920
- Undergraduates 4,576
- Women 2,231 (49%)
- US minority groups 2,650 (58%)
- Graduate students 7,344
- Women 2,969 (40%)
- US minority groups 1,617 (22%)
Faculty
For MIT’s faculty — just over 1,000 in number — cutting-edge research and education are inseparable. Each feeds the other. When they’re not busy pioneering the frontiers of their fields, MIT faculty members play a vital role in shaping the Institute’s vibrant campus community — as advisors, coaches, heads of houses, mentors, committee members, and much more.
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Leadership
President
Sally Kornbluth
MIT’s 18th president, January 2023 – present
The Institute’s board of trustees, known as “the Corporation,” includes 69 distinguished leaders in engineering, science, industry, education, and other professions.
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Cambridge & Boston
MIT is an integral part of its host city of Cambridge, a diverse and vibrant community noted for its intellectual life, history, and thriving innovation climate. With a campus nestled between Central and Kendall Squares, and across the Charles River from Boston’s Back Bay, the Institute is optimally positioned to collaborate with its neighbors and to contribute to its community.
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