The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was established in 1861, it is located in Boston, Massachusetts. It is an influential university not only in America but throughout world, producing some of the most influential scholars in the world. Its science and engineering programs are world renown, and its majors of management, economics, philosophy, and linguistics are also all famous.
MIT was founded by a famous scientist William Barton Rogers, who graduated from College of William and Mary. Although it was founded in 1861, its first class of students did not come until 1865 due to the American Civil War. From there it quickly gained a reputation for its natural science and engineering programs. During The Great Depression, it almost merged with Harvard, but this plan was cancelled due protests from students.
Up until year 2009, the university has produced a total of 78 Nobel Prize winners. MIT has Lincoln Laboratory, which is responsible for developing high technology weapons and some of America’s highest technological secrets. It also has the world’s leading computer science and artificial intelligence laboratory, the world’s leading media laboratory, and Sloan School of Management, which raised many top CEOs in big enterprises throughout the world.
MIT has 6 schools: the School of Architecture and Planning, the School of Engineering, the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, and the School of Science and Whitaker College of Health Sciences and Technology. Due to the school’s focus in engineering, science and art, it does not have a law school or school of theology. From year 1970 on, it worked together with the med school of Harvard to establish the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology one of the best biomedical schools in the world.
The engineering major of MIT is the most famous and popular major in the school, but it is also the most difficult major to get accepted into. The world’s best students gather in MIT. Here, students are under great pressure every day. Among MIT’s famous 3S’s –Study, Sleep and Social activities, an average MIT student is lucky to successfully balance two. To graduate, students must achieve 360 credits. However, the rate of graduation at MIT is 92%, ranking 3rd in America.
Based on its study of the future society and science, MIT has made its development strategy:
1. Attract the most innovative teachers and the most talented students, and provide them with an exciting and effective study and living environment.
2. Put much effort into the study of basic sciences, and put research in the first place among research, study and activity.
3. Put effort in study, research and developing critical viewpoints, and combine industry, government and scholars together to solve the main problems that the world faces.
MIT has many famous Chinese alumni. These include Zhang Zhongmou(张忠谋), Ye Naichang(叶乃裳)， Qian Xuesen(钱学森), and Meng Shaonong(孟少农), and many other elite people.
Recently, MIT has been searching for partners in China. In 2009, it partnered with Tsinghua University(清华大学) and University of Cambridge to form the league in energy reservation in Beijing(北京). In 2010, it worked with Tsinghua University(清华大学) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong(香港中文大学) to set up a research center in theoretical computer science. Also, it is now working on opening a research university in China with Shanghai Jiaotong University(上海交通大学).
Daxue Consultant China
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Picture Source: Baidu
