Fellowships
MIT continues to attract the top minds as graduate students, as well as the faculty who want to work with those students. Together, they drive discovery and exploration in all fields.
Whether teaching and mentoring undergraduates or collaborating with faculty on research, graduate students are crucial to the strength and the integrity of the Institute. The advances they make in their fields while here greatly enhance MIT’s reputation as a leader in education and research.
As government funding of research continues to shrink, and as competition among universities for the best students intensifies, MIT is taking aggressive action to ensure meaningful graduate student support, and to maintain the excellence of its programs. Two areas of focus are graduate fellowships—both their cost and their impact— and the quality of graduate student life.
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Cost
Graduate students make up about 60 percent of MIT’s student population. Through their research, teaching, and subsequent impact in their fields and on the world at large, they contribute immeasurably to the Institute’s strength.
Financial support for graduate students comes primarily through research assistantships (RAs) and fellowships, and to a lesser degree, from teaching assistantships (TAs). But more and more, these students rely on support from graduate fellowships. Here are some reasons why:
- Federal backing is, at best, unstable.
- NASA, the NIH, and the National Science Foundation — agencies responsible for much of research universities’ funding — have recently experienced budget cuts.
- The cost of an RA to a research grant has risen sharply in recent years.
- Since MIT’s cost is one of the highest among top research universities, any further reduction in tuition subsidy would threaten to price the Institute above the market.
In a nutshell, current Campaign for Students priorities for graduate fellowships at MIT are to —
- Financially enable top graduate students to attend MIT;
- create private sources of support to replace shrinking government research funding;
- offset the rapidly rising cost of research assistantships; and
- stay competitive with other schools offering generous aid to grad students.
To help MIT continue to attract the world’s brightest graduate students through increased fellowship support, consider directing your gift to one of our existing fellowship funds.
Or, to discuss a special gift to graduate fellowships at MIT, please contact:
O’Neil Outar
Senior Director, Office of Institutional Initiatives
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
617.253.6906
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Impact
Whether collaborating with faculty on research, or teaching and mentoring undergraduates, graduate students are crucial to the strength and integrity of the Institute. The advances they make in their fields while at MIT greatly enhance its reputation as a leader in education and scientific research.
But we face tough trends: graduate education has never been harder to pay for or easier to forego.
Private support for graduate fellowships ensures that discovery and exploration continue in all fields, regardless of how fashionable a particular topic is in the short term. It guarantees that MIT will continue to attract the top minds as graduate students, and also the faculty who want to work with those students.
Read more about why the need for graduate fellowships is growing, and about how you can help MIT continue to attract the world’s brightest graduate students through increased fellowship support.
Current Campaign for Students priorities for graduate fellowships are to —
- Attract the best and most creative graduate students to MIT;
- support grad students whose work falls outside traditional RA funding;
- attract and retain faculty by supporting talented graduate researchers; and
- enable first-year graduate students to explore research options.
To discuss a special gift to graduate fellowships at MIT, please contact:
O’Neil Outar
Senior Director, Office of Institutional Initiatives
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
617.253.6906
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Graduate student life
There was a time, recalls MIT Chancellor Phillip Clay, when graduate students came to MIT to “work on their thing” without much expectation of a life outside their work. But that has changed.
Now, MIT graduate students — the largest student constituency on campus — want more balance between work and life. They expect (and advocate for) learning opportunities beyond the laboratory, and they value the rewards of a vibrant community. Through Graduate Student Life Grants, the Ike Colbert Fund for Graduate Community, and the Graduate Community Fellows program, the Institute aims to satisfy those needs.
Graduate Student Life Grants
Graduate students can submit creative ideas to the Graduate Student Life Grants program for ways to improve MIT’s graduate community. Successful proposals receive funding. So far, the program has produced a wellspring of fresh ideas — including “BabyNet,” for grad students with children, and a graduate student dinner program.
Ike Colbert Fund for Graduate Community
Former Dean for Graduate Students Ike Colbert’s vision for a well-resourced, self-nurturing graduate community did not end with his retirement. The Ike Colbert Fund for Graduate Community aims to continue to tap into the boundless creativity of our remarkable graduate students, and improve the quality of graduate community life at MIT.
Graduate Community Fellows
Tthe Graduate Community Fellows are a group of graduate students who lead projects that enhance the lives of their MIT peers. The Fellows participate in leadership development activities, and act as a conduit between the student body and the dean’s office.
To make an immediate impact on graduate student life at MIT, consider directing your contribution to the Ike Colbert Fund for Graduate Community:
To discuss a special gift in support of graduate student life, please contact:
O’Neil Outar
Senior Director, Office of Institutional Initiatives
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
617.253.6906
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