Overview

Campaign Leadership

CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIRS

Lawrence Fish
Thomas Gerrity ’63, S.M. ’64, Ph.D. ’70
Mark Gorenberg ’76
Martin Tang S.M. ’72
Barrie Zesiger HM

INSTITUTE LEADERS

Susan Hockfield, President
Phillip Clay Ph.D. ’75, Chancellor
Costantino “Chris” Colombo, Dean for Student Life
Daniel Hastings Ph.D. ’80, Dean for Undergraduate Education
Philip Khoury HM, Associate Provost
Steven Lerman ’72, Ph.D. ’75, Vice Chancellor and Dean for Graduate Education

Fellowships

Graduate students make up 60 percent of MIT’s student population. They play a vital role in advancing research at the Institute by continually pushing the boundaries of discovery, and experimenting with new techniques and technologies. Graduate students contribute to the Institute’s strength through their research, teaching, and collaboration with faculty. More and more, these students rely on support from fellowships.

The Institute has traditionally relied heavily on federal backing to attract and provide support for graduate students. But recent federal policy changes and budget cuts have increased the financial burden on MIT. At the same time, the grant cost of a 12-month research assistantship at MIT has risen.

The Institute also faces tougher competition from other schools for the top candidates. Some of MIT’s competitors offer fellowships to all first-year Ph.D. students, and some even offer 100 percent fellowship support over the student’s entire stay in the program. MIT cannot afford to do this, and must increase its first-year fellowship support to remain competitive.

As government funding of research continues to shrink, and as competition among universities for the best students intensifies, MIT must take aggressive action to ensure meaningful graduate student support and maintain the excellence of its graduate programs.

The Campaign for Students’ commitment to graduate student support will:

allow MIT to stay competitive with other schools, and enable the best students to attend MIT;
create private sources of support as government dollars continue to diminish; and
enable first-year graduate students to explore their research options.

Student Stories

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Lori Huberman

Biology and music major, flutist with MIT Symphony Orchestra, actor

Lori received her SB in 2007 and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in cell biology at Harvard University

Music and biology. Supporting students makes connections like these possible.

Overviews

Graduate fellowships: Cost

Fellowships support students in research and teaching

As the Institute faces tougher competition from peer schools for top graduate student candidates, it must boost fellowship funding far beyond current levels.