Massachusetts Institute of Technology area apartments for rent

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or simply MIT, is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The university’s five schools and one college, with a total of 32 academic departments, emphasize scientific and technological education and research. MIT enrolls 4,299 undergraduates and 6,267 graduate students; the majority of students are in graduate and professional programs. Seventy-six Nobel laureates, 50 National Medal of Science recipients and 38 MacArthur Fellows are or have been affiliated with MIT.

The school’s campus spans across one mile of the north side of the Charles River basin in Cambridge. The campus is transected by Massachusetts Avenue, with most dorms to the west and most academic buildings to the east. The Kendall MBTA Red Line station is located on the campus’ northeastern edge in Kendall Square.

Neighborhoods surrounding MIT are a mix of high-tech companies occupying industrial buildings, and socio-economically diverse residential neighborhoods.

MIT was founded in 1861 to meet the needs brought on by increasing industrialization, and its emphasis on applied technology has meant close cooperation with industry. MIT has a strong entrepreneurial culture; the combined revenues of companies founded by graduates would rank as the 11th-largest economy in the world. Researchers are also involved in government work, and were instrumental in conducting research during World War II and the Cold War. In the past few decades, MIT’s disciplines have expanded beyond technology and into fields such as biology, economics, linguistics, political science and management.

MIT is also a cultural icon, and its campus or alumni feature in many books and movies such as “A Beautiful Mind,” “Good Will Hunting,” “Iron Man,” “Contact” and “Independence Day.” Among the hundreds of notable alumni are Ben Bernanke, Benjamin Netanyahu, Kofi Annan, Buzz Aldrin and I.M. Pei.