Welcoming Incoming Graduate Students

Dear graduate students,

Congratulations! I am delighted you’re coming to MIT.

I made this move myself not too long ago, and I’d like to tell you what I found: an inspiring community of people from more than 100 countries and an incredibly wide range of backgrounds who share important qualities and values. Openness and integrity. Curiosity, creativity and boldness. An intense commitment to excellence. An instinct for collaboration. And the warmth, humor and humility that make for outstanding colleagues and friends.

In any endeavor, there is nothing more powerful than a gifted team unified behind a serious mission – and those words might describe every lab and research group at MIT. When you venture beyond your department, you’ll find an array of spaces where grad students, faculty and researchers meet – sometimes by design, often by chance – to share experiences, ideas and strategies. You’ll encounter MIT’s signature ability to foster the very best in fundamental research and harness that knowledge to confront society’s hardest problems. And if you’re passionate about entrepreneurship, innovation and social impact, you’ll find people and resources to help you develop and deliver your solutions to the world at scale.

You’ll also play a crucial role in the lives of undergraduates. At MIT, 93% of undergrads participate in frontline research, so you may find yourself not only a teacher and mentor, but a research guide in the lab. Like our faculty, our grad students consistently say these are some of their most meaningful experiences at MIT.

I am extremely proud to call MIT home. I know you will be, too – and I look forward to welcoming you into this incomparable community.

Sally Kornbluth

PS: I’ll be hosting a lunch for new graduate students on Sunday, August 25, to kick off orientation. I hope to see you there!