Welcome letter

I would like to extend my warmest welcome to all of you at the beginning of this new chapter in your life, as a graduate student at MIT. We are delighted to have you as members of our vibrant community and look forward to joining you on this exciting journey.

As you will soon see, MIT is a remarkable institution like no other in the world. It is characterized by intensity, rigor, a diversity of cultures and ideas, and seemingly endless opportunities. Creativity and innovation are valued and embraced. The credo of MIT is “mens et manus” — i.e., mind and hand, which reflects deep foundational learning applied to practical application. Your graduate education at MIT will enable you to generate new, original knowledge that pushes the frontiers of your fields, to understand the meaning of this new knowledge in a broad global context, and to apply these concepts to practical solutions which address the most difficult problems of the world.

It is one of the most exhilarating times in history to be a graduate student and to be at MIT. MIT is driving extraordinary advances in areas such as sustainability, clean water and energy, transportation, infrastructure, healthcare, new materials development, manufacturing, as well as countless others, and graduate students are at the core of these efforts. When one considers the unique environment of MIT combined with the ongoing revolutionary progress in communication, instrumentation, and computation, it is clear that individual MIT graduate students will be able to have a broad and, potentially, global impact.

Graduate school will, without a doubt, be a transformative experience for you. You will be challenged. You will be inspired. You will establish lifelong mentors and colleagues. Your life will take unexpected directions. You will make great discoveries. You will tap into and hone talents you may not even be aware you have. You will develop important transferable skills such as communication, collaboration, tenacity, and critical thinking.

I would encourage you to make use of the enormous set of opportunities available to you at MIT; international engagement, personal and professional development, mentoring, public service and outreach, interdisciplinary collaboration, entrepreneurship, leadership, seminars and workshops, networking, social and cultural activities. Also, please do not hesitate to reach out to faculty and staff. We are here to act as mentors, guides, teachers, and counselors to assist you in achieving your academic, personal, and professional goals.

I look forward to meeting you in the upcoming academic year and wish you all the best for your future career at MIT and beyond.