Dr. Charles M. Vest's annual President's Report includes a compendium of MIT statistics for 1995-96. Some highlights:
The year saw a bull job market for MIT talent. More than 600 employers (including individual divisions of companies making their own recruiting arrangements) used the facilities of the Office of Career Services and Preprofessional Advising to interview candidates. This compares with 442 in 1994-95 and 393 in 1993-94. It is doubtful that the office has ever seen more traffic in its 70-year history. Buoying the market was a voracious demand from employers for graduates with software skills. Salary offers to technical students were up 7 to 8 percent at the bachelor's level, about 4 percent at the master's level. Salary offers at the doctoral level ranged widely, but $70,000 was roughly the median for PhDs in engineering.
MIT contributed to the nationwide surge in applications to medical school. A total of 254 candidates used the services of the office, up from 201 in 1995 and 187 in 1994. The MIT acceptance rate was 59 percent, compared with 35 percent in the nation at large.
Gifts, grants, and bequests to MIT from private donors in 1995-96 total $130.9 million. In addition, gifts in kind, mostly of equipment, totaled $8.8 million. The gifts reported by the Alumni Fund were $24.8 million, a new record.
The total financial operations of the Institute, including sponsored research, amounted to $1.26 billion, an increase of 6.3 percent from 1994-95. At the end of fiscal 1996, the Institute's investments, excluding retirement funds, student notes receivable and amounts due from educational plant, had a book value of $2.18 billion, and a market value of $2.92 billion compared to last year's book value of $1.94 billion and market value of $2.50 billion.
Change, both physical and in the way MIT does business, again seemed to dominate the campus. As reengineering continued, many processes were reviewed and redesigned. After several years of design and construction, the Cogeneration Plant commenced operation. There was also the final phase of work on Senior House, completion of the Tang Center and the start of renovation work on the Whitaker Building.
Work in conjunction with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) also progressed. The Institute purchased 480 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston for the purpose of housing a sorority. A new Campus Police Motorcycle Unit was implemented, creating more visibility for patrols. In addition, motor vehicle thefts decreased dramatically as the result of improved parking access control and security systems.
There were 3,013 women students (1,705 undergraduate and 1,308 graduate) at the Institute, compared with 2,813 (1,604 undergraduate and 1,209 graduate) in 1994-95. In September 1995, 471 first-year women entered MIT, representing 42 percent of the freshman class. As self-reported by students, there were 2,630 minority students (1,980 undergraduate and 650 graduate), compared with 2,496 (1,944 undergraduate and 552 graduate) in 1994-95. A total of 3,155 degrees were awarded, compared with 2,839 in 1994-95.
A total of 2,638 undergraduate students who demonstrated need for financial assistance (59 percent of enrollment) received $34,548,000 in grant aid and $15,611,000 in student loans from all sources. The total, $50,159,000, represents a 2 percent increase in aid compared to the previous year. The number of needy undergraduate students decreased by 2 percent, while the average need for this population increased by 2 percent to $20,085. In the aggregate, the financial aid program required $25,110,000 from needy students' family resources and provided $53,004,000 in aid dollars including work programs. As in past years, the aid program provided more than two-thirds of needy students' total costs.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 9, 1996.
