Prof. Jeffrey Grossman speaks with NBC Boston’s Carla Rojo about his new class, “Coffee Matters: Using the Breakerspace to Make the Perfect Cup,” which explores the science behind the perfect cup of joe. The course combines chemistry and coffee science to provide students “a hands-on experience to fuel their curiosity.”
Boston Globe reporter Adelaide Parker spotlights “Coffee Matters: Using the Breakerspace to Make the Perfect Cup,” a new course Prof. Jeffrey Grossman brewed up to provide students a hands-on experience with materials science in action. “The role of understanding materials … is broader than just our department,” explains Grossman. “You need physics and biology and chemistry to understand materials and how to make them, and then all these other engineering disciplines to do the engineering.” He envisions the Department of Materials Science and Engineering’s new Breakerspace lab as somewhere students from all majors can “get excited about understanding materials.”
Prof. Desirée Plata speaks with C&EN reporter Prachi Patel about her work “trying to make our chemical processes and industries compatible with human and ecological health.” Says Plata of what she is most proud of in her work: “As professors, we produce papers and patents, but people are the most important thing we produce. The faculty of the world are training the next generation of researchers. There’s a perception right now that AI is going to solve all of our problems, but it cannot without good physical science information. We need a trained workforce. We need patient chemists who want to solve important problems.”
In a letter to the editor of The Boston Globe, Vice President for Research Ian Waitz addresses the importance of research staff at the Institute, noting that “research universities educate through research.” Waitz emphasizes: “At MIT, there has been double-digit real growth in our on-campus research enterprise over the past 11 years along with growth in our graduate student body. With that come more people, and while these staff may not be directly involved in student classroom instruction, the research they conduct is crucial to the hands-on education that MIT students receive and to the real-world solutions that originate at the school.”
Stever Robbins '86 shares his tips for organizing college application essays with Forbes contributor Dr. Marlena Corcoran. “There are two main ways that you would want to find the essays that you write,” says Robbins. “One is you're going to want to find the essay that you wrote for a particular school. The other way is you're going to want to find an essay you wrote on a particular topic.”
Inside Higher Ed has included MIT on their list of favorite college holiday greetings this year, reports Johanna Alonso. In this year’s animated video, “A student walks through the snow-dusted hallway, eventually happening upon an atrium where her classmates are playing instruments crafted from ice, sledding and crafting a snow beaver in the image of the institution’s mascot,” writes Alonso.
In a wide-ranging interview with NHK (broadcast in Japanese), President Sally Kornbluth discusses MIT’s innovation ecosystem, the MIT Climate Project and how MIT faculty work to help nurture their students’ creativity. "We give students the opportunity to research real-world projects and see their impact on society," says Kornbluth. “We should focus on bringing out the creativity of students, their individual creativity. Almost everyone you meet at a place like MIT wants to start a company. Nurturing this kind of talent is essential in the long run to the incredible success we see at American universities.”
President Sally Kornbluth speaks with undergraduate student Emiko Pope for the MIT Admissions Blog about her personal interests, passions, and life at MIT. Sally “is proud of MIT and how it can provide real solutions to society’s problems,” writes Pope. “She loves that you can get a daily fix of science because you are surrounded by such amazing people and endeavors.”
Hank Green - an online educator, author and Youtuber will deliver the 2025 OneMIT Commencement address, reports Molly Farrar for Boston.com. Green is “the creator of VidCon, the world’s largest annual gathering of digital content creators,” writes Farrar. “He and his brother also created SciShow and Crash Course, two YouTube education shows played in high school classrooms.”
In an effort to increase the accessibility of higher education, MIT will provide free tuition for students from families earning up to $200,000 a year, reports Danielle Douglas-Gabriel and Susan Svrluga for The Washington Post. “Many families look at the sticker price and they think, ‘Wow, I can’t afford that.’ And they don’t realize the amount of financial aid that they can get awarded,” says Stu Schmill, dean of admissions and student financial services. “Policies like what we’ve enacted can help communicate affordability.”
Writing for The New York Times, Prof. Anant Agarwal shares AI’s potential to “revolutionize education by enhancing paths to individual students in ways we never thought possible.” Agarwal emphasizes: “A.I. will never replace the human touch that is so vital to education. No algorithm can replicate the empathy, creativity and passion a teacher brings to the classroom. But A.I. can certainly amplify those qualities. It can be our co-pilot, our chief of staff helping us extend our reach and improve our effectiveness.”
The MIT women’s cross-country team won its first national championship, securing the Division 3 title, reports Amin Touri for The Boston Globe. “Junior Kate Sanderson of West Hartford finished 16th, leading five Engineers to score in the top 40, the only team to do so as depth delivered for MIT,” writes Touri. “Rujuta Sane, Christina Crow, Liv Girand, and Lexi Fernandez rounded out the scoring for MIT, but Heather Jensen and Gillian Roeder were just seconds back as all seven Engineers finished within a span of 33.4 seconds.”
In an effort to make higher education more accessible, MIT has announced that undergraduate students with families earning less than $200,000 per year will receive free tuition beginning fall 2025, reports Alexandra Petri for The New York Times. “We believe MIT should be the pre-eminent destination for the most talented students in the country interested in an education centered on science and technology,” explains Stu Schmill, dean of admissions and student financial services, “and accessible to the best students regardless of their financial circumstances.”
Undergraduate students with a family income of less than $200,000 can expect to attend MIT tuition-free starting fall 2025, reports Maria Papadopoulos for Boston 25. “MIT is one of only nine colleges in the US that does not consider applicants’ ability to pay as part of its admissions process and that meets the full demonstrated financial need for all undergraduates,” Papadopoulos reports. “Graduates benefit from the lifelong value of an MIT degree, with an average starting salary of $126,438 for graduates entering industry.”
Undergraduate students at MIT with families earning less than $200,000 can expect to attend MIT with free tuition beginning fall 2025, reports Travis Anderson for The Boston Globe. “The $200,000 threshold for free tuition was raised from the current level of $140,000, while the $100,000 threshold is an increase from this year’s ceiling of $75,000,” Anderson writes. “MIT said it has earmarked $167.3 million for need-based financial aid this year to undergraduates, up roughly 70 percent from a decade ago.”