Traditions and student activities at MIT

The traditions and student activities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology encompass hundreds of student activities, organizations, and athletics that contribute to MIT's distinct culture.

MIT has relatively few formal traditions, compared to many other universities, but has a rich culture of informal traditions and jargon. There are a few "big events" such as Commencement (graduation), but many smaller, decentralized activities sponsored by departments, labs, living groups, student activities, and ad hoc groups of MIT community members united by common interests.

"Brass Rat" refers to the MIT class ring, which prominently features the school mascot beaver on the top surface. The ring is traditionally made of gold, the beaver is the largest North American rodent, hence "gold beaver" has informally become "Brass Rat" in student lingo.

Tim the Beaver is the official mascot of MIT, appearing at athletic events, fundraisers, and other occasions. The name "Tim" is simply "MIT" spelled backwards. A beaver was selected as the MIT mascot because beavers are "nature's engineers"; this decision was made at the Technology Club of New York's annual dinner on January 17, 1914. President Richard Maclaurin proposed the beaver. The sports teams at MIT often choose to feature Tim as their mascot, and go by the name "The Engineers".

MIT students often refer to both their majors and classes using numbers alone. Majors are numbered in the approximate order of when the department was founded; for example, Civil and Environmental Engineering is Course I, while Nuclear Science & Engineering is Course XXII. Students majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), the most popular department, collectively identify themselves as "Course VI."

MIT students use a combination of the department's Course number and a number assigned to the class to identify their subjects; the course which many universities would designate as "Physics 101" is, at MIT, "8.01." For brevity, course number designations are pronounced without the decimal point and by replacing "oh" for zero (unless zero is the last number). Thus, "8.01" is pronounced eight oh one, "2.009" is pronounced two double oh nine, and "5.60" would be pronounced five sixty.

The "Smoot" is a traditional unit of measuring length on the Harvard Bridge, which despite its name, connects MIT to Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, across the Charles River.

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