Become familiar with common abbreviations and terms you'll see navigating MIT websites, offices, and campus.
Click on the links below to jump ahead to each section.
- Key Offices, Programs and People
- General Terms and Definitions
- Academic Terms and Abbreviations
- Registration Terms and Abbreviations
- Financial Terms and Abbreviations
Key Offices, Programs, and People
| UAC | Undergraduate Advising Center, home of the FLI Program and located in 7-103/7-104. |
| OFY | Office of the First Year, the academic home to all first-year students |
| SFS | Student Financial Services. Office that provides financial aid, collects payments, coordinates student employment and provides financial literacy education. |
| CAPD | Career Advising and Professional Development. Office for career advising, distinguished fellowships |
| S^3 | Student Support Services (S3, pronounced “S cubed”) is a friendly and easily accessible support hub for undergraduate students. Whether you’re struggling with a PSET due to personal issues, feeling too sick to take an exam, considering taking time away from the Institute, or just aren’t sure who to talk to. S3 can help and is a private resource. |
| ARM Coalition | Accessing Resources at MIT. Coalition works to ensures that MIT undergraduate students with the highest economic need have access to the resources necessary to be successful. |
| UROP | Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, Academic program for students to engage in faculty lead academic research for pay or credit. |
| MISTI | International educational experiences through MIT. |
| CAP | Committee on Academic Performance reviews the academic performance of all undergraduates at the end of the Fall and Spring terms, and acts on petitions from individual undergraduate students relating to changes in registration or exceptions to established academic standards. It also reviews return requests at the undergraduate level. |
| Academic Administrator | Key contacts for individual departments and programs at MIT. Their responsibilities typically include advising and mentoring, degree lists and graduation preparation, faculty advisor assignments, grade reporting, orientation, policy implementation, registration, and UROP and thesis processing, |
General Terms and Definitions
| MIT ID# | 9-digit number that is unique to you at MIT. |
| MIT ID | MIT identification card, which provides access to the residence halls, library, academic buildings, and other campus facilities. Can also be loaded on your smartphone as your mobile ID |
| MIT Kerb | Kerberos username and password. Your online identity at MIT, usually your MIT email without @mit.edu. |
| MIT Email | The email account where MIT offices and staff will send all communications and how you should communicate with all MIT offices, faculty, and staff when using email. |
| TechCash | Connected to your MIT ID. Allows MIT students to purchase goods and services using their MIT ID card or Mobile ID. Can be used both on-campus and off-campus. Full details of where it can be used are here. |
| Dining Dollars | Can be part of an MIT Meal Plan. Can only be used to purchase food, and when purchasing food at on-campus locations, students receive a 5% discount with Dining Dollars. Dining Dollars can roll over from Fall to Spring, but must be used by the end of the academic year. |
| Websis | Student information system. Access academic. financial, and biographical information and complete online transactions |
Academic Terms and Abbreviations
| Academic Advisor | The faculty and/or professional staff that helps you select courses, plan majors, explain academic policies and/or address other academic issues. |
| Office Hours | Time faculty, instructors, teaching assistants, offices, and programs set aside specifically to meet with students. These are times you can ask questions about material covered in class, study for an exam, or seek advise from an office/program. |
| GPA | Grade point average based on a 5.0 scale. Cumulative shows the overall GPA and semester reflects GPA for semester enrolled. |
| Credit Units | A measure of how much each class is worth. One MIT unit is approximately equal to 14 hours of work per term. Most courses are worth 9-12 units each. |
| Canvas | Tool that allows faculty and course administrators to make classroom resources to students in a course. |
| Syllabus | Outline of the course topics, assignments and schedule of exams for the semester. Provided by classes at the beginning of the semester and usually accessible via Canvas. |
| Teaching Assistant | Students that help the professors set lesson plans and grade papers and who help students with any problems they might have regarding the course. Often available during office hours. |
| GIR | General Institute Requirement, subjects all students must complete as part of their MIT education. |
| ASE | Advanced Standing Exam. Earn credit for a subject by taking an exam to show your mastery of the material. Exam to test all the knowledge you would have gained by taking the class. ASEs have specific rules and are offered at the department’s discretion. |
| HASS Requirement | part of the GIRs all students must complete. Eight subjects of at least nine units each in the humanities, arts, and social sciences |
| HASS Concentration | three or four subjects, depending on the field you choose, in a HASS subject area. |
| Communications Requirement | requirement to complete four communications intensive courses over your four years at MIT (one per year). |
| CI-H | HASS classes in which you plan, organize, draft, and revise a series of assignments based on course material. They offer substantial opportunities for oral expression through presentations, student-led discussion, and/or class participation. |
| CI-HW | CI‑H subjects focused more particularly on the writing process, from pre-writing through drafting, revising, and editing. |
| CI-M | Communication Intensive in the Major. Designed into the requirements for your major degree program |
| REST | Restricted Elective in Science and Technology. Will broaden and deepen the educational foundation in basic science begun during the first-year program and further your understanding of scientific inquiry. |
Registration Terms and Abbreviations
| Semester | Academic periods which run 14 weeks during Fall and Spring terms. |
| IAP | Independent Activities Period (IAP) is a four-week period in January during which faculty and students are freed from the rigors of regularly scheduled classes for flexible teaching and learning and for independent study and research. |
| Summer Session | a period when students can pursue units arranged subjects such as UROP, Special Studies, Research, Internship, Co-op, Independent Study, Pre-Thesis, Thesis, and Graduate Thesis |
| Full-time enrollment | Full-time registration load is 36 units. Units you earn as a listener or for ROTC subjects, transfer credit, advanced standing credit, and advanced placement credit are not included in this calculation. |
| Add and Drop Dates | Last day to add, or drop, a subject to/from your term registration without needing to petition the CAP for approval and may incur a $50 late fee. |
| Pre-registration | Plan your class schedule for the upcoming term and prepare to meet with your advisor. You can always change your pre-registration subjects during registration. Continuing students are required to pre-register, even if for thesis or research only |
| Transcript | Electronic record of your academic performance |
Financial Terms and Abbreviations
| Financial Aid | any funding that helps to finance your college expenses. This aid usually comes from a variety of sources and can include grants and scholarships, work and research opportunities, and sometimes student loans. |
| FAFSA | Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The application that needs to be completed to request assistance paying for college. Financial aid awards are often based upon your family’s income. |
| CSS Profile | a tool provided by the College Board that MIT SFS uses to determine if you qualify for a need-based MIT Scholarship |
| Student Employment | All undergraduate students, regardless of their financial need, may work during the academic year. |