Graduate Student - Graduate Research Assistant MIT Employee Review

4.0
Jul 15, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some of the professors here are really stellar and one-of-a-kind, and you will learn a lot from them and from certain classes that you take here as a grad student! Also, the research labs and peer graduate students are ahead of most research so you will learn a lot from your peers too. Lastly, there are lots of opportunities here for entrepreneurship which is nice; the school makes it easy to jump-start ideas and obtain funding.

Cons

The graduate student experience is highly variable depending on who your PI is, or what your department is, as a grad student. You will either be miserable, or you will be extremely happy here, depending on the PI. The school appears to be trying to improve diversity, however within certain departments the professors and administration are doing a really awful job and many (diverse) students currently do not feel welcome and supported. Senior management appears to be relatively ok for MIT overall, however within certain departments, management doesn't seem to be doing a good job at all. Culture and values are mostly set by research labs (within research labs themselves); overall MIT culture is lacking. Certain select labs have excellent culture while others do not foster good culture at all and do not encourage ethical values / ethical research practices. Work/life balance is okay, and compensation is generally okay.

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5.0
Jul 2, 2026
Anonymous intern
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Solid research and great overall experience

Cons

can't think of any cons.

4.0
Jun 26, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

High quality core facilities and well resourced labs. Countless brilliant colleagues who can serve as mentors and collaborators

Cons

Students and Postdocs are expensive due to high overhead, so unreasonably high productivity is often expected compared to other institutions. PIs are typically stretched very thin. Most departments/labs are very space limited which makes it harder to do safe and productive research.

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