Advisor Quick Links
- Registration — review and approve your advisees’ initial registration for the term
- Add/drop forms — review add or drop petitions, late petitions, etc.
- WebSIS (for advisors) — look up student information, registration, forms, etc.
- Architecture Graduate Handbook — degree charts for Course 4 grad programs
- Institute Advising Resources — academic responsibilities, supporting your advisees, key resources
- MIT Faculty Guide — recognizing and responding to students in distress
- WebSIS — access student information, including pre-registration, class schedules, grade reports, undergraduate audits, address information, and photos
- Architecture Class Schedule
- Student Support & Wellness
- General Institute Requirements (GIR)
- Course 4 Degree Charts & Requirements (Bulletin)
- Thesis — department website on all things thesis
Thesis Information
The Institute requires that each graduate student research and write an individual thesis and submit a final copy to the Institute as a permanent record. In order for a degree to be awarded, the department must receive a final digital copy of the thesis in accordance with the Specifications for Thesis Preparation published by the MIT Libraries Institute Archives.
Thesis work in all master’s degree programs in the Department of Architecture extends over two to three terms. Thesis work in doctoral programs extends over four to six terms. Registration for thesis and pre-thesis subjects differs by degree program. The Thesis Committee Guidelines addresses the composition of a thesis committee for each degree program.
More detailed information can be found on the archthesis website. Please refer yourselves and your students there early and often during the thesis process. Topics covered:
- Thesis formatting, templates for use, and library specifications
- Thesis Checklist
- Thesis deadlines
- Thesis for dual degrees
- Thesis for joint authors
Additional Information about thesis can also be found on the Architecture Graduate Handbook pages on the department website covering the following topics:
- Required coursework for master’s and PhD programs
- Policy on incompletes and thesis semester
- Policy on credit and thesis
- Thesis in Absentia
Development Resources
Faculty & Curriculum Support Education initiatives & funding
The d’Arbeloff Fund for Excellence in Education and the Alumni Class Funds provide grants to faculty in support of educational initiatives focused on developing the undergraduate curriculum. Funding reflects the vision and priorities of the Office of the Vice Chancellor, who oversees the initiatives. The Registrar’s Office coordinates the proposal process and funding decisions, provides guidance and expertise to faculty, and gathers and disseminates project outcomes. Together, we engage with the community to support and shape undergraduate education at MIT. Proposals for d’Arbeloff grants are due in early fall for the following academic year, and proposals for Alumni Class Funds are due at the end of IAP for the following academic year. Also see additional funding sources.
Venture Mentoring Service
The MIT Venture Mentoring Service (VMS) is an organization formed to support entrepreneurial activity throughout the MIT community and, thereby, to further the educational mission of MIT. VMS believes that the active support of entrepreneurial activities contribute to the entrepreneurship education of the MIT community, strengthens MIT’s role as a world leader in innovation, and broadens MIT’s base of potential support.
Office of Foundation Relations
The Office of Foundation Relations works with faculty and senior leadership to cultivate relationships with and develop approaches to foundations that share MIT’s dedication to education and the practical application of research. We look forward to working with MIT faculty and with foundations on projects of mutual interest. See their Faculty-specific page for more information.
Technology Licensing Office (TLO)
The MIT Technology Licensing Office fosters commercial investment in the development of inventions and discoveries flowing from the research at MIT and the Lincoln Lab. They assist MIT inventors in protecting their technology, and in the licensing of that technology to existing companies and startups. For more information visit TLO’s website.
Office of the Vice President For Research
The Office of the Vice President for Research is committed to providing high quality research administration support to the MIT community. See sponsored program basics.
MIT International Science & Technology Initiatives (MISTI)
MISTI, (MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives) is MIT’s pioneering international education program. Rooted in the Mens et Manus tradition, The MISTI Global Seed Funds grant program promotes and supports early-stage collaborations between MIT researchers and their counterparts around the globe. Many of the joint projects we fund lead to additional grant awards and the development of valuable long-term relationships between international researchers and MIT faculty and students. Browse available funds.
Copyright Information
Most content — articles, books, unpublished manuscripts, tables, figures, photographs — is owned (copyrighted) by someone. There are laws and policies that affect reuse of such content for any purpose, such as putting material on the Web for a course, or reusing it in another work.
Scholarly Publishing at MIT Libraries provides an overview of what content is copyrighted, under what conditions permission is required for reuse of that content, and how to seek permission for reuse if needed.
Topics include:
- Copyright FAQ
- Using copyrighted content — fair use, license agreements, using images & figures, and how to cite.
- Research
- Publishing
- Reusing figures from major publishers
- Open access publishing support — Find support for open access publishing, including the OA fund.
- Retaining rights
- Amend a publishing agreement
- Guide to getting published
- Independent book publishing for academics
- OA publishing support
Taking articles, book chapters, etc., that have already been published, collating the content, having it printed and bound by a third party makes it a form of publishing, and is not legal according to US Copyright Law. If one wants to use already published materials, permission must be obtained in writing from the publisher for each item one wants to use. The practice of creating course packs is using third party content (and generally) for which one has sought copyright permissions and re- publishing. The act of using a service to repackage the content is considered publishing.
The idea of course packs as paper objects was illegal and in the 1990s, there were a couple of major lawsuits in which universities were sued for creating paper course packs and making them available to students (these were also, by the way, sold to students). There are at least two issues that led to the suits. One is using already published content and repackaging it as another form of publication, and two, selling that “publication” to students.