Freshmen Learning Communities

If you think you might enjoy a more personalized, small-group approach to your first year at MIT, you may want to explore our four close-knit "freshman learning communities," which emphasize initiative and close links between students and faculty. The Experimental Study Group (ESG), Concourse, Terrascope, and the Media Arts and Sciences Program (MAS) offer full-year programs of study for about 25-100 freshmen each. Follow the links below for information about the programs' respective philosophies, and for details on orientation and applying:

• Experimental Study Group provides freshmen with an individualized and flexible program of study in their core subjects. ESG replaces more traditional larger classes with small classes, tutorials and self-paced study in math, physics, and chemistry. Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and communications-intensive subjects are also taught in ESG. Unique seminars and independent study opportunities abound. Feel free to visit MIT OpenCourseWare to see lecture notes, exams, labs, student projects, and more from actual ESG classes.
• Concourse is a learning community for freshman year that offers courses in the science core and a HASS subject each term. Class sizes are limited. Concourse emphasizes the links between diverse subjects, to give students a feel for the integral nature of knowledge and to promote creative connections between different fields of study.
• Terrascope is an integrated studies program that uses the Earth System as the context for the first-year core subjects in math, physics, chemistry and biology. In this small learning community, students are encouraged to explore how these core disciplines, as well as engineering and the humanities, can together help us grasp the structure and evolution of our planet. GIRs are met by attending mainstream subjects, and students take one subject each term in the learning community.
• Media Arts and Sciences Program emphasizes project-oriented work as well as the connections between current research and traditional first-year subjects through learning-by-apprenticeship. This small learning community also exposes students to the provocative intersection of technology and communication/expression that is the mission of MIT's world-renowned Media Lab. Visit MIT OpenCourseWare to see information from classes that have been offered.