An MIT Acronym Quiz by Allison E. '27
how many can you decode?
TLDR: PLAY MY ACRONYM QUIZZZZ
As a school best known by an acronym, it’s only fitting that MIT is itself a LAND OF ACRONYMS. Our first few weeks as a freshman on campus involve a deluge of new three-letter codes to learn, and it’s a bit like being dumped straight into the deep end. GTL? IFC? ADT? On top of the new place names and numbered courses, it can almost feel like learning a new dialect.
Two and a half years later, though, I have finally learned how to spell Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and most of these acronyms feel as familiar as any other word. They show up in my inbox and in conversations regularly, and even if I don’t know the exact words that they stand for, I usually know what entities they represent.
At around midnight tonight, I decided it was about time to write down all the acronyms I’ve learned here. I thought it might take me around 20 minutes? Maybe 30?
INCORRECT.
It is currently 2:15 am, and I now have a list of 140 different acronyms used at MIT. I spent two hours staring at this list, and now, if you want to, you can too!
(If you just want a list of the translations, you can find them here.)
Disclaimer: These are just the acronyms that stick in my mind personally, and I might be missing some! This was very much a late night project… Also thank you to my friends for reminding me to include some of these :D