MIT grads, 10 years later by Matt McGann '00
What is the MIT Class of 2000 doing, 10 years after graduating?
This past weekend was the 10-year reunion for the MIT Class of 2000 — my MIT class. It was fun to see so many of my classmates and hear about what they’ve been up to after all this time.
One frequent question I get as an admissions officer is, what do MIT people do after graduating? It’s hard to give a comprehensive answer to that question, but perhaps this will be helpful.
In anticipation of our 10-year reunion, I emailed all the members of our class (about 1000 people) and asked for “10-year updates.” I got a variety of responses (representing about 5% of our class), which I compiled and sent out to the class. Realizing what a resource I had, though, I condensed the responses into a one-line summary of each responding classmate’s current job situation. I also listed graduate degrees if they were mentioned (many were not). I did not leave anyone out who responded; I have listed all responses below in the order that the emails show up in my inbox. I think it is very interesting! Check it out…
- In law school
- Technical staff at Los Alamos (MIT PhD)
- Technical staff at Los Alamos (MIT PhD)
- Management consultant at McKinsey (MIT MEng)
- Cognitive Science Professor at UCSD (University College London PhD)
- Computer programmer
- Hosting the Discovery show ‘Time Warp;’ co-directed the upcoming OK Go music video
- Medical device company Business Development Manager (MIT MS)
- Real estate agent and mortgage officer
- Political Science professor at Pitt (Stanford PhD)
- Psychology post-doc (UT-Austin PhD)
- Administrator at Duke
- VP of technical services company (formerly in the Air Force)
- Medical doctor – surgeon
- Systems engineer at Linden Labs (Second Life)
- International development AAAS fellow at USAID (UMass-Amherst PhD)
- PhD student in chemistry (UFlorida)
- Lawyer – intellectual property
- Mathematician (Duke PhD)
- Medical doctor – glaucoma specialist (Harvard MD)
- Chemical engineer for ExxonMobil
- Computer engineer at Akamai
- Biotech industry (Stanford PhD)
- Professional skydiver (former consultant)
- Professional skydiver (former consultant)
- Biotech industry (“a company that runs oncology clinical trials”) – Director of Business Development (Columbia PhD)
- Economics professor at Cornell; former White House lead energy economist (Stanford PhD)
- Med school student (St George’s, University of London MBBS)
- Medical doctor – physical medicine and rehabilitation (UT-Southwestern MD)
- Computer science & physics teacher and Air Force reservist
- Medical doctor
- Technical lead at Twitter (MIT MEng)
- Google – YouTube and TV ads projects
- Medical doctor – anesthesiologist (Vanderbilt MD)
- Marketing manager – VMware
- Biology postdoc at Harvard (UCSF PhD)
- Artist, designer, educator, and glassblower (RISD MFA)
- Biotech industry – Medtronic
- Process engineer at Intel (UCLA PhD)
- Amazon.co.jp Senior Manager
- Lawyer – derivatives practice at JPMorgan (Columbia JD)
- Medical doctor – gastroenterology (UVA MD)
- US Environmental Protection Agency
- PhD student – materials science, Rice U (former NASA team lead)
- Lawyer; former staff to House of Representatives Committee on Science (Georgetown JD)
- “I work on quantitative stock trading out of my living room.”
- Graduate student in Australia (UHawaii MS)
- Veterinarian (Tufts DVM)
- “A start-up focused on mobile money lending in Africa”
- Cirque du Soleil – Artistic Director (will begin Wharton MBA)
- IT Director – gift & loyalty card industry
- Apple – Senior Manager (iPhone) (MIT MS)
- Linguistics Professor at Harvard (MIT PhD)
- Medical doctor – soft tissue pathology (Boston U MD/PhD)
- Admissions officer – MIT
I like the last one.
@Anonymous, I agree with you, that’s an awesome job.
on the other hand, I also like #10 counting from behind XD
I like the 6th and 7th one from top.
MIT is great(best) place to study
Only someone from MIT could come up with the OK-Go idea…
isn’t the 7th from top Jeff Lieberman. i would love that job.
how come on the orientation registration form there is a wide range of dates that you can arrive at MIT (i think 8/20-8/28)? what day do most students arrive?
thanks matt for this awesome post! i’ve been thinking about a career change myself, and didn’t realize the diversity of careers mit grads have taken on after graduation. hopefully we can have a chat later on and discuss some of these options! thank you again!
I am very sure about the last one..Matt!!
lol two ex-consultants turned professional skydivers?
Nice to see no of diverse group ppl from a single batch
I like the last one too
@Anonymous 1:47pm – Depends on if you’re doing an FPOP or not. My guess is that the last date they list is when you must arrive by.
“Artistic Director for Cirque du Soleil”, “Los Alamos”, and “Lawyer – derivatives practice at JPMorgan (Columbia JD)”…wow…of course, admissions officer is fine too
@ Jenn: noticed it too lol!
I love the last one. Way to go Matt and all your former classmates. That’s us in 2024.
That’s amazing…))
Last one is like serve for general good…
I like the one from the person who does stocks out of their living room ^_^
An anonymous congratulations to three MIT ’14ers from my large urban school district in southern Texas: hint–two of you are from the same school and all three of you have school mascots that are big cats.
And I think I’ve met you at UIL math/science before. Have tons of fun, hack something, and eat some nitrogen ice cream for me!! Maybe I’ll see you all in a year or two?
(Hope this is in now way creepy sounding; that was not the intent at all!)
Good luck and best wishes!–
A person from a school with a bird of prey (which some other schools claim resembles a chicken) for a mascot. ^_^
Unrelated question but crucial, at least in my mind: when are we notified of whether or not we got “accepted” into an FPOP?
Hello, Thanks for the experiences shared, but I am quite new to this and I have a question for Mr. Matt McGann. Please let me know how I can contact you privately.
Thanks
I want to go to MIT now! I want to be a Mechanical Engineer, and this school has been the most impressive so far!
Wow, so amazing that is. your classmates are quite great so that both of them got a very good job/degree.
By the way ,I like the last too^^
Wow, so amazing that is. your classmates are quite great so that both of them got a very good job/degree.
By the way ,I like the last too^^