What is ESG?

A community of learners, where first–year students, teaching assistants (TAs), and instructors learn and grow together as they study MIT's core curriculum (the General Institute Requirements or GIRs)

A hands–on, contextualized, and interactive learning experience featuring small classes of typically 6 to 12 students

A first–year academic and advising program that offers the GIRs in biology, chemistry, math, and physics, as well as humanities classes

A learning laboratory where you can explore your educational passions, dive deeply into subject areas that interest you, and take charge of your own learning

A chance to experience both ESG and mainstream MIT classes—you take two or more GIRs in the fall and one GIR in the spring at ESG and the rest of your classes outside ESG

An opportunity for you to be a TA as an undergraduate, with expert supervision and guidance provided through the ESG Teaching Seminar

A retreat in the middle of MIT's campus where you can relax on bean bag chairs, meet up with friends, and share meals and conversation

A fun group of people to hang out with socially, in class, in the ESG lounge, and on the many outings ESG offers across the Greater Boston area

A tight–knit community where everyone knows one another, and where your instructors and TAs can adapt their teaching to respond to your needs, learning pace, and interests in real time

A Brief History of ESG

ESG was founded in 1969 as an alternative to the highly structured instructional methods (lectures and recitation sections) that are standard at MIT. Funded by Edwin H. Land, ESG was an educational experiment designed to answer a basic question: Given a minimal amount of structure and an opportunity for self–governance, what would an intelligent, science–focused group of students do with their educational experience? Many notable MIT faculty and staff members helped to design the ESG experiment, including ESG’s founder and first director George Valley Jr., Peter Elbow, Anthony French, Robert Halfman, Arthur Kaledin, Daniel Kemp, John King, Mark Levensky, Margaret MacVicar, Edgar Schein, Arthur Steinberg, Gilbert Strang, and George Thomas.

The first classes of ESG students were allowed total flexibility in how they learned the MIT core curriculum. Independent work was encouraged, as was close staff–student interaction. Students learned at their own pace, in whatever mode worked for them. To demonstrate knowledge of a subject, they could take an exam, write a paper, give a talk, or suggest another method. Throughout this process, ESGers gained self–awareness, learned to collaborate with others, explored their educational interests, and, most of all, were actively involved in their learning.

Since that time, ESG has evolved from the self–study model to teaching the core curriculum in a small–class setting. The importance of students taking charge of their own learning and discovering their educational passions remains a fundamental tenet of the ESG experience.

ESG directors have come from a wide range of departments at MIT:

  • George Valley Jr., 1969–1975, Professor of Physics
  • Robert Halfman, 1975–1985, Professor of Aeronautics
  • J. Kim Vandiver, 1985–1989, Professor of Mechanical Engineering
  • Vernon Ingram, 1989–1999, Professor of Biology
  • Travis Merritt, 1999–2002, Professor of Literature
  • Alexander Slocum, 2002–2013, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and ESG alum
  • Leigh Royden, 2013–present, Professor of Geology and Geophysics

Many ESG students have received distinguished awards in their post–MIT careers, including the Rhodes Scholarship, Marshall Scholarship, Churchill Scholarship, Fulbright Scholarship, Schwarzman Scholarship, Mitchell Scholarship, Gates Cambridge Scholarship, Goldwater Scholarship, Knight–Hennessy Scholarship, Hertz Fellowship, MacArthur Fellowship, and the Nobel Prize in Physics.