Women's Technology Program

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Housing and Dorm Life

WTP is a residential program; your WTP fee (or waiver for scholarship students) includes housing and dining for the 4 weeks. WTP students and staff live in a dormitory on the MIT campus and will be housed together on three floors. Students will have one, two, or three roommates, and share group bathrooms and common lounges and study areas. More details about WTP housing and dining are provided in April to admitted students.

WTP Tutors and Residential Assistants live on the floor with the WTP students and lead study sessions, dorm social activities and field trips. The WTP Instructors and Directors do not live in the dorm; the Directors are on call 24 hours a day to provide guidance and supervision.

Dorm life and informal learning are important parts of the WTP experience. On weekday evenings students are expected to work on WTP homework and team projects, with extra lab hours or group study sessions scheduled for after dinner. There are also social activities in the dorm such as birthday parties, game nights, movie nights, karaoke night, and just chatting and making friends. Students and staff come from around the country, and WTP is a wonderful opportunity to meet people from different places and backgrounds.

On weekends, there are group outings into Boston and Cambridge led by WTP staff members (WTP provides many tickets and public transit fares). These include museum visits, sightseeing, and a trip to the beach. The July 4th fireworks display on the Charles River can be viewed from the dorm. Students sometimes organize their own visits to other Boston area colleges (accessible by the MBTA bus and subway system) to learn about those campuses and admissions.

We regret that WTP students do not have access to the MIT athletic facilities (this is MIT policy because they are under age 18 and not enrolled as MIT students). WTP students can find other ways to get exercise: they often go running in groups around campus in the early morning, or play pickup games of frisbee or soccer on the lawns around the dorm. We also do quite a bit of walking on group outings.

Students are allowed to leave campus only if accompanied by another WTP student or a staff member. We have a sign-out board for them to indicate where, when, and with whom they are going off campus. MIT is an urban campus, so on the first day of classes there is a presentation by the MIT Police to give students advice about safety. We expect students to behave in ways that will not endanger themselves or others, to show maturity and respect, and and to follow the safety recommendations of the WTP staff.

There is a WTP curfew: students must check in with a WTP staff member each night, and stay on the WTP dorm floors after that time (11pm Sunday through Thursday, and at midnight Friday and Saturday). We do not allow students to spend nights or weekends away from the dorm, even if they live locally or have relatives in the area.

If a parent wishes to grant a special permission for the student to leave campus for a few hours on the weekend with family members or non-WTP friends, we ask that a parent phone our office in advance. The student should first check the WTP schedule to ensure that there are no mandatory WTP activities or field trips before arranging for such permission. These visits should happen rarely, and not during weeknights, because we expect students to focus 100% on the WTP academic experience to get the most out of the short time they are here.

If you are admitted to WTP, in April you will receive more detailed information about the program and about residential life.

Dining

The WTP fee covers the student's on-campus meals for the four weeks. Each student receives card upon arrival which contains funds that can be used to purchase food at various sites on campus. Special orientation weekend dinners welcome students and staff the first Saturday and Sunday of WTP; there are also guest speaker lunches for the students throughout the four weeks. The kitchen on each floor of the dorm is available for those who like to cook and bake; WTP stocks these with ingredients and students and staff sometimes organize group-prepared weekend dinners such as "pasta night" . A goodbye banquet the final Friday of the program is for students, staff, and invited VIP guests who help make WTP possible.

Boston and Cambridge offer a wide variety of restaurants, but students who choose to dine off campus must use their own funds.