MIT - WOMEN'S TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM

The MIT Women's Technology Program (WTP) is a rigorous four-week summer academic and residential experience where female high school students explore engineering through hands-on classes, labs, and team-based projects in the summer after 11th grade . WTP is not a "summer camp" but an intense academic experience. WTP is designed for girls who have demonstrated their ability to excel at math and science in their high school classes, but who have no prior background (or very little) in engineering or computer science. We want to accept students for whom our curriculum will be a new experience. Since the WTP-EECS computer science class is an introductory class designed for students with no prior programming background, we do not accept students to that curriculum track who have already covered our CS curriculum. Female MIT graduate students design and teach the classes, assisted by female MIT undergraduate students who also live in the dorm with the high school girls. The daily required schedule includes classes, labs, homework, and social time with other WTP students. WTP classes do not earn academic credit from MIT; WTP students are expected to work hard because they are excited about learning. Sixty participants (40 for EECS and 20 for ME) are selected from a nationwide applicant pool of the top female 11th grade math and science students. We receive over 500 applications each year. We are looking for students who are not yet certain about their future college majors, and who would like to explore engineering and computer science to determine whether these fields might be of interest.