MIT’s graduate student orientation is historically a measured, months-long affair, ramping up in the summer with informational webinars and gatherings hosted by alumni around the world, and continuing in the fall with dozens of on-campus events.

This is anything but a typical year, of course. For example, many of the nearly 1,700 incoming graduate students have never set foot on campus; the annual spring visiting week, which allows them to get to know MIT— and particularly their department — was canceled when the Institute closed in mid-March, in response to Covid-19.

Fortunately, incoming students are in good hands. The Graduate Student Council (GSC) Orientation Committee (OC) has been diligently adapting 2020 Grad Orientation ever since then, to welcome, inform, and connect students, wherever they are. As OC committee co-chair Shashank Agarwal wrote in a recent grad blog, “the responsibility of the orientation team towards incoming students is higher than ever.”

Building a virtual community