Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Question: what have Buzz Aldrin, the founder of the Campbell Soup empire and former UN secretary General Kofi Annan all got in common? Answer: they are all graduates of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, known as Mit by the people lucky enough to study there. They are also fairly typical run-of-the-mill 'Chusetts old boys as the institution specialises in producing successful space cadets, business magnates and political figures. More than one third of the United States' manned spaceflights have astronauts with Mit old school ties in their wardrobe.

Space travel was not thought possible in 1861 when the university was founded with the intention of promoting "learning through doing". Female students were a tiny minority prior to the completion of the first wing of a women's dormitory in 1963, now they make up almost half of the university's population and international students make up ten per cent of the intake of 10,000. Mit guarantees four-year dormitory housing for all undergraduates and provides live-in graduate student tutors and faculty housemasters to help students.