Some efforts to improve the world can be much more impactful than others. Smallpox eradication, the abolitionist movement, germ theory, and the Green Revolution demonstrate what's possible when people come together to solve pressing problems. But these opportunities to do tremendous good are few and far between. At the other end of the spectrum, many well-intended initiatives are ineffective or even counterproductive. Doing good better is one of the defining challenges of our time.
Recognizing this need, Impact MIT runs the Future Fellowship to equip MIT students with the knowledge to do good in the world more effectively and the tools to think critically about their career ambitions. By the end of the semester, Fellows have access to in-depth coaching, career connections, and unique opportunities to help others as part of a happy and meaningful life. We look forward to learning with you.
Over the course of seven weeks, you will meet in small groups to learn about, debate, and criticize topics relating to philosophy, social and political change, AI, biotech, global health, effective altruism, economics, and more. Discussions are in person with dinner provided. You don't need a background in debate, philosophy, or effective altruism! All the program requires is an open mind and a desire to help make the world a better place.
We are committed to building a diverse cohort of fellows. There is evidence suggesting that underprivileged people tend to underestimate their abilities. We do not want the application process to dissuade potential candidates and we strongly encourage interested students to apply regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, ability, concentration, and background. We evaluate applications blind to everything in this form (including your name) except for the essay questions.
This program will take 1.5 hours a week.
We run the Future Fellowship once per semester, and we aim to release applications around the 2nd/3rd week of classes.
Absolutely not! We are not an indoctrination group; our focus is on discussing how to make the world a better place.
In addition, the EA community naturally has a healthy number of disagreements that arise from conversation. There is no single set of "EA beliefs" – only a shared mission to make the world better effectively.
We don't have a set number of accepted students; we evaluate each applicant individually.
You don't need to have done deep work in the field (and we genuinely mean it)! We primarily want to learn more about your mindset. Most admitted students are new to EA and/or their cause area of interest
Yes, we have rolled back our club to its original name, as we believe the new (old) name helps prospective students understand our framework and gives them a concrete idea of what we do.
We also believe that "Impact" has been a bit too vague to signal who we are. Our mission, however, remains the same.