SHASS Majors
View of MIT Henge, Infinite Corridor, photograph by Matt Yourst
MIT SHASS offers 27 undergraduate majors.
As with most majors at MIT, these consist of a core of required subjects and a set of electives, and combine the study of basic principles with practical applications. The major course of study is designed to prepare students for careers in that field or for graduate study.
Most students who major within the School do so through one of the following departments, sections, and programs:
Major Fields
| Anthropology |
| Comparative Media Studies |
| Economics (Economics; Mathematical Economics; Computer Science, Economics, and Data Science) |
| Global Languages (French, German, Spanish) |
| History |
| Humanities (American Studies, Ancient and Medieval Studies, Asian and Asian Diaspora Studies, Latin American and Latino/a Studies, Russian and Eurasian Studies, Women's and Gender Studies) |
| Humanities and Engineering |
| Humanities and Science |
| Linguistics |
| Literature |
| Music |
| Philosophy |
| Political Science |
| Science, Technology, and Society |
| Theater Arts |
| Writing |
Interdisciplinary Majors
SHASS offers six Interdisciplinary Majors. These programs are made up of coursework from multiple SHASS departments. Students who complete these programs receive an S.B. in Humanities, Course 21.
How to prepare an Interdisciplinary Major proposal
Students interested in one of the above Interdisciplinary Majors or interested in creating a customized HASS major should fill out the following PDF form and contact the Faculty Coordinator or the SHASS Academic Administrator for guidelines and procedures.
Interdisciplinary Major Proposal Form (PDF)
Right-click (control-click on a Mac) the link and choose "Download Linked File As..." to save the document to your computer.
Learn more about The Power of STEM + SHASS at MIT
At MIT, we view the humanities, arts, and social sciences as essential, both for educating great engineers, scientists, scholars, and citizens, and for sustaining the Institute’s capacity for innovation.
Why? Because the Institute’s mission is to advance knowledge and educate students who are prepared to help solve the world’s most challenging problems – in energy, health care, transportation, and dozens of other fields. To do this, our graduates naturally need advanced technical knowledge and skills — the deep, original thinking about the physical universe that is the genius of the science and engineering fields.
But the world’s problems are never tidily confined to the laboratory, workbench, or spreadsheet. From climate change to poverty to disease, the challenges of our age are unwaveringly human in nature and scale; and engineering and science issues are always embedded in broader human realities, from deeply-felt cultural traditions to building codes to political tensions. So our students also need an in-depth understanding of human complexities — the political, cultural, and economic realities that shape our existence — as well as fluency in the powerful forms of thinking and creativity cultivated by the humanities, arts, and social sciences. More at The Power of the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at MIT.