Why Choose IIT?

Distinctive, Flexible Education

Graduate instruction at IIT emphasizes intense hands-on learning, research, and field work, and integrates the study of ethics and entrepreneurship—especially critical for those seeking management and research career tracks.

IIT's eight colleges offer study options that give you maximum flexibility to achieve your goals. IIT offers traditional master's and doctoral programs (thesis required), professional master's programs (no thesis required), dozens of certificate specializations, dual-degree plans, and short-term executive and professional packages. Some or all of your graduate study may be completed online.

Study Among the Best and Brightest

Students from 100 countries around the globe attend IIT. Some chose IIT because our technology focus makes us different from other schools. For others it is access to a nationally renowned program such as architecture and design, IIT's entrepreneurship initiatives, or the opportunity to work in a emerging discipline such as biomedical engineering, environmental management, or intellectual property law. IIT is at the forefront of programs that support STEM fields.

Research-Focused Faculty

The smart grid. Health behavior. Cyber security. Cloud computing. Financial engineering. Supertall buildings. IIT faculty are conducting outcomes-based work in areas of increasing importance. They are advancing their fields, changing lives, and infusing their innovation and enthusiasm into their teaching.

IIT faculty represent more than 26 countries and bring to the university a unique worldview that comes from experience living and working in and among other countries and cultures. They will continually challenge you to ask "why not?"

IIT Faculty and Industry

Because IIT faculty are cutting-edge experts in their fields, the are frequently called upon to address symposia among industry and professional associations, and to explain and comment on complex media stories among the sciences, law, architecture and design. They hold career-long relationships with corporations and national laboratories such as Chicago-based Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Many own their own technology-based firms.

Research Opportunities and Access

IIT's research focus can be summed up in one word: innovation. Whether implementing technology deployment in the emerging world or developing new forms of big-data storage, IIT research emphasizes bold solutions in areas of increasing global significance.

Our cutting-edge facilities include plenty of student lab space and six libraries with access to more than 1.8 million volumes and more than 100 online research databases.

IIT is home to more than 30 active, faculty-directed research centers across all disciplines.

University Technology Park at IIT is a state-of-the-art research park of laboratories, office buildings, and an Incubator to assist science and technology startups and growing businesses. Many of these companies provide IIT graduate students a unique opportunity to obtain hands-on experience through internships and jobs.

Chicago-Style Access

As a center for industry and commerce, the Chicago area is business-diverse. Corporations from United Airlines to McDonald's to Boeing to Google have headquarters and offices here. It is the home to major medical centers and research laboratories. Top architecture firms and law offices are based here, too. As a graduate student, you will find countless opportunities to intern, conduct research, work, learn, and grow.