MIT Sloan students and alumni informally call themselves
Sloanies. The MIT Sloan culture is similar to, but also distinct from, overall
MIT culture, and is influenced most strongly by its MBA program. MBA students come from more than 60 countries every year, with just over half coming from
North America, and 60% holding US citizenship. Prior to business school, engineering is the most popular undergraduate major among students. 46% of the class is female. A staple of MIT Sloan MBA life is the weekly
C-Function, which stands for "cultural function" or "consumption function". The school sponsors food and drink for all members of the MIT Sloan graduate community to enjoy entertainment organized by specific campus cultural groups or clubs as well as parties with non-cultural themes. C-Functions are usually held most Thursdays in the Walker Memorial building, which is also used as the venue for many other MIT Sloan community events. MIT Sloan alumni groups around the world also organize C-Functions for their club members, for social and networking activities. Students at MIT Sloan run over 70 active clubs. Some of the most popular clubs are the
Sloan Women in Management Club; the
Entrepreneurship & Innovation Club; the
Design Club; the
Finance Club; the
Management Consulting Club; the
Entertainment, Media and Sports Club; the
Venture Capital and Private Equity Club; the
Product Management Club; and the
Technology Club. The
Sloan Business Club is the official undergraduate business club for all MIT students. of the
Boston Celtics at the
MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference Throughout the school year, a number of professional and academic conferences are organized by, or in partnership with, the school. Annual highlights include the
MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, the MIT Venture Capital & Innovation Conference, the Sloan Women in Management Breaking the Mold Conference, the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, and the MIT Sloan CFO Summit. The most visible conference—and the largest student-run conference in the world—is the
MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, which
Fast Company ranked the #3 most innovative sports company, behind only the NFL and
MLB Advanced Media. Like the rest of the institute, MIT Sloan students have an extended period between semesters reserved for special activities. During the month of January, there are no formal classes at the school; instead, they are replaced by what is known as the
Independent Activities Period (IAP). During IAP, students engage in activities that would be challenging to participate in alongside regular classes, often including international travel programs. In the middle of semesters, the MBA program has an additional, shorter gap, called the Sloan Innovation Period (SIP), focusing on intensive experiential leadership activities outside of the classroom. After commencement, MIT Sloan graduates wear the
MIT class ring, known as the
Brass Rat. Top recruiters of new MBA graduates of the school include
Apple,
Google,
Goldman Sachs,
McKinsey & Company,
Nike and
Amazon. The school has over 20,000 alumni globally in 90 countries, with more than 20% who are presidents or CEOs. More than 650 companies have been founded by alumni of the school, including
Akamai,
E*Trade,
Gartner,
Genentech,
HubSpot,
Lotus Development,
Teradyne,
Zipcar, and
Okta. ==Faculty==