Student Organization Activities

Practical Experience Opportunities / Project-Based Activities Organized by Student Organizations

While many students are interested in practical experience opportunities, to learn more about an industry, it is important to understand that these types of opportunities are often not possible for international students due to the restrictions of their U.S. student immigration status. If your organization is interested in connecting students to projects at companies (for profit or not for profit / paid or unpaid), please set- up a time with your club advisor (slquestions@mit.edu) to discuss your ideas before reaching out to companies to organize.

Depending on a student's U.S. immigration status, many international students cannot participate in these activities (regardless if the possible is paid or non-paid) in their current U.S. Immigration Status without securing employment authorization in advance. While the projects may be considered "volunteering" by a host company/organization, the US government may view this as "work/employment" under the student visa status regulations.

For example: If someone at the host organization is performing similar or same activities, and/or the host organization is receiving any form of benefit from that activity, then a student (or anyone else) would not be considered a "volunteer" even if the student does not receive a benefit for performing such activities at that organization. This is why classifying off-campus activities as volunteering is very difficult. Please see more information on employment and volunteering from the MIT International Students Office (ISO): https://iso.mit.edu/employment/

International students are strongly advised to consult with their ISO Advisor before pursuing any activity off-campus (which is any activity that is not done at MIT, for MIT, or paid by MIT) to confirm if off-campus employment authorization is required for that activity and if you meet eligibility requirements for the authorization.

Co-Sponsoring Events

Student groups are encouraged to work together to co-sponsor events. Co-sponsorship can increase your pool of resources, both financial and human, as well as enhance the visibility of your event. When working with other groups, please make sure that you prepare a budget outlining how expenses (and revenue, if applicable) are to be divided.

Ticket Sales and Tracking Attendance

Many student-led events at MIT Sloan (e.g., case competitions and conferences) involve ticket sales, which in turn help student groups and the Student Life Office track attendance. We encourage students to gather data on event attendees in order to better assess your event's success, and we recommend two options:

SloanGroups (recommended for events with predominantly Sloan attendees):

  • Through SloanGroups, you can sell tickets and/or get RSVPs (with language about how binding the RSVP commitment is—i.e., the potential consequences of signing up and not showing up with regards to catering, waitlist, brand management).
  • You can also quickly check in attendees at the door using the app, either by scanning the QR code on their ticket or by looking them up in the system. This allows you, and the Student Life Office, to get data about the attendees, regardless of RSVPs.
  • Attendance data is useful both for your planning purposes, and also for your organizing team the following year (and potentially, to attract funding in the future).

Eventbrite (recommended for events with predominantly external attendees, e.g., conferences):

  • Eventbrite is a platform that allows you to easily build and customize your online ticket sales pre-event and generate attendee reports post-event.
  • The Student Life Office has a discounted rate with Eventbrite: credit card processing is 3% and additional fee per transaction is 2%.
  • Contact: Nicole Willits (slquestions@mit.edu - Student Life Office)