Guests
Residents are permitted to have guests in their residence, including the common areas of the residence hall, provided they follow the policies below. Any questions about the guest policy may be directed via email to housingsecurity@mit.edu.
- Guests must be escorted by the resident host when entering or exiting the building.
- Hosts are responsible for their guests at all times. Guests may not use common areas of the building without their host.
- Guests are required to present a valid MIT, school, or government-issued photo ID to front desk staff of any MIT residence hall.
- Desk staff will record guest name and time of entry into the building
- MIT-affiliated guests may tap their MITID to register entry at the front desk.
- Residents are prohibited from giving guests their room/apartment keys or MIT ID card or mobile ID data at any time, and the Institute will not issue keys to guests or provide guests with an MIT ID card.
- Guests, as well as all non-residents, are not allowed to enter MIT residence halls with any animal(s), except service animals which have been individually trained to do work or perform a task on behalf of an individual with a disability.
Overnight Guests
Residents may have overnight guests for up to three nights in a seven-day period.
- Residents must obtain, in advance, the permission of all other residents of the apartment/room/suite in which the overnight guest is staying. Consideration should be given to the reasonable expectations of a roommate(s) at all times.
- Sleeping overnight in the public common areas of a residence hall (e.g., lounges) is prohibited.
- Guests may be approved beyond three nights with prior approval from Heads of House or Graduate Residential Life. Some residence halls may have an overnight guest policy that may be more restrictive (more information below).
- Residents who want to report violations of this policy or request a restriction on overnight guests that might impact guest privileges for their roommates, should contact Graduate Residential Life.
Extended Guests
Within MIT graduate housing, an extended guest is someone who is not a dependent of the resident and who wishes to stay in the residence for longer than three nights in a seven-day period.
- Different lengths of stay require different approvals:
- Up to three nights per week requires a verbal agreement between all residents in the unit as stated above.
- 4-10 night stays require approval by the heads of house
- 11-14 night stays require approval by Graduate Residential Life.
- Ordinarily, guest stays beyond 14 days are not approved as this may put the guest into an ‘”authorized resident”‘ status and impact the license agreement of the resident, in addition to other factors described under the Extended Guest Policy below.
- This policy allows for friend and family visits and does not require exceptional circumstances or hardship.
- Extended guests cannot change their status to dependent residents.
Extended Guest Policy
Extended-stay guests may stay in residence up to 14 days if they are registered with and receive prior approval from Graduate Residential Life. Please email the Associate Dean for Graduate Residential Life to register and obtain approval.
A graduate family may request to have up to two extended guests visit at the same time and may make one extended guest request during a calendar year.
While we recognize that certain familial relationships or cultural norms may extend beyond that of a dependent, non-dependents are ordinarily not approved to remain in MIT graduate housing beyond 14 days because it will jeopardize the tax-exempt status of MIT student housing, create additional liability (and potentially uninsurable) risks, and is not sustainable from a parity perspective. Any violation or abuse of this extended stay policy may result in any or all of the following consequences:
- Suspension of extended-stay guest privileges for the remainder of your license term
- Immediate termination of your license
- Ineligibility to apply for MIT campus housing in the future
- Charges for unauthorized guests beyond the time permitted by MIT, equivalent to double the daily rate of your license fee until the unauthorized guest leaves or is escorted off premises.