Please note, the Alumni Association office is presently closed and we cannot accommodate in-person drop offs. The 2021 melt ceremony will take place virtually on March 25, 2021. We are now accepting ring donations for the 2022 melt. All proceeds bolster available funds for the Class of 2023 Ring Committee’s financial assistance program.Ĭomplete a donation form and mail rings to the MIT Alumni Association. Brigham Allen, then President of the Class of 1929, called upon one member of the classes of 1930, 1931, and 1932 and entrusted them with the task of designing a ring that the Institute Committee would ultimately approve as the Standard Technology Ring. In fact, they are 3-D-printed joke rings for the Class of 2017 that feature, as Kwok says, a dog elegantly facing left, adjacent the moon. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Brass Rat tradition was born in the spring of 1929. The MIT Engineers boast more than 30 NCAA Division III teams, and their mascot is a beaver, which MIT chose because of its 'remarkable engineering and mechanical skill and its habits of industry.' Each class designs a unique ring called the 'Brass Rat' that is revealed during sophomore year, a tradition that dates back to 1929. The program will give you a behind-the-scenes look at the Herff Jones plant in Warwick, RI, where new MIT rings are minted.ĭon’t have a Brass Rat to give but want to help the project? You can make a financial contribution to the Brass Rat Melt Project here. More recently, they created matching rings, which from a distance resemble the brass rat, or MIT class ring.
A special MIT Brass Rat melt ceremony will be held virtually in March 2021. The donated rings will be melted and mixed into the alloy that will make the next generation of rings, and the value of the gold will bolster the financial aid program to offset the cost for current students who cannot afford to purchase a ring. So started the Institute tradition of the Brass Rat, the affectionate nickname for the ring that has become a symbol of MIT as well as one of the most.
Stephen Fantone ’74, a Brass Rat collector who presently has more than two dozen rings, piloted the Brass Rat Melt Project in 2020, donating a number of gold rings from his collection to help raise funds for the Class of 2022 Ring Committee’s financial assistance program, which works to ensure that all MIT students can purchase a Brass Rat. The project is back for 2021, supporting the Class of 2023.