At MIT, the month of January is a reserved time separate from the normal terms called IAP - Independent Activities Period. During IAP, there are many seminars,

At MIT, the month of January is a reserved time separate from the normal terms called IAP - Independent Activities Period. During IAP, there are many seminars, panels, talks, and short courses (and some long courses taught in an intensive fashion) on a huge variety of topics. Many are taught by students, faculty, staff, and area alumni. While a few classes do give credit, fulfill requirements, and the like, oat exist simply to learn cool, neat, useful, interesting, wacky, etc stuff.