Monte Adams, age 12, of Lowell, Mass., for his question:

HOW OLD IS MIT?

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, known to many as MIT, is 121 years old. Located in Cambridge, Mass., the technological and scientific institution was established in Boston in 1865 by a geologist named William Barton Rogers, who became its first president.

From a school originally devoted to industrial science, MIT has developed into five schools offering undergraduate as well as graduate work. The school of science offers programs in the pure sciences, as well as an interdisciplinary program; the school of engineering offers programs in ail fields of engineering as well as aeronautics and astronautics; the school of architecture, has an urban planning division; the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management has a an industrial management program; and the school of humanities and social science offers programs in economics, philosophy, political science, psychology, the humanities and linguistics.

MIT and the Wood Hole Oceanographic Institute offer joint graduate programs in oceanography and ocean engineering.

Throughout its history MIT has held a world wide reputation for fine teaching and research.

Today MIT has five high energy accelerators, a nuclear reactor and more than 70 labs.