Spanish is spoken by more than 500 million people worldwide, and is the most common non-English language spoken in U.S. homes—spoken by more than 38 million people. Spanish has regional varieties that are mutually intelligible, while diverging from one another in terms of pronunciation and vocabulary.

Reflecting the diversity of histories and cultures across the Hispanic world, Spanish is the language of many world-renowned authors, filmmakers, and musicians, in addition to important scientists, engineers, and inventors.

MIT Global Languages offers a concentration, minor, and major in Spanish. Students can choose a minor in Latin American and Latino/a Studies. Global Languages offers Spanish for heritage learners (21G.700 and 21G.714) and for Spanish for special purposes, such as medicine (21G.S05 and 21G.715) and technology (21G.711). Undergraduates who want to combine study in Spanish or Latin American and Latino/a Studies with any STEM-related field may pursue a joint degree in Humanities and Science (21S) or Humanities and Engineering (21E) under the SHASS joint degree program.

MIT offers a number of study abroad and internship possibilities in the Spanish-speaking world, including the MIT International Studies and Technology Initiative (MISTI-Spanish), the MIT-Madrid Spring Semester Abroad, and IAP-Madrid.