"The pressure to work and to study was so intense that it was not a rare thing for people to break and leave and some of them ended up with everything from schizophrenia to depression to suicide." MIPT follows a semester system. Each semester includes 15 weeks of instruction, two weeks of finals and then three weeks of oral and written exams on the most important subjects covered in the preceding semester. Starting with the third year, the curriculum matches each student's area of specialization and also includes more elective courses. Most importantly, starting with the third year, students begin work at base institutes (or "base organizations," usually simply called bases). The bases are the core of the Phystech system. Most of them are research institutes, usually belonging to the Russian Academy of Sciences. At the time of enrollment, each student is assigned to a base that matches his or her interests. Starting with the third year, a student begins to commute to their base regularly, becoming essentially a part-time employee. During the last two years, a student spends 4–5 days a week at their base institute and only one day at MIPT. The base organization idea is somewhat similar to an internship in that students participate in "real work." However, the similarity ends there. All base organizations also have a curriculum for visiting students and besides their work, the students are required to take those classes and pass exams. In other words, a base organization is an extension of MIPT, specializing in each particular student's area of interests. While working at the base organization, a student prepares a thesis based on his or her research work and presents ("defends") it before the Qualification Committee consisting of both MIPT faculty and the base organization staff. Defending the thesis is a requirement for graduation. Base organizations As of 2005, MIPT had 103 base organizations. The following list of institutes is currently far from being complete: Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies (established 1991) Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology RAS Gromov Flight Research Institute Institute for Information Transmission Problems RAS Institute for Nuclear Research RAS Institute for Physical Problems Institute for High Energy Physics (1963) Institute for Problems in Mechanics RAS Institute for Spectroscopy Russian Academy of Sciences Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics Institute of Biochemical Physics RAS Institute of Molecular Genetics RAS Institute of Numerical Mathematics RAS Institute