MIT ‘Humanities’

[Anonymous]

What’s it like to be a ‘humanities’-type major at MIT (Econ or otherwise). I know all students have to still do the basic core math/science, but is it less intense than engineering majors?

[Anonymous]

If you are doing Econ at MIT, you are doing very high level math

[Anonymous]

Economics at MIT is really Quantitative Economics in practice, and requires knowledge of advanced math if one wants to pass the Econ courses.

[Anonymous]

Econ is not a humanities major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Econ is not a humanities major.

And so should close the thread.

[Anonymous]

I think the closest thing to humanities that MIT is known for is philosophy, but their philosophy program emphasizes logic, and ties in to computer science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s it like to be a ‘humanities’-type major at MIT (Econ or otherwise). I know all students have to still do the basic core math/science, but is it less intense than engineering majors?

I studied quantitative economics. It is math, math and more math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Econ is not a humanities major.

And so should close the thread.

The post said ‘or otherwise’. MIT also offers degrees in political science, philosophy, history

[Anonymous]

I happen to know dozens of MIT grads. Vast majority are some type of engineer or physicist or chemist or programmer. the one lawyer had a bio degree, the tech founder I know who does people- and logistics- centered work has an applied math degree. the one film studies major is now a computer programmer. I guess i also know a public health phd but that also very quantitative.

everyone has to pass very difficult calculus and physics classes to get a degree.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, economics at MIT is really quantitative economics. There's also Course 15 (Sloan management), not "humanities" but arguably a bit less intense than some other majors.

While undergrads at MIT have to take at least 8 HASS courses, there's not a lot of pure humanities majors. More commonly MIT students with deep interests in humanities might pursue 21E or 21S ("joint" degrees), or some of the interdisciplinary tracks in Course 21.

Check out the Concourse program for First Years. Or MIT's Burchard Scholars program (selective) for sophomores/juniors. There's plenty of fantastic humanities classes and programs at MIT, but at the core an MIT education is steeped in science, math and engineering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Econ is not a humanities major.

And so should close the thread.

The post said ‘or otherwise’. MIT also offers degrees in political science, philosophy, history

It’s in the thread title. And, no, political science is not a humanity either.

[Anonymous]

Econ at MIT may be the 2nd most intense field (after engineering/CS). As other PPs have noted, very high level of math required.

[Anonymous]

Their linguistics and philosophy department is very respected

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Econ is not a humanities major.

And so should close the thread.

The post said ‘or otherwise’. MIT also offers degrees in political science, philosophy, history

Yes, but soooo many DCUM posts conflate “humanities” with “non-STEM”. Econ, PoliSci, Psych, Government/International Relations, Business, Finance, Accounting are all popular majors that are typically neither humanities nor STEM. Though you can get STEM-y versions. Quantitative Econ, FinTech, etc.

Humanities are typically arts, languages, philosophy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, economics at MIT is really quantitative economics. There's also Course 15 (Sloan management), not "humanities" but arguably a bit less intense than some other majors.

While undergrads at MIT have to take at least 8 HASS courses, there's not a lot of pure humanities majors. More commonly MIT students with deep interests in humanities might pursue 21E or 21S ("joint" degrees), or some of the interdisciplinary tracks in Course 21.

Check out the Concourse program for First Years. Or MIT's Burchard Scholars program (selective) for sophomores/juniors. There's plenty of fantastic humanities classes and programs at MIT, but at the core an MIT education is steeped in science, math and engineering.

Do MIT students with an interest in the humanities ever cross-enroll at Harvard, Tufts or Wellesley?