MIT

[Anonymous]

MIT is a wonderful university, among the best in the world in tech, engineering, bio sciences, social sciences etc... Caltech is a different beast, and the more rigorous of the two institutes - they do not tolerate mediocrity and there is very little support for the undergrads. It's a true sink-or-swim situation. You won't meet many Caltech grads (<250/class), but they are universally smart and have swum in the deep end of the pool. MIT is rigorous, but there is more student support and more of a traditional university feel - frats, parties, sports are more relevant. Some of the Cambridge colleges are similar but you really only study one subject there and they use the tutorial system. They also have no other requirements (humanities) unlike most US universities. I think for the breadth of excellence at the academic level in the US, the only peer might be Stanford, but it's a totally different feel as many know. Princeton, Harvard and Cornell all have good academic breadth, but their engineering/CS is less applied/more theoretical so not really peers. My 2cents for what it's worth.

[Anonymous]

My MIT friends tell me Stanford is the only somewhat comparable school. I believe them.

I think DCUM likes to Google and pontificate about colleges and universities (and institutes) but that is a DC area issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:even if accepted, how do you know it’s a match, I wonder.

MIT alum - they seem to be very good at knowing how to pick students. Usually a mix of ambitious but kind. It absolutely is the hardest academic environment out there, but you learn to fail, be humble, ask for help and adapt.

With me and a friend we were choosing between MIT, Stanford and a few others.

Fit definitely depends on your student if you can give more details.

Love math & music? Carnegie Mellon might be another fit.

Thank you. Love of music and math and philosophy and physics. Hardworking. Kind. Can get himself into a hole though - this summer the professor he was interning with was opaque and brief in answering questions and my kid had a hard time persisting and keeping on asking questions- avoided the situation. Can procrastinate. A good friend. Likes being physically active. I just don’t know. Who knows if he’ll get in, of course, but if he did, I wouldn’t know how to counsel him. He didn’t apply to Carnegie Mellon bc he knew someone who went there who told him it was “sad”.

CMU is not a good comparison school to MIT. We nixed it after learning more about the vibe.

If you can get into MIT, you should go to MIT.

Of course it's hard. And many freshmen will feel imposters syndrome. Pretty normal. But it's not an unkind school. Everyone has been accepted for a reason. And the school has the resources to help everyone succeed.

Did not go to school at MIT, but did go nearby. Their frat bros are the same idiots you see everywhere, except with a little more brain capacity.

DC was interested in applying. But there's no advantage to applying early to MIT. Got into the ED school so ultimately didn't apply.

The MIT admissions blog is a good read. Recommend reading if interested

OP here. Where is the blog? Thanks. Probably not too revealing, but my kid liked the person who ran the MIT interview much more than the Harvard one. Less smooth and hoity toity seeming, acc to my kid.

Sounds about right. Usually more humble and less perfect

[Anonymous]

This is all really encouraging- I love hearing about students helping other students! Who knows if he’ll get in, of course, but thank you all for this info.

[Anonymous]

Seems like the only thing bigger than MIT is their ego. Two university presidents resigned. The only thing missing is MIT prez. Their scholarship is now being questioned. Wasn't Ackerman's wife, a former MIT faculty, outed as a serial plagiarist? So much for their scholarship. I mean, she lifted from Wikipedia.

[Anonymous]

The UK equivalent to MIT or CalTech is Imperial College London, part of the federated University of London. A difference is that Imperial also has a medical school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Case and Worcester are not MIT peers. Not even CMU, except in CS.

MIT peer is Caltech. Different schools, vibes. If the student is also into liberal arts, check out Harvey Mudd. Engineering at Mudd, liberal arts at Pomona...

There is no peer to MIT. It's a unique school.

Waterloo in Canada is considered the Canadian MIT. No idea if this is remotely accurate.

I honestly don’t think CalTech is a peer school in that you are more likely a kid chooses MIT over Ivy/Stanford and didn’t even apply to CalTech. Cuerious where CalTech kids also apply generally.

I think CalTech is a riddle. Never meet a CalTech grad in the commercial sector but know a number that are literally rocket scientists at JPL. Very few tech entrepreneurs from CalTech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The UK equivalent to MIT or CalTech is Imperial College London, part of the federated University of London. A difference is that Imperial also has a medical school.

It's not. MIT only considers Cambridge to be a direcr peer-to-peer institution (it's the only school they accept letter grades from and have a formal 1 year exchange program).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Case and Worcester are not MIT peers. Not even CMU, except in CS.

MIT peer is Caltech. Different schools, vibes. If the student is also into liberal arts, check out Harvey Mudd. Engineering at Mudd, liberal arts at Pomona...

There is no peer to MIT. It's a unique school.

Waterloo in Canada is considered the Canadian MIT. No idea if this is remotely accurate.

I honestly don’t think CalTech is a peer school in that you are more likely a kid chooses MIT over Ivy/Stanford and didn’t even apply to CalTech. Cuerious where CalTech kids also apply generally.

I think CalTech is a riddle. Never meet a CalTech grad in the commercial sector but know a number that are literally rocket scientists at JPL. Very few tech entrepreneurs from CalTech.

I was the person that said there isn't a peer to MIT and what I meant by that wasn't just course offerings, obviously there are a lot of various engineering schools, but in the focus and personality of the institute there isn't a peer. Meaning CalTech is obviously very similar academically (my advisor at MIT came from CalTech and thought the students were much more intense) but the personality of the institutions is very different.

MIT has this very whimsical approach about if you can dream it, we can make it real. Literally come to lab with the craziest ideas and let's try. They are very pro-entrepreneurship. Pro-sports, pro-music, pro-mental health, huge Greek system and very collaborative with the other colleges in Boston.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Case and Worcester are not MIT peers. Not even CMU, except in CS.

MIT peer is Caltech. Different schools, vibes. If the student is also into liberal arts, check out Harvey Mudd. Engineering at Mudd, liberal arts at Pomona...

There is no peer to MIT. It's a unique school.

Waterloo in Canada is considered the Canadian MIT. No idea if this is remotely accurate.

I honestly don’t think CalTech is a peer school in that you are more likely a kid chooses MIT over Ivy/Stanford and didn’t even apply to CalTech. Cuerious where CalTech kids also apply generally.

I think CalTech is a riddle. Never meet a CalTech grad in the commercial sector but know a number that are literally rocket scientists at JPL. Very few tech entrepreneurs from CalTech.

I was the person that said there isn't a peer to MIT and what I meant by that wasn't just course offerings, obviously there are a lot of various engineering schools, but in the focus and personality of the institute there isn't a peer. Meaning CalTech is obviously very similar academically (my advisor at MIT came from CalTech and thought the students were much more intense) but the personality of the institutions is very different.

MIT has this very whimsical approach about if you can dream it, we can make it real. Literally come to lab with the craziest ideas and let's try. They are very pro-entrepreneurship. Pro-sports, pro-music, pro-mental health, huge Greek system and very collaborative with the other colleges in Boston.

Whimsy? 😊 love this. Thank you!

what if your kid isn’t an engineer, necessarily? My DS is interested in experimental physics, but has never described himself as engineering minded. Not a tinkerer/builder. Maybe MIT wouldn’t be right in that case?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Case and Worcester are not MIT peers. Not even CMU, except in CS.

MIT peer is Caltech. Different schools, vibes. If the student is also into liberal arts, check out Harvey Mudd. Engineering at Mudd, liberal arts at Pomona...

There is no peer to MIT. It's a unique school.

Waterloo in Canada is considered the Canadian MIT. No idea if this is remotely accurate.

I honestly don’t think CalTech is a peer school in that you are more likely a kid chooses MIT over Ivy/Stanford and didn’t even apply to CalTech. Cuerious where CalTech kids also apply generally.

I think CalTech is a riddle. Never meet a CalTech grad in the commercial sector but know a number that are literally rocket scientists at JPL. Very few tech entrepreneurs from CalTech.

I was the person that said there isn't a peer to MIT and what I meant by that wasn't just course offerings, obviously there are a lot of various engineering schools, but in the focus and personality of the institute there isn't a peer. Meaning CalTech is obviously very similar academically (my advisor at MIT came from CalTech and thought the students were much more intense) but the personality of the institutions is very different.

MIT has this very whimsical approach about if you can dream it, we can make it real. Literally come to lab with the craziest ideas and let's try. They are very pro-entrepreneurship. Pro-sports, pro-music, pro-mental health, huge Greek system and very collaborative with the other colleges in Boston.

Whimsy? 😊 love this. Thank you!

what if your kid isn’t an engineer, necessarily? My DS is interested in experimental physics, but has never described himself as engineering minded. Not a tinkerer/builder. Maybe MIT wouldn’t be right in that case?

There is a big physics program at MIT. I was a science major and became a scientist so we're a lot of my friends. The physics program when I was there was largely run by eastern European men. I did enjoy physics but the language barriers was sometimes difficult to overcome with TAs.

[Anonymous]

MiT peers, in terms of ROI, isn't any of the ivy plus schools. Service academies do very well - as do many vocational schools.

https://www.payscale.com/college-roi

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My MIT friends tell me Stanford is the only somewhat comparable school. I believe them.

I think DCUM likes to Google and pontificate about colleges and universities (and institutes) but that is a DC area issue.

I can see this! I have MIT alum friends who are tech entrepreneurs, and they said that world is overwhelmingly MIT and Stanford grads. Stanford has more non-technical people, but I think they share a creative, entrepreneurial vibe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MIT friends tell me Stanford is the only somewhat comparable school. I believe them.

I think DCUM likes to Google and pontificate about colleges and universities (and institutes) but that is a DC area issue.

I can see this! I have MIT alum friends who are tech entrepreneurs, and they said that world is overwhelmingly MIT and Stanford grads. Stanford has more non-technical people, but I think they share a creative, entrepreneurial vibe.

Another ROI ranking def shows MIT peers are non-academic, vocational type of schools. Not surprising when Ackerman's wife got her PHd by lifting from Wikipedia articles.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/new-database-ranks-4500-us-colleges-by-return-on-investment-155443063.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MIT friends tell me Stanford is the only somewhat comparable school. I believe them.

I think DCUM likes to Google and pontificate about colleges and universities (and institutes) but that is a DC area issue.

I can see this! I have MIT alum friends who are tech entrepreneurs, and they said that world is overwhelmingly MIT and Stanford grads. Stanford has more non-technical people, but I think they share a creative, entrepreneurial vibe.

Another ROI ranking def shows MIT peers are non-academic, vocational type of schools. Not surprising when Ackerman's wife got her PHd by lifting from Wikipedia articles.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/new-database-ranks-4500-us-colleges-by-return-on-investment-155443063.html

Please no one feed this troll.