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.

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 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

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.

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 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.

There really isn't an American peer.

There's Oxford and Cambridge. The latter being a little better in STEM. The former better in humanities.

But in the US, no. MIT is very particular about who they admit. All very talented people.

Talented in what way?

MIT peers:

https://irp.gatech.edu/peer-institutions


https://catalog.mit.edu/mit/graduate-education/other-institutions/

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.

Funny, Georgia Tech says it is a peer to Massachusetts Tech (MIT.)

And Massachusetts Tech says its students can cross register with its peers - Harvard, Wellesley, Boston University, and Tufts.

I don;t have any recent experience with MIT but I love the fact that first semester all classes are pass/no record. I wish more schools did that.

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.

There really isn't an American peer.

There's Oxford and Cambridge. The latter being a little better in STEM. The former better in humanities.

But in the US, no. MIT is very particular about who they admit. All very talented people.

I only know Cambridge (MIT has an exchange program so went to visit friends there). Everyone that went loved Cambridge and I did too just visiting, but it is also very different from MIT. Very English, obviously!

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.

There really isn't an American peer.

There's Oxford and Cambridge. The latter being a little better in STEM. The former better in humanities.

But in the US, no. MIT is very particular about who they admit. All very talented people.

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.

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...

Some ideas beyond MIT:

Case Western Reserve
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (a lot of MIT associated people were key in starting it)

MIT students are so kind to each other. It's is such a collaborative environment, they are not competitive with each other. They all want to see one another succeed and will go to great lengths to support each others' learning. MIT doesn't do Latin honors or any ranking....if you graduate from MIT, you graduate from MIT with mutual respect for all.

It's truly a remarkable community.