We looked at MIT last year for our DC who is a good all around student but more interested in humanities/social sciences. After doing the school visit, our DC decided not to apply. At the info session, it was stated that only about 5% of all undergraduates are humanities majors, and our DC concluded that he would not want to go to a school where he would be in such a minority. That also has practical issues -- how many sections of each course are offered, how many choices, etc. Great school -- and some great graduate programs as noted in some non-science areas -- but the social experience seemed like it would be very different there for a non-STEM undergrad.

MIT has very talented humanities faculty. Given the overproduction of Humanities Ph.D. you can find amazing faculty members in obscure institutions, and certainly MIT has the reputation and money to attract top talent. My concern for an MIT student with a strong orientation toward the humanities would be classmates/classroom culture. Are most students invested in humanities classes? Do they come to class prepared and engaged? I can't say that the majority of students aren't invested in humanities classes, but that would be my concern, and I would encourage perspective students to sit in on classes and compare them with other schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Really?

Yes, you can generally get your math credit through another course, if you really want to. Like statistics, for example, or math topics. Even at elite universities. I am not making this up.

I think this is right. I went to an Ivy and few people took calc. Many took stats. Hard-core nerds thought that calc was too pro forma and took variations of applied linear and theoretical electives, which seemed stifling.

Yes, I think this is right. It's been a few years but I graduated from Georgetown without ever taking math other than stats.

Anonymous wrote:

Really?

Yes, you can generally get your math credit through another course, if you really want to. Like statistics, for example, or math topics. Even at elite universities. I am not making this up.

I think this is right. I went to an Ivy and few people took calc. Many took stats. Hard-core nerds thought that calc was too pro forma and took variations of applied linear and theoretical electives, which seemed stifling.