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

In terms of the "floor", I would say Caltech and Oxbridge has it beat. Maybe also Toronto engineering science, although that's a specific program.

Current parents - Do all students have to take each of chem, bio, math and physics? My kid is currently taking ap physics c mechanics, but hates it and wants to major in either bio or bio-engineering in college. This all assumes, of course, that my kid is going to get in, which i know is a long shot.

Anonymous wrote:DD is a current student. The amount of time she puts into studying and barely gets her a B. She says you walk into an exam and its nothing you have ever seen, you just have to see if you can figure it out. Socially she is doing really well. She has dropped classes too because it wasn't a fit with the professor's teaching style. The UROPs very hard to find in engineering if you didn't do robotics, 3d printing etc in high school or you aren't going the PHD route - the professors don't want to invest time and they don't need free labor - they have plenty of cash; they need folks who don't take a lot of time to get up to speed. You may luck out in finding a good advisor but for undergrads, its your peers that help you out. She says you sink or swim together. Last week, she told me she wouldn't recommend folks attend the school unless they want to have a soul sucking experience. I ask her if she is learning and she says yes but she says whats the point of doing all this work when in the end you will be compared to others who have better GPAs when getting a job or going to grad school. She now realizes its not worth all the struggling etc for the MIT name but she is in too deep so she will finish it out. I feel for her.

This is interesting. I would have thought it would be quite easy at MIT. I guess I'm wrong.

One thing society seems to lack today is a genuine commitment to advancing humanity. Higher education was meant to serve that purpose, yet our collective pursuit of knowledge has too often been overshadowed by greed.

Artificial intelligence holds immense potential, but its true value lies in the morality and responsibility that guide its use. I was struck by comments noting that MIT seeks students who are not only academically exceptional but also kind. That emphasis on kindness is profoundly important — perhaps even more so than pure intelligence — because while humans possess emotion and empathy, technology does not.

Anonymous wrote:If your child was accepted, did she or he choose to attend? Why or why not? If they’re there now, how is it going? TIA.

I had two go there. DD & DS.

Loved every minute of their time there.

They both chose to attend because they love math and the courses for their chosen field of study.

Another DS got in they went to a B-tiered engineering school because sports and the curriculum of their choice of study.

All ended up going to grad school all had similar trajectories in terms of jobs.

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.

We need more schools like MIT - admitting academic excellent, ambitious and kind students

DD is a current student. The amount of time she puts into studying and barely gets her a B. She says you walk into an exam and its nothing you have ever seen, you just have to see if you can figure it out. Socially she is doing really well. She has dropped classes too because it wasn't a fit with the professor's teaching style. The UROPs very hard to find in engineering if you didn't do robotics, 3d printing etc in high school or you aren't going the PHD route - the professors don't want to invest time and they don't need free labor - they have plenty of cash; they need folks who don't take a lot of time to get up to speed. You may luck out in finding a good advisor but for undergrads, its your peers that help you out. She says you sink or swim together. Last week, she told me she wouldn't recommend folks attend the school unless they want to have a soul sucking experience. I ask her if she is learning and she says yes but she says whats the point of doing all this work when in the end you will be compared to others who have better GPAs when getting a job or going to grad school. She now realizes its not worth all the struggling etc for the MIT name but she is in too deep so she will finish it out. I feel for her.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a grind, like every course is hard and everyone is brilliant, often way more brilliant than you. My sister attended and is brilliant and struggled academically. She did great socially for the first time in her life -- she is on the spectrum, but her like organizational, executive functioning, and study skills were not up to where they needed to be as she coasted through her very elite private school without needing to really study.

MIT grad - I truly believe there is no level of studying skills that can prepare you for MIT. Multiple times I walked into an exam and not a single question on the page was familiar. As though there was some other text book I was missing. By junior/senior year you are taking graduate level courses with grad students too. ChemE was notorious for exam scores averaging in the 50/100 = an A. In other words, they want you to fail.

Meh, Obama said one advantage of attending an ivy is you never have to be impressed by an ivy degree. It ain't all that.

That's funny!

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”.

DP. That's fine. Music isn't very open to nonmajors, so MIT would likely have more opportunities. I've heard good things about music composition there (a few years ago, albeit).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the MIT responses were about the experiences of boys. Are there more people who can chime in with girls there? I know MIT has come a long way since when we were looking at colleges but it was a place I know my wife who went to a top 5 school elected not to apply to at all.

My DD is a current student. Loves it and is thriving.

If your child (or you) is on the fence, take a look at the required classes (GIRs). Does that look like a good time?
Check out the Banana Lounge. Are these your people?

GIRs: https://catalog.mit.edu/mit/undergraduate-education/general-institute-requirements/#text
Banana Lounge: https://1962.alumclass.mit.edu/s/1314/bp19/interior.aspx?sid=1314&gid=53&pgid=252&cid=101444&ecid=101444&crid=0&calpgid=49618&calcid=98656

Excellent response. Very evocative. I'm just interested in MIT because a friend went there. But your post helps me "get it".

Anonymous wrote:Most of the MIT responses were about the experiences of boys. Are there more people who can chime in with girls there? I know MIT has come a long way since when we were looking at colleges but it was a place I know my wife who went to a top 5 school elected not to apply to at all.

My DD is a current student. Loves it and is thriving.

If your child (or you) is on the fence, take a look at the required classes (GIRs). Does that look like a good time?
Check out the Banana Lounge. Are these your people?

GIRs: https://catalog.mit.edu/mit/undergraduate-education/general-institute-requirements/#text
Banana Lounge: https://1962.alumclass.mit.edu/s/1314/bp19/interior.aspx?sid=1314&gid=53&pgid=252&cid=101444&ecid=101444&crid=0&calpgid=49618&calcid=98656

My daughter loved her experience at MIT. Faculty cared and helped her get several job offers from "top companies" in her field. She really believes the faculty connections are the best part of MIT.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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).

Not true. MIT has a combined program with Wellesley. Start from wellskey, cross register or transfer to MIT, and get degrees from both schools.

You can’t just cross register. You have to be admitted as a transfer (not easy)

Most of the MIT responses were about the experiences of boys. Are there more people who can chime in with girls there? I know MIT has come a long way since when we were looking at colleges but it was a place I know my wife who went to a top 5 school elected not to apply to at all.

The IITs have been hurt the IIT name being given to so many more schools in the last 15-20 years. They don't have the funding support or endowment to be exceptional at a global scale in 2024. Comparing any IIT to MIT just doesn't make sense. MIT does like taking the best IIT grads for grad programs though!