<p>I am planning to apply to MIT next fall, and I would like to know the differences between double majoring in Course 6 and Course 18 and majoring in 18C. Would anyone be willing to elaborate on the differences?</p>
<p>(I know this thread is a little premature, but I would like to have a specific department in mind when I write my application essays this summer.)</p>
<p>Basically 6/18 has more requirements. 6/18 majors are also officially affiliated with EECS which matters for some things like being able to do a M.Eng but is otherwise not terrible important.</p>
<p>I have actually known a person to do 18C and get into the EECS MEng program. I believe the requirement for MEng is not that you are a specific major, but that you complete all the requirements (which… usually you’ll sign up for the second major, but you’re not allowed to be 18C + 6).</p>
<p>Someone who majors in 18C will have satisfied all the requirements for a major in 18 (the general option), but will have satisfied maybe 1/2 of the requirements for a major in 6-3, unless they took extra courses. This is mostly because course 18 is pretty flexible compared to 6-3. The computer science courses required for 18C focus mostly on theoretical computer science and software engineering.</p>
<p>Here are the courses you would need to take if you were course 6: <a href=“Welcome! < MIT”>Welcome! < MIT;
Here are the courses you would need to take if you were 18: <a href=“Welcome! < MIT”>Welcome! < MIT;
Here are the courses you would need to take if you were course 18C: <a href=“Welcome! < MIT”>Welcome! < MIT;
<p>Notice that there are three possible paths in 18: general, applied, or theoretical. General is very flexible and has few requirements. I am 18 general. If you are 6-3 (computer science) then there will be a few courses that you will need to take for your computer science major that will also contribute to a general math major: 6.042 (math for computer science), 6.046 (algorithms), 18.03 (differential equations), and 18.06 (linear algebra). (Of the latter two you only need to take one for 6-3 but you will need to take both for 18.) That leaves you five classes (18.03 doesn’t count) outside of your 6-3 major to fulfill the requirements of the course 18 general mathematics major.</p>