<p>Sorry… I hate when people do this…
But I’m interested in Neurosicence, hopefully ending up doing research and teaching in the field. I’m really passionate about academics, but I don’t exactly fit the nerd stereotype the MIT carries with it, and I’m not sure I felt totally comfortable there. I felt it was lacking in community, and I know with Amhert’s small size that would likely be abundant.
Thanks a lot for your help!</p>
<p>It might be too late now, but have you visited both, preferably overnight? That's the best way to see if you will feel comfortable at the college.</p>
<p>I went to MIT's campus preview weekend, and I felt like I could handle it, but it defintely wasn't an ideal envronment.
I did visit Amherst as well, but not overnight...</p>
<p>I was considering both Amherst and MIT and after visiting both schools I knew for sure that Amherst was the place for me. The chemistry class I atteneded at MIT was long, boring and taught by a TA who hardly spoke english. Comparing that to the small, engaging classes at Amherst seemed like a no-brainer for me as to which was the school where I'd be happier at</p>
<p>Am an Amherst alum. The choice should be apparent upon visiting both places. They are very different schools in terms of size, location, educational emphasis, and perhaps with the exception of science students, their distinctly different student bodies. I know some classmates who chose Amherst over MIT and were very happy with their choices. On the other hand, a high school friend of mine went to Williams for one year and then transferred to MIT. I took a year off from college to work in a research lab in Boston and took some classes at MIT and had a number of friends there. I strongly preferred the close interactions with profs and classmates at Amherst. MIT is a research institution first, and therefore, profs are much more involved in their research and mentoring their post-docs and grad students as they supply the work to keep his/her lab going. I also liked interacting with students who had a wide range of interests-theater, arts, literature, music, etc. Students interested in these areas are a minority at MIT, or they are involved in these areas in a secondary, rather than primary, way. At least when I was there, the humanities did not command the same respect as the sciences at MIT. They are regarded equally by students and faculty at Amherst.</p>