<p>There's a great thread below by Ducktape, an admitted student, about her visit to MIT. For those of you who are just beginning to consider MIT, the Institute also offers high-school juniors the opportunity to visit overnight. Even if you haven't been admitted, even if no one in Admissions knows who you are, you can have a great time. My daughter did this, and I highly recommend it to anyone seriously considering MIT. Her sophomore student host was an architecture major whose room in Baker was filled with models and building supplies. She gave a "history of the MIT architecture" tour of the entire campus and also arranged for my daughter to have lunch with a physics major. The MIT physics department encourages prospective students to visit, and when my daughter dropped in, she spoke with the head of the undergraduate program and also with another professor. She also visited several math and physics classes. She showed up at the hotel 30 hours after we had dropped her off with her host the previous day, happy and excited about everything she had seen and done.</p>
<p>CalAlum is right on the money!</p>
<p>The overnight stay is fabulous! :D</p>
<p>One point to consider though, you might want
to get admitted before doing this for the reason
that *you will very likely fall in love *if you do
this and do not want to feel bad if an admittance
is not forthcoming.</p>
<p>In fact, I never visited any place in my junior
year (except on youtube /google earth) and
feel rather happy that I did not develop any
direct attachments (only virtual ones :p)</p>
<p>I did the overnight recently (even though I am
planning on doing CPW later) to get an early
feel for what it would be like to "live
at MIT". My host and all the pople I met
reenforced my impression of MIT as
a warm and caring place that nurtures any
one with a curious mind. You also
will get a very good feel of which dorms
(a) you will definitely have a great time in and
(b) which dorms are a bit out there. </p>
<p>I especially wanted to see all this in
a non-CPW setting to avoid any potential PR.</p>
<p>I was pleasantly surprised by the great quality
of the food as well. The people...WOW... they
were all happy to be there doing what they were
doing late into the night.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>As CalAlum said, I've already posted a massive blog entry on this topic, but a few notes:</p>
<p>I for one was not allowed to visit any colleges out of driving distance prior to being accepted. Fiscally, this makes sense- why visit a school that you may very well be rejected from? You've just potentially wasted upwards of a thousand dollars. If your family decides that the visit is worth it in helping you make an informed decision as to where to apply, though (I didn't have that problem), then I'm definitely not saying it's a bad idea. I certainly wish I had been able to visit before last weekend.</p>
<p>The point is, if your family can't afford to fly you out there before applying, don't worry too much. The blogs do do a very good job of getting across the atmosphere of MIT.</p>
<p>I'd just like to mention that when I was a high school junior my family took a road trip to Boston and visited a bunch of schools in the area. I visited MIT but didn't stay overnight- because I had no idea that I could do such a thing. I completely regret this.</p>
<p>So yes, do it. You might even get to stay with me. ;-)</p>