<p>This thread can be used to give any tips or advice for the incoming class of 2012.</p>
<p>Which classes did you love or hate and why? Professors? Clubs?
Is there anything you figured out after your time at MIT that you wish you had known coming in?
What's the best way to manage the classes and still have a life?
Best places to eat? To shop?
Was there anything you did that you would warn us against?</p>
<p>Please post anything that you think might have been helpful to know when you started at MIT! Or any advice (or even warnings) you might have..</p>
<p>Classes: Not much to say here, but I do really like ESG =D. I also liked the class “Riots, Strikes, and Rebellions in American History”.</p>
<p>Professors: LANDER. 7.012 fall professor.</p>
<p>Clubs: This really depends on your interests, but Assassins’ Guild is pretty awesome (LARPing), as is APO (for community service). During orientation there will be an “Activities Midway” where you can check out a lot of neat clubs on campus. You should definitely attend it =). (Also, free stuff.)</p>
<p>Wish I Had Known: GO TO OFFICE HOURS. THEY ARE NOT FOR THE FAILING - THEY ARE FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO PASS!</p>
<p>Manage Classes/Life: This is a tough one with no straightforward answer, but don’t overload yourself (freshmen tend to want to take everything), make sure to get sleep every night, and go LOOK for activities (ie don’t wait for things to just come to you or happen - they won’t).</p>
<p>Eat: Mary Chung’s (near Random) is really good. O’Sullivan’s (Porter Square) is also yummy.</p>
<p>Shop: A lot of people go to the Cambridge Galleria, and there’s also an awesome place in Boston (near the Prudential Center?). But I fully admit to not knowing much about this.</p>
<p>Orientation week is really a time to GET OUT THERE, GO, MEET PEOPLE. Everyone’s new and wanting to meet people and no one’s hosed.</p>
<p>I’ve actually heard about Lander from a few people… but how bad/difficult is the class? I’d love to take it with him but I don’t want to start off overloading..</p>
<p>Also, for office hours.. I’ve never really understood haha… what do you go for? Just specific questions/problems?</p>
<p>All versions of 7.01x are theoretically the same difficulty. I didn’t find 7.012 (Lander’s class) to be a hard class. His lectures, though, are very entertaining =).</p>
<p>Office hours are for anything you want to ask about - don’t understand a topic as a whole, don’t understand part of a pset problem, want to make sure you got something right, etc. You can learn from other people asking questions, too =P.</p>
<p>Mmm, I love my soapbox! I have many things to say, only loosely categorized.</p>
<p>Don’t feel that you have to take the most hardk0re courseload possible, first semester or ever. Nobody is really keeping score, just you. And you should only take those kinds of classes if they make you happy and keep you intellectually excited. Also, first semester is pass/no record for a reason, and you don’t get bonus points if you get straight A’s. Do what you need to do, and pass your classes, but don’t worry about your grades past P.</p>
<p>When you’re confused about a concept in class, go to office hours, email a TA, go to a review session, or find a tutor. Asking for help is not admitting weakness, and there are tons of people at MIT who are happy to help you succeed. At the same time, it is almost certain that you will fail at least one test during your time at MIT, and that does not mean that you are a failure. It just means you failed a test.</p>
<p>You are probably not going to be able to participate in more than two extracurriculars. Maybe three. You’ll probably want to sign up for twenty at the Activities Midway, but keep reality in the back of your mind.</p>
<p>None of the events at orientation are actually mandatory except for 1) meeting with your freshman advisor to register and 2) choosing a residence. Other than that, nobody’s taking attendance, and you shouldn’t feel bad if you’d rather sleep than go to a talk about drinking responsibly.</p>
<p>Stay on campus for IAP. Everybody’s so silly and happy, and you can spend time with your friends without worrying about school. You do often have to worry about blizzards, though. :)</p>
<p>I was actually wondering about that.. I’m thinking about taking all the most basic level classes for the GIR’s.. not trying any ASE’s or anything. But, HONESTLY, will people look down at that? I know it doesn’t really matter anyway.. but does that happen?</p>
<p>So if I can make one clarification to what Mollie said. =)
v
While, in general, Orientation is useless and attendance non-mandatory, the “drinking responsibility” thing is not a talk, it is actually a skit put on by current MIT students and is actually quite entertaining. I thought this as a freshman, and liked it so much I actually participated in it last year. So yeah, maybe it’s sort of a personal plug, but honestly, it’s a fun event, go to it! (But skip the discussion session afterward, that was brutal…)</p>
<p>Also, Convocation might be worth going to, to listen to Susan Hockfield tell you how special you are before you start failing tests and feeling dumb. =)</p>
<p>Ha, Laura, the drinking responsibly skit was actually the only event from orientation I could remember off the top of my head. (So maybe it made a stronger impression on me than I thought.) Do they still do that horrible Playfair thing? Because if they do, I amend my statement above to say that you don’t have to, nor should you, go to that.</p>
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I really didn’t feel, at least in my circle of people, that taking all the no-frills courses had any sort of stigma attached. (I took 5.111, 8.01x [no longer offered, but was considered easier than 8.01], 18.01, and 9.00 first semester.) I mean, despite what it seems like on CC, a lot of people do that. It’s more reflective of your high school background than it is of you, and people understand that.</p>
<p>Yes, yes, yes. Also, get help early. This doesn’t just mean academic help, it means emotional/mental help, if you are starting to have trouble. Don’t wait until you’re in crisis mode. If your emotional problems are connected in any way to your academic problems, the counseling deans in Student Support Services can help you with <em>all</em> of them.</p>
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<p>No. Mollie explained it well. Like she said, it’s not a reflection on your ability.</p>
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<p>No. MIT had a contract with the people who did it, to let them put it on for some number of years. When the contract ran out, MIT did not renew. So, no more Playfair.</p>
<p>Another piece of advice: Some professors who are terrible lecturers are much better at explaining things one on one. This is another reason to go to office hours. On the other hand, remember that there <em>are</em> some professors who are just jerks, or terrible teachers in general (though they are not necessarily the same people). You can find people other than the professor to teach you the material if need be - your TA, a tutor, upperclassmen on your hall who are majors in the department, etc.</p>
<p>Question: how do you study? I can’t be the only person wondering this. What’s the best way to read a college text book? How did you study for tests?</p>
<p>I can guarantee that my current way of doing things is not going to fly in college.</p>
<p>More seriously, it’s best to read the relevant chapter(s) before lecture - you’ll have a much better sense of what’s going if you do; there’s a reason professors give you syllabi. It’s harder than you’d expect to find a few hours every day (or even just once a week) and simply read a textbook, but it’s worth it.</p>
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<p>Varies. Looking through old exams is very helpful, as is taking practice exams professors may provide. Reading through your notes, making flashcards, putting together some sort of study guide, etc. - all the things you may have heard about in HS but didn’t have to do because the classes were easier - can all be good ways of doing things. (I found that making a study guide was especially helpful for 18.02, where lots of things turn out to be related in cool ways if you take the time to examine carefully. Case in point: Stokes’ Theorem.)</p>
<p>If I have a midterm coming up in a class I’ll want the day before to be free of any other large commitments (this means get your other psets doneeeee), depending on the material covered I might not need the whole day to study but it’s there for peace of mind. Finals I devote at least 2 days for the more serious classes. I usually wouldn’t cram too much before then but if there’s a review session sometimes its held way in advance it’s a good idea to start looking over some topics that you want discussed. In actuality, I was never any good at that, and instead I just got panicky seeing how well everyone else was prepared already 5 days before the test. </p>
<p>My procedure for studying? Reading over notes and material, re-doing the harder problems on the problem sets, emailing TAs and profs with questions then taking a practice test or two. That’s how I usually do it. </p>
<p>What’s the best method for you?</p>
<p>There’s no way to know beforehand, it’s up to you to figure it out first semester freshman year. One thing for certain though, most of the “studying” for the big comprehensive tests that you’ll be taking in college is done continuously. More specifically, it’s done weekly through the psets. You shouldn’t really be learning anything new when you’re studying for a test. I found out halfway through freshman year that I didn’t actually need a study group to complete problem sets, it was just a shortcut to make things easier. So I did away with working in a group, and this forced me to actually find a way through each problem as opposed to feeling satisfied that I could convince myself of the answer. Also, doing this kinda thing does wonders for your confidence; I assured myself that I learned everything on each problem set, and tests stopped being intimidating.</p>
<p>I definitely agree with the above on studying. There’s a quote from the book The Idea Factory that I find to be uncomfortably reminiscent of the way I studied for tests as an undergrad (which is to say, not in an optimal way):
Tests in upper-division biology classes are usually open-book, so I’d go through my book and mark the relevant chapters so I could find information quickly during the test if I needed it. But reading the book by itself doesn’t help for the tests, so doing practice problems out the nose was the only way to assure myself I could do the problems on the test.</p>
<p>piper, i love how you use the word hosed and it’s understood that it means exhausted from the workload.
Anywhere else, it’d mean wasted
only @ MIT</p>
<p>If I’d known then what I know now, I’d have gone somewhere else. Just kidding. Sort of. :)</p>
<p>Seriously, for anyone who’s thinking of majoring in computer science (6-3), but doesn’t know much about the discipline or career prospects, I have a few recommendations:</p>
<p>doing lots of problems the day(s) before a test is definitely the way to go. I’ve noticed that some classes have problem sets that you more or less finish (even by yourself) and you still don’t quite get it at the level of depth you’re supposed to.</p>
<p>Also, something i’ve been trying to do, but has never quite worked out - take some time after your classes to clear up confusing things in the the lectures you had that day. The problem for me was that “some time” turned out to be a couple of hours. At that point it’s probably better to immediately (because you’ll definitely forget) email a TA or a prof and ask them or schedule a meeting.</p>
- can all be good ways of doing things. (I found that making a study guide was especially helpful for 18.02, where lots of things turn out to be related in cool ways if you take the time to examine carefully. Case in point: Stokes’ Theorem.)</p>