<p>I had my interview today and it was NOT the way I expected. It lasted only 15 minutes, he only asked me "why MIT" and about my abilities and I said I know C++ and circuit assembly. I asked him about MIT and he said he was miserable there and I shouldn't go there if I want to have a peaceful, happy life. </p>
<p>As you can expect, I'm very disappointed right now. I wanted to speak English with him but we only talked in Persian and his English was terrible, he said "I was frustrate". I really wanted to show off my English speaking abilities, I wanted to talk about MIT and I wanted him to know about me more than just C++ and circuit assembly. </p>
<p>I talked to my friend and he said his interview was as bad (with a different EC) I think all interviewers in my country are like that.</p>
<p>Is there any way I can get a Skype interview with an English speaking interviewer who cares about who I am and what I can do? Is it a good idea to complain about my interview?</p>
<p>I think calling Admissions, explaining what happened, and requesting a Skype interview is a reasonable course of action.</p>
<p>(What do you mean by circuit assembly? I can’t tell if you’re talking about the computer language or talking about physically putting together/soldering circuits.)</p>
<p>No not the computer language, physically making circuits is what I meant. </p>
<p>By the way as an MIT student, do you think what he said was right? (that I can’t be happy at MIT since the competition is so fierce and all I have to do is study)</p>
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I’m not Piper, but I certainly don’t think that. I was very happy at MIT – I met some of my best friends, met my husband, and participated in some totally non-academic extracurriculars that meant a lot to me. I worked hard, but I didn’t spend all my time studying, not by any stretch of the imagination.</p>
<p>I found MIT’s environment to be more collaborative than competitive.</p>
<p>MIT was hard for me. There were definitely times when I was miserable - but there were times I was over-the-moon happy. I think a fair number of people are the same way, and why IHTFP is something like our unofficial model. (That expands to many things, but the most common ones are “I Hate This @#$%ing Place” and “I Have Truly Found Paradise”.)</p>
<p>MIT students are not people who just study all the time. Go google for MIT clubs. I did so much outside of classes - I learned to scuba dive, I became involved in amateur radio, community service (mostly hacking at plants, taking apart bikes, and teaching middle schoolers about plane crashes), organized computer talks (… and accidentally switched majors), learned to play with liquid nitrogen, played with space robots, etc.</p>
<p>Some of those are academically leaning, but overall, I did a lot that wasn’t classes - and all of it out of pure enjoyment. If you want to get involved in stuff, you can. Most people do not focus on just their classes. (Though if you want to do that, you can do that. I just wouldn’t recommend it.)</p>
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<p>Did he actually say he was miserable because of competitive classmates and having to study all the time? </p>
<p>The workload can feel oppressive, especially if you aren’t inspired to do it or inspired by your major. The surroundings make for a kind of bleak, factory-like atmosphere for some people; other people are unaffected. Other social factors can affect your enjoyment and your ability to work in groups. If you are living with people who you actually like, that can help a lot. Some people end up more isolated than others. And there is grade deflation compared to elite schools, and though you aren’t in direct competition, there is a de facto curve at work at MIT or anywhere. The general high IQ means that if you aren’t on the ball, no matter how smart you are you may not be average in the classes you are taking. In contrast, at another top 10 school, I could easily see someone sleepwalking to the A/B borderline.</p>
<p>He said it was because of the workload and the atmosphere. He said it doesn’t matter how smart you are, you have to work as hard as you can to be above average. While I was already aware of these facts, I thought MIT was a “work hard, play hard” place but it seems that it’s only “work hard”.</p>
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That’s really general, isn’t it? I would agree that no matter how smart you are, you have to work very hard to be successful, but not that everybody is working “as hard as they can”, and especially not all the time.</p>
<p>Have you read any of the student blogs? Do they sound like they’re working as hard as they can all the time, with no time to “play hard”?</p>
<p>If your interviewer’s English was a bit weak, he may have had to spend more time than normal working to understand the lectures and text books. So his experience might not be typical.</p>
<p>Of course, students do have to work quite hard at MIT. Generally, they have some type of balance, though, from what I have observed and heard.</p>
<p>Hi Anna - </p>
<p>I’m sorry your interview went poorly. Others have addressed the questions of campus fit and culture; in terms of the interview itself, and seeing if we can get you a second one, can you send me an email which I can forward to our interview folks? My address is on [Chris</a> Peterson | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/author/chrispeterson]Chris”>http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/author/chrispeterson).</p>
<p>This is what I thought Mollie, the people who post on these blogs don’t seem to be unhappy so I was a bit shocked. </p>
<p>And yes, maybe the reason he had a hard time studying there was his poor English.</p>
<p>Chris, thank you I really appreciate it if you can help me. I sent you an email.</p>
<p>Got it and have forwarded it on.</p>