<p>Hi,</p>
<p>Please share your experiences about the listed colleges. What is the social life like? What is the food like? Weather? Workload? What is the variety of literature that is available from libraries? Medical Services? Clubs? Amount of studying on weekends? Size of classes? Situation with drugs / alcohol? Suidicide rates? Any other important details?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>I'm speaking as a rising MIT senior here:</p>
<p>Social life: Amazing, if you pursue it intelligently. You get to choose your own living group and there is truly something for everybody. Many living groups (whether dorm, Greek, or independent) have very distinctive cultures and long-standing traditions and the people in them tend to have lots of friends in them. Also, in some of them the alums who work in Boston are social with the living group and you get invited to parties at their houses and stuff. The catch is that you have a lot of work to do and you need to be able to balance that with your social life.</p>
<p>Food: Campus food is meh. A few dorms (and most Greek houses or ILGs) have required meal plans. In the rest, you can do whatever you want to eat, including buying your own groceries and cooking - on some halls kitchens are a staple of social life, and there's a campus grocery store. You can either use regular money for your food, or have something called a TechCash account where you use your student ID card as a debit card.</p>
<p>Weather: I'm from the South. I hate school-year Boston weather. But the occasional spring day is really nice when it shows up, and summers are nice. And even in the bitter cold of winter it can be fun to have a snowball fight.</p>
<p>Workload: Heavy. No matter what major you are in. Even if you are in a class that gives fewer assignments you will want to spend the extra time really learning the material, because fewer assignments means that tests count for more.</p>
<p>Literature: Pretty good, and not just science/tech either. We even have a music library.</p>
<p>Medical Services: Variable. Most people I know who see someone for a chronic problem at MIT Medical are satisfied, but there are some awful horror stories from people who go there for a one-time thing (including a friend of mine who had kidney stones misdiagnosed). However, many others have good experiences. Try to find out which doctors are competent. Mental Health is good.</p>
<p>Clubs: We have SO</a> MANY CLUBS.</p>
<p>Studying on weekends: You have to do it. You have to do it a lot. But normally you don't have to do it all weekend. You'll find enough free time.</p>
<p>Size of classes: Mine have ranged from eight people to several hundred people, with the median probably 20-30. Big classes have recitations, which are sections of about 20 led by a TA to supplement the lectures.</p>
<p>Drugs/Alcohol: Some people do them. Some people do one but not the other. Some people do them but not much/often. Some people don't do either. It's really not considered a big issue...people don't pressure you, if you don't want to do drugs or drink than don't, and your friends will still hang out with you and think you're cool. :) Even if you're in a living group where most people do them.</p>
<p>Suicide rates: Not as bad as popular perception would lead one to believe, but it happens. I haven't personally known anyone who successfully committed suicide at MIT, but I had a hallmate attempt it when I was a sophomore.</p>
<p>Other important details: I work for MIT Admissions by keeping a [url="<a href="http://jessie.mitblogs.com%22%5Dblog%5B/url">http://jessie.mitblogs.com"]blog[/url</a>]. You can find all the MIT admissions officer and admissions student worker blogs [url="<a href="http://my.mit.edu%22%5Dhere%5B/url">http://my.mit.edu"]here[/url</a>]. They are not censored and will give you a decent picture of MIT life over time.</p>
<p>I applied to four of those schools and visited three. I'm attending one. </p>
<p>I'm not sure what your intended major is, but this group says to me, "Engineering". </p>
<p>(By the way, applied to CMU, MIT, Stanford, and Caltech; visited all but CMU; and I am a prefreshman at Caltech)</p>
<p>Stanford and Caltech both have great weather. MIT and CMU, not so much. Out of all of those schools, Caltech has the hardest workload (Caltech's core is insane). </p>
<p>For the rest of the stuff I'm pretty much only familiar with Caltech and not the other schools, and I don't even know some of the answers for Caltech. I can tell you that I will be joining meat club at Caltech! lol. Also, we've got nice small classes. Some students drink, but it's not really part of the culture like it would be at a school like Duke. I'm not planning on doing any drugs or drinking and I don't feel like that will be a problem. No idea about the suicide rate.</p>
<p>I love Cornell. I couldn't imagine going anywhere else and am counting the days to go back.</p>
<p>Each of those colleges you listed has their own forum I believe, probably with exactly what you are looking for. I, myself, applied to three of those- Berkeley, Cornell, and Stanford- and will be attending Berkeley mostly for cost considerations. I assume you will be pursuing an engineering degree as well in which case, those are all great choices. Since I will only be an entering freshman, and don't know some of the answers for my own school, I won't try to make any comparisons. Good luck.</p>
<p>I can respond on behalf of CMU, since no one else has. First of all, the weather. It's in Pittsburgh, which means we get a fair amount of rain, and it gets pretty cold and stays that way for a good part of the year. Not too many sunny days either, but the campus is really nice during the start of fall semester and the end of spring semester. We have some libraries -- I don't go to them. There are also Local pittsburgh libraries very close by. Medical services is good I guess. I have only been there once. There are lots of clubs to join, pretty much anything you would be interested in, and if there isn't you can get funding to start a club. Lots of people here like to drink but not everyone. It is easy to find alternatives. I haven't really heard much about drug usage although I am sure you could find some drugs if you wanted them. Food is pretty not amazing. You have to have a meal plan freshman year, but after that you can do whatever. I think a lot of people find some things they like and stick with that for most of freshman year. There are vegetarian and vegan options at all, or almost all of the campus dining places. Freshman level lectures at every school are big. Most classes have recitation sections that meet to go over lecture, homeworks, etc and have 15-25 people. As far as workload, studying on weekends/, social life go it is really up to you. And even though lizzardfire thinks that Caltech is the hardest, he is a prefreshman, so he has no actual experience with the workload. He may be right, but I doubt it. So here is the deal with CMU -- workload will depend heavily on your major. Business majors are known to have relatively little work, while CS, engineering have a bigger workload. The music students also have a pretty heavy workload, just different types of work. Personally, I am doing CS and I am required to do a minor in something other subject. This is only a requirement for CS, but other majors have something similar. You can almost get by with taking 4 classes every semester, but most people will take 5. Taking four classes isn't bad, you should have plenty of free time. Other people decide to take on 3 majors and they have to work more sometimes. In conclusion, you are going to have to work quite a bit, but depending on how much extra you want to do academically, you can have free time. The upside of this is that whenever people graduate, or go back to a full time job during the summer, they are amazed at how much free time they have.
Please do not base your school selection on the suicide rate. Really, it kind of scares me that you would ask about that</p>
<p>
[quote]
Hi,</p>
<p>Please share your experiences about the listed colleges. What is the social life like? What is the food like? Weather? Workload? What is the variety of literature that is available from libraries? Medical Services? Clubs? Amount of studying on weekends? Size of classes? Situation with drugs / alcohol? Suidicide rates? Any other important details?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well I'll admit I don't know too much about Berkeley but I'll try to help the best I can until someone more knowledgeble comes along.</p>
<p>Social life: This one I'm not too sure about. I know that about 10% of the campus are greek and that's where it gets really social. Otherwise the social life is okay.</p>
<p>Food: The on-campus food is okay. Depends on where you live really, but most freshmen live in the units and the dining hall for them is Crossroads. The food is actually not bad there. There are plenty of choices, from vegetarian options to Mexican, Italian, Asian, a deli, whatever. It's not GREAT, but I think it's pretty good. I think Crossroads also has the first organic salad bar on a college campus, if that interests you.</p>
<p>The off-campus food is AMAZING. So many restaurants just right off campus, and the food is really pretty great. You can get them for a pretty cheap price too, and you'll definitely go off-campus for food quite a bit (if for nothing else than that you'll get sick of the dorm food).</p>
<p>Weather: well, I like it. It's California weather, after all. A bit colder than Southern California, but really it stays about 60-70 for most of the year I think. Lots of sunny days but also quite a bit of rain.</p>
<p>Workload: It really depends on what courses you are taking and what your major is. If you are an engineering major, the workload will be tough. I think most students here study quite a bit so it won't be a cakewalk.</p>
<p>Literature: The libraries here are amazing. I think it has like the 4th biggest library system behind Library of Congress, Harvard, and Yale or something like that. There are so many libraries on campus and some like the Motiff library is just a really nice study area. One thing I have to say though: the main libraries are only open 24 hours during finals week, otherwise they close at 2 a.m. Don't know if you care but I did.</p>
<p>Medical services: Seems good. I haven't really heard too much about this. I think you pay a fee of something like $40 and anytime you need to visit a doctor on campus it's free so that's pretty neat. Also student health insurance is included in the overall sticker price of around $24,000 a year.</p>
<p>Clubs: I think there are over 700 clubs on campus. There are PLENTY of clubs, although some say that some clubs aren't very active.</p>
<p>Amount of studying on weekends: Well, again it depends on the type of person you are. Engineering students study like crazy. But then again, Berkeley does have a top-notch engineering program. Other fields like pre-med, pre-haas, gets pretty competitive. Other than that it's okay. People don't bury themselves in books 24/7 (as far as I know).</p>
<p>Class sizes: Well, they're actually not that bad. 74% are 30 students or less, and only 7% are 100 or more (intro classes, you know). Compared to Stanford, 79% are 30 students or less, and 5% are 100 or more. Although, I'm guessing MIT or CalTech might have slightly smaller class sizes, not sure. Anyway, it's just like any other college. You'll have your large intro classes and you'll have some small classes. The large lectures are divided into sections and you'll have TAs leading them.</p>
<p>Drugs/alcohol: I'd imagine not too different from any other college campuses. There are people who drink and you see people who smoke weed once in a while. If you're concerned there is a building in Unit 1 called Freeborn and it's supposed to be a substance-free building so you could try to get into that dorm.</p>
<p>Suicide rates: really, it's not that different at every colleges, which is to say "very low." Don't worry about this.</p>
<p>Other important details: some majors (especially in engineering) are impacted meaning you have to fulfill certain pre-reqs and apply to them, and you may not get them, although I think most students end up getting their majors. Just a heads-up.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
Please do not base your school selection on the suicide rate. Really, it kind of scares me that you would ask about that
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>Nah, of course not - I was just wondering.</p>
<hr>
<p>Concerning weather - the colder the weather, the more I like it. So if there is a lot of rain / not a lot of sunny days, that's great. :)</p>
<p>As for the major - I am going for Computer Science.</p>
<p>Question about Cornell:</p>
<p>Is it possible to cook food independently there too or it would be complicated (due to policies, etc.)?</p>
<p>I'm a CS major too. And your favorite weather just described Cornell. Come visit, seriously. And yes, you can cook. All the dorms have kitchens. As a freshmen I had a private kitchen for me and 3 roommates.</p>
<p>If matters much, weather near Berkeley is basically that of San Fransisco. It never gets hot thanks to the marine layer which rolls in before dusk and recedes shortly after dawn. The place rarely gets above 80 degress if ever. In the last "heat wave" in California, SF was basically 10-20 degrees colder than around the area.</p>
<p>you might not want to cook at Cornell though - Princeton review rated Cornell's food to be top-3 in the nation. Ithaca also has more restaurants per capita than any other city in the US. Heck, i'm living off campus at Cornell and still signed up for a meal plan. </p>
<p>If you still must cook food yourself, I suggest getting a townhouse. It's a dorm with two floors (4 people total, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms), the downstairs has a living room, dining room, and full kitchen. Quite sweet. </p>
<p>I'm not in the engineering school, but i'll try to answer some of your questions:
What is the social life like? Huge social scene on and off campus. Cornell does a fantastic job of providing fun for students with on campus activities. Nightly things range from movies at the campus theater to the on-campus bowling alley to name a few. The greek life is also active if that's your thing. </p>
<p>What is the food like? (see above)</p>
<p>Weather? Northeast, same as Boston. Winter starts late november and goes until the start of march. Fall and Spring are beautiful. </p>
<p>Workload? Usually pretty heavy, Cornell isn't an easy school. It's not cut-throat but still tough. Just be prepared to put in enough time and you'll be fine. </p>
<p>What is the variety of literature that is available from libraries? Go to library.cornell.edu and browse around Cornell's 17 different libraries. </p>
<p>Medical Services? On-campus health facility with EMT's. Hospital is a short drive off campus. </p>
<p>Clubs? 700 and counting! Everything you'd ever need. </p>
<p>Amount of studying on weekends? Weekends are usually pretty laid back most of the time. Exam weeks will be different, but weekends on campus are usually alot of fun. </p>
<p>Size of classes? again, not in the engineering school, so i can't comment specifically. </p>
<p>Situation with drugs / alcohol? Eh, it exists (as it does at every college), but much less than you would think. Certainly does not dominate the social scene. </p>
<p>Suidicide rates? Cornell's suicide rate is about 4 students per 100,000 (for reference, MIT's is about 20 per 100,000). </p>
<p>Any other important details? Come visit! Top engineering school in the Ivy League and you'll have access to all of the top-rated programs at Cornell.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I already did :) Cornell, though, is the only one I visited, so that's why I raised the thread :) If you don't mind, can I pm you with a few questions? </p>
<p>Cornell is closest to my house, too.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>700 clubs? Splendid. Do you have Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Aikido, that sort of clubs?
Library is impressive, too. Just looked up a few things, everything (and +) was found.</p>
<p>....</p>
<p>Ok, and what about the libraries in the other ones I listed?</p>
<p>Actually, last year the number of registered clubs was 886. If you start a club, Cornell will fund it.
<a href="http://sao.cornell.edu/SO/search2005.php?squery=&qsubmit=yes%5B/url%5D">http://sao.cornell.edu/SO/search2005.php?squery=&qsubmit=yes</a></p>
<p>This should answer MANY of your questions:
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_University%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_University</a></p>
<p>Thanks! Although I don't really have any more questions about Cornell.</p>
<p>I'm not trying to get into a Cornell vs. MIT thing here, but you mentioned various martial arts as interests. Martial arts are huge here. I swear, sometimes I feel like I'm practically the only person in my social group not doing karate, American Jiu Jitsu, aikido, or tae kwan do. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but not much...one time I went to a party at a wealthy friend's father's mansion with a bunch of other friends, and there was an impromptu Jiu Jitsu practice session in the basement (and conveniently, one of the senseis was at the party!).</p>
<p>Sorry, I should also add Princeton to the list.
Also, perhaps I have asked the wrong thing in the first post.
Basically, I am trying to rank these universities by preference. </p>
<p>Should I do that now, or should I just apply, see where I am accepted, and decide then?
But I am not sure how to. Any advice appreciatted.</p>
<p>What would you rank them by? You'd have to pick specific characteristics... preference depends on the person</p>
<p>The thing is, I am not very picky. I could be in a medium city, or in a rural area - doesn't matter to me. The most important factors would probably be the strength of the curriculum (the more rigorous, the better), the strength of research program, graduate school, percentage of people who went into grad school, percentage of people who got a decent job after grad school, etc... So it would be best to rank by that. That, plus the overall impression based on reviews both from this site and from princetonreview.com.</p>
<p>If I was you I would apply to all these universities and then rank the ones that you get in.</p>
<p>"The most important factors would probably be the strength of the curriculum (the more rigorous, the better), the strength of research program, graduate school, percentage of people who went into grad school, percentage of people who got a decent job after grad school, etc... So it would be best to rank by that."</p>
<p>Based on those criteria, I would rank Caltech first. Caltech has one of the most rigorous core curricula in the world (it is more rigorous than all of the schools on your list). Caltech also has a very strong research program (although the other schools you listed did as well, specifically MIT). Many of the schools on your list have excellent grad schools (except for HMC which does not have grad school). Caltech and HMC have very high percentages of people going into grad school. I am not sure about the others but I assume any top-end tech school will send a lot of people to grad school. </p>
<p>Basically, if those are your primary concerns I would concentrate on Caltech and MIT as your "choice" schools. That's what I did, anyway. A lot of it just depends on you, though. MIT was my first choice school for roughly six years until I visited Caltech. That one day (keep in mind I had already visited MIT along with Stanford and a few other schools) really hooked me on the school. I hope you find a school like that for you.</p>