<p>Several of us older alums have been talking about whether the culture at MIT is the same as it was 50 years ago. Are students still pretty much left on their own to sink or swim? In spite of platitudes to the contrary, is the institutional process still one of winnowing, as opposed to cultivation? We all know highly intelligent alums who have not been professionally or personally successful. Does MIT confuse survival (graduation rates) with success? Is there more the Institute can do to improve personal and professional success rates after graduation? </p>
<p>Comments from current students and recent grads?</p>
<p>Hello! I was class of 2013. I’m not sure how to answer your questions because they seem to be a matter of degree. Could you talk more about what you’ve seen and what changes you’re curious about? (Ulterior motive: I’m curious about hearing about back-in-the-day so I want to get you talking :P) What class year are you?</p>
<p>The one thing I will say is that I think many MIT people think intelligence should equal success and I only think that’s partially true. A lot of MIT people try to shrug off people skills, and so of course they end up professionally/personally less successful down the road. Though that might not be the issue you’re talking about.</p>
<p>I am class of 1975. There are probably as many different perspectives of MIT as there are students. We each have our own views. I never thought that MIT left the students to sink or swim on their own. The professors encouraged us to work as groups. But since they did not take any part of setting up those groups, it might seem to some that the students were indeed left to sink or swim.</p>
<p>I was back in the Boston area a couple of years ago and attended my first (and only so far) alumni weekend for my fraternity. I spent quite a few hours interacting with the current members of the house. I felt as though I could fit right back in after I learned all the current lingo and became knowledgeable in the current areas of scientific interest. The intelligence, the curiosity, the drive to succeed was all about the same. So while the details of the culture have certainly changed with the times, the basic values have not. </p>
<p>While I was in school, we would also hold alumni weekends and found that I could talk with the alumni, both recent and older, and connect with them. The house also had the historian records going back to at least the 1930’s. It was quite detailed and there were many interesting stories in those records. Reading them (which we did quite frequently) gave one the feeling that most of us could have fit into almost any era (in a general sense if you catch what I am trying to say).</p>
<p>I have worked with many MIT alumni in my career (and others from a multitude of schools). Some MIT grads made excellent engineers, some were not so good. They were all smart, but it was the “works well with others” part that seemed to separate the good from the bad no matter where you went to school. So, it gets back to the encouragement by the professors to work in groups, as well as all the various student activities that one could become involved in, that helped many an MIT student come out of their shell and develop those people skills that helped make or break you as a professional engineer.</p>
<p>I don’t want to put words in his/her mouth, but I think the OP is referring to is the situation where an intelligent MIT student gets overwhelmed with academic and/or other factors, still passes their classes, but doesn’t learn as much as they could have and ends up having their professional life stunted as a result. They may not have learned as much as they could have at an easier school where they didn’t collapse. Their personal lives can also be impacted since work tends to be a pretty large part of someone’s life and especially the case for an MIT student. </p>
<p>I don’t think he’s referring to the situation where people are limited by their social skills in the professional world.</p>
<p>I am not a recent alumnus so I didn’t answer the question. Being generous, I think the supportive nature of fraternities is hit-of-miss, or was when I got there.</p>