<p>DD applied EA and is planning to attend MIT, if accepted. Her primary interests are Computer Science, Math, and Business.</p>
<p>An ancillary interest that she also enjoys is Latin. She is in her fourth year of Latin, and has placed in the top 5 in our state's Annual Latin competition for High School students, each of the last 3 years.</p>
<p>DD has expressed an interest in taking a few additional classes in Latin in college, just because she likes it.</p>
<p>It is my understanding that MIT does not offer Latin, but that students are allowed to cross register at Harvard. If that is correct, I am interested in how feasible that is from a practical perspective.</p>
<p>Does anyone have experience with this? How difficult would it be to do this? And how difficult is it to travel back and forth for a class? Is there a shuttle bus that goes back and forth between the schools or anything like that? </p>
<p>To clarify, I am not asking about the difficulty of the class, but of scheduling, and getting back and forth.</p>
<p>I’d think it’s pretty difficult, unless the classes are scheduled an hour or two apart. It can be hard just to make two back to back classes on the same campus, so going to another one would be pretty hard.</p>
<p>It’s not terribly difficult, and a reasonable number of students do it. </p>
<p>The major difficulty is in logistics. MIT and Harvard classes end 5-7 minutes before the hour and start 5-7 minutes after the hour. That 10-15 minute interlude is plenty of time to get from one class to another on the same campus, but not really quite enough to get from one class on one campus to another class on another. So it’s tough to schedule back-to-back classes at MIT and Harvard, unless you’re just willing to accept being 5-10 minutes late for your next class. But people do manage to work it out.</p>
<p>There are a couple of options for going between MIT and Harvard. The red line subway runs from the northeast side of MIT’s campus to the northwest side of Harvard’s. The #1 MBTA bus runs from the center of MIT’s campus to the northwest side of Harvard’s. And there’s a shuttle run by the medical school that goes from the center of MIT’s campus to a couple of locations on Harvard’s. The subway is generally the fastest option, but the buses can be more convenient depending on the location of one’s classes and the time of day.</p>
<p>The other issues is that MIT and Havard’s schedules don’t always align. MIT typically gets more days off than Harvard and during the spring semester Harvard starts, ends, and has spring break a week before MIT. These aren’t insurmountable difficulties but it does make it somewhat inconvenient particularly during the spring semester.</p>
<p>You can also bike from MIT to Harvard (it takes me about 10-15 min). The T can be a little unpredictable (you’ll be waiting anywhere from 0-10 min), which may not be great if you schedule back-to-back classes. However it’s usually the best option in cold weather.</p>
<p>No, UMTYMP student is right, Harvard’s schedule still doesn’t line up with MIT’s. It’s just not as bad as when their fall semester went into January.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t think MIT students are allowed to the medical school shuttle. But it might be possible to get on using the library card you get for cross registering. Definitely the fastest option (besides a taxi) is biking, but public transportation works too, and is what I used when I cross registered.</p>
<p>Also MIT actually does offer Latin, but it’s only one semester and so it probably wouldn’t be useful for your daughter.</p>
<p>Certainly when I was at MIT, I tried to manage my class load to never have back to back classes, wherever possible, if only because I preferred more shorter breaks to fewer longer ones. Certainly I could have logistically handled a Harvard class without hassle. As it happens, I never did, but I know a number of others who did and they never had problems with class scheduling. They occasionally had exams to a different schedule than MITs, but that is a different question, and was more frustrating than limiting. Of course Freshman year, most students try to work through the MIT general requirements, and back-to-back classes are much more common, so if there is any difficulty, it will be Freshman year.</p>
Oh, sorry, you’re right. I assumed that since the M2 stops at MIT, that MIT students were also able to ride it.</p>
<p>I agree that the library card might do it – the drivers often don’t look closely at whatever card you flash them. I’m not sure that I’m technically allowed to ride free now that I’m a postdoc at Children’s, but I’ve never had trouble.</p>