Do you HAVE to LOVE math/science to go to MIT?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<p>I know MIT mainly attracts those who are interested in math/science, but is it frowned upon to be more interested in the humanities? I plan on majoring in Architecture (yes, it is math/science, but from what I've heard, it's minimal in the workforce. I greatly enjoy the design/creative aspects of the subject). MIT has an amazing architecture program, but I sort of feel odd applying there considering I'm not so involved in math/science. I am on math team, and will have taken AP Bio, AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP Stats, and AP Calculus. That's about it. I don't do science fairs, or math competitions, or anything many "typical" MIT students would enjoy. In fact, I write in my free-time, and read whenever possible. I don't exactly depise math/science, I just don't enjoy it as much as other subjects. </p>

<p>Any advice? Should I bother applying to MIT (regardless of academic qualifications).</p>

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<p>I’m not an MIT student or anything, just a fan, but here’s my comment – you do not have to like math competitions or science fairs to be extremely into those subjects. Plenty of people don’t like those things but love math and science. A postdoc I’ve spoken to who was once an undergraduate at MIT actually said he spent his summers (actually much how I do) reading math that interested him. </p>

<p>That said, if you explicitly aren’t into math and science, as in they’re not your main passion, there are plenty of good architecture schools out there where you may feel more at home. MIT really is traditionally a math and science school, and although there’s economics, etc, I would at least look around at other schools. I like literature myself, but I read math books for fun far more than I read literature for fun (or perhaps even did anything else) in high school.</p>

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<p>Honestly, the GIR’s aren’t too beastly for you anyways, considering you took a fair amount of AP’s. Now if you opt for things like 8.022/8.012 instead of the “easier” 8.01/8.02, that might be a problem… But those GIR’s shouldn’t be too bad, and you won’t delve in the gory details of science unless you take more advanced courses (non-GIR’s).</p>

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<p>I didn’t do any science competitions or fairs in high school.</p>

<p>Do you like science enough to get through a semester of bio, a semester of chem, two semesters of physics, and two semesters of calculus? If so, you’ll be fine. I’d also go look at ocw.mit.edu for materials in Architecture to make sure it’s not too sciencey for you. Economics here, for instance, is taught with a lot more math than at other schools.</p>

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<p>Another question to go along with Piper’s: Do you love being around people who love math and science? Obviously, your architecture classes will be filled with other architects, but all of your classes and your living group will be filled mostly with scientists and engineers. Is that an environment that you’d enjoy?</p>

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<p>I disagree with mollie on this one. You find your own community at MIT. I studied math, but almost certainly spent more time with the Shakespeare Ensemble at MIT than I did with the math department. I lived with an English Lit major (which admittedly are a rare breed at MIT). </p>

<p>Yes there are those who live only for experimental science, but I found that I did not spend a lot of time with these people, for when they weren’t in classes, they were in the lab. So most of my time was spent with people like me, who enjoyed, but did not live for math and science. The OP is on the school math team. That to me says that there is enough interest in math to get through MIT comfortably. The architecture studios are an environment unto themselves. Go visit them if you can, but in my estimation, it sounds very much like you could fit in at MIT.</p>

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<p>I’m curious, Mikalye, would you really say that one can avoid being around people who really like math and science? I think everyone who likes math and science whom I’m remotely close to has a wonderful “other side” and is great to talk to about things outside of these subjects, but the bottom line is, a lot of time, people end up talking about their majors. I find it hard to believe someone would not feel a little disconnected if math and science weren’t this student’s main interests. </p>

<p>From the personalities of those who’ve gone to MIT, either A) they just love math and science, or B) they’re quite good at math and science, enjoy it a decent bit, at least as much as they enjoy other subjects, but are “normal people” otherwise. I.e., for instance, they don’t spend summers reading math books :slight_smile: </p>

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<p>Have you checked out any other schools with good architecture programs? Frequently, if programs are basically top notch, I would say an undergraduate may not legitimately be able to tell the difference in quality, while being definitively able to distinguish different styles of running the given programs.</p>

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<p>@ mathboy and faraday: Thank you for the responses!</p>

<p>@ PiperXP: Again, I’m not sure about the requirements. I would gladly take a semester of biology; I greatly enjoy the subject. I’m in chemistry right now, and I’m literally counting down the days until it’s over. I can’t say much about physics or calculus yet, because I’m taking those senior year. I’ll check out the program more in depth. I’d like to find a program that focuses on the aesthetics of a building rather than technical matters. </p>

<p>@ molliebatmit: Actually, most of my friends do enjoy math/science much more than I do. I guess I’d be okay in that environment. If I’m ever looking for a humanities-person, I guess I could meet some new people in the surrounding colleges (cross-registering with Harvard, BU, Tufts, Northeastern, BC).</p>

<p>@ Mikalye: That’s kind of a relief for me! Maybe I can join that rare breed of humanities-loving-MIT-students! Oh, and in regards to math team, I honestly do it as a social activity. A group of my friends decided it’d be fun to try, although I actually enjoy myself. </p>

<p>@ mathboy: It’s not that I want to avoid math/science, it’s just not necessarily what I would consider my niche in college. Do you agree with Mikaye, that there is (besides what you’ve listed as type A anf type B MIT students) a type C student (that rare breed who don’t LOVE math/science and would rather focus on humanities)? I’m about 20 minutes from Boston so MIT would be nice since it is the closest/best undergraduate architecture program in the area.</p>

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<p>Runningwriter – if I didn’t mention it, I’m not an MIT student, only a fan, so I speak only from knowing some who went to MIT. As a college student familiar with the technical disciplines, I will say that you should be OK if you are OK with math and science being a part of your architectural pursuits, because I would guess that if economics at MIT is more mathematical than at most schools, so is architecture. </p>

<p>My general comment is that I think college math/science work gets complex enough that if you don’t actually enjoy that aspect to things to an extent, you may find yourself miserable. Things are not that hard if you like them, and very hard if you don’t like them is a general trend I have observed. I would try to get ahold of sample material from your desired major and stare at it! (And see if it’s something you can see yourself enjoying.) </p>

<p>Because I know plenty of economics majors who’d DIE in a more mathematical economics curriculum. They go to my own school, Cornell, Harvard, and many other awesome universities, but not to MIT. Having done high school math and physics is something, but hardly what it takes to get through college stuff; you need a degree of energy and excitement, and the MIT architecture program may, however reputed, not be the one for you. So again, my advice would be to check out what the actual problem sets + textbooks are like, so that you have an idea. I find that often, it’s pretty easy to get a sense of what something is like before you know much about it just by paging through books :)</p>

<p>Oh and I suspect to be honest that if your major is not too mathematical for your tastes, you’ll get along fine with people at MIT. The ones I know seem to be interesting people outside of their studies anyway. Of course, if you keep hearing a bunch of people talking about that crazy math problem, or that wild QM exam, you may feel left out? I don’t know, that’s your personal decision. But I strongly feel that if the actual architecture academics are OK for you, you’ll fit in fine. And if they’re not, well I’d avoid MIT anyway.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the response! I’ll definetly look into other programs as well.</p>

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I’m sorry if I stated my post a little more strongly than I intended – I absolutely agree that MIT students are multidimensional, and that even the people who really love math and science often have multiple other sides. I might, for example, go so far as to characterize myself as biology-obsessed, but I still love poetry.</p>

<p>So it’s true that you’ll find students who are passionate about the humanities at MIT, just not many sole humanities majors. Still, I think it’s fair to say the culture of MIT is influenced by the science/engineering interest held by the majority of students – I mean, we make dorky math jokes at cheerleading practice. MIT students are absolutely multidimensional, but MIT still has a very different flavor from other top schools, and it’s not for everybody.</p>

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<p>I’ll definetly take that into consideration. Maybe MIT is not a good fit for me if the majority of the students love engineering/math/science.</p>

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<p>runningwater – I’m attending MIT next year, and I’ll be the first to say that I’m not obsessed with math and science (quite the contrary, I’ve spent most of my time in high school doing foreign language and literature. I’m still in Calc BC, but my four measly math credits are dwarfed by a dozen in foreign language). Honestly, it seems to me from my conversations with MIT admissions officers and my experience with applying that MIT is trying to diversify the interests of its student body. Your desire to learn architecture would be met not only by a fantastic program, but by enthusiastic admissions officers and by professors who have very few students devoted to them. If you visit Course 4 (architecture)'s student directory [link: [url=<a href=“http://architecture.mit.edu/people.php?type=student&sortBy=degree]]People[/url”>http://architecture.mit.edu/people.php?type=student&sortBy=degree]]People[/url</a>], you will find that there are 39 students slated to receive bachelor’s degrees in architecture. Now, I don’t know how big the programs are at other places you’re considering, but the mere fact that there are more faculty listed under the department of architecture than Bachelor’s students says something to me.</p>

<p>In my rather uneducated opinion, the deciding factor for you ought to be how the campus feels to you after you visit it. And if that’s not an option, read the admissions blogs. They’re actually quite entertaining, in addition to being elucidating. I went to Campus Preview Weekend last week, and came away with conclusion that not only MIT’s academics were fantastic, but that its student body was a group of people I wanted to spend my next four years with (my impression is that they tend to take a do-it-yourself approach to life, from rebelling against required meal plans to their independent living groups. They’re also all wonderfully bright, with a good quantity of nerdiness. It is not particularly overt in all cases, however).</p>

<p>When I first got into MIT, I doubted I would go because I didn’t want to spend my days within a herd of math and science nerds. But that’s not how it seemed to me at all. MIT is filled with intelligent, passionate people, and most of them are not one-dimensionally math and science oriented. Nevertheless, I am something of a self-professed nerd (I was excited when I found out one of my Greek friends had a relative named Pythagoras), so perhaps that’s a difference between us.</p>

<p>Check out the following blog entries if you have time:
[url=<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/pulse/mits_mission_who_we_are/who_we_are.shtml]MIT”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/pulse/mits_mission_who_we_are/who_we_are.shtml]MIT</a> Admissions | Blog Entry: “Who we are”<a href=“I%20thought%20this%20was%20an%20interesting,%20if%20somewhat%20biased,%20description%20of%20MIT’s%20student%20body.”>/url</a>
[url=<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/student_life_culture/tasty_water_the_charles_river.shtml]MIT”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/student_life_culture/tasty_water_the_charles_river.shtml]MIT</a> Admissions | Blog Entry: “Tasty water, the Charles River, and other things that are not synonymous”<a href=“I%20enjoy%20reading%20this%20blog%20particularly%20because%20of%20the%20crazy,%20quirky%20sentence%20structure%20the%20blogger%20likes%20to%20use.%20It%20seems%20to%20me%20that%20she’s%20pretty%20representative%20of%20a%20certain%20population%20at%20MIT,%20given%20that%20she%20manages%20to%20involve%20intellectual%20allusions%20in%20virtually%20every%20blog%20entry.%20Try%20it%20out,%20and%20some%20of%20the%20others.%20See%20what%20you%20think”>/url</a></p>

<p>I would say, apply first, think later, but you probably have a lot more time than I did to decide where you’re applying. =P </p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon also has a great architecture program, but it’s more expensive. And also, post-visitation, I’d call it significantly less awesome than MIT in most aspects. But that’s just me. :)</p>

<p>Hope this helps.</p>

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<p>I absolutely agree that any MIT student would be exposed to and would spend a lot of time with people who love Math and Science. I absolutely disagree with the statement that someone would feel a little disconnected if math and science were not the student’s main interests.</p>

<p>I look over the collection of EC’s that are in my region (admittedly EC’s are not necessarily a representative sample). One is a fashion designer, one a musician. I have returned to computing having spent some time doing improvisational comedy for a (precarious) living. All of these people enjoy, or at least have a strong tolerance for, math and science. For none of them was it a primary or defining interest. All of them became EC’s in part because their MIT experiences were highly rewarding to them. So yes, I strongly think that you do not need to have math/science as your primary focus to prosper at MIT and that you will not feel disconnected from the campus life in any way if that is not your primary focus.</p>

<p>Besides, anyone who would join the math team as a social experience has enough comfort with math/science to do just fine at MIT. My brother graduated from MIT in Architecture and he loved it. He is definitely not a math/science geek.</p>