Drinking from a fire hydrant?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>I've been reading some student reviews from studentsreview.com, and most of them were positive. </p>

<p>Almost everyone said MIT has wonderful research projects for undergrads and etc. I still love MIT, but one thing puzzles me. Some of the comments said that going to MIT is like drinking from a firehose or fire hydrant. Is it really like that? </p>

<p>How hard is MIT? Now, I am willing to work and pull off all-nighters if I have to finish my work, but is it like a firehose? When I think of an mental picture, I either see myself getting sick of the water, choking from too much water, or getting bigger into a blimp. </p>

<p>I think that if I were to attend MIT or drink from a firehose, I would choke because it's a lot of water or material at a fast pace, but I think I'll get used to it as time passes by. I think I would be pushed back because of the force but later on, I would be able to come back up. </p>

<p>I see myself wanting to vomit because I can't eat too much of something. For example, sweets. I love candy and chocolate, but if I had it all time, I think I would get sick. Is MIT nothing but chocolate or is it M&Ms then gummy bears and then skittles? (Excuse my candy analogy. I couldn't think of anything else.)</p>

<p>I could see myself turning into a blimp because that means I'm gaining knowledge. Knowledge is good. Learning is good. So, I don't mind being a blimp. (I don't mean physically of course.) </p>

<p>So, how is MIT? I understand MIT will blow your mind away and everything, but I want to get a good picture of MIT is to all the students. Are you really stressed out with everything? Do you want to pull your hair out? Do you always have all-nighters? Do you do psets for 12 hours everyday? How is the student life at MIT? </p>

<p>Thank you for your help. :D</p>

2

<p>This is apparently something that's really hard for prospective students to understand.</p>

<p>Yes, MIT is hard. It's very hard. It's stressful and sometimes you want to tear your hair out.</p>

<p>But no, you don't have to spend all your time doing work, and you will have a life, and you can be happy and fulfilled. I personally haven't pulled an all-nighter since freshman year (and the ones I pulled freshman year were due to procrastination, not necessity). I double-majored and participated in a club sport and did research and was in a relationship and still had time to spend with my friends.</p>

<p>If it's instructive, most MIT classes are 12 units. A unit is supposed to represent one hour per week. Students generally take 4 classes per term = 48 units = 48 hours of class + homework per week. Fifty hours of school stuff per week is a lot, but at the same time, there are a lot more hours in the week than fifty.</p>

<p>EDIT: And when people talk about the firehose, they are only partly talking about the workload -- the most frequent form of the saying, "Getting an education at MIT is like taking a drink from a firehose", just means that there's so much to learn here and do here that you can only experience a small portion of it during your four years.</p>

3

<p>I've pulled all nighters, all of them sophomore and junior year, but it's not like I pull them every night. The workload is heavy, but it's not so heavy that you can't enjoy life. The "firehose" bit is not just about the sheer amount of work. It's about the difficulty of the work, and also about what Mollie said.</p>

<p>Also, the reason that particular phrase keeps getting repeated is that the phrase itself is famous at MIT - it's part of the culture, like IHTFP.</p>